Siddhesh Recommends - March 2024

The best stuff I've listened to, watched, and read last month.

Apr 04, 2024

Siddhesh Recommends is a series in which I share the most memorable stuff I come across each month.

Each heading is a link. You can check out all previous recommendations here.

Here lies the internet, murdered by generative AI

“The amount of AI-generated content is beginning to overwhelm the internet. Or maybe a better term is pollute. Pollute its searches, its pages, its feeds, everywhere you look.”
“Now that generative AI has dropped the cost of producing bullshit to near zero, we see clearly the future of the internet: a garbage dump. Google search? They often lead with fake AI-generated images amid the real things. Post on Twitter? Get replies from bots selling porn. But that’s just the obvious stuff. Look closely at the replies to any trending tweet and you’ll find dozens of AI-written summaries in response, cheery Wikipedia-style repeats of the original post, all just to farm engagement. AI models on Instagram accumulate hundreds of thousands of subscribers and people openly shill their services for creating them. AI musicians fill up YouTube and Spotify. Scientific papers are being AI-generated.”

The Unbearable Sadness of the Health Influencer

“Consider the archetype of the modern health influencer, fixated on the latest research studies, yet oblivious to the enduring wisdom of the Lindy effect. This principle suggests that the true test of a food's (or drink's) safety and efficacy lies in its historical longevity. If a food has been consumed for centuries, if not millennia, it's likely not harmful; in fact, it's probably beneficial.”
“The neglect of the time-tested wisdom in favor of recent research studies is a concerning trend. This reliance on new studies over traditional knowledge is driven by a desire to appear informed and intelligent to the public. However, this approach overlooks the fact that time-honored practices have proven their value over generations, whereas scientific studies are frequently debunked and revised.”

You can’t tell people anything

“We all spend a lot of our time talking to bosses or investors or marketing people or press or friends or other developers. I’m totally convinced that a new idea or a new plan or a new technique is never really understood when you just explain it. People will often think they understand, and they’ll say they understand, but then their actions show that it just ain’t so.”
“With luck, eventually there will be an “Aha!”. If you’re really good, the “Aha!” will followed by “Oh, so that’s what you meant”. But don’t be too surprised or upset if the “Aha!” is instead followed by “Why didn’t you tell me that?”.”

some good tweets