Links no. 7

A few interesting articles I've read around the web:

• Choose optimism.

  The life of a pessimist is easy but dreary. The life of an optimist is hard but exciting. Pessimism is easy because it costs nothing. Optimism is hard because it must be constantly reaffirmed. In the face of a hostile, cynical world, it takes effort to show that positivity has merit.

• Foggy feeds: the decline in my feed reader subscriptions

  An observation that persistently crops up in research into the use of Large Language Models is that regular use seems to have a diminishing effect on your critical thinking ability, even in studies that are outright set out to look for justification for using LLMs. […] The very point of “AI” tools is to think less about what you do, think less about the arguments you make, and generally put less thought into your work and your life as a whole. That’s what it’s for.

• Smart People Don’t Chase Goals; They Create Limits

  Marcus Aurelius, writing in his private journal that we now call Meditations, returned constantly to the idea of limits. He didn’t prescribe grand goals. He reminded himself what not to do: Don’t lie. Don’t whine. Don’t be ruled by impulse. The Stoic path is constraint-oriented. It avoids the seduction of outcomes.

• Large Language Manglers

  LLMs give us ventriloquism in reverse. The mechanical dummy speaks through your mouth.

• The West is bored to death

  Suppose Schopenhauer is right that life boils down to a flight from either boredom or pain. Insofar as the vast material abundance of wealthy, industrialised society has had an analgesic effect (there is simply less physical pain than in the past, before fluoride and anaesthesia and sedentary lives), it would seem to have solved one problem only to amplify the other. In place of pain, we have ennui, the quintessential modern condition. It follows directly from overabundance: an endless stream of video “content” or chocolate cake or edibles or any other indulgence cannot deliver lasting satisfaction. Everything gets old eventually, leaving one to grope around for the next fix.

• The myth of automated learning

  Armed with generative AI, a B student can produce A work while turning into a C student.

Additionally, I have a bonus link for Norwegian speakers (though I recommend it to everyone else as well, if you have a convenient translation tool):

• Digitaliseringsparadokset (The digitalization paradox)

  I prosessen med å bli verdens mest digitaliserte land risikerer vi å få verdens mest overvåkede innbyggere. (In the process of becoming the world’s most digitalised country, we risk getting the worlds most monitored people.)