[HN Gopher] How to Make a Living as a Writer
___________________________________________________________________
How to Make a Living as a Writer
Author : pepys
Score : 159 points
Date : 2025-05-24 04:36 UTC (18 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (thewalrus.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (thewalrus.ca)
| davvid wrote:
| > Throughout all of this, Horse News was the only stable work I
| had.
|
| Only a good writer, that truly enjoys their craft, is able to
| masterfully insert a witty dry pun like that into their work.
| Bravo!
| fractallyte wrote:
| > I root for Horse Laws and grow sad when a state bucks them.
|
| Another cute one!
| Waterluvian wrote:
| It's a good pun but let's not pretend that it takes a
| professional writer. I mean, have you met dads?
| busyant wrote:
| we make fishy puns like that just for the halibut.
| munificent wrote:
| I am offended you would say this. As a Dad, I put a
| monumental amount of effort into coming up with puns to make
| my family wince.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| I remember wondering why my dad did it so much, given he
| never ever got a positive reaction. But now that I'm a dad,
| I get it. It's just a sort of instinct. In fact, I think
| I'm seeking the puns that go splat rather than landing
| well.
| vunderba wrote:
| Or the entirety of reddit for that matter. Most threads are
| inane word puns and/or turtles the whole way down.
| xandrius wrote:
| Calling the horse/stable job a witty pun today is quite a
| stretch.
| 90s_dev wrote:
| Maybe I'm just old and tired, but this pun is exactly like what
| you'd find in a movie review, which is literally the worst type
| of literature for that exact reason, and should be banned
| worldwide.
| noduerme wrote:
| Don't be so hard on movie reviewers. They're mostly just
| alcoholics on pensions who found a reasonably good retirement
| gig. Also, they have more random esoteric knowledge about
| movie shit than anyone in our industry has about anything.
| chistev wrote:
| Writing is fun. I have a small personal blog with 21 subscribers
| -
|
| https://rxjourney.net
|
| If you like it and you're feeling extra generous, you can leave a
| donation.
| hluska wrote:
| You're a good writer and I enjoyed this article:
|
| https://www.rxjourney.net/the-problem-with-our-country
| chistev wrote:
| Thanks a lot
| Max-q wrote:
| I liked the piece on corruption. You say it's not everyone,
| it's the system. I think it might be the culture, not the
| system? It has become the culture of the country to think that
| way. This is something I'm often thinking about, how can this
| be changed? How can a leader say "we as a country have to
| change. We need to change our culture, think of corruption as
| illegal and destructive" , and get the citizens on board with
| it. Because, with my, unfortunately limited, knowledge about
| Africa, I have understood that in many countries a government
| employee can't make a living of their salary. The position is a
| position enabling taking bribes, and that's what's putting food
| on the table. When it's that ingrained, how is a transformation
| possible? Where to start?
|
| One idea I've had, is transformation via a system similar to
| corruption, but regulated. If you go to a government office,
| you don't pay a bribe, but you pay some kind of tip to the
| representative. And that tip is listed on a "menu" and is
| reported to the employer, and a small tax is paid. The amounts
| are set at a level around the commonly known bribe paid today.
|
| Then, year by year, those tips are reduced (or stay the same,
| not adjusted for inflation), while the salary is increased.
| This is possible due to the small tip tax.
|
| Doing this while information campaigns are running on TV,
| internet, schools, and so on, continuously.
|
| Let's say this is a 20 year project, with a clear goal of a
| higher level of civilization, imprinting in people that this
| good and this will make life better for you, your children and
| grandchildren.
|
| I hope that your country will be able to fix the problem.
| chistev wrote:
| Thanks
| treve wrote:
| Extremely entertaining read!
| mediumsmart wrote:
| I concur. ... Not sure where, but empathy stopped me before the
| end.
| ggm wrote:
| This would be an instance of those mimetic "how I got to own a
| house at 29" stories where the first 6 steps are rational and the
| seventh is "have rich parents"
|
| For most people, writing is not sufficiently lucrative to sustain
| a living income and supplements other income streams or is net
| negative.
