Neatly or not
Five fragments for the week of October 27, 2025
Hello from the end of October. The kids will have not one, not two, not even three, but four costume opportunities this week. Glinda and the grim reaper ride at dawn!
Here are five fragments that stuck with me last week…
I say this in completely value-neutral terms.
There was a huge chunk of artists who were held back from prolific output by reasons solved by AI, and they are not afraid to use it, and the cultural consequences will be massive.
– Cairo Smith on X, October 24, 2025. “Reasons solved by AI” is an interesting formulation. What are all the reasons solved by AI?
The basic principle was simple: when you found a piece of writing that you liked, or found useful, you copied it out into your personal notebook. You could copy out as much or as little as you wanted, neatly or not, and refer to it a little, or as much, as you wanted. The collection could be poetry or prose, fictional or factual, thematic or random, religious or profane, in Latin or Tuscan, or any mixture of any of these components; you could even draw pictures in it. The notebook itself could be large or small, luxurious or utilitarian. Some better-off writers, such as the author Boccaccio (the son of a Bardi banker), had zibaldoni made of expensive parchment, and paid professional scribes to do the writing for them. Many users illustrated them, or commissioned elaborate initial capitals to open every new excerpt; surviving examples often have gaps where their owners never got round to completing that task.
– Roland Allen, The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, September 10, 2024. So much is charming about this passage on zibaldoni in fifteenth-century Italy, but the detail about unfinished ornamentation is my favorite. (Back on the notebook beat.)
A staggering amount of business success comes down to making a list of the 20 people you need to talk to and contacting them one by one.
– Paul Yacoubian on X, October 23, 2025. And that’s a fact.
The slight blurriness of the moon is proof of sorts that it was painted from life, on the basis of direct observation, and without the use of any optical aids. The telescope was not to be invented for over a hundred years.
– John-Paul Stonard, “Van Eyck’s Moon: The first great images of the modern world,” March 12, 2025. Blurriness as proof of (being painted from) life; a metaphor in the making.
smile, convey you’re having fun, give us a hero to root for. stand/sit in a more natural setting—try a couch! talk with your hands. get into closer proximity to your cofounder (the maximum physical closeness without being creepy!) remind us: why you? tell me a story. give me something to anticipate.
– Claire Vo on X, October 20, 2025, giving advice to founders on their way to being on camera for launch videos. Real talk with a dash of elegance: give me something to anticipate.
Until next time,
Diana
https://dianaberlin.com