brettworks

• An interview with Michael Pollan.

“Our consciousness is being polluted, and protecting ourselves against that at the same time we preserve the ability to act politically is a difficult balancing act. Consciousness is a very precious realm. It’s the realm of our privacy and our freedom to think. So I think we need some kind of consciousness hygiene, particularly at this moment, where this one politician has figured out ways to command our attention. Consciousness is more relevant now than it even was 10 or 20 years ago, as something to think about, protect and nurture.”

• An essay on the state of AI.

“My rule of thumb at this point is: if a model shows even a hint of a capability today, the next generation will be genuinely good at it. These things improve exponentially, not linearly.”

“The people who come out of this well won’t be the ones who mastered one tool. They’ll be the ones who got comfortable with the pace of change itself. Make a habit of experimenting. Try new things even when the current thing is working. Get comfortable being a beginner repeatedly. That adaptability is the closest thing to a durable advantage that exists right now.”

• An essay on the myth of the perfect writer’s room.

“The tools for writing are cheap and omnipresent; an audience is waiting; the room is optional. If all that’s true, then what’s stopping you? The challenge has to do with language. Words have to refer; writing has to be about something. The fantasy of a writer in a room can be glamorous, conjuring writing as a kind of life style. It also has a dark side: a writer with her head in her hands, bereft of inspiration, blocked. Both aspects of the fantasy leave out the writing itself—its subject, content, intention, meaning.”

• A documentary about Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force.