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The same is true with our understanding of who we are as adult American citizens. Until now we felt we had a vote. But that is over, unless we change our view of the country we live in. It's not that it's about to change, which is what you hear in the news, and on social web -- it has already changed.

We now understand that Trump may be above the law but that masks a bigger truth, the Supreme Court is already above the law. They take bribes, openly. They cannot be prosecuted (just try it and see what happens). They openly side with the insurrection, yet don't recuse when deciding issues of what to do with the insurrectionists. They imagine the president is a monarch.

We're already living in the authoritarian state we're worried about. We haven't caught up with that reality yet.

Our government is more concerned about our right to own guns than it is with our right to own our own bodies. Stop for a moment and let that sink in. If I said you don't own your own body, what would you think I'm talking about? Answer: Slavery.

If we did catch up with that reality, we would start organizing now to undo that mistake. We would not only re-elect Biden in a landslide, but we'd insist that he expand the court to 100 members serving 10-year terms each, retroactive. And thus we would eliminate one of the huge problems in our system of government. Have they proved they need this kind of correction? Yes, the overturning of Roe, and the lack of prosecution of Trump for trying to overthrow the government are all the proof we need.

And from then-on, no politician in any branch of government would take us for granted.

 

In 1990, I was among the most unremarkable, underachieving, unimpressive 19-year-olds you could have stumbled across. Stoned more often than studying, I drank copious amounts of beer, smoked Camels, delivered pizza. My workouts consisted of dragging my ass out of bed and sprinting to class—usually late and unprepared.My high-school guidance counselor had had good reason to tell my deflated parents that there was no way I was college-bound: I graduated in the bottom third of my 100-person class at Lourdes Academy in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I had to attend the Menasha extension of the University of Wisconsin, a two-year school, just to smuggle myself into the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, a four-year school in my hometown. A year into that, I was staring at a 1.491 GPA and making the guidance counselor’s case daily, unambiguously, emphatically. I was one more wasted—literally and figuratively—semester away from getting the boot. […]

Thirty years later, I am running Axios, and fanatical about health and self-discipline. My marriage is strong. My kids and family seem to like me. I still enjoy beer, and tequila, and gin, and bourbon. But I feel that I have my act together more often than not—at least enough to write what I wish someone had written for me 30 years ago, a straightforward guide to tackling the challenges of life.

It is nonsense that to shine, you need to go to a fancy school, bootlick bosses, or pay your dues at soul-sucking jobs working for bad people. You do not need to get 1500 on your SAT or to have a sky-high IQ or family connections. You don’t even need sparkling talents. You simply need to want to construct goodness with whatever life throws at you. This starts by grounding yourself with unbreakable core values and then watching, learning, and copying those who do it—and get it—right. But it also includes watching and studying those who screw it up. You need to find your own passions, not have them imposed by others. Then outwork everyone in pursuit of shaping your destiny—your own personal greatness—on your terms, by your measures, at your pace.

My own life is littered with mistakes. But I learned something from every dumb move and used it to try to get the big things right. Five decades in, that is what matters most to me: cutting myself slack on my daily sins or stumbles so I can focus on the good stuff.

For me, that list includes pursuing deep, meaningful, unconditional relationships with my kids; a healthy, resilient marriage; strong, loving relationship with my parents and siblings; a few deep and durable friendships; faith and connection beyond myself; and doing consequential work with people I enjoy and admire.

I’ve often fallen short of these goals, and so I’ve learned the value of grace. We’re all deeply flawed, wounded, selfish, clueless, and mean at different times. It does not make us bad. It makes us normal. That’s why we need to extend grace to others, and to ourselves.

I have blown many months beating myself up for being a selfish husband or an inattentive son or a harsh leader or an absent friend. And all of those things were often true. But life is not measured by a moment. In the end, I want to be able to say what we should all be able to say about ourselves: I learned a little every day, tried to do the next right thing, and got the big things right.

— Jim VandeHei, from “What I Wish Someone Had Told Me 30 Years Ago. Life is not measured by a moment. Focus on getting the big things right.” (The Atlantic, April 30, 2024). Adapted from VandeHei’s new book: Just the Good Stuff.

 

Breakpoint issues always make me feel a bit “genderclear”.

