This week: slowing down 🎣
On retaining the skill of learning, battling the ocean, and getting deep sleep.
Everyone together, now: Let’s all take a deep breath. Challenge your mind with a thoughtful article and follow it up with a book and an app that will lower your cortisol.
READING
“Don’t Let the Machines Do the Living,” an article by Anne Helen Petersen
This article struck a chord with me by articulating what I find so icky about using AI. Petersen kicks things off with a question we should all be thinking about (without the help of ChatGPT, mind you):
“What happens if we forget how to learn?”
There are so many issues with artificial intelligence: it’s horrible for the environment, it creates confusion about what’s real, and, tbh, it’s kinda fucking lame that we need to use to a machine to make pictures or organize thoughts instead of just imagining it or figuring it out ourselves. The figuring it out is the part that makes all of us who we are. What happens when we outsource our most difficult questions to machines?
ALSO READING
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Elliot and I visited Key West (including the Hemingway Home, which is delightfully overrun with cats) over the holidays. It was only appropriate then, to revisit this classic short novel by the man himself. No one is saying Hemingway was a great guy (he wasn’t), but god can he write a simple, cutting sentence. This read helped me slow down and appreciate the power of simple language to tell an impactful story.
USING
The Balance app
Sometimes, the world is so stupid that you need a deep-voiced man to tell you to unclench your fists and loosen your jaw in order to get quality sleep. The Balance app has a ton of meditations that vary in length and style, so you can mix and match however you like. I also like the nap time meditation so that I don’t spend the entire time I’m supposed to be relaxing thinking about how my alarm is going to go off in 20 minutes. You can try the app for free.
This piece was edited, as always, by the sharp-eyed, quick-responding Laura Rothman.
