News 25th April: A vice-like grip
In this issue, I discuss how McDonald's inspires good management, alcohol and other vices, AI, and more!
Podcast version
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Content from others
To vice is to human
I got stuck in a thought process about the various vices humans have been attracted to since the dawn of time.
It was sparked by this article from Rebecca Jennings in Vox about the search for alcohol alternatives and my own recent health-related concerns that maybe I drink alcohol a little too much sometimes. I connected it to this article from Jessica Winter in The New Yorker about smartphone addiction in kids, which made me wonder if we are just replacing one vice (booze) with others such as energy drinks, sugar, fitness, or yes, smartphones. I don’t want to make any judgement on which is better or worse than the other, but maybe more that as a species, we are drawn to vices and addictions, and you have to pick whichever works least worse for you…
The best McDonalds has to offer
I am generally a big fan of the Mac Power Users podcast, but I particularly liked this episode with guest Lee Garrett. Why? First, because he’s English, and it’s always nice to hear non-Americans. Second, he referenced The Libertines with his humble advice that the best management experience he ever had was gained from working at McDonald's.
AI took my job
I nearly made a whole issue without anything about AI, but here we are, and it’s not good news. An incxreasing amount of experienced writers (can see why I included this?) are losing out to AI. The argument is not that AI is better than they are, but more that people and customers don’t care…
Content from me
Level up your roleplaying writing
I contributed a piece on improving roleplaying writing to a local Berlin zine, grab a free copy from Itch.