A coder is now more like an architect than a construction worker. Developers using A.I. focus on the overall shape of the software, how its features and facets work together. Because the agents can produce functioning code so quickly, their human overseers can experiment, trying things out to see what works and discarding what doesn’t.
~ Clive Thompson via The New York Times
Category Archives: 1947 – Quote, Unquote
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The college-educated are trained to expect that the world will make room for them, and when it doesn’t—when they suffer the indignities of wage work, with its unpredictable schedules and disrespectful bosses, and can see no way up or out—the blow isn’t just economic; it’s psychological.
~ George Packer via The Atlantic
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Britain’s electrical network is in even worse disrepair than America’s. I am not sure if it is a geopolitical asset to be able to stiff-upper-lip one’s way through ineffectual government. Maybe it’s more of a liability. But my experience of criticizing Brits resembles my experience of criticizing lawyers.
~ Dan Wang via his 2025 letter
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Art changes all the time, and when it changes, so does its history.
~ Jacob Mikanowski
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The new apocalyptic coalition is a strange one. It includes evangelical Christians waiting for the Rapture, climate activists convinced we have blown past every tipping point, and AI researchers gaming out scenarios where the machine stops taking instructions.
~ John Mac Ghlionn via The Hill
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Calling all transmission of data “speech” is a gross distortion of reality, and a generation of teenagers raised on social media has borne the cost of it.
~ Tim Wu via The New York Times
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Much of the monotony in higher education is a result of the accreditation process. Accreditation should protect students from snake-oil salesmen, but unfortunately it has become its own racket. Existing schools try to lock out potential competitors. Timidity, ideological homogeneity, and red tape are all structurally encouraged by the accreditation processes.
~ Ben Sasse via The Atlantic
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Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.
~ John Ruskin
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Each of us gets to choose which futures we wish to fight against, which we can live with, and which we will fight for. As you make your choices, I suggest ignoring the din of the death rattle and trying to think with independence. Do not process this with the partisan blinders of 20th century mass politics; one way or another, you are entering a new era of institution building in living color.
~ Dean Ball via Hyperdimensional
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Higher education is facing a crisis of public trust. The simple fact of the matter is, fewer and fewer Americans believe that universities are committed to the pursuit of truth. Understanding why isn’t hard at a time when elite institutions make excuses for illiberal mobs. The perception that ideologues and fanatics are running the show on campus is, sadly, based in reality. The public sees it. Donors see it. Boards see it. Alumni see it.
~ Ben Sasse via The Atlantic
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