I’m conducting a fun weekend poll (you can still vote!) and the results are interesting:
I’ve never liked heavily edited photos. In the old days, we used to say “Photoshopped images”, but now we have lots of apps and filters that will instantly turn you into something else. I always remember when a hiring manager met me for the first time and said, “You look just like your LinkedIn photo!” I replied, “Why wouldn’t I?”
While we decry the flood of misinformation, many people do like to put up a fake version of themselves online. This has been happening long before Gen AI appeared, with millions of people doing micro-variations of the same preening and pouting selfies on social media.
Come on, we don’t walk around in real life doing that. Try doing a “social media pout” at strangers in the subway carriage and see what happens.
But apart from the desire not to be authentic, there’s the desire for the average.
Please read this fascinating piece by Alex Murrell. It tells of a research project by two Russian artists that came to a horrifying conclusion IN THE 1990s:
“…from film to fashion and architecture to advertising, creative fields have become dominated and defined by convention and cliché. Distinctiveness has died. In every field we look at, we find that everything looks the same.”
In 2025, Gen AI has become a tool for people to create even more volumes of average content. When AI startups tell me about how they can automate the entire marketing process, my first instinct is to say “But who will care for automated content?”, then the data reminds me that many people do like Pretty Banal Things.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t use technology to help you create content. Just look at the 80s New Wave Cats in the visual above. I had the idea after listening to The Go-Go’s “Head over Heels” and seeing the 1984 album art. I also thought of the Saja Boys from Kpop Demon Hunters. I added cats, and did several iterations with Midjourney until I got this animation with a deliberate dose of silliness and unrealism.
The whole process took an hour, and for what, really? A disposable visual which you will probably forget. But for me, it was worth the time thinking and doing, because it made me happy to produce something different for my readers. Also, no cats were harmed in the process!
What I wrote this week
CNA commentary: “Some call us the loser generation, but we’ve survived just fine”. This is my love letter to Generation X which I wrote to fight back against the negativity in the media.
I gave a keynote speech at Rainbow Centre about how we can shine brighter as humans in the AI age.
Here’s a vibe-coded app many of you will like. It took me three hours to make with Google Gemini.
I play Uncle Agony to this Gen Z letter writer who questions the need to have a full-time job.
Another sunrise photo with a simple message from the Book of James.
Microsoft laid off 9000 people and still refuses to market Game Pass properly.
I asked the big Gen AI apps to review my writings and describe my philosophy. Of course, they were very nice about it.
Will computer science degree courses become more like the liberal arts?
This visual is doing a grave injustice to Ironheart, one of Marvel’s best TV shows ever.