 

In journalism, the integration of artificial intelligence has sparked both curiosity and apprehension, for very obvious reasons. Many hacks are understandably worried that it’s a threat to their jobs. However, Mike Masnick of Techdirt points towards an alternative approach. He has been using AI not to write copy for him, but to help him elevate his writing:

I have been using some AI tools over the last few months and have found them to be quite useful, namely, in helping me write better. I think the best use of AI is in making people better at their jobs. So I thought I would describe one way in which I’ve been using AI. And, no, it’s not to write articles.
It’s basically to help me brainstorm, critique my articles, and make suggestions on how to improve them.

He asks the AI to make suggestions about what he’s already written, and if they’re better, he adopts them, but with rewriting to make them even better. He uses it to push himself to be a better writer than the AI.

And that’s an interesting idea.

Adversarial AI to make us better

I’m fascinated by the idea of adversarial AI as a technique for forcing humans to get better. I first came across the idea at NEXT Conference in Hamburg last year, where Harry Yeff talked about how he used it to hone and improve his performances. He trained an AI model on his own voice, and started duetting with it:

Yeff’s experience was that, as he reached the pinnacle of his skill set, there was less challenge, less to learn from and draw from. He loved hearing and being challenged with these new ideas coming from his second self. “That was the ‘ah-ha’ moment, when I realised I was being challenged in new ways,” he says.

His interview is worth a watch:

AI as automated editor and sub-editor

And that brings us back to Masnick, using AI to challenge his own writing. He uses Lex.page, an AI-infused word processor, as a form of combined editor and sub-editor, but only once he’s written his piece:

While it said my opening was good, I wondered if it could be better, so I asked it for suggestions on a better opening. And its suggestions were good enough that I actually did rewrite much of my opening. My original opening had jumped right in to talking about “There I Ruined It,” and Lex suggested some opening framing that I liked better. Of course, it also suggested a terrible headline, which I ignored. It’s rare that I take any suggestion verbatim, but this time the opening was good enough that I used a pretty close version (again, this is rare, but it does often make me think of better ways to rewrite the opening).

This is a much more compelling use of AI. Don’t stuff your site full of deeply mediocre AI-generated content, just like everyone else is. Instead, use it to help drive you to do better work.

As a one-man band here on OM&HB, the one thing I’ve always missed is someone to challenge, push and edit me. That’s why I’ve enjoyed writing for NEXT so much over the past decade; I have Martin Recke to perform that role for me.

I’m going to have a look at Lex.page in the coming weeks — and let you know how I get on.

The last state was that I used the ZTE MC801A as a modem for the GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000). That was the setup for a few months, and it worked fine, even though I was unable to use 5G Standalone, which was enabled by my provider last year. And the use of two separate devices was also not that optimal. Especially since the MC801A had some quirks:

In the last few months, it randomly decided to disconnect twice, but I wasn’t able to reconnect it without being in my second flat. This was anything else than optimal for a router in a remote location.

So this month, I decided to buy the GL.iNet 5G module board (GL-M2) including the Quectel modem (RM520N-GL) directly out of China. A few days later, the FedEx package arrived, and now I was finally able to connect it.

And it works perfectly (so far)!

Just one extended router instead of using another router as the modem. I can finally decide which network mode to use (LTE, 5G NSA or 5G SA). I can directly configure the modem from the Beryl AX interface. And it’s a lot cheaper (as long as I can sell the MC801A again) than the Spitz AX, which packages both into one enclosure.

Let’s hope this setup turns out to be stable in the future. 😄

Should I find a cheap place to 3D print, I might print a case for the module board. But that’s just aesthetics, it’s the inner values that count the most.

Interactions & Comments

I will only remind you of your earlier observations… And what people say is less important than what they cannot.

— C. S. Lewis, in a conversation with Sigmund Freud, in “Freud’s Last Sessions” (2023).

Notes:

• Movie Review in NY Times: ‘Freud’s Last Session’ Review: Film Adaptation and Its Discontents. Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis probably never met. What the stage-based film presupposes is: Maybe they did?
• Movie Review in Variety: ‘Freud’s Last Session’ Review: Anthony Hopkins Slips Easily Into Sigmund’s Skin in Talky Two-Hander