God this is good Michael. There's so much I appreciate about this essay, and the care you put into its crafting is truly inspiring. You articulated so well my strong feelings about keeping clear boundaries with AI. For me that's just none, which is probably a bit lazy considering the possibilities. One other aspect of this consideration is how the practice of writing with less assistance strengthens the capacity to be articulate in the moment, face to face, which is so vital to robust and engaging conversation. Thank you for continually raising the bar for what's possible in the essay world.
I found myself imagining how cool it would be if, instead of the drudgery of those high school essays, I had been given a chance to express myself the way I can with a blog essay. What might I have written then?
It truly is a blessing to have an essay blog as a creative outlet—your words have reminded and inspired us of the spirit and power in the personal essay.
First, CONGRATULATIONS! And this is a win, because my foray into the art of editing started at your knee, when you took apart my first essay and re-scaffolded it. I was in awe, and became your disciple for life. The difference behind the words I had used, and the message I was ultimately able to share shone through the edit process.
Such a cogent explanation of the value of the essay and the process of the essay, Michael. Thank you.
You touched on so many poignant and crucial points, especially as humanity is enveloped by AI usage. The atrophying of the muscles of thought, really touched home. Anecdotal, but obviously we've seen attention spans decreasing online, and this has been accelerated by offloading 'thinking' by LLMs. Seeing Twitter posts clearly generated by AI, and responded to by AI, is making the dead internet theory seem more and more like a reality.
AI being used to generate essays in high schools, analyzed by overworked teachers using language models. I'm wondering when the inflection point will be, when we collectively recognize that this is deeply impacting our ability to think. I fear it will have to get worse before it gets better.
A push for better education, and utilizing AI in a proactive and productive fashion, is top of mind. AI is a tool, and it can be just as easily be used to automate and offload critical thought as it can become the tutor or instructor of our dreams.
Congrats Michael Dean, excellent essay. I commented in recent note that we've reached "peak essay," but maybe that's wrong. Maybe, if people listen to you and internalize some of these guidelines, AI will accelerate and expand the "age of the essay."
I’m absolutely fascinated by your work and had forgotten about Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language. Your observation that writing, or more pointedly editing, is the process of rewiring our own thinking is one I find true. I look forward to reading more of your essays and seeing their underlying patterns.
This is great! Congratulations 🎊. I also wrote an article recently explaining why professionals should not outsource reasoning to LLMs. If you don't use your brain for reasoning tasks, your brain would atrophy. It is like lifting weights. If you don't lift weights, your muscles would atrophy.
Oh addition to that: I agree on the wrong assumption that in education it’s about the result, it’s not. We all know your essay (or thesis, or project report or whatever) goes into some drawer where nobody ever reads it again. Not even you yourself. It’s about the process. Education is supposed to be effective; not efficient.
"Essai" is an "attempt" or "a try" at something. Montaigne was trying to express thought, fleeting, momentary, best-guesses-for-today thoughts in his writing.
Of course orators saw the essay as an early draft, and not as valuable, as the spoken word, and the essay became a basement commodity (literally essay-writing was taught in the basement at Harvard in the 1880s as a remedy for students who were not good at oration) before being farmed out to the high schools and eventually codified into the tremendously prescriptive tasks that it has become for so many teachers and students today. It is a task that I try to rally against whenever I get a chance in my job as a university composition instructor. Given that even First Year Writing courses are often designed or pedagogically constrained by administrative forces that see these courses as service classes (teaching students how to "write" in their major, or seeing these classes as gatekeepers until students can demonstrate the tonal and mechanical "correctness of academic prose") my task is often difficult, and my teaching often seen as subversive.
Surely AI can handle the mechanics and soul-stripping tone of academic English, so maybe First-Year Composition can blossom into the writing-as-inquiry skill that essays serve so well. Or maybe the bean counters will use AI as a way to defund the courses I teach altogether.
Congrats Michael! There are so many spot on points. I really enjoyed a quick peak at Margin Muse, which feels like an automated version of the human editing app Foster — with editors leaving their notes in the margins. Margin Muse is AI providing the service of good teachers who provide timely feedback — the secret sauce for learning.
1. Montaigne is an absolute inspiration.
2. When you teach people to write you teach them to think.
3. Writing for virality undermines longevity.
Most essays on substack are about how to write on Substack. We needn't be bogged down by this. We need to be inspired to write more.
Wonderful work. Cheers.
