Hello loggers
Any conversation
I've been building a Markdown variant called Zd that's focused on extensibility and simplicity. I'm curious what you would change about Markdown if you were designing it from scratch, what challenges you face as a user, or what you wish were easier to do when incorporating Markdown into your own projects.
Definitely tables are cumbersome.
Yeah, 100%. That is completely something I am punting on currently. It would be easy to just copy over the solution from (extensions to) Markdown, but it's hard to entirely narrow in on both what tables ought to do and how to make them do it.
If you had a magic wand, what would you have them be more like?
Man, I LOVE naps! In fact, I mostly subsist on four or five 1-1/2 hour naps each day instead of one long over-night sleep period these days. I didn't set out to have a sleep schedule, but here I am. :-)
It is troubling watching the news today from the elections in Germany. Yes, it is democratic and absolutely fair elections and the people of Germany make their own choice in their situation. Still, seeing the far right gaining so much ground in Germany brings your thoughts some 90 years back. Letโs hope and pray Germany is not going there again.
Putting a slide deck together (outside of work), despite agreeing with Tufte on this matter. Iโll also create a handout that tells the story better than the slides and deliver that, too, but was asked to produce a slide deck, and I think thatโs part of the โeffort theater.โ
Using Beamer for the slides, but not a theme that looks like Beamer because humans have eyes.
Many leaders acquire authority through ambition and manipulation. Iโm not referring to them.
But a test of leadership for those who acquire authority organically, with the will of those being led, is to maintain the zeal and principles which put you into that position, after you encounter the machinery designed to exhaust, exasperate, deter, and demoralize.
(Opinion) People donโt like generative AI because it made the {insert creativity} too easy. Saw the HN post on โAI music banned from top 40 chart in Australiaโ and people had very strong opinions in both directions.
The hot take: If youโre ok with someoneโs creativity being outsourced to others, then you should be ok with AI doing the same.
If โAI made this and I call it mineโ is bad but โsomeone overseas on fivver made this and I call it mineโ and itโs suddenly ok, time to self reflect.
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My hot take: from the moment you use technology, be it an instrument, a synthesizer, a DAW, and now AI, it is still your idea, your effort, your time spent, and that makes it yours. Others can do the same if they choose. The same way someone chooses a classic guitar over a synthesizer, one can choose an AI over (insert ancient way of doing things).
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Youโre rolling the dice whenever you are searching for a sample or a preset in a synthesizer. Eventually itโs what โsounds goodโ, so still the effort is your judgement and the time spent finding that โdice rollโ that sounded well.
I am not a musician, so I lack the jargon to properly explain what I mean.
I used AI for creative writing (nothing too fancy, TTRPG). There, the broader the dice roll, the more generic and uninteresting the results. Slop, if you will. It was surprisingly good to build up on ideas I had however.
I imagine muisic also has building blocks. Melodies, instruments, mixing, etc. AI can perhaps be used in a similar fashion there.
I heard a perspective I sort of like: if AI is a tool then acceptable AI use is, more or less, defined as "when my audience no longer notices or cares". It's dynamic like that. Bad photoshop is detectable and annoying, so are overusing presets. Your artistry needs to expand to meet the tool.
I don't know if I 100% like that or agree. At the same time, it's a pretty straightforward line, a practical take.