On this day

October 24th

AI, but in the other direction

October 24

This recent bite of news from Podnews.net reminded me of a discussion I recently had with Tracy Hazzard…

Is a new Google service flooding podcast apps with spam? Calling them “a threat to the podcasting community”, the podcast directory Listen Notes has made a NotebookLM Detector, to spot shows made by Google’s NotebookLM. So far, it’s detected more than 280 shows which have been made using the AI tool. “Notebook LM has made it easier to mass-produce low-quality, fake content”, says Listen Notes founder Wenbin Fang; though The Spectator’s Sean Thomas suggests that AI may “make the podcast bro irrelevant”.

~ Podnews Oct 8, 2024 issue

As podcasters we’re focused on one direction; call it the “forward” direction with increasing amounts of refinement and care…

  1. we record an episode
  2. we do post-production
  3. we write show notes
  4. we write blog posts or in-depth articles based on the episode
  5. we write based on themes we find running through several of our episodes

Each of us puts a lot of effort into that work, in that “forward” direction.

Tracy and I were talking about using AI to generate podcasts by going in the other direction. What if we took our own work, and used AI to generate new podcasts?

If it was done well, the AI could generate great podcasts, in my voice— me doing host-on-mic, from the things I have written.

That’s an interesting idea…

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Exerting yourself

October 24, 2023

Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: That’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life—and for me, for writing as well. I believe many runners would agree.

~ Haruki Murakami

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Advice

October 24, 2022

If you stop to listen to a musician or street performer for more than a minute, you owe them a dollar.

There is no such thing as being “on time.” You are either late or you are early. Your choice.

~ Kevin Kelly from, https://kk.org/thetechnium/103-bits-of-advice-i-wish-i-had-known/

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Alas, though I’ve provided you a link, it has already rotted. (I lamented this just a few weeks ago too.) You’re welcome to click through, but it leads now to a teaser version of the original piece… and links to the it’s-now-a-book on Amazon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m all for people making money off their own work. It’s just weird to me, because it was only just 5 months ago that I marked that URL for later reading (my read–things–later tool saved me a copy of the page) and yet now it is no more.

Pro-tip: If you have the URL to something (as I’ve given you above) the Internet Archive probably saved you a copy. For example, here’s 103 Bits of Advice… from May, 2022.

As for the specific bits of advice, above I’ve chosen just two to quote. The bit about being late or early is my favorite; The world would be infinitely better off if everyone learned that bit. And the bit about owing money to street musicians is one I learned later in life, but to which I strictly abide; If I stop to listen, I will contribute.

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This is click bait

October 24, 2021

German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) influenced some of the more prominent minds in the world. His writings and lessons traverse time and discipline. Schopenhauer confronted similar problems with media to the ones we face.

~ Shane Parrish from, https://fs.blog/2017/01/schopenhauer-dangers-clickbate/

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The scale of Philosophy—just “western” Philosophy alone, even—is mind boggling. Who thought what, at which point in their career. Who influenced whom. Who’s work is now considered bunk, and which is bunk but still necessary to understand some other piece. What is in which language, and then which translation of that should one choose. If so-and-so had an influence on other-person, in what way? …did they build upon, tear down and correct, or push farther the influencer’s work?

At one point, I had deluded myself into attempting a systematic survey of Philosophy. ahahhahaahhaahahhaahahahahahhahaaa. Silly human.

But this small-ish article from Parrish led me to actually wonder about some of Schopenhauer’s essays. And I’ve ended up with an English translation of his On Reading and Books now sitting on my read-next table.

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Section 230

October 24, 2020

The first [section] is definitional. … The second subsection provides direct immunity

~ US Supreme Court Justice Thomas from, https://reason.com/2020/10/13/justice-thomas-writes-in-favor-of-a-narrow-reading-of-47-u-s-c-%C2%A7-230/

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Grab your favorite snack, something to take notes, and a helping of Ginko for brain power. This is an in-depth walk-through of a tiny little section… Section 230 from the dawn of the modern Web… A tale of a little section of a law that makes what you think of as “the Internet” possible.

You may also need toothpick for your eyelids, or use it as a cure for your insomnia.

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How to Make Money Buy Happiness

October 24, 2018

So let’s solve it. If we are really just buying feelings, who has the best ones on sale at the lowest price? Different people approach this problem with different levels of sophistication.

~ Peter Adeney from, http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/04/14/how-to-make-money-buy-happiness/

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I remember when this sort of thinking seemed so alien. I remember when I truly believed the bill of goods I had been sold about the rat race, chasing success, consumerism, etc. Now I very explicitly use money to buy happiness. And then, having accomplished that, I move on to the important things in life.

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The spiritual disciplines: solitude and silence

October 24, 2017

The need for silence and solitude obviously seems incredibly relevant to the over-convenienced citizens of the modern world who feel saturated with the ceaseless noise that issues from every corner of their lives. But as mentioned at the start, men have in fact craved these states for thousands of years, long before anything digital, or electronic, or urban ever existed.

What accounts for the timeless, seemingly universal appeal of quiet seclusion?

~ Brett McKay from https://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/10/16/spiritual-disciplines-solitude-silence/

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Maybe turn off the TV and go to bed

October 24, 2016

(Part 9 of 14 in series, John Briffa's "A Good Look at Good Health")

Six years ago I decided to dramatically reduce the amount of time I spent watching TV, and this single intervention (I believe) had a dramatic effect on my life. It liberated a significant amount of time that I could devote to perhaps more useful and rewarding pursuits. You may be thinking that I’m referring to things like writing or exercise. Actually, I’m referring mainly to sleep.

~ John Briffa from, http://www.drbriffa.com/2012/07/19/want-to-lose-weight-maybe-turn-off-the-tv-and-go-to-bed/

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Sleep — specifically, learning about sleep, fixing my sleeping environment and getting more and better quality sleep — is the SINGLE most important thing I changed in my journey these last few years.

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