“…instances of just how willing the great artists are to undergo tedious, repetitive, finger-cramping work—toil—in the service of their craft. In some of these examples, such as the stonework of a cathedral, there was a higher purpose to justify the toil. But often it seems that the artists engaged in toilsome labor simply for the joy of it. There’s no reason why Ingres had to paint such a complicated floral pattern all over Madame Moitesseir’s dress, no reason why Van Eyck’s Madonna had to be seated on an ornate parquet floor—other than to showcase the painter’s skills. And Dürer’s rabbit? There is no evidence that he painted it for any other reason than his own personal enjoyment. These artworks indicate that for the artist there can be joy in toil—else why do it? It can be easy to forget this kind of joy in the present day, when it seems that many of the most celebrated artists of the last century rarely exhibited a willingness to toil at their art. The works of painters such as Pollock, Rothko, Barnett Newman, or De Kooning—not to mention the conceptual art of such people as Damien Hirst or Sol Lewitt—make it seem as though toil is unnecessary. And when anyone can get an AI image generator to produce a picture to their specifications within moments, what is the reason for investing hundreds of hours perfecting a skill?”
• An essay on aphoristic versus artificial intelligence.
“Aphorisms…are the antithesis of the half-baked hot take and nothing like the machine-made flattery that’s now permeating so many informational environments. A platitude is a placebo for the mind; an aphorism is a wake-up call. Aphorisms provoke debate; they don’t promote dogma. Though they’re short, aphorisms spur considered reflection, not Pavlovian partisanship. At a time when polarization is so amped up, aphorisms can serve as psychological circuit breakers, interrupting our comfortable assumptions and prodding us to open our minds, unclench our fists, and think for ourselves.”
“‘Slop,’ the term of (not) art for content churned out with A.I., became ubiquitous in 2025, inspiring new sub-coinages such as ‘slopper,’ derogatory shorthand for someone who relies on A.I. to think for them.”
• An essay on reclaiming one’s mind.
“What does it really mean to be in charge of your own mind? In many aspects of life, it’s easier to say what we don’t want than it is to say what we do. We don’t want to be screen-addled, apocalypse-minded nervous wrecks, incapable of reading for more than a quarter-hour at a time—fair enough. But who do we want to be? Maybe we just want to be people for whom that’s a live question. Reclaiming your mind might come down to reasserting your right to wonder what it’s for.”
brettworks 
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