Sh*t Luke Says

If art to you is an intellectual exercise, then I suppose AI can make art? If it is an intuitive thing, then no. AI cannot make art.

Johnny Depp played Captain Jack sparrow. You’re playing Captain Jack sparrow by imitating Johnny Depp. You’re telling everybody you’re a real pirate. That’s AI art.

There’s the thing, and then there’s the other thing. This is back to causality, The tension between creation and destruction between life and death between color and black and white. And this tension is always interesting and it’s always there and a lot of good art is found in exploring cocausal relationships

There is no point to it, beyond that we are here to reproduce. While we are here, the task is to make life as a rich an experience for ourselves and everyone else around us, precisely because there is no point, and it’s lonely and melancholy. You’ll know this melancholy truth more, and more deeply, as you move towards the end of your pointlessness. In the meantime, try to be as kind and creative and brave as you can be, because we all suffer.

When we are shooting a picture of somebody, a portrait, are we trying to remake them into something different than what we see? Something better, or something worse? Is this the nature of it all, art?

Do you want to congratulate yourself for being good or beat yourself up for being bad? Which works better for you?

Every day we restart our lives. And every day, when we fall asleep, life ends. Until we restart at the next day.

I think most people understand that we all contribute to each other and society in the world. We understand that as a test duty or something that happens like the sunrise happens. It simply happens because that’s what it is

What are you doing?

I’m getting better at being by myself, because I think I’m going to be doing that a lot. Being by myself.

I think most people understand that we all contribute to each other and society in the world. We understand that as a test, a duty, or something that happens like the sunrise happens. It simply happens because that’s what it is

I’m driving through small towns, farmhouses beside cornfields, torn up roads running beside a lake. And all these people I don’t see work and farm and live, and none of them know anything about me and could not care less. And that is the coolest thing.

I think art is supposed to get under your skin somewhat. I think life is supposed to get under your skin somewhat. I think you’re supposed to be bothered in both a good and a bad way by what goes on around you. The last thing you want to wind up is being some sort of neutral party in the midst of a fun war.

Getting yourself on a path makes decisions a lot easier. When something comes up that’s big, you ask yourself is this on the path or off the path? Does this take me off my path? If it does, and you want to get somewhere, stay on the path. You will be tempted, but if you want to get somewhere, you have to stay on the path.

You want to find a path and get on it. A path is very different than a road. A road is a known thing. It’s been paved, people have used it a bunch. It definitively leads towards somewhere. A path is relatively unused, unexplored. We’re not quite sure where it goes and there are times we might think we’re lost, because the path circles on itself or forks, and there’s no sign to tell you what to do. But being on a path—choosing and being on it, will get you somewhere. And a path is guaranteed adventure, which is probably more important than actually getting to the destination. You’ve seen movies: all the cool things happen on the path.

People think what they think, and people feel what they feel. It is very hard to change that with evidence. The truth is even the most flexible of us don’t change that much. The tree is still a tree wherever you plant it. That wavy arm guy you see advertising business showrooms remains a wavy arm guy, no matter which business he’s in front of. The tree isn’t flexible the way the arm guy is flexible. But regardless, they remain what they are.

We navigate the world, and interpersonal relationships, by a theory we have of which we’re barely aware. Then we look for evidence to prove that theory. We all have an inner Sherlock Holmes who’s a hurt fucking child.

This would be the most marvelous world if it wasn’t for a combination of the fucking greedy and the fucking lazy. I’m more blaming the fucking greedy. How did we fucking blow this? It’s like World War II in the Great Depression taught us nothing.

There is a statistical perfectionism to AI that I really find offputting. I don’t see how it leads to anything we haven’t seen before. Often.

“You’re fucking up and you need to tighten down.” I would love to be able to say this to people. However, telling someone they’re fucking up and they need to tighten down generally increases the fucking up. And why do I want someone to think they’re a fuck-up, especially if we’re going to have an ongoing relationship? They already have that thought in their head. I don’t want me connected with that thought.

We are called upon to teach a person their own greatness.

All creativity is reassembling things from our libraries of ideas, experiences, images, things we’ve seen, people we’ve met, songs we’ve heard, books we’ve read. The originality is not necessarily in the thoughts, it’s in the assembly of the thoughts, and a lot of the originality is in how one sews the thoughts together. In other words, I don’t know that creativity is dumping our thoughts into AI and I don’t think the originality of us is found using AI to stitch things together. This is a tangent to what you were talking about, but it is useful as a way of illustrating my thinking on this. Be brave in the way you put things together and don’t be afraid of letting the sewing have dropped stitches and fucked up thread.

