macwright-com-5gx64c.txt (4694B)
1 [1]Tom MacWright 2 3 [email protected] 4 5 [2]Tom MacWright 6 7 • [3]Writing 8 • [4]Reading 9 • [5]Photos 10 • [6]Projects 11 • [7]Drawings 12 • [8]Micro ⇠ 13 • [9]About 14 15 Auto Light Dark 16 17 Accidental anonymity 18 19 2026-06-24 20 21 I went on a run this morning and got the idea to write this, but [13]Nolen and 22 [14]Robin and [15]Robin again have written other, maybe better versions of it. 23 Still, I have some recent experience and feelings to get out there, so here 24 goes: 25 26 Like Robin, I have been getting a lot of incoming emails that follow an 27 LLM-like formula of observation about me and how it could be relevant to some 28 product + ask that i try the product. A lot of these seem LLM-generated. 29 30 Also, I review job applications. I've been doing this for a long time, about 12 31 years. I've read a lot of applications. In the last few months, I've started to 32 see applications that were clearly cowritten by an LLM, link to an 33 LLM-generated portfolio site, which then links to LLM-generated GitHub 34 projects, with purely LLM-generated commit messages. 35 36 Partly, like Robin and Nolen, my reaction is that this is sad and I don't like 37 it. Most LLM-related stuff has made me feel bad about people, work, and the 38 world, and this is no different. I'm no purist - I use the tools and cannot 39 deny that they're useful and powerful. 40 41 My other reaction is that I don't know anything about these people. 42 43 They haven't put themselves out there. They haven't said anything true. 44 45 My personal prejudice here is pretty long-standing. I've written and sung 46 songs, and published my artwork and writing on the internet for fifteen years, 47 and a lot of the reaction I get is about how other people couldn't because they 48 don't know how or don't think theirs is good enough or whatever, but let me be 49 blunt for a brief moment: putting your art, writing, expression out to be 50 judged by others is an act of bravery as much as talent, and a lot of people 51 lack braver-y. Sorry to say it but if you need your work to be polished and 52 beyond reproach, that's a determination and character problem, not a skill 53 problem. 54 55 The fear is being found out for being imperfect. The fear is also for being 56 known in general: maybe you're a real butch tough guy but your art style is 57 playful and tender and you don't want that side to come out. Maybe your taste 58 is weird or undeveloped and you don't want anyone to know. But the person who 59 puts nothing out for judgment just isn't known at all. 60 61 Which brings me back to the current moment: the point of resumes and portfolios 62 is not just to list credentials, it's to give some hint as to which kind of 63 person will be sitting next to you, to be inspired by their arc or their human 64 characteristics and capabilities. Are they determined? Did they start off 65 building silly stuff in neopets and work their way up to programming, or create 66 some project based on their personal interests? 67 68 The perfected, generated, prompted resume is generic and impersonal. It tells 69 me nothing about this person, other than that they use particular tools. I 70 can't see the inputs to their outputs, see what they typed, or the process of 71 building. 72 73 The email about why I'm the right person to try your side project says nothing 74 about you. I don't know why you made it, who you are. I don't know your writing 75 style. I don't have any way to connect to you as a person, and no reason to 76 care. 77 78 I wrote a while ago about how [16]Pictures are famous for their humanness, and 79 not for their pictureness. 80 81 People capable of liking some paintings or prints or whatever can rarely do 82 so without knowing something about the artist. Again, the situation is 83 social rather than scientific. Any work of art is half of a conversation 84 between two human beings, and it helps a lot to know who is talking at you. 85 Does he or she have a reputation for seriousness, for religiosity, for 86 suffering, for concupiscence, for rebellion, for sincerity, for jokes? 87 88 I commiserate with the fear of being found out, and the want of perfection. But 89 if you want people to connect with you as a person, you can't hide behind a 90 machine. Publish your typos and show your struggle getting going. Be a human. 91 92 93 References: 94 95 [1] https://macwright.com/ 96 [2] https://macwright.com/ 97 [3] https://macwright.com/writing/ 98 [4] https://macwright.com/reading/ 99 [5] https://macwright.com/photos/ 100 [6] https://macwright.com/projects/ 101 [7] https://macwright.com/drawings/ 102 [8] https://macwright.com/micro/ 103 [9] https://macwright.com/about/ 104 [13] https://eieio.games/blog/legibility-of-effort/ 105 [14] https://www.robinsloan.com/lab/fourth-law/ 106 [15] https://www.robinsloan.com/lab/ai-promotion/ 107 [16] https://macwright.com/2025/10/16/the-art-is-the-person