|
| Also: read "new grub street" by George Gissing, 1891
| vidarh wrote:
| But this patchwork of low paid freelance work is the most
| reasonable way to make it sustainable for most people.
| ggm wrote:
| Yes. And, if this is your craft, this is how to flex. If
| you're driven to write, you're going to write, rich or not.
|
| There's another piece of journalistic writing about erotic
| Potter fanfic where the article author realises they're
| possibly good at it and have recruited followers. It's
| https://www.vice.com/en/article/my-quest-to-become-a-
| harry-p...
| SuperHeavy256 wrote:
| This is a negative comment. The author is someone who is
| clearly struggling, and trying to do her best to make ends meet
| by working multiple jobs that she makes clear she is
| desperately in search of. She also can't use her hands and is
| in chronic pain. Please, have some empathy.
| ggm wrote:
| I have empathy but it's tempered by realism. Very few people
| make a sustaining income from writing, almost all of them
| supplement some other source of income or subsist.
|
| Editing and proofing may be a better deal. My partner did
| this for over 25 years and rarely exceeded the taxable income
| threshold.
| cafard wrote:
| Having done editing and proofing for a few years, I can say
| that it paid the rent and kept me fed, but didn't do much
| more than that.
| ghaff wrote:
| The perhaps unsatisfactory answer is you land a day job
| with a company that has a significant writing component,
| e.g. various content marketing roles but other types of
| marketing as well or analyst work. It's not the "great
| American novel" but I was, to a large degree, essentially a
| professional writer for over 20 years. And latterly I
| definitely worked with a lot of people who would probably
| have preferred to be independent writers but found pleasure
| in having a fairly well-paid career with a company.
|
| I do know some successful freelancers but they're the
| generally fairly well-known exception (and are presumably
| still not making the kind of money many on this board would
| consider great).
| Loughla wrote:
| Grant writing. I've done that for years. It's using your
| writing and analysis skills. Again, not the next great
| novel, but it does afford you the opportunity and income
| to write in your spare time, while doing a job that isn't
| too demanding.
| madaxe_again wrote:
| I have the same thing as her and I built an off-grid
| homestead with my stupid useless arms, and I type until
| they're so numb it's like watching a hen peck for feed.
|
| It never even occurred to me to make it a core part of my
| identity - it's just pain and numbness, and they aren't about
| to drop off and catch fire, even if it feels like it
| sometimes.
| windowshopping wrote:
| Have you actually seen someone write an article like that where
| one of the instructive steps was "have rich parents"?
| ggm wrote:
| No. I have only seen reddit memes and they generally relate
| to property ownership.
| abenga wrote:
| I have seen several. One interesting one was a "how I became
| an airline pilot at 21" video where the (obviously smart and
| hard working) young man talked about a life where he went to
| a high school with an aviation club, interning at an airline
| while in high school where THE CEO took personal interest in
| him and gave him one-on-one coaching. "Have rich parents" was
| not one of the steps explicitly but it was a massive part of
| the subtext.
| greggsy wrote:
| Another classic pilot career hack is to have a parent who
| is a pilot. Simple.
| 0_____0 wrote:
| My ex's dad flew for a US carrier. I got to hear a bit
| about how raw a deal new pilots get these days.
| Apparently it's much less desirable as a job now as
| commercial aviation works on tighter margins.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| Pilots talking with each other, what will they think of
| next!
| 6stringmerc wrote:
| For those who might eyeroll at this example, I believe it
| and find it a good citation. Have you done the math on what
| it costs to get a US commercial aviation license?
|
| Just remember, Jack Antonoff (musician turned music
| producer for acts like St. Vincent) benefitted from his Dad
| being a millionaire diet supplement multi-level marketing
| huckster, Taylor Swift's Dad was (and still is) a Merrill
| Lynch high earning banker, Redfoo of LmFAO is the son of
| Barry Gordy...he'll, even Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, is
| the niece of famous guitarist Tuck Andreas. Tell me with a
| straight face having those connections isn't a thumb on the
| roulette wheel and I'll politely go away for obvious
| reasons.
