Printed dictionaries are amazing!
Earlier this week, I needed to break out my Italian dictionary to write a comment in Italian. It reminded me of how much fun it is to look up words, seeing how the various options both do and don’t match depending on context and nuance, looking at example phrases, exploring other words on the same physical page.
To be fair, it also slowed me down a bit, but not everything has to be a rush. I could have used Google Translate, and yes, I checked my work after the fact using it. And I have a bigger point here—all of these emerging AI tools for “content creation.” Where’s the joy in that? What happens when people replace creation with convenience? The tools can be fun to play with or play some small role in the process, but the technologist vision of “content” does little for me when compared to the value of engagement and free exploration.
I become just as excited by grammar books, but if I start thinking about them too much, I won’t get anything else done for hours.
