The two kinds of people in your life and what you tell the universe when you choose who to pay attention to.
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Sometimes, young people write to me asking about my qualifications. This confuses me because I haven't had to worry about that in more than two decades. I realised a long time ago that our education system is designed to create the appearance of education and that true education happens in the field through work and experience. However, young people not understanding this is understandable since their world views are limited by where they stand in life. In the long run, what decides your fate is not your certificates, it's actual work you have done in the field and the appreciation that gets you from people.
It feels a little strange writing this essay.
Bhaskar is the lone human attendant on an asteroid base. The AI running the station is beginning to talk though.
Ancient myths remixed for modern times by Vimoh.
I sometimes get asked how I reconcile my atheism with my creative work. More specifically, I get asked why I write stories featuring gods when I don't believe that gods exist.
One of my favourite YouTube channels about writing and storytelling Tale Foundry recently published a video about swords and why they are so common in fantasy stories.
I can press my finger against a certain interface element on my phone screen and move it to another place on the screen. I do this to make my digital space more comfortable and usable for myself. This customisation or personalisation is something I do to my digital devices for my convenience.
I do not believe in the religious claim that a god or gods exist. That makes me an atheist. I am however, not unique in having this position. Plenty of people lack belief in the claim that god or gods exist. Many even make the positive claim that gods do not exist.
A friend of mine, when talking about how far back we go, often says that we are childhood friends. I always thought this was not true, since we only met for the first time in college. But as I grow older, it seems she is right.
One of the most common woes among creative people forced to work in zones defined by algorithms is that they have to compromise on their vision. If they want to write or paint or produce something that their heart is screaming, they still have to take things like SEO and algorithmic feeds into consideration before they publish it. If they don't, if they just "follow their heart", they risk invisibility, or worse, disinterest.
Some thoughts on insects, weekends, film critics, influencers, and the value of time and effort.
The text and images AI-based tools generate are often very fluid. But hidden in that fluidity is a vacuity that may escape the unobservant among us. YouTube, for example, now has a feature that will both recommend videos you should make (based on what has worked till now) and what those videos should contain (based on the LLM that it sits on).
Think about a popular influencer you know. They could be any kind of influencer - fashion, politics, literary, travel - anything.
When you compete with someone, you become more like them. The longer you compete, the more you resemble each other.
A short Hindi rant about why social media's never-ending stream of urgency is a mayajaal.
My father recently went to a school reunion. Everyone there, like him, was in their seventies.
Someone wrote to me responding to my view that the capitalistic intent behind AI companies will send them down the same path of monopolisation as some previous information technologies, like social media.
We are a little strange, no?
There was a short fantasy film some time ago on YouTube called Ahalya. I won't spoil it for you, but I am reminded of the feeling of being stuck inside my own body, unable to communicate that I am a human being.
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