I’m just going to go for it

A North Dakota plumber had signed up to run his first half-marathon. But on the morning of the run Mike Kohler was sleepy. He wasn’t used to getting up so early. And he was wearing headphones, so he took off 15 minutes before he was supposed to—putting him with the runners competing in the full marathon. He started seeing signs that indicated he was on the wrong route, but he just assumed the two paths overlapped along the way.  

Eventually, he realized his mistake but kept going. At the 13 mile mark he seriously thought about quitting. He had run as far as he had planned to run and even beat his time goal. He had nothing more to prove.

Instead, he finished the marathon. 

“I’m just going to go for it, because why not?” Mike later told the Grand Forks Herald. “I’m already here, I’m already running, I’m already tired. Might as well try to finish it.” 

He added, ”This just kind of proves you can do a lot more than what you think you can sometimes.” 

The Four skills of Daring Leadership

One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.

Brené Brown, Dare to Lead 

17 Articles about AI & Academic Scholarship

Can generative AI replace humans in qualitative research studies? - Techxplore

The recent reduction in spelling error rates in academic papers could be due to an increased use of LLMs – OSF Preprints  

AI linked to explosion of low-quality biomedical research papers - Nature 

Flood of AI-assisted research ‘weakening quality of science'” – Times Higher Ed

Shoddy study designs and false findings using a large public health dataset portend future risk of exploitation by AI and paper mills – PLOS Biology

Is it OK for AI to write science papers? Nature survey shows researchers are split - Nature

MIT Says It No Longer Stands Behind Student’s AI Research Paper – Wall Street Journal  

Meta releases new data set, AI model aimed at speeding up scientific research – Semafor

Experiment using AI-generated posts on Reddit draws fire for ethics concerns – Retraction Watch

AI-Reddit study leader gets warning as ethics committee moves to ‘stricter review process’ – Retraction Watch  

Why misuse of generative AI is worse than plagiarism – Springer

Science sleuths flag hundreds of papers that use AI without disclosing it - Nature

Google engineer withdraws preprint after getting called out for using AI – Retraction Watch

Scientific Data Fabrication and AI—Pandora’s Box – JAMA Network

AI summary ‘trashed author’s work’ and took weeks to be corrected – Times Higher Ed

AI language models increasingly shape economics research writing, study finds – Phys.org

Artificial intelligence in vaccine research and development: an umbrella review – Frontiers

My Me-ness

“I cannot figure out what I am supposed to do with my life if these things can do anything I can do faster and with way more detail and knowledge.” The student said he felt crushed. Some heads nodded. But not all. Julia, a senior in the history department, jumped in. “The A.I. is huge. A tsunami. But it’s not me. It can’t touch my me-ness. It doesn’t know what it is to be human, to be me.” - D. Graham Burnett writing in The New Yorker

"Madness" on Campus

On campus, we’re in a bizarre interlude: everyone seems intent on pretending that the most significant revolution in the world of thought in the past century isn’t happening. The approach appears to be: “We’ll just tell the kids they can’t use these tools and carry on as before.” This is, simply, madness. And it won’t hold for long. -D. Graham Burnett writing in The New Yorker

Injustice

Injustice is the most painful hurt in childhood.  –Charles Dickens

Grammarly's new Authorship Tool

Grammarly has created a new authorship tool. It tracks the writing process, showing where text is typed into a document or pasted, as well as which parts of a document are created or modified with AI. When the paper is complete, a report is generated, which students can show teachers if there is any question about the source of their work. -Wall Street Journal

Balancing Speed with Quality Coding

Speed means nothing without quality. Shipping buggy, unmaintainable code faster is a false victory – you’re just speeding towards a cliff. The best engineers will balance the two: using AI to move faster without breaking things (at least not breaking things any more than we already do!). It’s about finding that sweet spot where AI does the heavy lifting and humans ensure everything stands up properly. - Addy Osmani writing on Elevate

15 Articles about AI & Coding

How AI coding agents could destroy open source software – ZDnet  

The Way of Code: The Timeless Art of Vibe Coding – The Way of Code  

At Amazon, Some Coders Say Their Jobs Have Begun to Resemble Warehouse Work - The New York Times 

AI can't replace freelance coders yet, but that day is coming – The Register   

Which AI coding assistant should I be using? – Stat Modeling  

The AI Threat for Coding Jobs Is Becoming Clearer – Bloomberg 

OpenAI introduces Codex, its first full-fledged AI agent for coding – Arstechnica

A Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms – Google Deep Mind

Vibe Coding is not an excuse for low-quality work – Addy Osmani writing on Elevate  

Vibe Coding and You – the New Stack  

AI can’t replace software engineers yet, but here is how to use it for prototyping – BD Tech Talks

Without Good Data, AI is Useless – Oracle  

The Hidden Cost of AI Coding – Terrible Software 

AI-enabled 'vibe coding' lets anyone write software – NPR

GitHub’s new AI coding agent can fix bugs for you – The Verge

Instead of Wishing

Instead of wishing the ball would be hit to someone else, want the ball to be hit your way.  

