James Shelley https://jamesshelley.com James Shelley Wed, 31 Dec 2025 11:03:17 -0500 <![CDATA[If you need to use a chatbot to do your job, does that make YOU the robot?]]> https://jamesshelley.com/if-you-need-to-use-a-chatbot-to-do-your-job-does-that-make-you-the-robot.html https://jamesshelley.com/if-you-need-to-use-a-chatbot-to-do-your-job-does-that-make-you-the-robot.html Fri, 14 Nov 2025 21:12:45 -0500 James Shelley In a well known 2015 blog post, Peter Reinhardt argues that Uber workers can be categorized into two groups. One group (the coders and engineers) runs the system and the other group (the drivers) does what the system tells them to do.

]]> Technology <![CDATA[What's the fun in writing on the internet anymore?]]> https://jamesshelley.com/whats-the-fun-in-writing-on-the-internet-anymore.html https://jamesshelley.com/whats-the-fun-in-writing-on-the-internet-anymore.html Fri, 16 Feb 2024 12:40:00 -0500 James Shelley You are reading some words on the internet. Think about all the things you could do with these words...

]]> Technology <![CDATA[Think for Yourself?]]> https://jamesshelley.com/think-for-yourself.html https://jamesshelley.com/think-for-yourself.html Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:15:00 -0400 James Shelley Thinking, like learning, is a distributed human activity. Don't try to do it all by yourself.

]]> Epistemology <![CDATA[On being plagiarized]]> https://jamesshelley.com/on-being-plagiarized.html https://jamesshelley.com/on-being-plagiarized.html Fri, 07 May 2021 11:36:00 -0400 James Shelley What do you do when someone repeatedly passes off your work as their own? Being the victim of a serial plagiarist has got me worried about the opportunities for theft that are created by paywalled environments.

]]> Technology <![CDATA[How do pandemics end?]]> https://jamesshelley.com/how-do-pandemics-end.html https://jamesshelley.com/how-do-pandemics-end.html Thu, 15 Oct 2020 12:24:00 -0400 James Shelley History, I think, begs us to second guess our assumptions about conquering COVID-19 and invites us to reimagine our lives and priorities in an evolving, adaptive world.

]]> Epistemology <![CDATA[Some High Mountain]]> https://jamesshelley.com/some-high-mountain.html https://jamesshelley.com/some-high-mountain.html Sat, 10 Oct 2020 12:28:00 -0400 James Shelley A timeless thought experiment, handed down through centuries and cultures, invites us to keep the human experience (and our personal ambitions) in sharp perspective.

]]> Epistemology <![CDATA[How much I do not understand]]> https://jamesshelley.com/how-much-i-do-not-understand.html https://jamesshelley.com/how-much-i-do-not-understand.html Fri, 26 Jun 2020 12:25:00 -0400 James Shelley  

I do not understand what it would be like to explain to my son why he is more likely to die at the hands of the police than other people.

]]> Epistemology <![CDATA[Uncertainty, as mantra]]> https://jamesshelley.com/uncertainty-as-mantra.html https://jamesshelley.com/uncertainty-as-mantra.html Fri, 15 May 2020 12:39:00 -0400 James Shelley We know as much about the future today as we did in November 2019, at which time every human on the planet had absolutely no idea what was about to happen.

]]> Epistemology <![CDATA[We are not all in this together]]> https://jamesshelley.com/we-are-not-all-in-this-together.html https://jamesshelley.com/we-are-not-all-in-this-together.html Thu, 30 Apr 2020 12:22:00 -0400 James Shelley We love to say that we are all in this together. But who exactly is included in this declaration of togetherness? We are living in a period that is anything but a common, universalizing, and unifying moment. Should we change the way we speak of solidarity?

]]> Praxis <![CDATA[Why are we busy?]]> https://jamesshelley.com/why-are-we-busy.html https://jamesshelley.com/why-are-we-busy.html Wed, 19 Jun 2019 12:20:00 -0400 James Shelley I have long been intrigued by the fact that I (like almost everyone else I know) habitually answer the question, ‘How are you doing?’ with almost robotic predictability: ‘Oh, you know, swamped — so busy these days!’ What do I hope that you, the listener, know about me when I describe myself in this way?

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