Unused Starfish Facts
I wrote a short story a few days ago, about a girl throwing starfish in the ocean, which I’m going to post in full here, then tell you about some starfish facts that didn’t make it into the story.
Alexander Wales
Writer, software engineer https://alexanderwales.com/
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The Superlatives of Duluth, MN
I often tell people that Lake Superior is the largest lake in the world, probably, then wait for them to ask me what I mean by “probably” so I can share my fun facts about the largest lakes in the world and how you have to massage the data to make that claim without reservations.
The Death of Pseudonym
As Kelsey Piper writes, LLMs are now capable of identifying unmarked authors, so long as they have a sufficiently large corpus of content on the internet.
Against Foghorns
I’m staying at a place in Bodega Bay, California, which is beset by a foghorn.
Contra Alexander Wales on Non-renewable Blogging
Yesterday Alexander Wales published “Non-renewable Blogging” a post on the idea that an author can run out of material, or that certain areas of a blogger’s life can be “mined” for material.
Non-renewable Blogging
I think a lot about the idea of being used up.
Can an LLM have taste? Inkhaven Week 1, ranked by Claude
The obvious answer to the headline question is “yes” and then the followup question of whether that taste is good, and most people would immediately say “no”.
Contra Aella on Status
I’ve visited Berkeley a few times, and whenever I’m with the rationalists, it feels like there will inevitably be at least one conversation about status.
Fundamental functions of description and detail in prose
I tend to write by intuition, then try to edit with my analysis goggles on, which means that I’m often looking at the words I’ve put on the page and thinking about why they are the way they are, what else might need to go there, and what the functions those words are serving.
Use Cases for AI in Creative Writing
As someone with a heavy interest in both creative writing and artificial intelligence, I often get asked “do you use AI to write?”
Er, How Are These AI Companies Going to Make Money?
I was in Berkeley a year ago, talking to someone who worked for one of the major AI companies, and when I questioned the financial sense of LLMs, they said this in response:
A Year and a Half on tumblr
I started blogging on tumblr about a year and a half ago, a great move for me given that it’s widely considered a dead platform.
Inkhaven Retrospective
Inkhaven was an event held at Lighthaven where 41 bloggers came to do 30 posts of 500 words or more in 30 days.
Could Margot Robbie Destroy Me?
I’ve lately been asking people whether they think they could be friends with Margot Robbie.