Episode 136
I spoke with <a href="https://x.com/pomeranian99" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clive Thompson</a> about:
* How he writes
* Writing about the climate and biking across the US
* Technology culture and persistent debates in AI
* Poetry
Enjoy—and let me know what you think!
Clive is a journalist who writes about science and technology. He is a contributing writer forWired magazine, and is currently writing his next book about micromobility and cycling across the US.
Find me on <a href="https://twitter.com/spaniel_bashir" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> for updates on new episodes, and reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions. 
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Outline:
* (00:00) Intro
* (01:07) Clive’s life as a Tarantino movie
* (03:07) Boring life and interesting art, life as material for art
* (10:25) Cycling across the US — Clive’s new book on mobility and decarbonization
* (15:07) Turning inward in writing
* (27:21) Including personal experience in writing
* (31:53) Personal and less personal writing
* (36:08) Conveying uncertainty and the “voice from nowhere” in traditional journalism
* (41:10) Finding the natural end of a piece
* (1:02:10) Writing routine
* (1:05:08) Theories of change in Clive’s writing
* (1:12:33) How Clive saw things before the rest of us
* (1:27:00) Automation in software engineering
* (1:31:40) The anthropology of coders, poetry as a framework
* (1:43:50) Proust discourse
* (1:45:00) Technology culture in NYC + interaction between the tech world and other worlds
* (1:50:30) Technological developments Clive wants to see happen (free ideas)
* (2:01:11) Clive’s argument for memorizing poetry
* (2:09:24) How Clive finds poetry
* (2:18:03) Clive’s pursuit of freelance writing and making compromises
* (2:27:25) Outro
Links:
* Clive’s <a href="https://x.com/pomeranian99" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.clivethompson.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>
* Selected writing
* <a href="http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9907/nwo.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Attack of the Incredible Grading Machine</a> (Lingua Franca, 1999)
* <a href="http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/print/0109/cover.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Know-It-All Machine</a> (Lingua Franca, 2001)
* <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-teach-artificial-intelligence-common-sense/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How to teach AI some common sense</a> (Wired, 2018)
* <a href="https://nymag.com/news/media/15967/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blogs to Riches</a> (NY Mag, 2006)
* Clive vs. Jonathan Franzen on <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/is-the-internet-good-for-writing-part-i-affirmative" target="_blank" rel="noopener">whether the internet is good for writing</a> (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2013)
* <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/the-minecraft-generation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.-00.SOYE.fWg1w-Me4XB_&#38;smid=url-share" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Minecraft Generation</a> (New York Times, 2016)
* <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ai-college-exam-proctors-surveillance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What AI College Exam Proctors are Really Teaching Our Kids</a> (Wired, 2020)
* <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tech-companies-dont-need-to-be-creepy-to-make-money/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Companies Don’t Need to Be Creepy to Make Money</a> (Wired, 2021)
* <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2021/10/sucking-carbon-engineering-global-thermostat-co2-direct-air-capture-climeworks-solution-climate-crisis-big-oil-boondoggle-ipcc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Is Sucking Carbon Out of the Air the Solution to Our Climate Crisis?</a> (Mother Jones, 2021)
* <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ai-shouldnt-compete-with-workers-it-should-supercharge-them-turing-trap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AI Shouldn’t Compete with Workers—It Should Supercharge Them</a> (Wired, 2022)
* <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/back-to-basic-the-most-consequential-programming-language/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Back to BASIC—the Most Consequential Programming Language in the History of Computing</a> Wired, 2024)
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Clive Thompson: Tales of Technology

Episode 136 I spoke with Clive Thompson about: * How he writes * Writing about the climate and biking across the US * Technology culture and persistent debates in AI * Poetry Enjoy—and let me know what you think! Clive is a journalist who writes about science and technology. He is a contributing writer forWired magazine, [&hellip;]