Reviving This Ol’ Blog For My 20s

The guidelines are as follows:

Compile your August goals into one post and mark each item as desired upon completion. You may be as vague or detailed as you wish. It only needs to serve yourself.

Tag all relevant posts with #august days of productivity, that way we can more easily support each other and make this feel like a community challenge.

Starting 1st August, do one thing every day, however small, to bring yourself closer to your goals.

Regular updates are encouraged, whether they be daily, weekly, or just every so often, but what really matters is accomplishing the things we set out to do.

Enjoy the journey: you cannot "fail" as long as you are having fun!

On 31st August, we can reflect on the past month and congratulate ourselves for our dedication.

Additionally, I challenge each and every participant to actively contribute towards the community feeling by interacting with each other, beyond just leaving a like. Reblog, comment, congratulate, encourage. We are all busy and tired and stressed, and a kind word goes such a long way!

“Be as you wish to seem”

Clearly we're all very busy, so let's motivate each other to get through April with a productivity challenge! Here's how it'll work:

Make a tumblr post listing all your goals for April, like this. It can also include a little introduction about yourself.

Use the tag "april days of productivity" for every post.

Starting on April 1st, do one small thing everyday that brings you closer to achieving your goals. You can post about it everyday, or every few days.

Once you've achieved a goal, update the tumblr post from step 1! You can strike through your goal, or anything else to show you're done with it!

On the 30th of April we'll congratulate ourselves for getting through this together! <3

Reblog this post if you'd like to participate, and comment if you have any questions!

The Collapse of Self-Worth in the Digital Age

Extremely Online and Incredibly Tedious

Stop Calling My Daughter Pretty

Taylor Swift Is The 21st Century's Most Disorienting Pop Star

No Good Art Comes From Greed

AirPods Are a Tragedy

Only Fads: A Culture (and Economy) of Labubu

As a mother to teen daughters, I'm not that concerned about Sabrina Carpenter's influence (...but I am about Gracie Abrams)

Taylor Swift is not the English teacher she wants you to think she is

The Secret Society of Lightning Strike Survivors

Less TikTok, More Screaming

The era of QAnon capitalism

Puritanism took over online fandom — and then came for the rest of the internet

Scapegoating the Algorithm

You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism

How Wellness and Beauty Influencers Can Be Part of an Alt-Right Pipeline for Teen Girls

Ruins in Reverse

The “Disney adult” industrial complex

A lot of y'all aren't woke, just assholes

Comedy’s Safest Slur

ChatGPT Shaming Is Making Our Writing So Much Worse

AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet — And Thanksgiving Dinner

Is The Love Song Dying?

Hot subpoena summer

Hit the “thumbs down.” It’s like, what’s wrong??? Was our summary wrong? Were there offensive words? Thank you for helping us improve our AI tools :)

I selected “other.”

Text box popped up. Please elaborate!

Wrote in “I can fucking read” submit comment

Then had to spend several minutes torching all my settings with a flamethrower. Let me be clear: I’m (a lawyer) notoriously picky with my words FOR GOOD REASON (lawyering) so I overwhelmingly reject Gmail’s “helpful” little assistance. My privacy settings were set to “full paranoia” a little less than a year ago when I saw the writing on the wall and knew public defenders could become a target in the future. Better to lock it all down now.

Gemini had crept in there and turned ALL that shit back on. And showed itself by saying “Jane Doe says she’s so sorry for your loss and offers to reschedule for Thursday at 3” over an email from Jane Doe saying “I’m so sorry for your loss. We could reschedule for Thursday at 3?”

Why would I possibly need this. In what universe would I need this. I have eyes and a brain and a reading speed that twenty years ago was measured at 1500 wpm with full comprehension on dense scientific text. Furthermore! If I read a summary, I’m not reading what they actually wrote. If I’m not reading what they actually wrote, I’m not using my own judgment on the words and phrases that they used.

I literally don’t understand why this is helpful at all. This is just avoidance. Using LLMs to write is specifically Not Writing. Using LLMs to summarize is Not Reading. Using them to make art is Avoiding Making Art. Just READ! Just WRITE! I was not put on this fucking planet to not read and not write and not make art! Avoidance is an anxiety symptom and indulging it gives it more power.

If I had an AI to do my most dreaded task, answer the phone for clients, I wouldn’t use it. Because an AI cannot help them. An AI cannot hear the facts of their case, make appropriate noises, be thoughtful and insightful, and then give them a realistic estimate of what could happen in court. I am unique. I cannot be replaced by machine learning. I have style. I have expertise. I don’t hallucinate unless I’m having a really great Friday night and I’m off the clock.

When I need to outsource tasks from my own brain, I give them to people I know can do them and that I trust to do them right.