Staying relevant

Reading 100 Years of Betty and eating out a lot

THINKING

I am desperately trying to stay relevant/not get buried in the 20^th century and to do that I’m aware that I need to embrace emerging technologies. And even technologies that have already emerged.

I tried to ask Chat GPT to teach me to how to use AI but I didn’t have the attention span to read all its output so I tried to listen to podcasts instead and I inadvertently found a cure for insomnia.

People around me are using AI to generate reports, write code and create images of dogs as humans and people as cartoons. I have seen people use it to bring old family photos to life and learn to perfect their golf swing. My husband is using it to deign furniture (don’t even ask) and solve complex commercial problems and my son is literally researching reinforcement learning in robots as part of his Masters thesis. I, on the other hand, have asked Chat GPT to write me a skincare plan (based on the brilliant hair care plan it created for my niece) and I I have also asked it how to stop bobbles forming on my winter jumpers. Put it this way, I have neither stayed relevant nor have I yet embraced the technology.

I remain rather petrified of it and how we are ever going to be able to tell fact from fiction. I keep trying to tell myself that computers didn’t exist when I was at school and we had to learn long division because calculators were still a novelty. Things change and evolve and so will the way we learn and live.

In the meantime Google is asking me if I want help with my homework, Gmail is volunteering to write my emails and Microsoft just has me open one of their products and they do all the rest. One day AI will be trying to write this Substack and while I should watch and learn, I am clearly too impatient, plus I really like writing.

READING

I am drawn to Debra Oswald novels like Nina Proudman was drawn to Patrick Reid which I am aware is a terrible in joke for people who are not fans of Offspring or people who don’t know that Debra Oswald was the creator and head writer of Offspring. But IYKYK and I am pretty sure that people who read this newsletter know.

This is a long way of saying there was no doubt in my mind that when I saw Debra Oswald had written a new book I was going to read it. 100 Years of Betty literally tells the story of Betty’s 100 years - from a child born into poverty in pre-war England to an accomplished centenarian living her final days in Australia.

The book traces the life of Betty at the same time as dealing with major issues like feminism and motherhood and family. There are some poignant and important bits of history uncovered along the way and if you read The Land Before Avocado by Debra’s husband Richard Glover you, like me, will imagine the cosy chats the two of them must have had about the early days of feminism in Australia.

The book is written as if it is being told to you by Betty itself with lots of references to the reader and breaking of the fourth wall - it is this style that keeps you reading and feeling connected to an amazing woman who even though fictional, was born before her time.

EATING

Made this tuna pasta recipe from Recipe Tin Eats - perfect for when you can’t be bothered going to the shops because you’ll probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen. Ate an astonishingly good meal at The White Horse in Surry Hills and 20 Chapel in Marrickville. Eaten out way too much but I’m not complaining.

Saved this recipe on insta and can’t wait to try it (although after I inserted the video link here I think it looks a bit er, pale. The actual video is more appealing.)

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Thanks for reading to the end. Or reading at all.

Let me know where you are on the AI train

See you next week

Lana