I haven't read Chiasson's piece (though I will), but I think you capture what I most appreciate about writing, that reminder of my own capacity to discover something. In a lot of cases I'm discovering things someone else already knows or that an LLM could surface if prompted, but that doesn't diminish that the thing I discovered is truly mine.
The question is where does this experience have value beyond the internal or sense of self-satisfaction? Art making, personal expression, self-discovery, for sure.
Because I've gotten older and because of how I've managed to arrange my life and work these discoveries have largely become the work itself, which I'm grateful for and which is why I'm never really tempted by that impatience to get to a result where an LLM might speed that process.
The other thing you illustrate is how the work of unique human intelligences are always in conversation with each other, sometimes implicitly, but also explicitly as in the case of this piece. You could've just allowed those thoughts to rattle around inside your head and that would've been great, but this is even better. And now, here's me adding on to the chain of conversation. Sometimes it feels like a miracle to me how this happens.
John, thanks so much for reading. I think that temptation of immediacy and completeness is something people absentmindedly give into, and it saps any of the pleasure of finding things out for yourself.
Love this article. Reminds me of this from John Ruskin "The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it"
I haven't read Chiasson's piece (though I will), but I think you capture what I most appreciate about writing, that reminder of my own capacity to discover something. In a lot of cases I'm discovering things someone else already knows or that an LLM could surface if prompted, but that doesn't diminish that the thing I discovered is truly mine.
The question is where does this experience have value beyond the internal or sense of self-satisfaction? Art making, personal expression, self-discovery, for sure.
Because I've gotten older and because of how I've managed to arrange my life and work these discoveries have largely become the work itself, which I'm grateful for and which is why I'm never really tempted by that impatience to get to a result where an LLM might speed that process.
The other thing you illustrate is how the work of unique human intelligences are always in conversation with each other, sometimes implicitly, but also explicitly as in the case of this piece. You could've just allowed those thoughts to rattle around inside your head and that would've been great, but this is even better. And now, here's me adding on to the chain of conversation. Sometimes it feels like a miracle to me how this happens.
Great stuff!
John, thanks so much for reading. I think that temptation of immediacy and completeness is something people absentmindedly give into, and it saps any of the pleasure of finding things out for yourself.
Love this article. Reminds me of this from John Ruskin "The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it"
Honest. Brutal truth. And beautiful. May we never have to sacrifice writing like this (and Chaisson’s) to AI juggernaut.
I could have written this. But you did before me, damnit.