Gale Fagan

@foobly.bsky.social: Well, I gotta go.
me: huh?
f: ... I don't know why I said that. I was closing a browser tab.
me: And... you told it good bye.
f:
f:
f: yes that's what I did.

AI doesn’t do the work for me; it’s an interactive tool that helps me manage the complex, exhausting process of getting my thoughts together, staying on track, and sometimes even finishing what I start-- or making a conscious decision to stop.

It’s hard to express how frustrating it’s been. AI helps me get through the parts that would otherwise stop me cold, allowing me to create without reaching the point of burnout.

I wouldn’t wish my experience on anyone. I struggled for decades before AI was an option, even writing my own crappy Markov bots to get past *getting stuck.* Medication and therapy helped, but to move beyond subsistence mode, generative AI brought everything together in a way nothing else has.

AI helps me stay focused, get unstuck, stop overthinking, and manage panic spirals. It also helps me mask better—something I’m not proud of, but unfortunately, something I need. That doesn’t mean AI is the only way to manage these challenges; it’s just the tool that works for me.

I don’t fully understand my challenges. My medical diagnoses are Autism Spectrum Disorder, Unspecified Anxiety Disorder (likely related to panic), and something my physician coded as ‘neuroendocrine disorder, unspecified’—a medical term he preferred over ADHD. There’s more, but that’s in the brainz.

It’s easy to throw opinions around about faceless examples. I am a person, and the reality is that I rely on generative AI to write, create, and function. I'm divergent in a way that makes some tasks-- especially when they need to be combined, sustained, or executed together-- uniquely challenging.

I'm not disputing that LLMs are fraught and deeply flawed. They've also allowed me to live as a functional adult without a full-time support team, and to work without a host of accommodations that would realistically limit my career even if provided.

"You're just lazy. Try harder. Ask people."

I'm watching @kithrup.bsky.social's exchanges on LLMs as an assistive technology, as various people suggest he's trolling, ableist, or offensive to neurodivergent people.

What is offensive is people denying my experience. "If you can't do it without help, don't."

Ableists in glass houses...

Great big asterisk: I am personally not a fan of glass pens, though it's possible to get some neat effects with them. Depending on your goal, metal dip pens-- or even dipping with an old desk pen -- might be a better fit.

Depends on the shape and condition of the nameless one. Murano pens/glass dip pens are generally like that, and have enough individual variation that it's hard to say. If it is a reasonable random glass pen with no obvious defects, I'd look to factors like ink, paper and even humidity level first 🤔

I’ve spent too many years at the Fruit 🍎 Stand (and in government) for this to even register as weird ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maggie, a small (but Very Important Business) tortoiseshell cat has crawled into a box that has a cat pattern on it

we have our new offices so i can work again and here i am testing out this box for cats you can tell it's a box for cats because i'm in it and i'm a cat and i'm very good at testing boxes and everyone is impressed at how i got in except scotty who is jealous because he is not as good as me at boxes

Reading various turkey horror and/or adventure stories. I have the best one, but I can’t tell it for another few years.

In completely unrelated news, the total travel time from Cupertino to Shenzhen via HKG is about the same as how long it takes to thaw a towel-swaddled turkey in a suitcase.

Love how they’re trying to make the argument about advertising to distract everyone from remembering that Elmo is an antisemite. Don’t forget the main story: Twitter’s owner publicly endorsed racist, antisemitic conspiracy theories. Nobody let Twitter leadership distract us from that.

First post, not a ghost, just your friendly absentee host. From coast to coast, no boast, just a toast. Let’s make the most! #FirstPost #GoodVibesOnly #KithrupMadeMeDoIt