| jryle70 wrote:
| Having rich parent certainly helps. The problem with this
| line of thinking is that there are many many rich
| parents, but only one Tailor Swift. What happen to all
| other rich kids who also dream of being a singer? Can you
| say, "with straight face", that they can just became
| Taylor Swift if their dad was a Merrill Lynch banker?
|
| There is also one and only Adele, whose father left when
| she was two and who had a very modest upbringing.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| I can say with a straight face that having rich, well-
| connected parents hugely raises your odds of success if
| you have some native talent, for obvious reasons - in
| music you can buy equipment, hire teachers, PR people,
| and stylists, spend money on recording, and get easy
| access to industry insiders.
|
| You can experiment without worrying that you will starve
| or be homeless if you fail.
|
| Some corners of the arts are full of people like this -
| some talent, more money, so they get to have "careers"
| with nothing tangible on the line except loss of face.
| The family fortune protects them from everything except
| wilful self-destruction.
|
| The obvious corollary is that failing to have rich, well-
| connected parents hugely lowers your odds of success,
| even if you have equivalent talent. _Some_ people still
| succeed, for all kinds of reasons. But the odds are
| forever not in your favour.
|
| It's not a binary, it's a significant tilt of the playing
| field.
| sunnybeetroot wrote:
| Alongside Adele you have JK Rowling who didn't have all
| her cards aligned.
| notahacker wrote:
| I've seen a _lot_ of articles where it 's implicit. There
| seems to be a whole subgenre of _Daily Telegraph_ "young
| person buys first house at 25" articles which lead with tales
| of their thriftiness and aspiration and bury the "parents
| paid most of the deposit" somewhere in the detail near the
| end.
| -__---____-ZXyw wrote:
| That's the thing, you don't have to say it, sort of by
| definition. It's always implied, as is its opposite. Imagine
| a video or article or whatever, titled:
|
| "How to get a Mediocre Job and live an Unremarkable Life"
|
| Where the content of the article or video was, simply:
|
| "Be born a human. You'll have a 99.99% chance of succeeding!"
|
| It'd be pretty grim, it'd last about 15s to read or view, so
| no-one makes that video. Instead, they make videos about
| becoming pilots at 21, or owning your own house at 23, etc.
|
| It's hard to accept these percentages as real, because it's
| about the opposite of what is presented on the content farm
| platforms, and that's partly as I said the fact that the
| story is too grim, but also the fact that the "unremarkable"
| people are not the ones producing "content".
| vouaobrasil wrote:
| > This would be an instance of those mimetic "how I got to own
| a house at 29" stories where the first 6 steps are rational and
| the seventh is "have rich parents"
|
| You don't need to have rich parents. I also make a living as a
| writer, and I'll say an alternative to having rich parents
| would be to get a high-paying job for a couple years and just
| save a little. Just for when the initial pay is a little low.
| -__---____-ZXyw wrote:
| HN in the Common Era 2025:
|
| "If you don't have rich parents, an alternative is to get a
| high-paying job".
| mndgs wrote:
| Beautiful text, easy to read, one can immediately feel that
| author knows what she is doing. Light, but long and sad at the
| same time. With an aftertaste of hope at the end. Nice work.
| dSebastien wrote:
| I've been writing for many years, and I I'm still very far from
| being able to pay rent
|
| https://dsebastien.net
| magic_hamster wrote:
| Hitting CTRL+F and searching for AI all over the piece, there are
| 0 mentions. I would have loved to read what a writer thinks of
| the coming AI takeover in creative writing.
|
| Virtually all the jobs mentioned can already be replaced with AI
| for a fraction of the cost.
|
| One thing is clear from this text: she can definitely write. I
| wonder what her erotic stories read like even though I'm not
| exactly the demographic they were aiming for.
| SuperHeavy256 wrote:
| Not everything needs to be about AI. Not everything should be.
| CalRobert wrote:
| Ok, but if you're a horse in the 1920's it seems prudent to
| consider automobiles
| cafard wrote:
| Given the modus operandi of the AI world, it might be more
| prudent to consider dogfood factories.
| vouaobrasil wrote:
| Horse to automobile is not the same as AI to not using AI.
| cozzyd wrote:
| Surely horse world will track this.
