AI Is Going To Replace Me Someday

The machines are coming for my job. Oh, how naive I was when wrote this post. While I did accept that AI would someday rival our best writers, I did not expect to see its widespread use this soon.

You’ll find AI text in emails, press releases, even in actual magazines. How do I know? Because they sound like that annoying friend who’d just found crypto. Just like how they’d shoehorn the subject into every conversation—crypto is future-proof, crypto can heal your mother’s cancer, you can turn that sacrificial altar into an NFT—so too would AI use words that don’t belong in a sentence.

No, the term ‘meticulous detail to craftsmanship’ is not grammatically wrong. It just doesn’t fit the vibe of a Myanmarese night market vendor. I swear, if I have to read ‘a testament to its dedication to excellence’ to describe an underwear collection one more time…

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You Will Never Be Enough

All your life you’ve been told you’re not enough. You’re too soft. Too short. Too broke.

And you believe it too, because people like David Chappelle, Barack Obama, and Muhammad Ali exist, people who would dance circles (quite literally in Ali’s case) around their problems. You’ll never be like them. Those people are special.

Yet, you try. You join the Toastmasters Club. You read How To Win Friends And Influence People. You even join the service industry, thinking it’ll help you with your social skills, but the only thing you learn from that stint is how to cut hair.

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All I Can Do Is Live Life Three Minutes At A Time

There was a time when I wrote depressing stuff like this on the regular, much to the dismay of the people around me.

A downer, they called me. As if I’d forced them to live with my angst. They also threw out other adjectives like cringe, annoying, and lame.

Perhaps my biggest crime wasn’t the cringe or the regular servings of depresso. Perhaps it was taking their words to heart and not writing anything negative for years after that.

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Maybe I AM Cut Out To Be A Magazine Editor

group pic

The Men’s Folio Malaysia and Singapore teams

So… remember this post when I shat on the editor’s role? Well, this happened. Here’s the TLDR if you want to save the click—I am now the managing editor of Men’s Folio Malaysia

Since it’s been three months since taking on the new role, I can’t think of a better time to discuss the flip side of the coin. Because today, we’re going to explore all the good things about being an editor for a lifestyle magazine.

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I Ran 167 Days In A Row And I Don’t Recommend It

A compilation of Stuart's IG Story archive

My IG Story archive is just videos of me running.

It’s not that I don’t want you to run. I don’t recommend it because you should find something that resonates with you. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with a little introduction.

So I’m the type of person who’d adopt a new habit, just because. No warning, no prep, and boom—suddenly I’m on a meditating streak.

That’s how I quit my one-pack-a-day smoking habit. I just decided I wanted to stop smoking. That’s how I turned vegetarian for a couple of years.

And as of 12 June 2024, I’ve officially run five kilometres a day, 167 days in a row. Some days I walked (pulled my back). Some days I ran circles in my room (COVID quarantine). But ever since I told myself I’d cover a certain amount of distance every day, I found myself unable to stop.

Do I want to run a marathon someday? Nope. Am I looking to lose weight? Never. So why the hell am I doing this?

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