In this week’s newsletter, I write about how our reality has become filtered by other people. And apart from sharing my recent posts, I am also sharing a few unlocked NYT articles for your reading pleasure.
Just about everything we see online is filtered through someone else’s idea of who you are and who you should be.
Selfie photos have been automatically enhanced to alter your looks according to subjective beauty standards. Social media posts are selectively shown to trigger your basic human instincts. Digital ads are customised to appear according to your browsing and buying behaviour.
In the 1999 movie The Matrix, millions of people unwittingly live inside a computer simulation. But when given the chance to break out of it, many choose to stay put because it feels more bearable than the gritty reality of a bombed-out planet. The AI gives them a fake world that they find tolerable, but ultimately, they are just being distracted so the AI can drain their actual bodies for energy. The truth is stranger than fiction!
That is why we should not be surprised when the majority of people have chosen to be addicted to their devices, their social media, and their chat groups. It’s just more pleasant. Everything is nicely filtered for us.
But is that what you want? A filtered life?
See and feel the real world with your five senses, and don’t get trapped by that tiny screen on your palm. Have conversations with real people, not through messaging apps, but in real life. Go running in the rain and get soaked. (But dry yourself promptly after that!)
What I wrote this week
Amid all the handwringing about the closure of local cinema operator The Projector, I find it odd that nobody questions the way filmmakers persist with 20th century content marketing and distribution.
I may teach people how to use Gen AI, but I also spend a lot of time telling people what it cannot do. Gen AI cannot teach leadership, period.
My thoughts on the new government-funded traineeship program (written during the initial announcement by PM Lawrence Wong).
I’m not a fan of DeepSeek, and the new model’s bad hallucinations reinforce my opinion.
Very smart advice from a very smart person.
Unlocked NYT stories
I thought that I should share my NYT subscription perk with more people.
The Long, Painful Downfall of Intel
Why Do Screens Keep You Up? It May Not Be the Blue Light.