dylan tweney

if you're bored, you're not paying attention

All my posts

  • Lies, damn lies, and GenAI

    Lies, damn lies, and GenAI

    In 2005, Princeton University philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt published a book that holds the key to understanding much of what’s going on in the 21st century. On Bullshit pulls no punches, right from its opening line: “One of the salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit.”… Story continues … “Lies,…

  • Storyline: Deepfakes and deep mistrust

    Storyline: Deepfakes and deep mistrust

    I’m thinking about a storyline that has come up multiple times this summer: How the mere existence of AI sows distrust. If I were pitching a news story or crafting a PR pitch relating to AI, I’d think about how to tie it into this unfolding broader storyline.… Story continues … “Storyline: Deepfakes and deep…

  • What is a storyline?

    What is a storyline?

    When searching for a name for this newsletter, I kept returning to “Storylines” because I felt like it reflected the essence of my work. My favorite jobs have been ones where I help a client find their storylines and define them in a crisp, compelling, resonant way.… Story continues … “What is a storyline?”

  • Don’t panic.

    Don’t panic.

    It’s July, and things are moving slowly in my neighborhood. The sun came up right on schedule this morning at 6:03. I know it happened, because I was there, though I didn’t see the sun itself until about ten minutes later, when it rose over the fogbank covering Hayward.… Story continues … “Don’t panic.”

  • Embracing the Zen of collaborative writing

    Embracing the Zen of collaborative writing

    I jumped into a writing career right out of college because I was jazzed about the potential for self-expression, and because I was getting hooked on the rush of seeing my work appear in print. From the first cartoon I had published (in Cricket magazine, when I was 10 years old – I wrote about…

  • Writing together in series and parallel

    Originally published June 13, 2024 on CoAuthored by Foster For me, the word “writer” has long called to mind the archetype of a poet in a lonely garret, scribbling away on page after page (or banging away on a keyboard) as the city goes about its business, far away and outside. … Story continues … “Writing…

  • 25 things I learned in 25 years of newsletter publishing

    In today’s writing circle, fellow writer Alicia asked me if I had just recently launched my newsletter.  “No,” I said, “I’ve been publishing it in one form or another for about 20 years.” In fact, when I looked at the archive, I realized that I’ve been publishing a newsletter for over 25 years.… Story continues…

  • The spiritual crisis of white men

    The spiritual crisis of white men

    The Good Men Project first published this article on May 2, 2024. For many of us, life hasn’t turned out quite the way we expected. Granted, this is true for many people of every gender and race, but for white men, it has a particular flavor of surprise.… Story continues … “The spiritual crisis of white men”

  • Notes from a totality

    Today’s solar eclipse was far from total where I was. In Northern California, the Moon blocked at most about one-third of the Sun. Of course, I watched it, with Karen, sitting in our driveway with a colander (to make a constellation of pinhole-camera crescent Sun images on the ground).… Story continues … “Notes from a…

  • Avoiding that ‘untitled document’ feeling

    Avoiding that ‘untitled document’ feeling

    You know that feeling when you’re staring at a brand-new Google Doc, and it’s completely white except for the blinking cursor in the upper left? Sometimes this blankness is an open field of possibility, but more often than not, it’s stress-inducing.… Story continues … “Avoiding that ‘untitled document’ feeling”