| dakiol wrote:
| > Virtually all the jobs mentioned can already be replaced with
| AI for a fraction of the cost.
|
| I'm not so sure. First, they are already paying pennies to the
| writers. Second, who's gonna write the prompt? The bosses
| certainly not, so they would hire prompters. Now, you cannot
| simply hire a prompter with zero experience in copywriting or
| editing; these people would not accept less than pennies for
| their work. So you just go ahead and hire people with writing
| experience. It's easier.
|
| Edit: besides, assuming AI will take over, if you want an
| original and catchy story, you need to provide a good prompt. I
| cannot think someone more suitable to provide such prompts than
| the writers themselves. Is like saying: anyone can create their
| own app with LLMs. Well, I can tell you my mom or my 21 year
| old cousin wouldn't be able to do so (they wouldn't be able to
| be more specific than a simple "I want a spotify-like app but
| in red". They wouldn't know what to do with the LLM output,
| even if it comes as an executable that you just need to drop in
| your phone). So you need developers here as well.
| cousin_it wrote:
| > Second, who's gonna write the prompt? The bosses certainly
| not, so they would hire prompters.
|
| I think AIs will quickly progress to the point where the boss
| can just tell them to do X, instead of telling the prompter
| to tell the AI to do X.
| bix6 wrote:
| The boss doesn't have time for that.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| If the boss has the time to task the writer then they
| also have time to task the LLM
| bix6 wrote:
| No because the writer can finish everything without any
| follow up whereas the LLM needs hand holding, re
| prompting, context, etc.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| All of it seems like technicalities easy to add and wrap
| in a product that takes one task you would give to an
| actual writer...
| keiferski wrote:
| My prediction is that all "anonymous" writing will be replaced
| by AI. By anonymous, I mean: copywriting, corporate-style
| neutral writing, product descriptions, news summaries,
| headlines, and so on. Anything where the identity of the author
| is unknown or not important.
|
| However, writers that lean into their identity and inject their
| personality into the writing, use video, and generally have a
| public brand will probably do fine. The fact is: we live in a
| video world now, so unless you can latch onto the brand of a
| larger entity to grow your audience, you're probably going to
| need to be on camera.
|
| (This is basically how many writers are successful on
| Substack.)
|
| Writers will also continue to be needed in fields where there
| is zero tolerance for errors (say, technical writers at complex
| manufacturing companies.)
| throwaway290 wrote:
| > we live in a video world now
|
| Yeah and in a world where Veo3 exists. Using video is not a
| panacea. Actually if you post the video on youtube then it is
| used to train Veo so that you can be replaced...
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44070548
| Tallain wrote:
| For many writers and creative types I've read and talked to,
| the use of AI for pretty much any reason is equivalent to
| crossing the picket line.
|
| When so many models are trained on illegally-obtained data
| (libgen, etc.) and provide profit without acknowledgement to
| the folks whose creative output made said profit possible in
| the first place, it feels really icky to put it lightly.
|
| What's more, the creative process is about pulling something
| out from inside of you, examining your ideas and yourself, and
| maybe showing it to the world. Feedback from others, editors or
| readers or whatever, is a reciprocation of that. Or if you keep
| it to yourself, you've learned and grown anyway, and have honed
| your craft for the next time you try it.
|
| What reward is there in computer mimicry? How does AI empower
| this process?
|
| From a commercial aspect it all sucks. Creatives are devalued
| and the creative process is arrested. This isn't new, though.
| Ever since we started calling entertainment "content," you
| could see it coming. It's a struggle Hollywood's faced since
| the studio system, even before. We had the subversives in the
| Code era, the new wave people, the auteurs, and so on, all
| fighting that good fight against the business people who spoke
| only in dollars and cents. So it was, so it shall be.
|
| I don't think there will be an AI takeover in creative writing,
| except for maybe a hiccup where slop content creators chase
| gold. Already a couple of romance writers accidentally
| published stories with prompts left in them and have instantly
| ruined their reputations forever. I think the people interested
| in reading what a machine wrote are the people interested in
| making the machine write. Everyone else wants something from a
| real human.
