A story in two headlines.

My love for em dashes is as old as the hills and as mighty as my inability to make a transition between thoughts literally any other way and I will be damned if I let the clankers take that from me

Stanford researchers found that AI-generated "workslop" is actually making people less productive, in part because workers have to correct errors or decode the useful information/intent buried in a flood of auto-generated garbage:

Black Mirror episode pitch: Ender's Game but with modern livestreaming

Say it after me: Chat GPT is not a search engine. It does not scan the web for information, it just generates statistically likely sentences. You cannot use it a search engine, or as a substitute for searching.

Now. Please never use an LLM for information searches ever again.

I've been thinking about how empowering it is to get into weightlifting. I mean, yes, literally. But also psychologically. As women, society tells us we need to be small, and that if we are not small, we must buy products/services to be smaller. And then one day you think... what if I get BIGGER? 1/

Incidentally, since almost all the physical books from major publishers in the US are printed in China, that probably just increased the price by 50%, which massively lowers sales and means publishers will do much smaller print runs.

A huge translation of hypocrisy,
Vilely compiled, profound simplicity.

The Project for Awesome is a very fun and silly but also important event that raises millions of dollars for global health and other charities voted on by YOU. It has just begun. Please join us at ProjectforAwesome.com/live

In fairness, “you can make millions of individual molecules but there are 13 that you need but can’t make so let’s outsource their production to plants. Also, it’s actually 12…you can make one of the vitamins…as long as the sun’s rays touch your skin like you yourself are a plant” does sound fake.

Pasadena Humane (remember their cute Rose Parade float last week?) urgently needs donations to care for abandoned and injured animals. They are right on the front lines of the Eaton fire. If you're watching the news and feeling helpless, here's a way to help! give.pasadenahumane.org/give/264243/...

#Writing tip: Try picking a scent you like (candle, oils, incense) and put it on while working on your project. In time, your brain will associate that fragrance with writing. If procrastination/the dreaded blank white page pops up, turn on that scent and Pavlov yourself back to work! #amwriting

As someone who saw Gladiator II without having seen the first one (I know, shame), I enjoyed the movie overall (performances, dialogue, production, etc., were great) but felt little to no emotional connection to any of the characters. Anyone else? Could this be a #writing issue? [Spoilers ahead]

A #writing experiment for today: Try swapping the order of two scenes or chapters and see how it influences the story's tension.

Maybe holding back a reveal from a character allows for dramatic irony or suspense, or maybe having a conversation happen earlier creates foreshadowing!

#amwriting

I really want to do all the things. And when I have caffeine, I FEEL like I can do all the things!

But caffeine hurts my stomach, so I don't have it often. Thus I do almost none of the things and instead tread an endless tunnel of raw discipline and mild dismay.

While there's plenty to complain about re: the experience of commercial airline flights, I can wake up on one U.S. coast in the morning and be on the other by early afternoon!! What a marvel that is.