Making Magic Without Hitting a Wall

Hello, and happy Sunday! All of the nerds are fighting over whether to stay on X, flock to Bluesky, or hang out on Threads. Meanwhile, we’re just over here writing about AI. We’re also happy to share a collection of essays written by the first cohort of students in our course, How to Write With AI—take a peek, or read on for more on that and everything we published this week.—Kate Lee

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Knowledge base

"How to Make Magic" by Brandon Gell/Source Code: Sometimes great execution isn't enough—you need to make magic. Every Studio leader Brandon Gell learned this lesson while designing the website for Sparkle, Every's AI-powered file organizer. In the process, he also learned that good work requires the application of taste. Read this if you want to understand the difference between high-quality execution and creating something truly magical in your work.

"Is AI Progress Hitting a Wall?" by Dan Shipper/Chain of Thought: Recent reports of AI's death have been greatly exaggerated. While progress in pre-training large language models may be slowing, Dan Shipper explains that it's not cause for alarm. Just like a toddler transitioning from walking to talking, AI is simply shifting to new paradigms of exponential growth. Read this if you want to understand why the doomsayers are wrong and how AI will continue to evolve in the coming years.

🔏 "Why AI Makes the Perfect Customer Focus Group" by Chris Silvestri: If you ever wished you could read your customers' minds, AI might just be the next best thing. Conversion copywriter Chris Silvestri shows how to use AI personas to test marketing copy, uncover hidden desires, and simulate real-world scenarios. Read this if you want to perfect your marketing messaging quickly and cheaply. 

🎧 🔏 "How to Win With Prompt Engineering" by Dan Shipper/AI & I: AI isn’t making prompt engineers obsolete—it’s making domain experts more crucial ever more important in defining the scope of AI problems. On the latest episode of AI & I, Jared Zoneraich, CEO of PromptLayer, explains why, with insights about making prompt engineering accessible to non-technical people and mastering the art of evaluation. 🖥 Watch this if you want to learn how to harness AI's power through better prompts and why your subject-matter expertise might be the key to winning in the AI era. 

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Collaborative filtering

Twenty-four students who took our new class, How to Write With AI, wrote essays, putting into practice what they learned from Every lead writer Evan Armstrong, guest lecturers, their editors, and each other. Over the course of four weeks, they attended lectures and product demos, completed daily writing exercises, gave each other constructive feedback and encouragement in small groups, and wrote these capstone essays. Bravo to the entire group.

Alignment 

Message not sent. In my first job as a doctor, I helped deliver babies in a hospital. While the new parents were radiant, it was the grandparents' faces that stayed with me. Their eyes weren't on the baby—they were watching their own children, seeing them finally decode a decades-long message: "Oh, now you understand how much I love you." That's why the New York Times piece about parents grieving their children's decision not to have kids misses the deeper story. It's not about holiday tables with missing seats or children's books left untouched. The real heartbreak is your kids never fully understanding how deeply they were loved. Some things can't be taught or told—they have to be lived.—Ashwin Sharma

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Hallucination

Next up: the Mac Micro.

That’s all for this week! Be sure to follow Every on X at @every and on LinkedIn. 

We also build AI tools for readers like you. Automate repeat writing with Spiral. Organize files automatically with Sparkle. Write something great with Lex.