| vouaobrasil wrote:
| > Hitting CTRL+F and searching for AI all over the piece, there
| are 0 mentions. I would have loved to read what a writer thinks
| of the coming AI takeover in creative writing.
|
| I make a living as a writer and I don't use AI. In fact, I hate
| AI and I work for an AI-free writing website. There is an
| audience for it, and we make enough money to support ourselves
| as well.
| globalnode wrote:
| Was enjoying the article 'till a massive popup tried to grab my
| attention. Unfortunately I have a policy that requires the page
| be closed within 5 seconds of any such popups :'(, hope the horse
| writing turned out OK for him/her/them/they.
| jadtz wrote:
| I doubt the writer has any control over the website her piece
| is published on. It is a pretty good writeup, you should give
| it another try.
| Max-q wrote:
| She's a good writer, I really enjoyed the article. It was one
| topic regarding being a writer today I was curiously waiting for
| while reading: gpt. Nothing can be more transforming for writers
| right now? The erotic novella will probably be written by AI very
| soon. YouTube is overflowing with AI generated and narrated
| stories now. Just a couple of months ago they were quite bad, but
| it's huge improvements weekly and this week they have become so
| good that I'll say they are better than magazine stories. We can
| just imagine how good they will be in two months from now.
| Papazsazsa wrote:
| They will never replace lived experience, in the same way
| McDonalds will never replace a meal made by mom.
| quesera wrote:
| Define "replace".
|
| Because for the majority of people, McDonald's and
| equivalents have absolutely supplanted meals made by a parent
| or an adult self.
| artofpongfu wrote:
| Could AI have written this touching, funny article? There will
| still be a market for great writers, for now people crave
| connection to a real person at the other end. In this case, I'm
| reading it to understand something about being human. But it's
| true that the market for human writing as a whole will shrink
| further.
| Papazsazsa wrote:
| What do HN folks want to read that isn't tech news? What are you
| _reading_ reading these days?
|
| I have just made the leap into becoming a full-time writer. I had
| an early stroke of luck and sold a screenplay - which let me
| write full-time for the next 6 months or so. I write primarily
| military/espionage fiction, would love to hear what the HN crowd
| is hungry for on that front.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| There have been pretty periodic recommended book "ask HN" posts
| through the years, you could go have a look at some. Even a
| quick skim will make it extremely clear you don't want to take
| book recommendations, or especially writing guidance, from
| these people.
| Papazsazsa wrote:
| Haha, too cruel.
|
| The nerd is a useful archetype.
| quesera wrote:
| We are deeply grateful for the time you are able to spend
| here with us.
| bix6 wrote:
| Feel like you could write a pretty absurd story about the
| espionage implications of accepting a jumbo jet from a foreign
| adversary.
| nosioptar wrote:
| That's too absurd. What person in a position to be gifted a
| jumbo jet would be dumb enough to accept it?
|
| Even if he/she was dumb enough, I'd assume the person likely
| has contacts with national security agencies that could spell
| it out for them.
| bix6 wrote:
| Well in this story all the agency heads could be replaced
| with podcast hosts and other talking heads
| manoji wrote:
| Loved this article . It took me back to the days of just reading
| random stuff out of the blue and just enjoying it undistracted.
| willsoon wrote:
| I can't write erotica or porn no matter how much I practice. I
| have read some great writers fails like a champ when they had
| tried to do the same. So, what if I fail. Sometimes I fall in
| erotica/porn scenes like not wanting to go that way. A detail
| just spontaneous popupping in my mind. And yes, then It's good.
| But is not erotica if it happen every 100 pages. PS: practice to
| write erotica, admin.
| keiferski wrote:
| One of the ironically (or maybe not ironic and just expected?)
| beneficial outcomes of AI tools is that "human-like" qualities
| are going to become more in-demand. The more weird, charismatic,
| or unique your personality is, the better you're probably going
| to do in the creative marketplace. The creators that will thrive
| are ones that manage to build an audience around their identity,
| and not merely ones that write/film/create the best works.
