Ryan Nelson

Life lesson: You can always bite more than you can chew. Be conservative when assessing your meal.

Being a father is the best.

I’ve been trying to define what “ai slop” is for myself and it’s a bit of a moving target. Tools are getting better and better and it’s getting more difficult to immediately distinguish between human-generated and ai-generated content. I’m not a believer that ai is going to replace creative productivity simply for the reason that unless the content is carefully and meticulously directed - by a human - that ai content trends towards the mean/average of human content. It’s not bad nor is it exceptional, it’s just mediocre at best. Ai content is, however, extremely frictionless. It’s just really easy to produce content with ai - but this is the problem. If something is too easy, it almost always means that there’s a harder version of it which is of superior quality by most metrics. “In the olden days…” you know when we had to walk to school uphill both ways, producing something (of value) meant putting labour - physical or mental - into the product or endeavour in order to complete it. It meant carefully considering different angles BEFORE embarking on the creative journey and asking oneself “should I do this?” Or “will this be worth it?” Ai removes that barrier. The question seems to be now “why the f*ck not?” Now, the energy behind “why not” isn’t inherently bad and can be a powerful creative force but without the filter of labour to refine, reduce, pivot, delete, polish, or quit, the rogue creations of ai don’t add value. Slop to me is something unrefined, unconsidered, and carelessly generated. Apply rigor to thought and creation, even using ai, and you will get superior work out of it. Go build cool stuff.

The more ubiquitous and “better” ai gets, the more content is being produced, but that doesn’t mean it’s worth consuming. We’re seeing record levels of content being produced since the proliferation of ai. Everyone and their dog is an expert on something and has a course, newsletter, blog, and free guide (just enter your email!) but how much of it is actually valuable and not just completely average? Barely any of it! In fact, the only content worth consuming now is still 100% written and created by humans - ai content is a distraction. I’m not saying that ai is useless, it’s a powerful tool, but it’s not a replacement for human ideas and communication. It is going to cause content burnout though. It’s just all too much input. We cannot conceivably consume the sheer volume that’s being produced now. Unlike the advent of social media, it doesn’t have the same pull and magnetism that og social media had on us. Content doesn’t have the same novelty it used to and people are getting tired of it. Ai content is beginning to have a repulsive effect because people are starting to tune into, even on a subconscious level, the fact that it usually sounds a little off. The superfluous use of em dashes is not the only tell. People are returning to old favourite books, old movies, live shows, and sincerity in their work. Find the diamonds in the rough, slow down, touch grass, and maybe write with a pen and paper. Nothing will ever supersede human creativity. Keep creating.

I’ve become a happier and nicer person since I just started telling the asshole voice in my head to stfu. 🤷‍♂️

Soul is in the labour, not the result of it.

"The pathway to what's most real is through the hardest things that you can do." @jordanbpeterson

Something I’ve learned as a new dad is that it’s not my child’s job to “be careful” it’s mine. I want her to learn her limits by testing them, not by me telling her what they are. If it’s actually dangerous, I’ll be there to catch her. If not, falling down is a lesson.

Is anyone asking themselves the question: What happens to you when you forfeit your sovereign and original thought to AI? Who do you become when you can no longer think for yourself?

Having a kid at 40 is my biggest regret. Because I wish I had one (and more) at 20 so I could have an extra 20 years to spend time with them. Having kids is the greatest blessing one can ever have. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

Anyone else watch Lord of the Rings (extended) for the 25th time and still get sad when it's over because you want it to keep going?

No matter how much shade a bush casts in spite, it will never overcome that of the tree.

What you do doesn’t matter so much is that you do.

Is it better to be most things to some people or some things to most people?

Has the internet really improved quality of life?

I can’t exactly say why but the death of Charlie Kirk is significant in my mind, heart, and soul. He was as close to Jesus as any loving man could be and now he is with him in death.

Charlie Kirk was murdered for having difficult conversations. This is where we are at. RIP Charlie 🙏 you were a gem of humanity. We need more conversations and less killing.

Watching my baby girl sleep is more entertaining, more important, and more valuable than anything I have ever seen, read, or heard anywhere on the internet.

Switching up my breakfast game. Why yes, that is fresh mozzarella with manuka honey.