There is value in synthesis

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[Chat excerpt: 26 Feb 2026]

StJohn Piano: A thought i am circling around a lot recently, which has relevance to your career:
StJohn Piano: There is value in synthesis.
StJohn Piano: With AI, the value of the raw production of information, e.g. an article or a code module, is approaching zero, or at least a very small amount. For example, the physical and mental cost of typing and grammar checking has dropped precipitously.
StJohn Piano: However, difficulty and scarcity and therefore tradable value always remain, somewhere, somehow.
StJohn Piano: I see and experience difficulty with the
•⁠  ⁠validation
•⁠  ⁠curation / selection
•⁠  ⁠and synthesis / arrangement
of information.

I also see other people struggling with these problems every day.
StJohn Piano: I would avoid work that primarily involves the raw production of information.
StJohn Piano: (Unless done at scale with the new tools, in which case you are operating a factory.)
StJohn Piano: But synthesis - this remains at human scale, and remains difficult, and therefore worth paying for.
StJohn Piano: This includes using AI to generate a synthesis - one must still validate the result, which requires modelling and grasping the synthesis in one's own mind.
StJohn Piano: And, due to Jevons paradox, the work involved in synthesis may increase enormously.
StJohn Piano: Which is in fact what is occurring to me in my own work, very rapidly.
StJohn Piano: ^ will write post.

Borges: Very relevant indeed.
Borges: Thanks for sharing your thought. I’m thinking a lot about Lego-like moves to make.
Borges: The job market is precarious. I’m trying to come up with moves that stack.
Borges: On the value of synthesis, what you describe also happens in politics. At least at the level I’m familiar with locally.

StJohn Piano: Ah, really ? Please expand.

Borges: There’s a lot of information out there and a lot that exists "in potentia". But the only way something happens is if someone connects the data points and makes something coherent out of them.

I phrase it vaguely, because this applies both to political communication (ie, building a narrative) and legal processes - someone needs to collect the data points, make sure they’re valid, and weave them together.
Borges: It does actually come down to will in this things.

StJohn Piano: Aha: validation, selection, synthesis...

Borges: Someone needs to will something to happen
Borges: I am not the most knowledgable person in [redacted], but people are willing to share information with me in the hopes that I can make something happen.

StJohn Piano: Re: will: this, also, with a software product.

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