| notjulianjaynes wrote:
| You are probably thinking this means life will be more like
| that Jack Kerouac line "the mad ones..." I am imagining how
| what you describe plays out is more like a billion reality TV
| stars all trying to one up each other.
| keiferski wrote:
| It will probably be a mix of both. "One-upping reality star"
| is still something of a genre in itself, and it turns off a
| lot of people.
|
| IMO it's very possible to convey authenticity via video, if
| you know what you're doing. I'm thinking of someone like Dry
| Creek Wrangler School:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/@DryCreekWranglerSchool
| mykowebhn wrote:
| So you mean that personality will trump content? The cult of
| personality?
|
| I think we're already seeing that in the most-watched Youtube
| videos. The most followed Youtubers usually are the ones who
| are most "way-out-there" in terms of personality.
| keiferski wrote:
| I wouldn't call it a "cult of personality" because that seems
| unduly negative. It will just be...different, both better and
| worse.
|
| Better, because creators are no longer dependent on a film
| exec in LA / publishing exec in NYC / etc. to "make it" as a
| creative.
|
| Worse, because while those gatekeepers did lock out many
| talented people, they also had the function of allowing the
| creator to focus excellent, "pure" work. I'm thinking of
| anonymous/semi-anonymous authors that wrote world-famous
| novels while being unknown. I don't think that is going to be
| a viable route anymore, because it depended on the middle-
| men.
|
| Now that I think about it, this last function might actually
| appear again: agencies that manage a creator's marketing,
| budget, etc. and just let them focus on making stuff.
|
| In short: I don't know if we could have the open opportunity
| of social media _without_ it also being dependent on personal
| charisma.
| roenxi wrote:
| > I'm thinking of anonymous/semi-anonymous authors that
| wrote world-famous novels while being unknown. I don't
| think that is going to be a viable route anymore, because
| it depended on the middle-men.
|
| It is entirely viable, there are a couple of pipelines that
| go something like [forum -> patreon -> widespread appeal]
| to pick up aspiring writers who can rise above the herd. It
| reminds me a bit of Charles Dickens - a man who was clearly
| being paid by the word - but much more accessible. Then
| there are the sites that just aggregate masses of amateur
| stories. Mostly badly written stories, but talent has a
| chance to be seen.
|
| There isn't going to be any difficulty for the next great
| novel making it out into the world. The issue is more the
| living conditions of the legions of also-ran writers.
| aucisson_masque wrote:
| I don't see why ai wouldn't be able to copy that 'personality'.
|
| Everything ai can read or watch, it can copy. So someone
| showing his personality on YouTube video, Instagram or even
| tiktok, you get all the video, feed it into an AI and you get
| an enhanced clone.
| keiferski wrote:
| 1. We are decades away from an AI being able to livestream
| convincingly, cheaply enough for the average person to use
| it.
|
| 2. At that point, identity systems will prevent an AI from
| just copying another creator's content and passing it off as
| their own. YouTube, Facebook etc. have an interest in keeping
| real humans on their platforms and not just bots.
| hnlmorg wrote:
| They have an interest in keeping real humans consuming
| content because they're the ones watching the adverts. The
| creators are just a byproduct of the pipeline.
|
| If YouTube could replace humans with AI, and thus reduce
| all that annoying overhead that comes with dealing with
| creators, and do so without reducing the number of ads that
| are watched, then I bet Google would be ok with it.
| keiferski wrote:
| And what, every creator with a public presence and
| YouTube channel is going to be okay with Google stealing
| their identity?
|
| This is a sci-fi fantasy with no connection to reality.
| In the real world, IP matters a lot and lawyers determine
| what's allowed on YouTube, not demigod AIs.
| MonkeyClub wrote:
| > lawyers determine
|
| Laws are skewed through lobbying as a matter of course,
| and individual content creators don't have the same legal
| reach as AI unicorns.
| rwmj wrote:
| Why would Google/Youtube need to copy existing
| identities? Given a sufficiently powerful AI it can
| create a whole new world of characters and content.
|
| I also think your comment is an example of the "just
| world fallacy" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-
| world_fallacy). Google/Youtube has vastly more resources,
| lawyers and lobbying power than individual creatives.
