When I was a kid, I had no idea what my Dad did for a living. Like most of my friends, I was clueless about what our dads did all day. I knew that every morning, he’d take off before I woke up, and return home just in time for dinner. That was about the extent of it. Why I never asked him how he supported his family, is beyond me. At the time, it just didn’t occur to me to ask. So, I leaped at the opportunity to ask ChatGPT for its help with a six-year-old boy asking his dad what he did for a living, as a Social…
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Truffle Troubles How ChatGPT Can Interpret Your Dialects
Ah, the holidays! A time when our homes become bustling hubs of relatives and friends from every corner of the globe, bringing with them a kaleidoscope of dialects as diverse as the country itself. Where Aunt Linda’s Southern twang harmonizes with the Midwestern lilt of your in-laws. Where Grandpa’s Texas drawl mingles with Uncle Joe’s Bostonian “pahk the cah.” In the spirit of this festive season, we’re unwrapping a story from Italy, a land where the language is rich and colorful. Home of the world of truffles, those elusive, earthy delights that are the hidden gems of the culinary world. And just like trying to understand your cousin’s fast-talking New…
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A Son’s Letter from School Including Endnotes
Dear Mom and Dad, I hope this letter finds you in the best of health and happiness. I’ve been at MIT for a few weeks now, and boy, do I have a lot to tell you. First of all, the workload is insane! I spend around 30 hours a week just on problem sets[1]. Can you believe it? And that’s just for calculus! The problems involve integral and differential calculus, concepts I thought I had mastered but now seem far more complicated[2]. In Intro to Biology, the lab work involves extracting DNA and then there’s a midterm on cellular structures[3]. You’d think they were training us to clone dinosaurs or…
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Jurassic Parenting When Families Shared Life Lessons, not Wi-Fi Passwords
“I don’t know’ isn’t an acceptable answer, but neither is quoting the wisdom of Gwyneth Paltrow.” Back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, parents used to take time out of their busy schedules to sit down and answer their kids’ questions about life instead of telling them to go ask Alexa. It was a fairytale time when people actually cared about each other and weren’t glued to Netflix, Hulu, or their iPhones. It was a time when a kid felt comfortable approaching his dad and asking, “Where do babies come from?” To which Dad would reply, “Go ask your mother.” These nuggets of guidance usually took the form of axions…
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Rule-A-Palooza A young boy offers alternatives to the age-old golden rules
Ah, parenting. The never-ending roller coaster of joy, chaos, and the occasional urge to hide in the bathroom for five days. It’s a wild ride filled with sticky fingers, endless questions, and the delicate art of mediation with tiny humans who possess the negotiation skills of a cagey divorce lawyer. It’s like trying to persuade a tornado to slow down and follow a meticulously planned path. Children have the uncanny ability to challenge the status quo and question the rules we hold dear. They’re masters of testing boundaries and seeking their own path. As they grow, their individuality and unique personalities emerge, sometimes leading them to question the very principles…