Thought of the day .

[Al from Durham]

Paul Graham:

You could pay someone to write for you, like JFK, or plagiarize, like
MLK, but if you couldn't buy or steal words, you had to write them
yourself. And as a result nearly everyone who was expected to write had
to learn how.

Not anymore. AI has blown this world open. Almost all pressure to write
has dissipated. You can have AI do it for you, both in school and at work.

The result will be a world divided into writes and write-nots. There
will still be some people who can write. Some of us like it. But the
middle ground between those who are good at writing and those who can't
write at all will disappear. Instead of good writers, ok writers, and
people who can't write, there will just be good writers and people who
can't write.

Is that so bad? Isn't it common for skills to disappear when technology
makes them obsolete? There aren't many blacksmiths left, and it doesn't
seem to be a problem.

Yes, it's bad. The reason is something I mentioned earlier: Writing is
thinking. In fact there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by
writing. You can't make this point better than Leslie Lamport did:

If you're thinking without writing, you only think you're thinking.

So a world divided into writes and write-nots is more dangerous than it
sounds. It will be a world of thinks and think-nots. I know which half I
want to be in, and I bet you do too.

This situation is not unprecedented. In preindustrial times most
people's jobs made them strong. Now if you want to be strong, you work
out. So there are still strong people, but only those who choose to be.

It will be the same with writing. There will still be smart people, but
only those who choose to be.

.

 

[MSLI]

It will be the same with writing. There will still be smart people, but
only those who choose to be

The Ai thought and comparisons IMHO make logical sense, however ! Writing something and doing something are two very different traits. So even though I see the connection, I don’t necessarily see it as becoming an issue as it relates to chosen actions

Also, Some of us ( me) who have something to share, but maybe lack the necessary education to express it properly. Could rely on Ai to clean it up.

Also, one more observation as it relates to JFK / MLK buying or plagiarizing intellectual material.
How about we ask the question why ?
Why did they do it ? …. Could it have been for goodness beyond themselves and if the answer is yes or possibly yes, then does it really matter

 

[highup]

The Ai thought and comparisons IMHO make logical sense, however ! Writing something and doing something are two very different traits. So even though I see the connection, I don’t necessarily see it as becoming an issue as it relates to chosen actions

Also, Some of us ( me) who have something to share, but maybe lack the necessary education to express it properly. Could rely on Ai to clean it up.

Also, one more observation as it relates to JFK / MLK buying or plagiarizing intellectual material.
How about we ask the question why ?
Why did they do it ? …. Could it have been for goodness beyond themselves and if the answer is yes or possibly yes, then does it really matter

The plagiarizing wouldn't be an issue at all if the person borrowing thought started off by including:
"As JFK once stated",
.....if you don't include that little bit of info, you'd be very dishonest. Borrow stuff, but include credits.

 

[MSLI]

The plagiarizing wouldn't be an issue at all if the person borrowing thought started off by including:
"As JFK once stated",
.....if you don't include that little bit of info, you'd be very dishonest. Borrow stuff, but include credits.

It would not have been difficult to add credits were credits are due, however !
Monday morning quarterbacking is so easy after the fact….. I wonder how many of us learned a technique from another installer, tweaked it , making it our own and then took credit for it

 

[highup]

It would not have been difficult to add credits were credits are due, however !
Monday morning quarterbacking is so easy after the fact….. I wonder how many of us learned a technique from another installer, tweaked it , making it our own and then took credit for it

We'd have to trace everything we know back to Daris..... for obvious reasons.

 

[C.J.]

I wonder how many of us learned a technique from another installer, tweaked it , making it our own and then took credit for it

I think that’s just part of learning. I recall watching my journeyman show me how to do something then I would do it myself. After enough times of doing it myself i would step outside of the box and tweak it. I would put my own spin on it and it would then become ‘My’ technique. The next person that I show something to would hopefully take what I show them and tailor it to fit themselves and how they do things.

 

[MSLI]

I think that’s just part of learning. I recall watching my journeyman show me how to do something then I would do it myself. After enough times of doing it myself i would step outside of the box and tweak it. I would put my own spin on it and it would then become ‘My’ technique. The next person that I show something to would hopefully take what I show them and tailor it to fit themselves and how they do things.

