AI Critics Should Do Some Moral Soul-Searching — Venkatesh Rao

Bonus: The Age of The Sublime with Robert Greene

Robert Greene is the bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, The Laws of Human Nature, and several other classics read by millions of people around the world. He’s spent the last seven years writing a book about the sublime. After suffering a stroke that made typing difficult, he’s had to write this book by hand. In this conversation we talk about why our minds are shrinking to the size of phones despite the sublimity around us, the mystery of consciousness, his views on AI, how to reclaim a sense of awe in modern life, and lots more.

Why I Don’t Use AI to Write — Oliver Burkeman

In this episode we sit down with Oliver Burkeman (author of Four Thousand Weeks) to talk about AI, meaning, and why the value of creative work hinges on a human consciousness behind it. We get into: * Tools, not companions: why he avoids “relationships” with AI and treats it like a pen or a Mac * Trust, but humans: why provenance matters even if you “can’t tell” who wrote it * The creator’s edge: double down on the purely human rather than joining the generic race * First drafts are the thinking: why outsourcing early or late stages erodes voice and meaning * Scarcity gives value: why using your finite time confers worth readers can actually feel * Artisanal future: human-made work as microbrew, not mass commodity If you make things, Oliver’s counsel is simple: don’t outsource the part that gives the work its meaning. Keep your drafts human, use tools as tools, and build trust by letting readers feel a person on the other end. Subscribe for more candid conversations on craft, meaning, and making work that lasts. Whoa Vol. 2 This episode is part of a limited series of ten in-depth conversations put together by sublime.app with some of our favorite thinkers and creatives where we explore how artificial intelligence is changing and challenging creative work. 👉 Get your copy of the zine: ⁠⁠https://sublime.app/whoa⁠⁠ [https://sublime.app/whoa] Brought to you by Mercury This interview is made possible by Mercury — business banking trusted by 200,000+ entrepreneurs and hands-down our favorite tool for running sublime.app.If you’re a founder or business builder of any type and haven’t tried Mercury yet, visit ⁠⁠https://mercury.com⁠⁠ [https://mercury.com] today. Disclaimer Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.

Inside the Research Mind Behind Ryan Holiday and Rick Rubin — Billy Oppenheimer

In this episode we sit down with Billy Oppenheimer (researcher/writer for Ryan Holiday and Rick Rubin; author of the Six at Six newsletter) to talk about taste, note cards, and using AI without losing the human filter.  We get into: * AI as tool, taste as foundation: why resonance with readers remains an impossible bet * Ryan’s note card system: “make notes for an ignorant stranger” so future-you can use them * From serendipity to synthesis: stacking 8–12 cards into a theme and letting weird specificity emerge * Where AI fits: upstream tutoring for tricky references, downstream lists and sentence variants—never the spark * Speed vs. substance: is AI actually good, or just fast * Neck-down work: when to stop optimizing and just do the tedious thing * Reading as an edge in the AI era: finding stories outside the training data If you make things, Billy’s playbook is simple: read widely, capture diligently, stack note cards until a theme clicks—then use AI as a tutor and helper, not a substitute. Subscribe for more candid conversations on craft, research, and making work that lasts. Whoa Vol. 2 This episode is part of a limited series of ten in-depth conversations put together by sublime.app with some of our favorite thinkers and creatives where we explore how artificial intelligence is changing and challenging creative work. 👉 Get your copy of the zine: https://sublime.app/whoa [https://sublime.app/whoa] Brought to you by Mercury This interview is made possible by Mercury — business banking trusted by 200,000+ entrepreneurs and hands-down our favorite tool for running sublime.app.If you’re a founder or business builder of any type and haven’t tried Mercury yet, visit https://mercury.com [https://mercury.com] today. Disclaimer Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.

Every Job Will Become an Art or Die -- Anu Atluru

In this episode we sit down with writer and investor Anu Atluru  to talk about teams, taste, and why AI shifts work from labor to leverage. We get into: * “I don’t want an AI, I want a teammate”: how to pick the 5–10 people who amplify your edge * The skills triage: in an AI world, human skills become extinct, art, or sport * Venture as the last job: allocation, bets, and why taste still matters * Media, machines, medicine: the 3 arenas she’s betting on for the next decade * Writing with AI, the right way: upstream ideation, downstream critique—protect the messy middle * Doom-prompting is the new doomscrolling: avoiding the dopamine trap If you’re building or creating, Anu’s prompt is simple: choose better tools—and better people. Use AI to offload the draining parts, keep your human “messy middle,” and express your taste where it counts. Whoa Vol. 2 This episode is part of a limited series of ten in-depth conversations put together by sublime.app with some of our favorite thinkers and creatives where we explore how artificial intelligence is changing and challenging creative work. 👉 Get your copy of the zine: https://sublime.app/whoa Brought to you by Mercury This interview is made possible by Mercury — business banking trusted by 200,000+ entrepreneurs and hands-down our favorite tool for running sublime.app.If you’re a founder or business builder of any type and haven’t tried Mercury yet, visit https://mercury.com today. Disclaimer Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.

AI Critics Should Do Some Moral Soul-Searching — Venkatesh Rao

In this episode we sit down with writer, theorist, and consultant Venkatesh Rao to talk about authorship, risk, and why AI is pushing us back to a pre-Gutenberg culture. We get into: * How “AI alignment” became PR-speak * The concept of individual authorship as a very recent invention * Treating LLMs as channels for our shared cultural inheritance, not plagiarism machines * Why creative work isn’t “labor” and the middle-class myth that effort guarantees economic value * Risk as the price of originality and why most AI slop is low-risk human behavior * How Venkatesh actually writes with AI and playful “Lego” ideation * Why disclosing AI-use in your writing will soon disappear Whoa Vol. 2 This episode is part of a limited series of ten in-depth conversations put together by sublime.app with some of our favorite thinkers and creatives where we explore how artificial intelligence is changing and challenging creative work. 👉 Get your copy of the zine: https://sublime.app/whoa Brought to you by Mercury This interview is made possible by Mercury — business banking trusted by 200,000+ entrepreneurs and hands-down our favorite tool for running sublime.app. If you’re a founder or business builder of any type and haven’t tried Mercury yet, visit https://mercury.com today. Disclaimer Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.