On AI: at an embarrassing age I learned that almost everyone hates reading.
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On AI: at an embarrassing age I learned that almost everyone hates reading. Most writers are also avid readers, and are often not aware that 20% of the population is (almost) illiterate. Reading is a chore for the majority of people. For a typical author this is an unpleasant and hard to grasp truth. But once you believe it, you can change your writing for the better. By for example never "burying the lede". Just start your letter/advert/post/whatever with your main message. 1/2
@bert_hubert
The bit about burying the lede is maybe not (only) because people don't read, but using inbox preview to sort and skip mail. So if your letter looks like:Dear Mike,
Thanks for that report on the McCarthy file, much appreciated and timely.
On that note, can I ask you to amend appendix 1 to add the following...
Mike's Inbox preview will show the thanks. No need to bother opening, mark read and file, move on.
I've taken to putting my requirements in the first sentence at the expense of civility.
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@bert_hubert I guess it depends on how you define thinking. I was taught (but I haven't fact-checked this) that thinking requires ridiculous amounts of energy, so it makes sense to avoid it. On the other hand thinking and planning ahead would probably have helped a group of hunter-gatherers to survive. To avoid it entirely would not have been an advantage.
I was also tought that this is why we have developed routines as ways of saving energy by not thinking about repetitive tasks. This would sort of balance the opposing interests. But the price we pay for this balance, is that there is a resistance against thinking we have to overcome, before we get into the flow of it. And I believe some people find this resistance harder to overcome than others. Or they were never encouraged to overcome it.
And something I have noticed in this context: some people seem to be less curious than others. I believe curiosity helps me overcome my resistance to thinking and I'd be interested to know if there is research to back this up.@UlrikeHeiss thinking, oddly, does not appear to require additional calories beyond the 25W our brain consumes non-stop. And this is what makes it weird! But perhaps the costs of thinking are more subtle. There are some anecdotes of chess players burning through more energy, but this does not appear to be brain related. Also if thinking required calories I'd be thin by now!
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert that's an interesting thought and would explain many conflicts and misunderstandings, it seems to have something to do with "cognitive bias"
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Lately, I've been wondering if I was not only wrong about reading, but also about thinking. Like most of my friends, I enjoy thinking. I love to do research. It is one of my big hobbies. But perhaps I'm like my runner friends who also struggle to believe that not everyone likes running. Might *thinking* be painful for people? Something to be avoided? This would explain lots of stuff. Like the rampant AI enthusiasm. Thoughts? 2/2
@bert_hubert but if you don't like thinking, I would guess you're not in a job that AI can help with...?
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