authenticity

Bilingual

Show HN: A Handwritten Blogging Platform
2 months ago
- Handwritten blogs encourage slower, more deliberate writing.
- The platform prioritizes authentic thinking over engagement metrics.
- No feeds, algorithms, or likes — just personal pages as written.
- The goal is to make the web feel more human.
Refactoring cuisine: how an Iraqi stew sailed to Singapore
2 months ago
- The author makes bamya assam, a sweet-and-sour okra stew using calamansi, a Philippine lime.
- The dish originates from Iraqi Jewish bamya, modified in India by local cooks, then adapted in Singapore.
- The Ship of Theseus paradox illustrates how diaspora cooking evolves through ingredient substitutions.
- Foreign domestic workers from the Philippines and Indonesia often cooked the stew in Singaporean households.
- Authenticity is defined by adaptation and family history, not static tradition.
(Gradient) Descent into Mediocrity
2 months ago
- Tasmania's economic success stems from rejecting the 'bigger-faster-cheaper' mentality and embracing uniqueness, which AI's statistical averaging threatens to undermine.
- AI's high energy consumption contradicts Tasmania's 100% renewable electricity and net-zero emissions, posing risks to grid stability and environmental credentials.
- Tasmanian industries like whisky distilleries, artisan markets, and tourism thrive on craftsmanship, provenance, and human stories—qualities AI cannot replicate.
- The TasmanAI campaign cleverly subverts AI hype by using real artists, showcasing that human creativity outperforms AI-generated content.
- Adopting AI would replace premium differentiators with generic, algorithm-driven products, eroding Tasmania's competitive advantage.
- Independent research shows AI often reduces productivity (e.g., developers 19% slower) and offers minimal time savings without significant economic benefits.
- Legal risks from AI's copyright infringement and environmental contradictions (e.g., rising emissions in tech giants) further undermine Tasmania's authentic brand.
- Tasmania should focus on human-made alternatives, positioning itself as the 'anti-AI' destination to command premium prices in a market craving authenticity.
AI ‘Street Photography’ Isn’t Photography: What We Lose by Simulating Experience
2 months ago
- AI-generated images are not photography because photography requires capturing real photons of light, recording an actual moment that existed.
- The collapse of meaning occurs when we pretend AI simulation equals real experience, sacrificing authentic engagement with the world.
- Street photography involves genuine human connection, courage to face discomfort, and being present in real moments—something no algorithm can replace.
- The term 'synthography' has been proposed for AI image generation, but it has not gained traction because people prefer comfortable illusions over precise truths.
- Choosing synthetic experiences over real ones undermines our fundamental human capacity for authentic engagement and embodied experience.
- Preserving the distinction between photography and AI generation is important even if it makes us uncomfortable, because that discomfort is part of the value.
Copy What You Like
2 months ago
- The author regrets imitating bad writers in high school, assuming fiction was the highest form of writing and that complex suffering was admirable.
- In college, the author tried to imitate philosophy papers, but later realized they often lacked substantive, refutable content.
- In grad school, the author was impressed by expert systems, a fad that proved uninteresting and overhyped.
- A key lesson is to copy only what you genuinely like, not what is admired by others.
- To identify true likes, ignore impressive presentations (e.g., museum settings) and consider guilty pleasures or how much you'd pay without context.
- When copying good work, focus on replicating its strengths, not its flaws (e.g., brownish paintings in history).
- Painting taught the author to distinguish between doing good work and being an insider, and to trust one's own judgment over authorities.
The AI Boom Made Average People More Interesting
2 months ago
- The author is now reliably getting replies from people like state representatives, VPs, authors, and journalists, after years of low success rates.
- The success rate of starting conversations has increased from an anecdotal 2% to a level where replies are almost expected.
- The author attributes this change to the rarity of genuine human communication as more people rely on AI for their voice and writing.
- Being unmistakably human has become a competitive advantage in an age of synthetic communication.
I Stopped "Creating Content"
2 months ago
- The author describes an experience of seeing Michelangelo’s David and humorously notes that labeling such art as 'content' is absurd.
- Bill Gates’ 1996 essay 'Content is King' is cited as a key moment that popularized the term 'content' for commercializing creative work.
- The author reflects on their own journey as an indie business owner, questioning the use of corporate jargon like 'content', 'traffic', and 'distribution channel'.
- Avoiding business terms led to a mindset shift, emphasizing human connections (e.g., 'readers' instead of 'traffic') and authenticity in creative work.
- The conclusion encourages people to consciously choose their own terms for their work, rather than adopting language imposed by business culture.
Punk, or why I don't stream anymore
2 months ago
- Hacker culture was destroyed by spectacle and signaling value, turning it into consumption without participation.
- AI exacerbates the loss of authenticity, making people feel like they're steering when they're not.
- Modern dating profiles and online streams reflect a sanitized, marketable identity with no rough edges.
- Isolation is impossible as the internet is uniform and pervasive, outcompeting the old world.
- Cultural movements get co-opted and sold back in a diluted form, losing their original essence.
- AI and the information war demand inner reality, not just physical participation.
- Revolutions often make things worse, and the current revolution involves AI as a tool in this war.
The AI Marketing Backlash: Why 'AI-First' Brands Are Starting to Fall Flat
3 months ago
- The authenticity premium matters more than efficiency for emotional connections in marketing.
- Consumers have developed pattern recognition for AI-generated content and often reject it as emotionally hollow or lazy.
- Brands succeeding with AI use it behind the scenes for personalization, optimization, and testing, not as the main idea.
- High-profile failures like Coca-Cola and Meta's AI ads led to backlash due to prioritizing efficiency over authenticity and removing human control.
- AI-generated content is judged as less authentic and can cause moral disgust, even if labeled, hindering engagement.
- Consumers value human creativity in emotional contexts, and AI often fails to understand lived experiences.
- Successful AI implementations (e.g., Spotify, Netflix) are invisible, enhancing experiences without highlighting the technology.
- Brands should use AI as infrastructure, not innovation, and maintain human oversight for strategy and emotional resonance.
- Transparency about AI use may not prevent backlash in craft-based industries like fashion or luxury.
- The divide between thoughtful AI use (serving strategy) and trend-chasing (strategy serving AI) is becoming more apparent.
Claude's writing style has me on edge
3 months ago
- Benn Stancil's column discusses AI writing, particularly a paragraph from Claude that seemed profound but was empty nonsense.
- The author initially thought Benn might have outsourced writing to Claude, but then learned it was AI-generated text.
- The experience reveals the author's unease with how prevalent Claude's writing style has become across platforms like Reddit, X, Hacker News, and LinkedIn.
- The author feels exhausted by constantly trying to discern if content is human or AI-written, adding a meta layer to reading.
- The piece reflects on Claude's evolving voice and the blurring line between human and AI-generated text, prompting broader concerns about authenticity in writing.

authenticity

Show HN: A Handwritten Blogging Platform

Refactoring cuisine: how an Iraqi stew sailed to Singapore

(Gradient) Descent into Mediocrity

AI ‘Street Photography’ Isn’t Photography: What We Lose by Simulating Experience

Copy What You Like

The AI Boom Made Average People More Interesting

I Stopped "Creating Content"

Punk, or why I don't stream anymore

The AI Marketing Backlash: Why 'AI-First' Brands Are Starting to Fall Flat

Claude's writing style has me on edge