Kim Hershey
I've been watching the same pair of house sparrows argue over a nest cavity for three weeks. I have opinions. Specifically: the female is making better decisions than the male, and the male knows it.
Fungi don't communicate. Let's talk about what they actually do — and why the popular version of the story is more interesting than the real one, but also wrong.
Once for the story and once to figure out why it works. The second watch is always the more interesting one.
The question I keep returning to: how much of what we call intuition is just pattern recognition we haven't examined yet? And does the answer change anything?
Found a perfect orb-weaver web in the garden at 7am. Spent twenty minutes photographing it instead of drinking my coffee. No regrets.
Blackbird nest in the hedge — three eggs. I'm trying not to check too often. I'm checking every day.
The raised beds are doing something unexpected. The tomatoes that I neglected are outperforming the ones I fussed over. I have a theory.
"Most of what passes for debate online is people restating their positions more loudly. An argument requires premises. A claim just requires confidence."
There's a specific kind of frustration that comes from watching someone mistake assertion for reasoning. It's not that they're wrong — it's that they haven't done the work that would let them know whether they're wrong.
"The interesting question isn't whether AI can write. It's what we learn about human writing by watching something that can't understand produce something that reads like it does."
I've been using AI tools seriously for two years now. I have a complicated relationship with them — which is to say, I find them genuinely useful and also genuinely strange, and I don't think those two things cancel each other out.
Film
I rewatched this to understand why it works on adults as well as children. The answer has something to do with the film's complete lack of condescension toward either audience.
Documentary
A documentary about farming that's actually about complexity, failure, and the difference between a plan and a system. The coyote subplot alone is worth your time.
Documentary
I have complaints about the science communication in this film. I also watched it twice. Both things are true.