Mindful walking benefits, ghost job listings, and Meta’s AI slop

Our stream of consciousness moves one drop at a time (Credit: Caltech).

• Psychology – Scientists have discovered that human thought moves much slower than expected: 10 bits per second. In contrast, our sensory organs perceive 1 billion bits per second. This may explain why processing more than a single task at a time is so tricky. It also raises the question of how we filter out so much of the data we take in.
• Tools – A privacy-focused X (Twitter) client, XCancel.com, lets you read posts and comments without having an account. Add “cancel” after the x in any x.com links to use it. For the nerds – read more about the why and the engineering behind it.
• Creativity (Podcast 🎧) – Where does creativity come from? Some of the most famous examples of lightbulb moments have come from unexpected places – like how two people playing the piano led to the foundation of modern cryptography. Individuals from multidisciplinary backgrounds and diverse interests can provide a fresh perspective that helps new ideas form. In other cases, multiple people collaborating across industries can recombine and remix different parts to form a breakthrough. 📖 P.S. Here’s a transcript of the podcast episode if you prefer to read along.
• Productivity – A professor found that practicing mindful observation and experiencing awe during walks has multiple benefits: reduced inflammation, a slower heart rate, improved digestion, and less anxiety about our issues. Furthermore, exercising this sense of awe makes it easier to notice beauty in the world, creating a virtuous cycle! 🎧 P.S. There’s a podcast episode if you prefer to listen instead.
• Workforce – A rising trend called “ghost jobs” haunts job seekers: 40% of companies admit to posting positions they do not intend to fill immediately. This happens for different reasons (some way more ethical than others), from building talent pools to making current employees feel “replaceable.” Regardless of the reason, these phantom listings distort the job market and waste candidates’ time.
• Artificial Intelligence – We’re only a few years into mainstream ChatGPT adoption. Still, it’s already changing how we consume information and work and causing a decline in human cognitive skills. We’re becoming increasingly reliant on it, and some are using AI to outsource their thinking, effectively letting their brains atrophy in favor of an external (and artificial) one.
• Artificial Intelligence – Instagram’s parent company, Meta, was under fire in the news this week for AI “people” they have been rolling out over the last year. These profiles come with a fictional backstory and are filled with generated pictures and captions. Their narratives contain gross mischaracterizations of different ethnic groups and seem to be ultimately created to collect advertising data from people who interact with them. Luckily, this low-effort content hasn’t garnered engagement, and the public has resoundingly rejected the initiative. Meta has since deleted the accounts. A small win for humanity!
• Artificial Intelligence – On the same weekend, Instagram users noticed automatically generated AI images of themselves in bizarre scenarios, such as a literal wall of mirrors. Meta creates and shows these posts as previews for users who go through the “Imagine Yourself” onboarding process in the app and provide selfies to calibrate it—another reason to be cautious about opting into AI features, especially with your likeness.