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I quit my job and left IT
There’s a lot of joy in saying, “I’ve had enough,” and being able to do something about it. The two clauses in my title are related, though not dependent. I quit my job because it was a toxic cesspool of egos and incompetency. I left IT because the dysfunctional hiring process in the industry is…
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Start one project, suddenly have five
When it rains it indeed pours. I was excited to relaunch this blog, I had been taking lots of photos for Instagram and Flickr, and I started following great tech accounts on other platforms. Lots to do and think about! I started looking into AI in March, which is when the drizzle turned into a…
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Anthropology in an AI image creation channel
I could write a thesis on the evolving behaviors of people writing AI generation prompts, but since I have a full-time job, a few posts here and there will have to satisfy my anthropological curiosity. On the Midjourney Discord server, I am essentially a participant observer. Midjourney is open-by-default; working in stealth mode would require…
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AI art and ethics: starting a conversation
I am astounded daily by AI-generated art. I also understand the position of artists who rage against the theft of their visual style, loss of earnings, and disrespect for human creativity. There are some tricky ethics to consider. I won’t reach a conclusion in this little post, but you can be sure I’ll revisit the…
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ChatGPT is my new social anxiety assistant
I have social anxiety. I dread interacting with strangers in unfamiliar settings, and yet I love travel, exploring new places, and getting to know interesting people. One coping mechanism I use is being prepared ahead of time: My anxiety doesn’t last, but anyone who shares this condition knows the stomach-clenching I go through as I…
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Eyesight loss in a hypervisual age
If you are a sighted person and had a significant, unimprovable, permanent vision loss, how would that change how you interact with the world? With an early diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration, I can still see well, but I’m looking at options as I prepare. Isn’t AMD for old folks? Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is…
Kay Jiersen
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