OK, I still love it the 2nd time around, such a mixture of bro-ish tech thinking and off-kilter imagining. It loosed in me a barrage of comic book imagery that took a few days to emerge with specificity, mainly around your 1-ciggy-a-day grandma figure, OMG. Who is she? Not my (chain-smoking, high-femme-always-in-her-painted-face-&-perpetual high heels [that shortened her achilles tendon]) granny! Uh uh. Rather ... Mammy Yokum, bare-knuckle fighting matriarch in the L'il Abner strips. Or Rose "Gran'ma" Ben from the Bone series. Far more than nettle tea from these ladies.
I circled back to re-read this because the first time it blew me away. I'm a little worried I won't like it as much but also can imagine finding it even stranger and richer the second time around. I am slightly discombobulated that your lead illustration features a man without legs (the guy on the left, as far as I can tell). which perhaps is part of its interest, an artifact of the moment when AI works that way.
OK so I actually read it now, it's interesting. I have to admit I always feel a personal disconnect when people conflate masculine inclinations toward strength and initiative (yang) with hyper-fixation on abstract metrics. Value capture is a certainly a thing, but to me, "yang energy" never had anything to do optimizing cortisol schedules or whatever. For a long time I've felt that people trying to maximize their social metrics came off a bit immature.
Holy shit
OK, I still love it the 2nd time around, such a mixture of bro-ish tech thinking and off-kilter imagining. It loosed in me a barrage of comic book imagery that took a few days to emerge with specificity, mainly around your 1-ciggy-a-day grandma figure, OMG. Who is she? Not my (chain-smoking, high-femme-always-in-her-painted-face-&-perpetual high heels [that shortened her achilles tendon]) granny! Uh uh. Rather ... Mammy Yokum, bare-knuckle fighting matriarch in the L'il Abner strips. Or Rose "Gran'ma" Ben from the Bone series. Far more than nettle tea from these ladies.
I circled back to re-read this because the first time it blew me away. I'm a little worried I won't like it as much but also can imagine finding it even stranger and richer the second time around. I am slightly discombobulated that your lead illustration features a man without legs (the guy on the left, as far as I can tell). which perhaps is part of its interest, an artifact of the moment when AI works that way.
Thanks for saying this, I totally overlooked that the dude was missing legs haha.
Midjourney refuses to do precise iterations, so I had Gemini fix it.
Curious to hear thoughts after the second read through (I promise I was more diligent in editing the text)
Damn bro
yes to grandma!!!
OK so I actually read it now, it's interesting. I have to admit I always feel a personal disconnect when people conflate masculine inclinations toward strength and initiative (yang) with hyper-fixation on abstract metrics. Value capture is a certainly a thing, but to me, "yang energy" never had anything to do optimizing cortisol schedules or whatever. For a long time I've felt that people trying to maximize their social metrics came off a bit immature.
My place is 100% in the kitchen. My family and friends love my cooking and it makes us all happy (I haven't read the essay yet).