David Graeber once tweeted, at least I remember reading it but can’t find it, that he used to have two projects to work on. The A project, the thing he had to do, and the B project, the thing he used to procrastinate on the A project with.
My B project seems to be what I’m working on this morning, rather than the 789 Serialized. An article with a colleague about artificial intelligence and the Dawn of MIDI. We’re calling it the Dawn of AI. Its argument is at once a critique of how artificial intelligence is being used by students, and at the same time, it is a call to consider AI as offering the possibility of at once enabling new kinds of research that perhaps didn’t really need AI in the first place.
Re-reading the article, it was clear it had to do one or two things differently. It needs to be concise, and it needs a home.
Reviewing the draft we had, there were just too many examples. We had 5, but space for 1 or 2. Thinking about it, I can see two examples that have a synergy and fit together: vibe coding, on the one hand, and then using AI to read archives.
On a home. Today, before revising, we settled on an audience. A few journals come to mind. In both cases, the length is Chicago Manual of Style and 8,000 words seems appropriate.
So, 2 points, 8,000 words, CMOS, and it seems more doable.
This morning, I also drafted some notes on rules for writing.
Also, I missed this and the newsletter for yesterday. Hah. So much for Mad Rules for Writers.