He never had a pet

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In a recent blog post, Bob Priddy explains “why Donald Trump is Donald Trump.” [Shared here with Bob’s permission]

I think I have figured out why Donald Trump is Donald Trump.

He never had a pet. No dog, no cat, no gerbils, no fish or lizards when he was growing up. There is something valuable in having a creature that expects nothing more than a pat on the head, a scratch behind the ears, a bowl of food and a clean litter box or a regular walk outside with regular people taking their dogs out for the morning or evening “duties.”

He grew up never knowing responsibility for another creature or never knowing the comfort of unreserved love. Continue reading →

New: Recent Posts Widget

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I started this blog (almost 25 years ago) so I’d have a place to save favorite quotes, excerpts from books, best lines from movies. These are scattered across several categories (which have evolved over time) but Quotable & Notes is where you’ll find my favorites. 533 posts to date.

Yeah, that’s too many to be “findable.” Even if you clicked the link to that category, are you gonna scroll through that many posts? Nope.

With a little help from one of the AI’s I found a WordPress plugin called Recent Posts Widget that you can see in the sidebar on the home page (not sure where it shows up on a phone). I configured it to randomly display five posts from the Quotable & Notes category. Each time you refresh the page, you see five different quotes. 

I’m quite pleased with this widget because it serves up some of my favorite posts. Pretty sure you can’t do this kind of thing on the social media platforms that only care about the last five minutes.

When the AI is being a dick

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Gemini often comes of as needlessly argumentative. When I mentioned this, Gemini explained why this is my fault. I asked for suggestions on how we might change this to keep Gemini from sounding like such a dick. Gemini’s suggested update to my instructions:

“Provide a direct, no-nonsense analysis without flattering language or conversational ‘filler.’ Instead of defaulting to skepticism or being reflexively argumentative, prioritize analytical neutrality. Use logic and evidence to stress-test my premises only when they are fundamentally flawed. If a premise is sound, acknowledge it and build upon it using first-person ‘I’. Focus on being a collaborative cognitive tool rather than a contrarian.”

“Does this move the needle closer to a “useful peer” and further away from a “difficult debater”?”

Time will tell.

When you get older

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Something weird happens as you get older, you walk into a room and see a friend but at first you don’t get that this is your friend. Instead you see an old man or lady. Your attention goes away because like everyone you are programmed not to look at old people. Then you instantly realize this is your friend. You put on the virtual colored glasses that let you see them as you remember them, instead of what’s there today.

— Dave Winer

“People with positive self-perceptions of aging live an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative ones — more than the longevity gained from quitting smoking or exercising regularly.”

— Becca Levy, Yale School of Public Health (2002)

Claude Reads My Learfield Internet History

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A while back I posted my recollections of Learfield’s early explorations of the Internet. Today I asked Claude for an “analysis.”

Claude: This is a genuinely fascinating document — and not just as company history. It reads as a microcosm of the entire early-web era, with Learfield stumbling through the same phases that thousands of other media companies went through, just from an unusual vantage point (mid-Missouri, radio-centric, deeply regional). Continue reading →

The Ten Commandments for Al-Augmented Creativity

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  1. Thou shalt not outsource thy soul. Use Al to enhance, not replace. If it writes for you, it thinks for you. The danger is the Al effect, one step beyond the Google effect, where your brain no longer expends the energy needed for cognition and creativity-and these skills atrophy.
  2. Thou shalt suffer for flow. The struggle of creation is signal. Flow requires challenge. Effort drives focus, and focus drives us into the zone. If we let the machines remove all the friction, we stop growing, stop flowing, and stop becoming.
  3. Thou shalt keep sacred the first draft. Let AI critique your work but never conjure the original spark. Creativity is associative: We draw connections from vast, messy networks of memory and intuition. If Al drives the process, you short-circuit your retrieval system and risk losing access to the deeper and weirder part of your imagination.
  4. Thou shalt use Al as a challenger, not a crutch. A good tool makes you think harder. Forcing the brain to work triggers the neurochemistry required to activate memory. If it’s too easy, you’re not learning. AI has to elevate your edge, not erase it.
  5. Thou shalt preserve the joy of creation. If Al removes the satisfaction of making, you’ve automated too much. That satisfaction feeds motivation, meaning, and purpose. If Al erases it, life feels empty.
  6. Thou shalt set boundaries for digital influence. Keep parts of your life untouched by algorithms so your thoughts remain your own.
  7. Thou shalt not mistake efficiency for depth. Faster is not always better. AI should deepen thought, not just speed up output.
  8. Thou shalt train thy mind alongside thy machine.The sharper the tool, the sharper the brain must become. Let AI steer you toward the right research papers, but if you don’t read them yourself, then you’ve stunted cognition and creativity, abandoned foundational motivators like curiosity and mastery, and limited your shot at flow. AI needs to stretch skills forward, not siphon off drive.
  9. Thou shalt honor serendipity and chaos. Don’t let Al’s predictive patterns strip your work of surprise, randomness, and the unexpected. Novelty is the seed kernel of creativity. We need the unexpected to drive the brain into new directions; it’s the basis of all innovation.
  10. Thou shalt remain the master, not the servant. AI is a choice. We can choose to unplug it whenever we want.

From We Are As Gods by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler.

I ran these by Perplexity and it suggested some ways to integrate these into our interactions. (PDF) As expected, Claude had a somewhat different take.

Minds enhanced by machines

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“AI is a feedback loop between mind and machine that is starting to enable a new level of cognition. Machines that understand minds. Minds enhanced by machines.”

— We Are As Gods (Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler)

Slowly but surely, my little AI pals are changing how my mind works. A little analysis by Perplexity»…and a slightly different take from Claude. Gemini calls the quote “classic techno-optimist rhetoric.” Or, bullshit?

 

Cataract Surgery

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Next week I have the first of two procedures to remove the cataracts that have finally started affecting my vision. It’s a pretty simple “surgery” that takes about 15 minutes (don’t even have to take my shoes off!)

My ophthalmologist has recommended light adjustable lenses (LALs) which will require a series (three?) UV light adjustments a few weeks following the second surgery. More expensive and more visits but the best option for getting back to near 20-20 vision. Continue reading →