Having an open mind

Having an open mind i­­s nothing; the object of opening the mind, as the opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid. -GK Chesterton, born May 29, 1874

14 Articles about the Limitations of AI

AI models hallucinate less than humans — just in “more surprising ways” – Tech Crunch  

What AI thinks it knows about you – The Atlantic  

Without Good Data, AI is Useless – Oracle

Professors Staffed a Fake Company Entirely With AI Agents, and You'll Never Guess What Happened – Futurism

A.I. Is Getting More Powerful, but Its Hallucinations Are Getting Worse – New York Times

AI tools mostly fumble basic financial tasks, study finds – Washington Post

Bloomberg Has a Rocky Start With A.I. News Summaries – New York Times

The Man Out to Prove How Dumb AI Still Is - The Atlantic 

Can AI be your therapist? Experts disagree - Axios

Generative AI Limitations: What It Can’t Do (Yet) – Net Guru

WVU researchers test AI’s limits in emergency room diagnoses – West Virginia University

AI: Uses, Ethics and Limitations – KUAF

AI Can Assist Human Judges, But It Can’t Replace Them (Yet) – David Lat Blog

Can generative AI replace humans in qualitative research studies? - Techxplore

Why We’re Unlikely to Get Artificial General Intelligence Anytime Soon – New York Times

AI's Impact on Search

“We may be heading for a post-search web—one where content is not surfaced by keywords and ranking formulas, but synthesized and summarized by machines. In that world, publishers risk becoming invisible and their revenue models disrupted.” -Jon Passantino writing on Status

Snowflakes in an Avalanche

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. –Voltaire

Instead of asking

Instead of asking, "How do I get out of this thing I must do?" ask, "How do I become fully present in it?"

The inner critic

The inner critic must be shut down, and the inner Picasso turned up. -Heather Berlin

23 Recent Articles about the Impact of AI on Health Care

Medical errors are still harming patients. AI could help change that. – NBC News

AI linked to explosion of low-quality biomedical research papers – Nature  

Machine Learning Model Helps Identify Patients at Risk of Postpartum Depression - Mass General Brigham

Your A.I. Radiologist Will Not Be With You Soon – New York Times  

How AI is changing radiology – Semafor

Medical AI trained on whopping 57 million health records – Nature

Eldercare robot helps people sit and stand, and catches them if they fall – MIT

AI Helped Heal My Chronic Pain – Wall Street Journal

How AI is changing your doctors appointments – Fast Company

As AI in health care proliferates, so do legal questions concerning its use – Stat News

Researchers raise red flag about AI-generated fake images in biomedical research – Medicalxpress

Walgreens doubles down on prescription-filling robots to cut costs, free up pharmacists amid turnaround – CNBC

Artificial neural networks date back to the 1950s – now they're ready to transform healthcare – Health Care IT News  

Artificial intelligence predicts kidney cancer therapy response -  UT Southwestern Medical Center

Refining ALS Diagnosis with AI – First Word Pharma

AI is coming to skin cancer detection - Washington Post

Every doctor is a writer: On the end of note-writing and meaning-making in medicine – Stat News

New AI algorithm to predict risk of cardiovascular events, heart-related death – AM 7 am

AI hasn’t killed radiology, but it is changing it – Washington Post

Transformer AI model detects wheezing in children with over 90% accuracy: study – Korea Biomedical Review

As they push ahead with AI, health leaders must set rules on use – American Medical Association

OpenAI leaps into health care with AI benchmark to evaluate models - Stat News

Medical schools move from worrying about AI to teaching it – American Association of Medical Colleges

Why AI May Be Listening In on Your Next Doctor’s Appointment - Wall Street Journal

AI Magic & Engineering Principles

None of this is to say AI can’t write good code – it sometimes does – but rather that context, scrutiny, and expertise are required to discern good from bad. In 2025, we are essentially using a very eager but inexperienced assistant. You shouldn’t blindly trust an AI’s code without oversight. The hype of “AI magic” needs to meet the reality of software engineering principles. - Addy Osmani writing on Elevate

The important thing

The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.  –Charles Dubois

Give All

Give all to love; obey thy heart. -Ralph Waldo Emerson (born May 25, 1803)