| keiferski wrote:
| What do you think Hollywood actors, studios, and agents
| are going to do in this situation? Just disappear and be
| fine with Google copying their work and destroying their
| careers?
|
| Not to mention the fact that the minute it becomes
| obvious to society writ large that YouTube is not filled
| with real people, and is only AI fake bots, it
| immediately will become blase and uninteresting to the
| vast majority of people. Humans like humans, not
| facsimiles of humans.
|
| Way too much sci-fi AI worship on this site sometimes, it
| borders on deification. "An infinitely powerful being
| will have no restrictions." Human culture isn't a math
| problem that can be replaced and solved with computing
| power.
|
| Google can't even seem to make search results that work
| anymore. Color me dubious that they can create thousands,
| millions of unique characters and content that out-
| compete real people.
| criddell wrote:
| > YouTube, Facebook etc. have an interest in keeping real
| humans on their platforms and not just bots.
|
| They want a human audience, but I suspect they are fine
| with bot creators and are probably working on that
| themselves.
|
| Ever notice all those channels on YouTube and Spotify that
| are hours and hours of lofi music? They aren't all human
| and some of them have big audiences.
|
| https://harpers.org/archive/2025/01/the-ghosts-in-the-
| machin...
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| 1. I'm a computer science graduate and work in IT, although
| the boring enterprise kind. ~5 years ago I would have
| easily signed a document vouching that we will not have the
| kind of interactive experience chatgpt gives us today,
| within my lifetime :-). So the notion that automatically
| generated content of any kind is "decades away" while the
| field is wildly unstable, seems like a tricky prophecy.
| I'll take that bet :-).
|
| 2. Social networks don't have any interest whatsoever in
| keeping _creators_ humans. Creators are the cost, viewers
| or better yet paid subscribers, and the advertising buyers,
| are the revenue. IF majority of people are happy to consume
| generated content, social networks are happy to indulge. We
| on HN are assuming and hoping for some kind of human
| revolt, but we have historically been horrible at
| predicting such. Majority of people don 't care a whif
| about stuff that HN cares about deeply (see: privacy,
| security,open source, etc:).
|
| (This is not a hypothetical as far as I'm concerned -
| Spotify already has popular LoFi / sleep / working music
| channels it promotes that are generated cheaply by AI, or
| session musicians that are one step away from being / being
| replaced by AI. YouTube and Facebook are full of clips
| which have chatgpt generating text, AI voiceover, and short
| AI clips merged together - today, vs decades from now).
| keiferski wrote:
| The ecosystem is dependent on real people. The idea that
| audiences are going to just sit by and watch AI generated
| content without any desire to connect to other human
| beings is a fundamental misunderstanding of culture.
| jdietrich wrote:
| We have models _now_ that will generate not-quite-
| convincing video of a talking head in real time on a
| consumer GPU. Given the pace of developments in the field,
| I think it 's utterly ludicrous to suggest that getting
| this type of model from "not quite right" to "good enough
| to fool a lot of people" will take decades, when so many
| other types of model have achieved that feat in a matter of
| years or months.
|
| https://humanaigc.github.io/chat-anyone/
| keiferski wrote:
| I don't find that to be "not quite convincing" at all.
| It's pretty obviously fake, and not comparable at all to
| a real person reacting in real time in their own
| personalized way, to slang or other internet
| interactions.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| Or rather - the more weird, charismatic, and unique your AI-
| generated personalities are.
|
| In the future, everyone's aidoru will be famous for fifteen
| minutes.
| madaxe_again wrote:
| She doesn't explicitly say it, but it sounds like she has
| thoracic outlet syndrome - it's familiar to me because I have it,
| and it sucks. Looking up her name plus that, yes, that's what she
| has.
|
| Sat here after a night of crappy sleep poking this out with hands
| that feel like they're in tight rubber gloves, but life goes on,
| but it's never even crossed my mind to see it as a disability,
| just as "one of those things".
|
| The only things that it has made extremely difficult for me are
| things like rock climbing or climbing very long ladders - but not
| impossible, if I take the time to pause and windmill my arms
| until they aren't useless numb pain obelisks, or until other
| people start to get impatient with me. Other things I've had to
| just adapt to - stuff with fine motor control I have to take
| frequent breaks and ensure I'm supporting my hand and arm.