Things don’t have to make sense (he taps his head while saying this), they have to make sense, he says, while rubbing his fingers together.

A boundary is about behavior. It’s a reasonable action one takes with one’s self, generally withdrawing from the situation, to protect one’s self from unpleasant behavior.

Then there is a squelch.

A squelch is forbidding a topic from discussion. If you refuse to talk about something, that’s a squelch. If you leave a situation when you don’t want to talk about something, that’s not exercising a boundary. Why can’t the topic be talked about nicely? Why can’t we discuss the topic reasonably and in an adult manner? Why can’t we discuss it in a way that doesn’t feel threatening to anybody?

I suppose you might want to squelch a topic if it’s been brought up and done to hell and very boring and it seems to get nowhere. However, it is more likely that someone is squelching because they don’t want to look at their own behavior.

Either something is flowing in or something is draining out. Nothing is static. If a pool of water sits, it evaporates or leaks out through the rocks or the ground. You are either filling or draining. There is nothing else.

I don’t know. I assume when I open a fridge what’s inside of it is going to be cold. That’s the way it works with people, things. We make assumptions about what’s inside their fridge.

There are simply bad ideas that don’t really have to be discussed. We just know they’re bad ideas. Using toothpaste as a salad dressing is a bad idea.

I’ve never once met a smart person who told me he was smart. I’ve met a lot of stupid people who have told me they’re smart, though.

We know, unless we have a personality disorder, what is wrong with us. Unless we’re dealing with a narcissist, in which case it’s a lost cause. But either way,  there is either engaging with who the person is or putting up a boundary. It’s always your choice.

The delusions of the religious are acceptable if they’re at least kind people. If they’re not even kind, then it’s the worst kind of stupidity.

I’m always concerned that the world might think I’m an idiot over reaching. Putting out things that seem wise that are probably stupid. Seriously, what the hell do I know? What the hell have I done? If I can’t fool myself, it’s doubtful I’ll fool anybody else.

It’s a waste of energy to point out character flaws. Either people already know and are tortured enough without an outside reminder or they’re in de Nile wit de crocodiles and it’s hopeless.

We know, unless we have a personality disorder, what is wrong with us. Unless we’re dealing with a narcissist in which case it’s a lost cause. But in either case there is either engaging with who the person is or putting up a boundary. It’s always your choice.

We know what is wrong with us, and it can be an internal torture. Personally, I don’t need external reminders. I live in myself. I know what the fuck is wrong with me more deeply than you’ll ever.

What do you feel and what you do is your responsibility. What I feel and what I do is my responsibility, and my responsibility to myself requires. I set boundaries that I feel are healthy for me.

What is up with you that you want to believe all these terrible things that are going on in the world? I agree there are some terrible things going on in the world, but some of what you believe is so stupid that I wonder why you choose to believe it?.

I think art is supposed to get under your skin somewhat. I think life is supposed to get under your skin somewhat. I think you’re supposed to be bothered in both a good end a bad way by what goes on around you. The last thing you wanna wind up is being some sort of neutral party in the midst of a fun war.

There are three things that make your day great. One is having a terrific meal. Two is having a deep, connected conversation. Three is helping a stranger. If you can do one of those, the day is good. If you can do two of those the day is great, and if you can do three of those, the day is unbeatable. And if you can arrange all three to happen at once, or even two, it’s simply lovely.

Life is really hard, especially as you get older. The only thing that makes it bearable are good relationships, including the relationship you have with yourself.

A man walked by me wearing bright orange sneakers. I said to him, “I love those sneakers!” On reflection, I should have said, “You have fantastic taste in sneakers!”

You don’t complement the thing, you complement the decision.

Why not assume it’s you? You can always be less bothered. You can always improve yourself. Difficult people are abrasive, but abrasion is what polishes a diamond. Are you a diamond?

Are you lonely? Maybe it’s you. Are they lonely? Maybe it’s them. Is there a lot of they they they in your head? Then it’s you.Luke says.

When is it you and when is it them? Well, first of all, it’s always you because you’re the only thing you have any control over. The question is more do I stay, or do I go?

There’s no one to hate. There are just people around whom you feel bad about yourself. You can either work on yourself or stay away from those people. Those are the choices. But there’s no profit in hating them.