I typo [often] therefore I am [human]1.
I never learned good technique. Sorry Mavis, but back at Milford Mill High School in the late 1970s, I waved off the opportunity to take a typewriter class. I must have said something like, “in what alternative universe am I ever going to be spending time typing?” I had bigger plans. Or different ones. Hardly the first time nor last I am full stop wrong.
Thus I have somehow gotten here in the field of educational technology using a mostly two finger eyes off the screen method. It might take months to correct all typos and grammar gaffs here on my own blog.
And I know I drive my communications person at OEGlobal batty as they often are editing my posts.
Do you know how little I care about perfection?
I am proudly imperfect. It’s such an easier standard to achieve.
The current wave of focus on machines to “improve efficiency” and “save time” and more or dilute or human quirks to averaged norms is not all so new, but feels overly levied.
Heck today I was a tad surprised to see Stephen Downes, who has no real limits on what he can write (over decades) in half an hour, reach for ChatGPT to write a post for something he likely feels he has said before. Oh, and he wanted to watch the hockey game instead.
I cast no shame nor judgement, what we do with these things are all the choices we make. But given education is awash an ina alt universe where educators are using bots to grade or analyze the essays that students use bots to write responses to assignments professors use bots to create. Wht noy have agentic dohickies write blog posts and then other ones can reply with sarcasm and/or leave comments for each other? It leaves all the time for us to lounge on our hammocks atop Maslow’s pyramid and conjure poetry.
In a sizzling example of critique, tante takes on a legendary writer, persona, and frankly a bit of a hero, Cory Doctorow, for his stance on using an LLM of some flavor for shining up the many words he writes.
One cannot really draw lines, I do keep an eye on the red underlines in my editor, and sometimes take the docs suggestion for a grammar check. But still I spit out tons of stuff with the wrong words.
I’d rather be flawed than machine shined perfect. I wave it like a flag. I shine it into the stars at night. I revel in my imperfection.
But I’m an outlier.
A few weeks ago I got an email from Tony Sovak referencing a video conversation with me he recorded as part of a class I had spoken, he asked to reference it in a post on From Microfiche to Machine Learning. I had honestly forgotten. it but there’s me warbling on in the cresting height of ds106ness where, especially through ds106 radio, we champiuoned the joy of “futzing” in public (messing up with technology).
Y’all do what you want, I will stumble on without good keyboard technique, spewing typos and nonsensical cruft.
I delight in imperfection. It take such a load off.
1 I stole this from my Mastodon profile, well I just slightly modified that for this post. It previously had a statement about typos being my trademark affirmation that GenAI had not written my content. I like this new phrasing better.
Featured Image: My New Tag Lines flickr photo by cogdogblog shared into the public domain using Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0) I can’t vouch for the promise of taste verus waste.
I’ll take a stop to smell the, well, anything really, rather than the most efficient route to the destination. Within the journey, there is no perfect.
I’ll take, “I made this” over “is it good enough?” My ratty, loose and comfy t-shirt over a pretty collared whatever they are called any day.
The me I want, the one I am, is not improved by better grammar or nice shirts.
Cheers to you! All of you.
@barking yay for the cracks! https://youtu.be/bN7Hn357M6I?si=NKc7RzEb8ZQ5vcpI
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