| Washing dishes, which she cites in another piece, I deal with by
| pincering a sponge between my fingers and using the back of my
| hand. It just became the new normal. Gross stuff, I find little
| difference with, although it definitely aggravates it if I spend
| a day doing heavy work involving my arms. Buy now, pay later.
|
| Maybe it's a generational or cultural thing. Maybe hers is worse
| than mine. I don't know - I just found it jarring to hear someone
| describe it as a disability, as that idea has literally never
| even crossed my mind.
| anovikov wrote:
| A friend of mine was determined to make an actual career as a
| writer, and she gradually followed the money switching jobs in
| the direction of those that paid the most. She now easily makes
| upwards of $15K per month writing, sustainably over years
| (although she does work a lot, like 60 hour weeks). Catch is, it
| is mostly marketing content for scam companies, crypto peddlers,
| illegal trading companies, and associated ecosystem (like lead
| suppliers, salesmen sourcers and so forth).
| mykowebhn wrote:
| The part of this essay that convinced me that I like this person
| was this:
|
| "Horse News makes me feel like a bad person sometimes. Racing is
| an odd, archaic, and often cruel sport. The more I read about it,
| the more convinced I become that it should not exist. I root for
| Horse Laws and grow sad when a state bucks them."
|
| Part of her paycheck comes from the horse racing industry so to
| be honest in this way is courageous. If she were in any of the
| common HN industries she would've written how horses have been
| her life-long passion, ever since she saw a picture of one in
| some random children's book, and how writing about horse racing
| allows her to share her passion with the world. She'd also have
| another job as a life coach.
| J_cst wrote:
| A totally different working life compared to mine. Definitely
| worth reading, thank you!
| ednite wrote:
| The piece provides an open and modest behind-the-scenes look at
| the author's dedication to her work and will to maintain her
| creative identity in the face of adversity.
|
| As someone who just started blogging and sharing stories, I'm
| reminded of how much passion and hardship influence creative
| work.
|
| My weakness is also my self-doubt.
|
| I understand that living a creative life does not require waiting
| for the right circumstances; rather, it requires working hard in
| the face of criticism, uncertainty, or lack of reward.
|
| Thanks for sharing.
| Avicebron wrote:
| So born rich is the strat?
| 6stringmerc wrote:
| As a person with a lifetime handicap, reading this article with
| its plethora of examples and debilitating health issues:
|
| Why did this person insist on denying their handicap and status
| as a disabled person and pursue benefits available to provide for
| basic needs, if available in Canada or elsewhere?
|
| There are other options than going to the "dark side" as I call
| an avenue like _Horse News_.
|
| I'm sure she's intelligent enough to admit that "reputation
| management" is a fucked up way of relabeling "propaganda outlet"
| so it's more palatable.
|
| Honestly I've got no qualms with the smut angle because that's a
| long running tradition and readers very much have made it a
| worthwhile enterprise over hundreds of years.
|
| I do find some odd comedy in taking a position that writing
| literary pornography is actually the lesser of two evils, morally
| speaking, in her method of making a living. I won't be checking
| out her book because of the pervasive comments about her health
| issues. I have a far worse one and I rarely bring it up and
| that's my choice, as it's hers to wave the flag or tout
| overcoming it as some kind of accomplishment to celebrate. I
| suppose in some ways it is, but personally speaking working for
| "reputation management" is absolutely distasteful to me and I
| won't try to rationalize it, even in the context of physical
| limitations.
| TimorousBestie wrote:
| > I have a far worse one and I rarely bring it up and that's my
| choice, as it's hers to wave the flag or tout overcoming it as
| some kind of accomplishment to celebrate.
|
| It's one of a handful of things in your HN bio. The pinned
| article on your blog is largely about its effects on your life.
|
| That's okay.
|
| I think it's admirable for people to talk frankly about their
| struggles with disability, and I think it's hypocritical of you
| to criticize the article's author for doing so.
| hexage1814 wrote:
| You don't?
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