Summer Salads, Casting Cats and Aligned AI.
Things You'll Love (v. 36)
Hi, I’m Monica. Things You’ll Love is where I share what I’m collecting: books, music, recipes, slow rituals, and minor wonders. Think of it as my kitchen table. You’re always welcome here.
Hey everyone!
Happy Friday! This one’s a real smorgasbord for you. From summer salads to casting cats and aligned AI.
Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, how can those all go together?
Well, I wanted to offer a little buffet this week. Life’s nuanced and so are we. :)
With love and delight,
˜ Monica
Something to delight you
If you’ve read this newsletter for a while, you probably know that I love cats and have several of my own (three, to be precise). My manx, Freya, is verrrryyyy food motivated and I’ve been able to teach her how to sit, to give me her paw, and a few other less-impressive (and less fully-realized) tricks.
So when I read this article, I had to share it with you, for all my fellow cat-lovers. Did you know that movies use multiple cats for the same cat, often? It makes sense, if I think about it — it’s like using twins (Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, anyone?) for babies who are in an ongoing tv series.
I’ll leave you with my favorite line from the article:
Even after working with wild animals like skunks and bison, they say cats are the most challenging to work with.
SKUNKS y’all. Cats are harder to work with than SKUNKS. 😂😂😂
Something to use up your extra zucchini
There are all sorts of jokes about neighbors’ summer squashes showing up on your doorstep, in your car’s driver seat and on your porch swing. (Not that I have a porch swing, but a gal can dream). Squashes and zucchinis are abundant this time of year where I live, and in much of this portion of the United States. I like ‘em grilled, sauteed, and even raw (in salads). But I’m pretty sure this chocolate zucchini loaf is my foster kid’s favorite way for me to make ‘em.
The only downside is that you have to turn the oven on for baking.
But, if you time it right for the evening, you’ll have the whole night for the heat to dissipate on its own.
I never follow recipes as-is, but this one was pretty perfect.
Something to guide your AI use if, if that’s your jam
Lots of folks have opinions about AI —specifically generative AI that’s using L(arge) L(anguage) M(odels) aka LLMs. It’s terrible. It’s the best thing since sliced-bread. It’s going to take over humanity. It’s really dumb. And then there’s the environmental aspects, the tech-bro aspects, and more.
I believe it’s a technology —and many philosophers from Socrates to Nietzsche to Heidegger to today’s philosophers have ALL debated and discussed the meaning of technology and its uses. Techne (the spirit) was associated with art, craft and technical skill. And the root of the word — techne — ties back into making (praxis doing).
I don’t think that LLMs will go away and I’ve come to rest in a space that’s hyper-nuanced around how and where and when to use them.
This article, How to Use AI Without Losing Your Soul by George Kao hits on some similarities to my own position.
This is a good summary of his thoughts:
If you’re interested to learn about his IDEA framework which looks at how to actually implement and interact with LLMs, check out the article.
Something to read
This piece by Jamila Bradley is dense, in the best possible way. Dense like this pine nut and pistachio olive oil cake I baked a few years back.
Bradley’s article, “Why You Need A Daily Disobedience Practice” came to my attention via Leela Sinha, who shared it on FB at some point this spring.
Bradley makes the argument for a daily disobedience practice as a sort of jumping jack — training us in a small act daily so that when we’re required to do something with a higher-stakes outcome, with a bigger ask on our nervous system, that we’re ready.
One of my favorite sections is this part:
“There is a lie floating around that courage is something you discover in a moment. Like one day the big day comes and you suddenly transform into the version of yourself who can refuse. But the body does not work like that. You do not rise to the occasion. You default to your training. That is why we need routine resistance. We need daily disobedience, not as an aesthetic, but as embodied training. We need the unlearning and retuning of our nervous systems to allow us to tolerate the distress and counteract the fear that comes with transgression. We need practice…..
…
Use your own head.
That sentence is a revolution all by itself, because dominance based systems train you to outsource your head. It trains you to treat authority as inherently legitimate. It trains you to treat rules as neutral. It trains you to confuse obedience with goodness. It trains you to confuse punishment with accountability. It trains you to mistake your own fear for your own values. It trains you to interpret your own flinch as good sense, when sometimes your flinch is simply a memory of consequence. A daily disobedience practice is not about being reckless. It is not about collecting consequences. It is not about romanticizing deviance. It is about becoming unprogrammable. This requires imagination. It also requires play.”
And this part where she talks more about play:
Something to cook
One of my go-to meals once we hit the hot humid days of July and August here in balmy-Maryland, is this chickpea salad. Bean salads (lentil ones too!) are great sources of protein, they last for more days than a lettuce salad, and they can be flavorful and most-importantly, COOLING when we’re having days that are so hot you have to stay inside. And, bonus, they don’t require turning on an oven or a stove.
Do you have any favorite meals for hot days?
That’s all from me for this week.
While I enjoy the Instagram-heavy newsletters, there’s also something so delightful in these iterations of Things You’ll Love, where it’s less video, longer-form, different-engagement required. I hope you dig it.
˜M
PS: Did you catch my convo with Jill this past week? We talked about Inner Mothers, small acts of delight and care, and so much more. It’s 30 minutes, so a quick listen!
If this little collection of things brought you a moment of joy, consider subscribing — free or paid. Paid support helps me keep this table set and the pantry stocked. Either way, I’m glad you’re here.