I eagerly welcome the coming tsunami of AI generated web content.

Why?

Short answer: It will force us to reconnect in actual communities as humans in order to not drown in AI generated "content" I hate using Google.

You have to WORK to find what you need.

Top results are always ads and SEO generated crap clawing for spot number 1. The results suck. The articles are long form writing to cram in keywords.

It's garbage.

AI makes this exponentially worse.

I've been using #Midjourney for a few months now and love it!

Though I'm slightly curious why I either go over-the-top cute...or supernatural terrifying.

Kawaii robot village...or undead traveler in an alleyway? Chibi forest robot...or Eldritch Cthulhu spawn?

I came downstairs for lunch and saw my four kids staring at the ground outside. I went out to see what they were looking at and saw a dead hummingbird. It had flown into the window and died immediately.

My 7yo daughter: “What do we do, Dad?” “We can bury her,” I replied.

I picked up the poor bird and wrapped her in some paper towels. Then the five of us walked to the back edge of our property.

I handed the bird to my 10yo son and dug a small hole while my children watched.

Went for a walk during lunch yesterday to wrap my mind around a few thoughts.

Have felt like I was having trouble thinking lately.

Then it hit me.

The way I think has changed. On the walk I realized that the trouble I've had in thinking isn't that I can't think.

Rather I'm thinking at a deeper and more specific level on a lot of new topics.

I'm forming brand-spankin'-new mental paradigms around subjects of interest that are new to me.

Ultralearning Planning & Research

Currently in the process of planning an ultralearning project.

Taking the next two weeks to create a plan. Will start the last two weeks of the year. Historically, that is a good learning time for me. For more on Ultralearning, check out @ScottHYoung's website and book.

scotthyoung.com/blog/ultralear…

Why I believe Roam is Antifragile

a thread by yours truly

https://twitter.com/roamhacker/status/1308503256495202306

Quick recap on Antifragile:

There is a concept that a spectrum exists measuring things weakened by stress (fragile), unaffected by it (robust), or strengthened by it (antifragile).

We had no word for the last one so @nntaleb invented "antifragile".

Person A reaches monolithic status in niche group.
Person B challenges them publicly, albeit often aggressively.

Months later: LOLZ jk! It was all a marketing prank. We friends! Now buy my stuff!

Not sure how I'm feeling about either right now. Don't like being duped for cash. I'd feel different if it wasn't disclosed for the first time on a sales page. The entire sales copy is basically "This was all an act" and then two purchase buttons with the hope reputations are enough to buy.

We've been lying + Trust what you think you know of us = ?

The past few weeks have been exceptionally rough.

- I had two grandparents die (not COVID related)
- My family is in between houses...AND countries
- I know no one here except my wife's family

Chaos.

But I want to share how I'm getting through my days. #roam I discovered @RoamResearch at the end of February, just before the planet went bonkers. I poured my brain into it and developed a daily routine for my work and personal life.

I did it long enough it became a habit.

Thankfully!

The past few months I've observed a positive effect of quarantine in the corporate work environment:

People have become more aware of their own productivity. Without the ability to walk around and look busy in an office, people are more aware of what they actually produce. Previously they might have been able to deceive themself by moving from meeting to meeting or having "water cooler talk".

Now it's clear what they do.

For the past 6 years (since July 14, 2014) I've been writing down a Lessons Learned each week.

They're all real life lessons (i.e. they are not echo chamber lessons or summaries of articles I've read). These Lessons Learned were one of the first things I added to Roam.

I looked over them during my vacation. Most have nothing to do with any specific field and center around humans working together.

But SIX YEARS!!! 😳

Vacation has given me time to think about what I'm doing with my energy.

Family
Job Work
What I actually want to do for work Thankfully I do not struggle with putting family first. Not bragging, just stating.

There's also a chunk of my day which is just set as work I do for my job. For now...sure.

More interesting is that there's another chunk of time too. This is what I want to define more.

I present you with tonight’s Caribbean sunset images because I just gotta share these.

This crazy golden light. ☺️ This giant shadow that stretches on forever. 😯

Have seen trends for both Digital Gardens for evergreen notes as well as Notebook Blogs for half-baked ideas.

Both are in addition to people’s “normal” blogs.

Why are people so protective of their main blog that they segment these ideas away from them? It reminds me of when I would buy a leather-bound journal and then was afraid to write in it because I didn’t think it would be worthy of the journal.

So the journal stayed empty.

Meanwhile, all my best ideas were in 50¢ spiral notebooks.

a thread about what I'm learning about LEARNING 🤔 LEARNING -> BELIEFS

Beliefs are initially formed in ignorance. We don't know the whole picture when we start forming opinions on things.

Learning changes your beliefs.

It gives you control by preventing you from acting as a victim of ignorance.

https://twitter.com/context_ing/status/1269859649253076993

Been thinking about the architecture behind @RoamResearch, where it's going, and how it fits into a larger toolbox.

Broke it out into the following layers:

∙ Database
∙ Service
∙ Presentation

Easier for me to think about it this way. Roam(an) Architecture

Thinking in terms of layers facilitates how Roam could evolve.

Mentally separating the database from the presentation layer (the UI) puts even more emphasis on a forth-coming API.

Thankfully this is a top priority for them:

https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1254553494272372738

The first image is describing an event from today.

The other 3 are describing the Boston Massacre of 1770. You know, the one that helped start the American Revolution.

How close is history to repeating itself? Trump's message to Iran:
DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS. Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World is watching.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1216356280933273600

For my first contribution inspired by @RoamPublic, here is Martin Luther King Jr's [[I Have a Dream]] speech in Roam

roamresearch.com/#/app/DavidCra… Check out other public databases here

roampublic.com

I started my blog a month ago today. It's the first time I've written something online since 2013 (other than FB and Twitter).

In the spirit of learning in public, I'll share some of what I've learned. Hope to help others overcome fears holding them back. 1. Don't wait for the perfect site design

I started my career as a designer and want to 🤮 at my site's design. But this is the thing that held me up when trying to start blogging again.

It's not important. People still read what I wrote. People still connected with me.

There is a set of words that my brain refuses to learn to spell correctly.

I always try to spell "privilege" as "priviledge"...like "pledge" maybe?

And half the time I try to spell "restaurant" with the "u" after the second "a".

My brain is broken. Found another two words for this thread!

🔸"permanently" as "permanantly"
🔸"relevant" as "relavant"

I'm starting to think my Southern US accent is partially to blame in addition to weird English language rules. 🤣

Used @RoamResearch for meeting notes the past few weeks and reached the point where linking between meetings, research, and other notes is making daily work SO MUCH EASIER!

Has cut out repetitive research and increased my actual productivity. Creating dedicated notes in Roam for primary applications and seeing the meetings and research referenced in one connected place is making architecture work easier by an order of magnitude.

Me the past week:

Regardless of how sophisticated the diagram, nearly every time I see a firewall represented, it's the lamest version of a brick wall you can imagine. 🤦‍♂️ I'm just going to share the pain now.

"3D" brick wall on an otherwise flat diagram. Eclipsed only by the internet as a rain cloud. ☁️