DD #374
The question isn’t whether AI will change us, but whether and how we’ll fight for any say in how.
The question isn’t whether AI will change us, but whether and how we’ll fight for any say in how.
St Paul's Cathedral from the Tate Modern. London, January 2026.
Drummers' Return (1983–99), Yusuf Grillo.
Oil paint on board. Tate Modern, London.
51.53790° N, 0.09884° W
In his last newsletter, Oliver Burkeman writes about the concept of freewriting. I've always found writing challenging because I tend to focus on the “perfect” output. For a while now, though, I’ve been journaling on paper, setting a timer and just letting my stream of consciousness go, without editing, until the time is up. This forces me to be less precious. And it helps me to release anxiety and find clarity when I feel stuck or confused.
If we rest sooner, we notice that rest is more active. Rest then is going for a walk or spending some time with some friends. It's a different kind of rest because we've still got capacity to do something at all which we actually break completely when we [wait to the extremes until we rest]
Katherine May in Today in Focus: How to fall in love with winter
Dos cafés en València.
Lovely photography by Clément Benosa.
…there’s a promising future for anyone willing to double down on the role of conscious human connection in their work. And even if I’m wrong in terms of earning a living – even if the AI Evangelist Podcast Men of early 2025 turn out to be right, and it’s all over for human creativity – I still think that anyone who proceeds on this assumption will experience a more meaningful and vibrant life, a life filled with more aliveness.
Oliver Burkeman, The Imperfectionist: Four thoughts about living in reality
Untitled (c. 1981), Emily Kam Kngwarray. Batik on silk. Tate Modern, London.
This was the first in a series of conversational fly-swats that the pair of them did to each other. Someone would float a topic in the air that could open up at least five minutes of pleasant chit-chat, and the other would whack the plastic swatter over it, killing small-talk potential in seconds.
Dolly Alderton, Ghosts.
Primrose Street.
Pic from the exhibition Strike a Pose! 100 Years of the Photobooth at the Photographers Gallery in London.
Watercolor drawing. Thursday evening.
Beautiful collage by Esther TP. I discovered her in through the newsletter Collé.
There's a reason rich people want you to vote with your wallet. It's because they have thicker wallets than you do. Agonizing about your consumption choices is a waste of time. […] If you want to shop at your corner bookshop, I applaud you for doing so. And my book is available in finer bookshops everywhere. But don't kid yourself that that's going to deprive Jeff Bezos of his next penis-shaped rocket launch. These are systemic problems, not individual choices.
Corey Doctorow, interview on Today in Focus: ‘Enshittification’: how we got the internet no one asked for
My new favourite soup ❤️
Mikkeller Bar, London.
In a recent opinion piece, [Louise Perry] describes our collective longing for community – specifically, the kind of village-style child-rearing we claim to want but rarely attempt to build. She argues that modern Western families have splintered into different locations, chasing careers and nuclear family dreams, leaving us spectacularly unprepared for the dependency that bookends human life.
50.87060° N, 0.00780° E
Autumn leaves in Lewes.