One could make an argument that it’s a form of Blue collar plagiarism and the greatest form of flattery.

 

[highup]

I think that’s just part of learning. I recall watching my journeyman show me how to do something then I would do it myself. After enough times of doing it myself i would step outside of the box and tweak it. I would put my own spin on it and it would then become ‘My’ technique. The next person that I show something to would hopefully take what I show them and tailor it to fit themselves and how they do things.

There are good tweakers and bad ones. Not hard to tell the difference.

 

[C.J.]

Not ending 24 on a good note … 2 emergency units called in. One with 3 day notice, just before Xmas and today with 2 day notice, including today, just before New Year ….. What would your Emergency up fee be ? ….. I just left the job (10:30 pm) and it’s loaded with cat pee. I’ll have the enzyme tingling my tongue for a few days

There are good tweakers and bad ones. Not hard to tell the difference.

Never met a ‘good’ tweaker. Do they go to church?

 

[C.J.]

When was the last time you got excited about buying everyday necessities? I don’t think twice about buying toilet paper. I buy the kind I want but there’s not necessarily any joy in going to the store to buy TP. Same thing with Q-tips and toothpaste. Theres no joy, it’s just a necessity. You might get a little excited about dryer sheets and what kind of briquettes, but only a little excited. Now pit stick, I get all worked up about pit stick. Which scent am I’m gonna buy this week. Sometimes I’ll buy 2 or 3 different smells so I can change it up mid week if I want. Whoever thought this up for Old Spice is a genius. If you can get someone excited to buy your product or service, you’ve done something right.

My wife knows I get excited about buying pit stick. I’ll even ask her what I should smell like this week. This was my birthday gift this year. Best damn gift ever.

 

[highup]

Never met a ‘good’ tweaker. Do they go to church?

I have a 302,000 mile S10, so you should know that I must tweak. No, church not spoken either.... Double tweaker?

 

[highup]

When was the last time you got excited about buying everyday necessities? I don’t think twice about buying toilet paper. I buy the kind I want but there’s not necessarily any joy in going to the store to buy TP. Same thing with Q-tips and toothpaste. Theres no joy, it’s just a necessity. You might get a little excited about dryer sheets and what kind of briquettes, but only a little excited. Now pit stick, I get all worked up about pit stick. Which scent am I’m gonna buy this week. Sometimes I’ll buy 2 or 3 different smells so I can change it up mid week if I want. Whoever thought this up for Old Spice is a genius. If you can get someone excited to buy your product or service, you’ve done something right.

My wife knows I get excited about buying pit stick. I’ll even ask her what I should smell like this week. This was my birthday gift this year. Best damn gift ever.

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I get excited about pit sticks too....even outraged. I blow my stack when a store is out of unscented. I'm not sure that I could work around you.

 

[C.J.]

I have a 302,000 mile S10, so you should know that I must tweak. No, church not spoken either.... Double tweaker?

I think the word tinkerer is a better fit. You can obviously tweak things while tinkering, and tweakers definitely tinker while tweaking, but to be a tweaker is something completely different.

Master Tinkerer!

 

[highup]

....yeah, it does come across better that way.

 

[highup]

Crabbing season here in Oregon can start December first or even January depending on the crab quality. We've had some nasty winds and ocean conditions recently, to the point of ZERO fishing boats from San Francisco, north to British Columbia.
Not today. Winds look like 10 mph along the coast. I'm glad grandpa wasn't a fisherman.
All of the orange ones are probably crabbers.
All the images are from Marinrtraffic.com. I check in there a couple times a day just to see who and what's out there. If I pay attention and get lucky, I'll know when a pilot boat is headed out to put a pilot onboard a ship. In that case I can go watch it come in, or better yet, watch them turn the ship around and dock it. They have a turning basin in the bay at the casino. They turn the 660 foot long ship around right in front of the casino and hotel rooms where there's a loooong, wide boardwalk. I'm sure for visitors, it's quite a treat seeing a large ship slowly turning, just 150 feet in front of you. It's fun to watch, mainly because these monsters are almost silent during the process ...the only sound is two tug boats, one on each side, communicating their progress by tooting their horns to each other in Morse code.