So I’m on my lunch break and it hits me: I can probably knock out a blog post in the next five or ten minutes, because the tools finally make it friction-free. I’m chopping peppers with one hand, laptop on the counter, and macOS is doing the typing. Double-tap the Control key and the words just land on the page while I rinse the knife.
Apple’s on-device model—whatever compressed neural net they slipped into this 2020 M1—keeps up without breaking a sweat. I don’t have a newer iPhone to test, but the Mac is already good enough: I speak, it mishears the occasional word, I keep cooking. The punctuation wanders and my “uh”s stay in, but that’s raw material. Paste the transcript into an LLM, tell it “voice memo,” and it cleans the spills the way you wipe the counter before you plate lunch. Closed-captioning for your thoughts—typos, restarts, and all.
Five spare minutes now equals a journal entry. A security researcher driving between gigs can leave career advice for students who’d never catch her otherwise. The audience benefits, sure; the bigger surprise is what talking out loud does for me. I ramble, contradict myself, circle back—exactly the long-form loop social media punishes. I’m hoping tools like neural column nudge us toward thoughtfulness (emphasis on full, not thoughtless or cruel). Be nice out there; maximize harmony. Not to get too Kumbaya, but we need a little.
I hope this isn’t a one-off. It felt good to exhale an idea, even if no one clicks. The day traffic becomes the point will be a sad one.