Gongol.com Archives: July 2025
July 8, 2025
Some things you just cannot outsource
People who possess real expertise typically stand out to those who themselves know what they're talking about. It doesn't require a lot of preening among a knowledgeable audience; most people are able to recognize authoritative voices within their own domains. ■ On the opposite side, nothing is more predictable than finding people with no particular expertise who are extremely quick to adopt new fads as areas in which to claim expertise. Who can forget the rise of "social media experts", "life coaches", and "personal branding consultants" a few years ago? Where are these lackluster posers today? ■ The latest iteration of this phenomenon is the artificial intelligence evangelist. These are the people who turn to social media tools, trying to establish themselves as authorities with praiseworthy insights on the use of AI -- often positioning themselves as having discovered new innovations of which no one has ever before conceived. ■ The problem with these "tech bros" is that they so often grasp for shortcuts that they overlook enormous flaws in reasoning. A momentary fad currently surrounds the idea of using artificial intelligence to summarize full-length books, with at least one adopting a patently ridiculous claims about "reading" 100 books a day with the help of AI-generated summaries. (That particular individual may have been attempting a tongue-in-cheek gag, but the proliferation of "book summarizer" chat bots suggests that at least some people believe in the concept.) ■ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote in his excellent book, "Flow", that "A person can feel pleasure without any effort, if the appropriate centers in his brain are electrically stimulated, or as a result of the chemical stimulation of drugs. But it is impossible to enjoy a tennis game, a book, or a conversation unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity." ■ To interact with a thought and wrestle with a book, to contextualize a text and consider its ramifications in depth and in real-time, is to experience a written manuscript. To skip the experience is to gain nothing more than the superficial trappings of deeper meaning. ■ Certainly, some things can be gained from summaries, just as students have long relied on cheat sheets and Cliffs Notes to memorize just enough to pass poorly-constructed tests. But the difference remains that of "consumer" versus "learner". A consumer grasps briefly, then moves along, while a learner incorporates the material into a larger array of knowledge. "LinkedIn grifters" may profit from monetizing tips for the lazy in the short run, but only the learners will reap dividends in the long run.
The stupidest possible reboot of "Pygmalion"
People are using ChatGPT to flirt online, then finding themselves with nothing charming to say in real life
