Dan's Notes / Issue 9: AI art • Becoming a magician • Giving better answers

These objects don't exist

I'm currently obsessed with this new AI art-making tool called Midjourney that's in closed beta right now. You feed it a prompt, say, "sony 2004 portable bioreactor" - and get this:

The AI art era is going to be wild.

A few more of my favorites:

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Becoming a Magician

One way to get better at a skill is to seek a dramatic perspective change: find people who are performing that skill at such an unbelievably high level that it almost seems like magic.

One of my heuristics for growth is to seek out the magicians, and find the magic. [...] The ‘describe the version of you that seems impossible right now’ trick I described above is largely an attempt to bypass that part of my brain that dismisses the work of magicians as crazy and starts allowing it to make the necessary shifts required to become the kind of magician I am envisioning. [...]

The way to extraordinary growth and changes often involves a fundamental ontological or ‘lens’ shift in how you see the world. Magicians are wearing not just better, but fundamentally differently shaped lenses to the rest of us.

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The question behind the question

Another 🔥 thread from Wes Kao on Twitter on getting better at answering questions. When someone comes to you with a question, don't just answer at face value - what are they really trying to find out? What's the "question behind the question"?

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How a Book Is Made

Fascinating photo essay from The New York Times showing the process of "Moon Witch, Spider King" by Marlon James going to print.

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See you next week,

-Dan