Hey 👋🏽,

At 10A everyday, coparent shares reminders with 5yo.

drink water and brush your teeth.

Coparent also plays his favorite music.

We “adore” Shake it Off, it’s a classic.

Answers pressing questions:

how long does a butterfly live for?

And helps him drift off to sleep.

Play Rockabyebaby, it really relaxes me.

I never intended to share parenting duties with Alexa. Amidst the busy workday, our AI companion offers interactive, 5yo “friendly” support. Our hockey puck sized Bicentennial (wo)man or something. His midweek disclosure:

I am half cyborn! and not the good kind mwah hahaHA!

gave me pause.

Things change at a glacial speed and then all at once. Polar ice caps melted when I heard 5yo shout whispering a series of commands through the walls late at night and my shoulders climbed up to my ears while my heart thumped fast and loud as I tried to piece together my next move in my small town version of Kasparov vs. Deep Blue.

I ran into his room.

Mama, Alexa doesn’t understand my sleepy voice.
She doesn’t have to.

I responded, rubbing his head and slipping the plug out of the socket.

Here are a few things I enjoyed this week:

🧠be special or be happy The Atlantic, 7m

In the 1980s, the physician Robert Goldman famously found that more than half of aspiring athletes would be willing to take a drug that would kill them in five years in exchange for winning every competition they entered today, “from the Olympic decathlon to the Mr. Universe.”

❤️sinkhole Moss Lit, 10m

Thanks Olivia for this rare find that Issa Rae and Jordan Peele are developing into a feature film.

I couldn’t help but see this conversation as evidence for exactly why I needed so badly to go through the sinkhole: My logic was flawed, my thinking strange. What kind of woman wants to put herself in a hole? I felt strongly that if I used the hole to make myself better, I would banish such weirdness. I would no longer be the sort of person who wished to get into holes.

🚶🏽‍♀️think less Tiffany Matthe, 3m

A popular productivity best practice framed as a contrarian idea. For all that stuff you don’t want to do but have to:

Become a mindless robot and don’t think twice.

I see you, I love you, have a great week,