Here's a group still in full-denial mode: trade-published authors, both of fiction and non-fiction. This week, to great huzzahs, the Author Guild announced their 'Expanded “Human Authored” Certification Program.' authorsguild.org/news/human-a...
We presented on our tool for enriching and clustering book data at Code4Lib today. Check it out, and let us know what you think!
data.post45.org/our-tools.html
Huge thanks to @thisismattmiller.com for leading development on this project.
#code4lib #c4l26
Giancarlo DiTrapano "Nothing should be for everyone,... nothing that’s worth anything. You know what’s for everyone? Water. Water is for everyone. And if you’re publishing something for everyone, well, you’re publishing water." www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Very good thought piece: "All of the people I love hate this stuff, and all the people I hate love it." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/o...
"New research...reveals exactly how and why (AI) models learn to construct this internal “truth” compass without explicit instruction." nyudatascience.medium.com/the-geometry...
"Judging AI based on free-tier ChatGPT is like evaluating the state of smartphones by using a flip phone." shumer.dev/something-bi...
Excellent analysis of the state of fiction publishing today: @dearheadofmine.bsky.social dearheadofmine.substack.com/p/the-one-bo...
This one is fun: "Accepting the challenge, I decided to submit a deliberately nonsensical, AI-generated manuscript in response to observe how the individuals behind these supposed journals operate." retractionwatch.com/2026/01/30/g...
"We imagine a world where AI models can think at the level of humans without ingesting half the internet." flappingairplanes.com
The "Shy Girl" (Mia Ballard) controversy "I called it quits when she called Farrah Fawcett 'Farah Faucet'” www.reddit.com/r/horrorlit/...
"So: Will Ratner’s film be a warts-and-all chronicle of the First Lady? Or will it be a portrait of a woman who has gone out of her way to avoid contributing anything of cultural significance to a nation that is currently being terrorized by her husband?" www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
"Chat is still the interface but no longer the product."
"Here’s what using Claude Code initially felt like: cooking with ingredients from a stranger’s fridge..."
Re Claude Code: "The problem is not that your friend is horribly uncreative. It’s that most people’s problems are not software-shaped..." @jasmine.bsky.social
Garner is such a great reviewer: "Peel the dust jacket off “Departure(s)” and what’s left is a slim, black volume, like a hymnal. Where there was fire, there are now mostly ashes."
The woman, Jean, says to him, in a line Julian Barnes might also have uttered: “Happiness doesn’t make me happy.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/b...
And: "Europe, or at least its northern bit, is the land that cash forgot. In Norway and Sweden coins and notes are vanishing into the past alongside Vikings and discontinued ikea bedspreads." www.economist.com/europe/2026/...
The Economist, droll as ever: "Your monthly allowance buys 200 bottles of wine or 50 litres of whisky, which is a lot for anyone not named Churchill or Hemingway." www.economist.com/middle-east-...
China's “Are You Dead Yet” app asks users to tap a button once every day, and if they fail to do so for two consecutive days, it automatically sends an email to a designated emergency contact, urging them to check on the user in person. www.wired.com/story/china-...
I see we've got the latest addition to the canon for 2026: "A xxx’s life among xxx taught her/him/them a lot about being human," in this case, black bears. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2026/0...
"In a vigorous literary culture, the annual conference of the AWP would demand the presence of the National Guard, but in reality it only creates a staggering need for tote bags." harpers.org/archive/2026...
New interview with Rachel Reid in Variety: “I’ve been asked to speak at the U of Cambridge,” Reid says. “I write hockey smut. I’m not Kurt Vonnegut. They were like, ‘We’ve had Robert De Niro and the Dalai Lama.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, and me — I fit right in there.’” variety.com/2025/tv/colu...
Link?
“...hockey is a sport they don’t have a lot of knowledge about, so it’s kind of relaxing. It’s almost like science fiction — it’s a sport that doesn’t seem real,” Reid says. www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...
Why it's Wise to stay on X:
• Crucial to stay well-informed about Palantír
• Understand the arts of the Enemy
• Let's be real, rag-tag band of furries and elves has no chance
• If you can't beat them join them
"This is the first bubble to have all four. We’ve got real estate, loose credit, a technology component, and a huge government component... So all of those forces together means people are looking at it through four different lenses... It's the sum of all bubbles." substack.com/inbox/post/1...
"Part of the problem is the technology industry itself isn’t used to anyone saying no, they’re kind of like a petulant toddler." substack.com/inbox/post/1...
"The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word ‘struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
"We are the ones we’ve been waiting for."
yieldgiving.com/essays/we-ar...
Discoveries Across Disciplines 2025: Includes "Using AI to trace the emotional patterns in literature and explore cultural archives." eventbrowse.com/event/discov...
