Programmers, Readers and Sculptors

your Saturday roundup

Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.

1. More or Fewer Programmers. According to data from Anthropic, the makers of Claude, programers are adopting AI faster than other users. What will happen next and what can we learn from previous Industrial Revolutions to guide us in the current one? Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the company might not hire software engineers in 2025. People are starting to wonder if OpenAI’s Deep Research will put them out of a job. Tim O’Reilly says that it may be the end of programming as we know it, but there will be a lot more programming in the future and likely more people telling computers what they want. The essence of the argument is that if you make something valuable easier to do, more people will do it. I’m not sure what that does to wages and employment levels. I do know that software doesn’t do all I wish it did. If it were easier to get computers to do work for me, I’d have them do more work.

2. The Future of Reading. I love reading. It wasn’t always easy for me but once it clicked, I embraced it, using books for entertainment, learning, and self-improvement. What is the future of reading?

   1. Oral. When I was a kid, my mother read long books to me (for example The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings). I remember wishing for a machine that could read to me when she couldn’t. That wish has come true. Between audiobooks and text-to-speech software, we live in an age where I can summon a reader at will. I “read” about half my books this way and also an increasing amount of work-related reading. I like to think this allows me to read in more situations and is not crowding out reading I would otherwise do.

   2. Interactive: Tools, like the Kairos app, allow people to discuss literature with an artificial intelligence, making the reading experience more interactive. I’ve enjoyed discussing Anna Karenina and On the Road with ChatGPT. Maybe the future of reading isn’t about choosing between books and new media, but about augmentation. AI can summarize, translate, and discuss texts, making cultural transmission more efficient.

   3. Obsolete. Some argue that reading itself might become obsolete. Why strain your eyes when AI can summarize a book in seconds or generate an engaging podcast tailored to your interests?

   4. Less Appealing. I know people who once devoured books but haven’t picked one up in years, preferring videos, social media, and interactive media instead. Professors tell me that many students (and, sometimes, their colleagues) don’t read anymore—not in the deep, sustained way they once did. Is it a shrinking attention span? We lose something if the only way we read is perpetually skimming our phones.

   5. More Widespread. Reading persists in surprising ways. For example, closed captions are widely used, even by people without hearing impairments. I suspect reading will stick around, because it’s fast. The "bit rate" of reading—how quickly we absorb information—is higher than listening. And can software more effectively teach kids to read?

3. Sculpture and Street Art. I’m more moved by sculpture than “flat art”. The exception is large scale street art. If I enjoyed the sculpture at Storm King, Art Omi, Hogpen Hill, Maeght Foundation and DIA:Beacon, then where else should I go? And for street art like in Palermo Buenos Aires, Montmartre Paris and Wynwood Miami, what else should I see?

Until next time,

Miles