120% bokuaka

Something I don't think we talk enough about in discussions surrounding AI is the loss of perseverance.

I have a friend who works in education and he told me about how he was working with a small group of HS students to develop a new school sports chant. This was a very daunting task for the group, in large part because many had learning disabilities related to reading and writing, so coming up with a catchy, hard-hitting, probably rhyming, poetry-esque piece of collaborative writing felt like something outside of their skill range. But it wasn't! I knew that, he knew that, and he worked damn hard to convince the kids of that too. Even if the end result was terrible (by someone else's standards), we knew they had it in them to complete the piece and feel super proud of their creation.

Fast-forward a few days and he reports back that yes they have a chant now... but it's 99% AI. It was made by Chat-GPT. Once the kids realized they could just ask the bot to do the hard thing for them - and do it "better" than they (supposedly) ever could - that's the only route they were willing to take. It was either use Chat-GPT or don't do it at all. And I was just so devastated to hear this because Jesus Christ, struggling is important. Of course most 14-18 year olds aren't going to see the merit of that, let alone understand why that process (attempting something new and challenging) is more valuable than the end result (a "good" chant), but as adults we all have a responsibility to coach them through that messy process. Except that's become damn near impossible with an Instantly Do The Thing app in everyone's pocket. Yes, AI is fucking awful because of plagiarism and misinformation and the environmental impact, but it's also keeping people - particularly young people - from developing perseverance. It's not just important that you learn to write your own stuff because of intellectual agency, but because writing is hard and it's crucial that you learn how to persevere through doing hard things.

Write a shitty poem. Write an essay where half the textual 'evidence' doesn't track. Write an awkward as fuck email with an equally embarrassing typo. Every time you do you're not just developing that particular skill, you're also learning that you did something badly and the world didn't end. You can get through things! You can get through challenging things! Not everything in life has to be perfect but you know what? You'll only improve at the challenging stuff if you do a whole lot of it badly first. The ability to say, "I didn't think I could do that but I did it anyway. It's not great, but I did it," is SO IMPORTANT for developing confidence across the board, not just in these specific tasks.

Idk I'm just really worried about kids having to grow up in a world where (for a variety of reasons beyond just AI) they're not given the chance to struggle through new and challenging things like we used to.

I think this is an incredibly important post for a lot of reasons. You have to write a bad book in order to learn how to do something. You have to suck at playing an instrument before you can improve.

Struggling is part of the process, and I've had a lot of people argue with me that it shouldn't be who fail to see the point. When you replace an composer with an AI music generator, an artist with an AI-generated image, or an author with an AI-generated fanfic, you are missing out on the critical, fundamental experiences humans need to learn and grow. You are robbing yourself of essential skills you need as a person.

AI is not like a calculator, or a synthesizer, or a prompt generator. It's not a tool to aid in your process of understanding or creating something. It is replacing your ability to learn things, and that is going to do so much damage if you let it.

The realization hitting me that we'll be seeing...

harana

My favorite relationship dynamic in fiction is a worshipper and their God. Not a literal God, but their God. The only thing in the whole world that matters to them. I will live for you, I would die for you, I would kill for you. My only moral compass is You. You can do no wrong in my eyes and I will never stray from your side. I was born to meet you and to love you. You are the only being I pray to. Your life isn’t just my passion, it’s my religion. You don’t think you’re anything special but you don’t see what I see. You don’t see that you’re the only person who’s ever made me feel this way. You don’t understand how beautiful you are to me and I will devote my entire life to making you understand and accept it.

Sometimes thinking about a character makes me so emotional that I NEED to just think of them as Hot Guy™ sometimes. Like yes there is so much pain, and lore, and nuance, and suffering, all held within this character, but if I think about that every time I think about them I will literally never be happy again, sorry not sorry the hot guyification beam is coming straight for them

hyperfixation please stay with me long enough to complete the project. hyperfixation do not fade. hyperfixation finish what you started for the love of god

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60184513/chapters/153580792

As of yesterday, The Devil's Trumpet, My Aizawa x Reader fanfic is done with the writing process! Updates are still every Tuesdays and Thursdays! Please read it if you haven't already!

Anyway, more verified reporting on Neil Gaiman is out and it's real bad, folks, it just is. I'm not going to link it here, but there are plenty of free links floating around.

I cannot stress this enough, if the topic of sexual assault and graphic details are going to be severely distressing for you, please do not read it. That is not something you have to do to yourself. You do not have to do penance for finding his work meaningful, previously praised it, or enjoyed interacting with him on Tumblr. This is not on you. No one needs that from you, no matter how it may feel.

If this is personally devastating, you can (and should!) take some time to process it. You don't owe the internet a hot take or force yourself to feel the right emotion. Just take a break until you find the right headspace to be in. Please take care of yourselves.

Things I need right now from Thousand Year Blood War:

Hear Hitsugaya’s adult voice.

13 January 1907, Aleksandr Blok (1880-1921), ON THE SNOW-FIRE, Selected Poems

kakashi: *opens apartment door to find homeless kitten pawing at it*

Kakashi:

Kakashi: you have to go somewhere else, at this point my being a dog person is not so much a personality trait as it is an identity, and i can't handle an identity crisis on top of everything else right now

kitten: 🥺

Kakashi:

Kakashi: im going back inside. and im going to accidentally leave the door cracked. plausible deniability.