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ChatGPT as a pull up band

2023-09-01

My friend Uri wrote a blog post about different types of supports:

I’m going to call any supportive device that degrades your ability to perform the activity un-aided an enfeebling support.

Of course, this also implies a definition for a better kind of support: a strengthening support not only helps you do something while supported, but also makes you better at doing the thing “by yourself” once the support is taken away.

Before I get into what I disagree with, first I want to say I wholeheartedly endorse the distinction he draws between types of supports. It's really helpful to ask "is this a tool that's helping me build capability or is this a crutch that I'm becoming reliant upon?"

However, one of his examples of enfeebling supports caught my eye:

Tech legend and friend of the blog T.D. worries that chatGPT is degrading people’s coding skills, making them slightly better at coding right now but worse (and more dependent on prosthetics) in the long run.

For me at least, ChatGPT is absolutely a strengthening support. I went years doing only minimal coding because I couldn't build anything I was excited about, sort of the equivalent of being able to do zero pull ups. With ChatGPT, I'm now able to finish things I care about, which is infectious, and I'm learning a bunch as I go. So I humbly disagree with tech legend TD!

The culture that is Swiss branding

2023-08-24

Toblerone is moving it's chocolate production out of Switzerland and losing it's logo as a result.

The Matterhorn, that majestic mountain peak that graced Toblerone's packaging since 1970, holds a special place in the hearts of the Swiss people. In Switzerland, it's not just a mountain; it's an emblem of national pride. But here’s why Toblerone has to let go of it—the Swissness Act of 2017, dictates that products should be intrinsically tied to the Swiss geography to bear the "Swiss-made" label and carry Switzerland-related imagery.

From the Trademark Factory's newsletter, which sadly doesn't have a link.

Obesity trends

2023-08-24

In the past 5 decades, the obesity rate in the United States has never gone down two years in a row, paraphrased from the Odd Lots Episode linked above.

Totally astounding. I'd be on that changing over the next two years.

Contingencies in history, 1848 edition

2023-08-23

The Sicilian Revolution, the first one of the many revolutions of 1848, was kicked off by a single person putting up flyers in the name of a revolutionary committee that didn't exist.

You could argue that if something this small could kick off a revolution, then it was going to happen anyway... and yet, what if no one else had thought to do it?

Via The Rest is History.