ChatGPT is a photocopier (3-2-1 by Story Rules #3)

Welcome to the third edition of 3-2-1 by Story Rules - a newsletter recommending:

3 tweets
2 articles
1 long-form content piece (podcast or book)

Each content element will have a one-line summary from me indicating why it is worth a read/listen.

Let's dive in.

🐦 3 Tweets of the week

Questioning someone's sense of certainty can be tough for their self-esteem!

I'm not a pets person, but uff, this ad will bring a lump to your throat... especially with that lovely twist in the tail.

Meetings ^ ♾️.

📄 2 Articles of the week

a. R Ashwin on Pujara (Cricinfo, as told to Sidharth Monga)

In his lovely tribute to Cheteshwar Pujara, the articulate Ashwin entertains with his narration of specific incidents and the distilling of Pujara's safety-first cricketing approach into these funny stand-up-comic-like takes:

We joke that Puji's dad, Arvind, didn't teach him the whole sport of cricket. He has taught him this: there is a round object, it is red in colour, people will hurl it at you, and you have to hit it. Hit it in a way that the ball doesn't fall far from your feet. The other aspects of the sport he doesn't even see as cricket...

In fact, we joke that his house doesn't have a lock combination. His dad and his wife throw a few balls at him, and he has to knock them back along the ground. Only then is he allowed in.

b. Disinflation by Prof. Scott Galloway

A rapid economic history of the past 3 years in Prof G's inimitable style. Among others, this chart was eye-opening:

📖 1 long-form read of the week

a. ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web by Ted Chiang

A fascinating point of view on ChatGPT - about how it is not meant to be do original thinking, but just provide a grammatically-accurate and superficially clever regurgitation of material it picks from the web.

In response to the thought that authors, writers, creators etc can use ChatGPT to build a first draft and then work on it, I loved this point of view of the writer:

Your first draft isn’t an unoriginal idea expressed clearly; it’s an original idea expressed poorly, and it is accompanied by your amorphous dissatisfaction, your awareness of the distance between what it says and what you want it to say. That’s what directs you during rewriting, and that’s one of the things lacking when you start with text generated by an A.I.

That's all from this week's edition.

Ravi

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Ravishankar Iyer

ChatGPT is a photocopier (3-2-1 by Story Rules #3)

🐦 3 Tweets of the week

📄 2 Articles of the week

📖 1 long-form read of the week

Ravishankar Iyer

History Narratives with Yuval Noah Harari and Adam Grant (3-2-1 by Story Rules #61)

Stories of When Less is More (3-2-1 by Story Rules #60)

Storytelling Tips from Shaan Puri (3-2-1 by Story Rules #59)