Writing for Good
When I was a student I realised that I enjoy writing and some peers told me I was good at it, mostly because I could explain things clearly and was persuasive. Earlier today in Daily Links we included "Writing is Magic" by Baldur Bjarnason who had authored some books, including a book that we mentioned a lot because it refuted or critically spoke of the slop bubble early on (2023) and has been proven quite right since.
"Writing is magic," Bjarnason explained. "It’s always been magic. The vikings [Bjarnason is from Iceland] thought bound language bound reality and reshaped it. It gives our thoughts shape. Writing is always a gift. Bad or good writing. Sloppy or structured. Planned or improvised. It’s all magic. Don’t let the mirage of generated, extruded, letterforms, hollow bubbles inflated by machines, take it away from you. It’s a gift of magic you can give yourself."
The sister site has just had record traffic and this past weekend we explained why LLM slop isn't competition because it's shoddy and people walk away from it.
People who write good things and are voluntarily doing so pro bono have a huge advantage over serial sloppers and paid shills that publish marketing spam.
The Web has an abundance of junk. People will reach out for the non-junk. █