Weekend Reader 01/29/23
In this issue: Writing online, engineer blogging and Barnes & Noble's turnaround: Context Collapse #187
Some reading for your weekend (and a quick reminder: if you like these link roundup emails, we have a flash sale for our subscriptions that ends this week. Go!).
ChatGPT as “bullshit generator” (Arvind Narayanan/Julia Angwin)
A human bullshitter doesn’t care if what they’re saying is true or not; they have certain ends in mind. As long as they persuade, those ends are met. Effectively, that is what ChatGPT is doing. It is trying to be persuasive, and it has no way to know for sure whether the statements it makes are true or not.
The power of espresso content (Corey Wilks)
Diluting ourselves to fit in or appeal to the masses is how we lose ourselves and end up appealing to no one. But by being unabashedly ourselves, we attract “the others.” Because ultimately, we all just want to be accepted for who we are and feel like we belong. If you want to attract espresso lovers, make kickass espresso.
The ultimate guide to writing online (David Perell)
Writing from Abundance is the art of collecting ideas so you never have to write from scratch. It’s about living a life that brims with inspiration. That inspiration can come from external sources—like social media, articles, or books. It can also come from internal sources– like dinner parties, work meetings, or shower thoughts. If you capture ideas when they’re in the forefront of your mind, you won’t have to pray for them to come back when it’s time to write.
Fighting the “scourge” of fake online reviews (Maria Cramer / NYT)
In October, representatives from Yelp, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, Google and several other review sites met for a one-day closed-door conference in San Francisco to discuss how they could work together to tackle fake online reviews. It was the first time such a meeting had been held, said Becky Foley, the senior director of trust and safety at Tripadvisor, which organized the summit. The Federal Trade Commission, which is looking into strengthening penalties against companies that solicit and sell fake reviews, also sent a representative, Ms. Foley said.
Teaching engineers to write corporate dev blogs (Jordan Teicher / NYT)
“If I read a blog post and can tell it’s been written by a salesperson, I roll my eyes and quit two sentences in,” said David Walsh, a senior full stack engineer at the cryptocurrency company MetaMask, who also runs a personal tech blog. “If I can tell that it was written by an engineer on the team, that’s someone who’s been in the foxhole and had to accomplish something important. That’s someone who, as an engineer, I have admiration for, I can empathize with.”
What can we learn from Barnes and Noble’s turnaround? (Ted Gioia)
I could draw many other lessons from the Barnes & Noble turnaround. I praise its decentralization, and its willingness to empower booksellers at the local stores. I like the way the stores look nowadays, and the improved selection on the shelves. But the key element uniting all of this is putting books and readers first, and everything else second. That’s a strategy that others could learn from. Although I’m not sure you can teach it.
Documentary on the history of Midway Games and Chicago’s video game industry (Insert Coin)
David Rensin on ghostwriting books with Tim Allen, Al Pacino & Chris Rock (Daniel Paisner / As Told To)