☃️ A Whisper of Winter
Ep 28: An unexpected gift of March skiing, being intentionally social, and kicking the tires on generative AI for speech and video.
Last week’s storm brought with it enough accumulation to finally enjoy some cross-country skiing. We made it out twice: to the Finger Lakes National Forest, and to Hammond Hill State Forest. As I write this, all of the snow that fell is gone from our yard (replaced by a swampy mess), and I have to assume the trails we were on are also impassible. A whisper of winter? Definitely.
A Tip for the Modern Worker
Put a plan in place to combat loneliness. Loneliness is one of the most often-cited drawbacks of working on your own. Identifying that emotion and sharing how you feel, first with yourself, is an essential first step to countering it. Put a plan in place to combat loneliness: don’t wait for others to get in touch with you. Get in touch with them: propose a coffee, walk, hike, or a virtual gathering. Don't despair if it doesn't work out the first time you ask. People can be busy. Try again and be politely persistent in your pursuit of fellowship.
This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. Besides being involved in periodic social activities that crop up, I find that reaching out to people is the best way to be social, one-on-one. I literally have a recurring reminder to do this every Sunday. I rotate through a group of people that I enjoy spending time with, be it over coffee, a walk through our village streets, or a hike at Taughannock.
#365DayDraw
I drew this and wrote the accompanying annotation as part of my #365DayDraw project 7 years ago today.
Prometheus' gift
With the shift of daylight saving time (again, really?) we might best use these candles before 7a. It’s nice to have the later light, but the time change always wreaks havoc with my sleep. Let’s just pick a time and stick with it, shall we? I’m not hopeful.
Commentary
I was inspired to try out text-to-speech generators and AI videos after reading
's article about creating avatar videos.Mitch points out that “in about 12-18 months when you’re watching a video like this, you won’t be able to distinguish between a real human being or an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar.” And I agree with him: it is incredible, and it is scary. How can we distinguish truth from fiction when it appears an actual human is conveying content?
I used a few of the services Mitch highlighted, and without spending a cent, came up with some interesting results. First up, text-to-speech from ElevenLabs. This is an excerpt from last week’s episode.
The intonation, pacing, and adept handling of technical acronyms left me rather impressed. I used their generative model to create a voice, but paying subscribers can clone a specific voice given an audio sample. Interesting, yes? If you don’t like to record yourself, for reasons of time or style, this has implications.
Then I headed over to Studio D-ID for some avatar creation. The first thing I tried was to upload a picture of myself. The result was interesting, and if you don’t know me, it might come off as semi-realistic. The blurring of most parts of the video except the eyes is a bit disconcerting. After a few seconds, I’m sure you realized it’s not real, though it could be improved if the audio matched my actual voice (a paid option).
One of their models doesn’t fare much better in my opinion. Look at his hands: their movement at first seems naturally related to the audio, but it’s random and at times it’s incongruent with actual body motions someone might make as they speak.
I also played briefly with Fliki, a middle ground that pairs text-to-speech with images, and is probably very good for social media posts. These tools are just the tip of the iceberg, and their results today will bear no resemblance to what we’ll see a year from now. Incredible and scary, for sure.
Miscellanea
📺 I’m watching Candy on Hulu, listening to Tim Ferriss interview Peter Attia about the Science and Art of Longevity, and reading From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks. Have you watched, listened to, or read something that you like to recommend?
🗑️ It seems incongruent to spend $100 on a trash bin, but that was this week’s big purchase! Last week our trash collector accidentally ripped the handle off our old one, but it was to be expected. Brittle plastic after 20 years of use seems acceptable, and in hindsight, is kind of impressive.
🥗 I see that I’m supposed to sow kale in the garden this coming week. A sure sign of spring, at least on the calendar.