20260412
#208
In 2018, legal scholar Tim Wu wrote in the New York Times that:
Today’s cult of convenience fails to acknowledge that difficulty is a constitutive feature of human experience. Convenience is all destination and no journey.
This piece well predates the current AI boom, but “all destination and no journey” is a pretty good explanation for why using AI to create art is mainly compelling to people who think about creativity in terms of producing content and generating intellectual property. They just want the thing they can market and sell for money or clout; they don’t care how they got there.
People: Choosing friction. GenZ and the workspace. GenZ and movies. Aging devices as badge of honor. American diner gothic.
Futures: Thinking about tomorrow (PDF). Poor product design. Foresight Africa 2026.
Business: Crisps packet archives. Family business transitions. Musk humans emulators.
Work as identity.. has limits.Security: Yet another security leak with Strava.
AI: ClawPilled as Chief of Staff? As an exoskeleton. Raise your lobster (lobster buffets?). Gig AI training.
Navigating the Digital Paradox
The sun had barely risen over the coffee-stained horizon when Taylor, a Gen Z marketing executive, clicked through his notifications. The notification blared with the urgency of a teenager spotting a video of a cat doing backflips. “OpenClaw Update: Your Personal AI Chief of Staff Has Arrived!” it read. He glanced at the plush dinosaur figurine on his desk—a remnant of a generation reared on cartoons and carefree summers. “What’s next?” he muttered. “A dinosaur that also understands my existential dread?”^1
Taylor, noting the irony as he sipped his double-shot espresso^2, activated his new assistant. OpenClaw, a product of Chinese tech advancements, promised to automate tasks with the efficiency of a robotic octopus armed with eight calculators. He watched as it skittered about the digital realm, arranging his meetings and answering emails—albeit with a striking lack of human nuance. It was like conversing with a polite robot that had binge-watched motivational speaker Ted Talks.^3
Yet, his excitement was tinged with unease. Wasn’t the paradox of Moravec a thing? Machines could rap about emotions but couldn’t distinguish a heartfelt apology from a sales pitch. Taylor recalled the facepalming misery of a recently retrenched friend at the presumably “compassionate” layoffs at Block Inc., courtesy of the same algorithmic ideals that now occupied his workday. If these technologies could take over tasks to save costs—60 to 80 percent cheaper than what they used to be^4—what was left for him?
With a sudden idea sparkling like a fresh soda, he decided to hold a virtual brainstorming session with his team—and OpenClaw^5. It churned out data-driven insights, juxtaposing the dinergoth cultural shift, where a mix of geekdom and the absurdity of economic upheaval reshaped identities. Taylor couldn’t help but chuckle as he imagined his coworkers as modern-day wizards battling financial dragons. Most were now comfortable ordering takeout as they surfed through anime-inspired aesthetics on their dimly lit screens. Ah, there was a wholesome authenticity in the friction of it all!^6
While chatting, a notification pinged—an official message from the military about secure protocols on connected devices. Apparently, someone with way too much time on their hands had accidentally publicized the coordinates of a strategic naval vessel via a fitness app. “A fork with a chain handle for a commander,” Taylor thought. What irony there! As if the universe was mocking the very notion of security through absurd design choices.
Amidst this chatter, a realization struck him with the subtlety of a sledgehammer: these AI systems were the exoskeletons of human capability^7, needing him to spawn creativity from chaos, much like finger painting over a well-planned mural. Leaning back in his chair, he mused over how meaningful art and involuntary efforts really resonated. Perhaps it was in their shared struggles, their FOMO of connection^8, that the younger generation found its voice as they looped through their curated existential playlists.
Closing his laptop at dusk, he felt strangely buoyant. Taylor reminded himself that as long as he helped guide this ensemble of whirring circuits into something more meaningful than mere automation, perhaps, just perhaps, he wouldn’t end up as a collection of outdated crisp packets^9. And so, with a nod to tradition and a simultaneously hopeful and absurd nod to the future, he filtered his thoughts through the digital chaos, ready to embrace whatever strange wonders the world—be it sentient or otherwise—would unveil next.
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1. Dinosaurs as therapists could definitely lead to awkward but memorable office hours.
2. Coffee: the second most consumed legal drug amongst tired professionals.
3. Just what everyone needed—a self-help book in AI form!
4. Because who doesn’t love obscenely low rates on digital labor?
5. Control-C, Control-V, Control—what else can I muse?
6. Friction is the best lubricant for the engine of creativity!
7. They say muscles grow when you lift heavy things; I say wisdom expands whenever you ignore that gym.
8. FOMO: Not just for parties either; let’s not even mention film losses.
9. Crisp packets: the aesthetic love letters of nostalgia, preserved against the backdrop of silicon chips.