God this is good Michael. There's so much I appreciate about this essay, and the care you put into its crafting is truly inspiring. You articulated so well my strong feelings about keeping clear boundaries with AI. For me that's just none, which is probably a bit lazy considering the possibilities. One other aspect of this consideration is how the practice of writing with less assistance strengthens the capacity to be articulate in the moment, face to face, which is so vital to robust and engaging conversation. Thank you for continually raising the bar for what's possible in the essay world.
Wonderful piece, Michael!
I found myself imagining how cool it would be if, instead of the drudgery of those high school essays, I had been given a chance to express myself the way I can with a blog essay. What might I have written then?
It truly is a blessing to have an essay blog as a creative outlet—your words have reminded and inspired us of the spirit and power in the personal essay.
First, CONGRATULATIONS! And this is a win, because my foray into the art of editing started at your knee, when you took apart my first essay and re-scaffolded it. I was in awe, and became your disciple for life. The difference behind the words I had used, and the message I was ultimately able to share shone through the edit process.
Such a cogent explanation of the value of the essay and the process of the essay, Michael. Thank you.
You touched on so many poignant and crucial points, especially as humanity is enveloped by AI usage. The atrophying of the muscles of thought, really touched home. Anecdotal, but obviously we've seen attention spans decreasing online, and this has been accelerated by offloading 'thinking' by LLMs. Seeing Twitter posts clearly generated by AI, and responded to by AI, is making the dead internet theory seem more and more like a reality.
AI being used to generate essays in high schools, analyzed by overworked teachers using language models. I'm wondering when the inflection point will be, when we collectively recognize that this is deeply impacting our ability to think. I fear it will have to get worse before it gets better.
A push for better education, and utilizing AI in a proactive and productive fashion, is top of mind. AI is a tool, and it can be just as easily be used to automate and offload critical thought as it can become the tutor or instructor of our dreams.
Congrats Michael Dean, excellent essay. I commented in recent note that we've reached "peak essay," but maybe that's wrong. Maybe, if people listen to you and internalize some of these guidelines, AI will accelerate and expand the "age of the essay."
I’m absolutely fascinated by your work and had forgotten about Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language. Your observation that writing, or more pointedly editing, is the process of rewiring our own thinking is one I find true. I look forward to reading more of your essays and seeing their underlying patterns.
This is great! Congratulations 🎊. I also wrote an article recently explaining why professionals should not outsource reasoning to LLMs. If you don't use your brain for reasoning tasks, your brain would atrophy. It is like lifting weights. If you don't lift weights, your muscles would atrophy.
For anyone interested in the article, this is the link https://theriseofai.substack.com/p/ai-is-coming-for-your-job-calculate-job-ai-resilience-index-score
Brilliant!
Your one word and taking a walk made me think of Snoopy reading war and peace one word at a time.
Oh addition to that: I agree on the wrong assumption that in education it’s about the result, it’s not. We all know your essay (or thesis, or project report or whatever) goes into some drawer where nobody ever reads it again. Not even you yourself. It’s about the process. Education is supposed to be effective; not efficient.
"Essai" is an "attempt" or "a try" at something. Montaigne was trying to express thought, fleeting, momentary, best-guesses-for-today thoughts in his writing.
Of course orators saw the essay as an early draft, and not as valuable, as the spoken word, and the essay became a basement commodity (literally essay-writing was taught in the basement at Harvard in the 1880s as a remedy for students who were not good at oration) before being farmed out to the high schools and eventually codified into the tremendously prescriptive tasks that it has become for so many teachers and students today. It is a task that I try to rally against whenever I get a chance in my job as a university composition instructor. Given that even First Year Writing courses are often designed or pedagogically constrained by administrative forces that see these courses as service classes (teaching students how to "write" in their major, or seeing these classes as gatekeepers until students can demonstrate the tonal and mechanical "correctness of academic prose") my task is often difficult, and my teaching often seen as subversive.
Surely AI can handle the mechanics and soul-stripping tone of academic English, so maybe First-Year Composition can blossom into the writing-as-inquiry skill that essays serve so well. Or maybe the bean counters will use AI as a way to defund the courses I teach altogether.
Essai.... where the mind goes, words flow.
Congratulations Michael!!!
Congrats Michael! There are so many spot on points. I really enjoyed a quick peak at Margin Muse, which feels like an automated version of the human editing app Foster — with editors leaving their notes in the margins. Margin Muse is AI providing the service of good teachers who provide timely feedback — the secret sauce for learning.
My own essay didn't win, but I think it brings up some valuable points about the future. I expanded on it and posted it here: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/NRZfxAJztvx2ES5LG/a-path-to-human-autonomy
What a great piece! I like your sense of structure and balance, as well as your treatment of such timely topics.