I love how ChatGPT is reminding people about the fundamentals of good writing

By showing us bad writing

People were worried kids & adults would use it to cheat and pass off machine thoughts as their own

Instead, what's happening is ChatGPT is good at everything BUT the final stage: style and usage...

The "elementary" rules...

That's why @paulg flags inflated diction and words like delve

Because they violate principles of great writing (not mechanics and grammar, but what's harder to learn: "style in the sense of what is distinguished and distinguishing.")

Decades ago I printed this page, underlined a few things, and wrote comments in the margins (including "Beat Army." I was at the U.S. Naval Academy back then).

This page, and two other reminders (next tweets in thread), are all you need to know about writing...

Save them as a trinity of writing advice

They'll be your guide when you stare at the ceiling and ask, "What am I trying to say?"

Even after you see ChatGPT words in front of you. Orwell's advice for a scrupulous writer.

Follow to make your writing valuable.

The ultimate question:

How did we go from living in trees…to teaching machines language, and where do we go from here?

This is the story of humanity, distilled.

Read this:
1⃣To see today through our past
2⃣To predict where humanity might go
3⃣To contribute to human progress In the millions of years since we split from chimps, our species has experienced 15 Great Evolutions (or revolutions), and another one is in progress.

Great Evolutions proceed through phases and culminate in the emergence of a breakthrough tool.

I made a list of 150 crazy things we didn't have 15 years ago

So many used to be hard or frustrating, now they just work

It’s wild how different the world is now

Imagine what it'll be in the future: 🔷EVs
🔷E-books
🔷YouTube
🔷Podcasts
🔷VR gaming
🔷Video calls
🔷Audiobooks
🔷3D printing
🔷Social media
🔷Remote work
🔷Telemedicine
🔷Crowdfunding
🔷Online dating
🔷Online gaming
🔷Online banking
🔷Online learning
🔷Online shopping
🔷Fitness trackers
🔷Mobile hotspots

I asked ChatGPT about what it’s like to work with humans

Its answer was surprising

I told it to give me 9 of the best metaphors it could think of about its relationship with creative people

The list shows how powerful AI will be for creative work: One thing up front:

After ChatGPT gave me the list of metaphors

I asked which was closest to the way it thinks about its relationship with creative people

To me it showed the proper way we should think about it too

The best 2-min from the best product launch of all-time

& more profound than we think

Revolutionary products are made possible by revolutionary user interfaces

This is what people STILL don't appreciate about conversational AI

And what makes it revolutionary...🧵 Steve had a simple & profound insight:

Revolutionary user interfaces don't just make revolutionary products possible because they change the way we interact w/machines

They make them possible because they use a unique human ability we already possess

Something we're born with

Last night in NYC, @eugenewei talked about how companies think.

“2003 to 2004 was my last year at Amazon.

I joined a skunkworks project inside the company. It was a small team & we were working on something new, not related to retail.

It was a pet project for Jeff Bezos… Jeff came to us and said, “We're trying out something different now.

This is how we're going to work every week.

You’re going to write a memo. You’re going to write down an essay for me. Then you're going to print it out for me.

Tweetstorms started ~9yrs ago

Twitter threads started ~5yrs ago

What are the most outstanding, impactful, and interesting Twitter threads of all time?

Reply with what's resonated with you personally

I'll start with these three, and add to them:

https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103360646823936?s=20

The future of Word & Google Docs is for software to solve the blank page problem, on the one hand, and the editing problem on the other

These are distinct problems. Both will be solved w/AI, starting w/the customer experience & working backwards to tech Solutions to the blank page problem & the editing problem will both involve a conversation with an AI assistant

The blank page problem will look like ChatGPT integrated w/your note taking system

Both problems are nuanced & interesting

AI is the most useful technology ever developed

And it’s not even close

AI isn’t overhyped, it’s underhyped

Massively. Still.

Here’s why most people are still underestimating AI, and what’s about to happen to society: Most people are underestimating AI because they're thinking about it backwards

Instead of thinking about it as a new tool, it's better to think about it as a new INTERFACE to humanity's ultimate tool:

Language. Pictures & symbols w/meaning

The A/V world of human consciousness

7 mind-boggling things everyone should know about the universe: Before the 17th-century, nobody had ever seen anything smaller than a speck of dust.

400 years later, the most powerful microscope we've ever made has a magnification one trillion times the magnification of the first-ever microscope (~270x).

This is quite literally the ride of your life

The path you'll take through the universe in your lifetime

You didn't buy a ticket for this ride...

And you don't want to waste it on work alone

Instead, be amazed at both sides of life (and forget work-life balance):

🧵 This is the first side of life (and it's important!)

The metaphor is a curve: a compounding exponential function

In our careers, we think about growing, winning, and dominating the competition

What are the best examples of writing an AI bot would never come up with on its own?

Here's one: Another example...

Writing no AI would come up with on its own

This is an ad:

To everybody leveling up

I've been curating the most useful & educational resources shared on Twitter in the past 750 days (and counting)

This is the ultimate Twitter rabbit hole

Good luck and happy hunting

a living thread...

https://twitter.com/jmikolay/status/1486105403792445445?s=20&t=SZElRZtladiH9PLgzSbyRA

The 20 most valuable tweets shared on Twitter in the past 120 days:

(and a bonus to make you feel awe and wonder) 10 techniques to get massively ahead with AI.

https://twitter.com/thatroblennon/status/1610316022174683136

The six most important technologies in history, ranked: 1. Control of fire

Used for:
-Cooking food
-Eating high caloric yield
-Spending less time & energy hunting & digesting

Result:
More free time & bigger brains to create better tools

I enjoy curating Twitter so it's all in 1 place.

Here are 40 of the most useful resources shared on this site in the past 125 days, organized into sections:

1️⃣ Content & Recs
2️⃣ Writing & Creativity
3️⃣ Business & Entrepreneurship
4️⃣ Life & Wisdom
5️⃣ Practical & Misc SECTION 1️⃣: CONTENT & RECOMMENDATIONS

The Best Way to Take Notes – And Do More Focused, Creative Work make your ideas build on themselves

26 of the most powerful things I've ever learned (about life, career & relationships)

Sharing so I don't forget: A mentor once said, "A word of advice, don't give it"

He meant there's no such thing as advice: it's only possible to share what you've learned & let others draw their own conclusions

Here goes nothin'...

Every month I bookmark hundreds of tweets, and I'm always surprised by how much I miss

I curated 69 of the most useful & educational resources shared on Twitter in the past 30 days

Here they are, organized into sections

Get in while Twitter's still free... Sections:

1️⃣ Content & Recs
2️⃣ Writing & Creativity
3️⃣ Business & Entrepreneurship
4️⃣ Web3, Crypto & NFTs
5️⃣ Money, Tax & Investing
6️⃣ Life & Wisdom
7️⃣ Practical & Misc

Let's get to it!

There are 100,000 books about writing.

But only 50 pieces of advice that matter.

Here are the 50 most essential things ever said about writing: “If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”

-George Orwell

Dear learning Twitter,

Here's your weekend read.

I curated 50 of the most educational resources shared on Twitter in the past 30 days

Beware the 🐇 🕳 I organized these resources into sections:

1️⃣ Content & Recs
2️⃣ Writing & Creativity
3️⃣ Business & Entrepreneurship
4️⃣ Web3, Crypto & NFTs
5️⃣ Money, Tax & Investing
6️⃣ Life & Wisdom
7️⃣ Practical & Misc