This is the final edition of the Creative Summary newsletter, which will be renamed “The Ephemeral Scrapbook Newsletter.” Over the past two weeks, the author has shared 20 posts, 12 photos, and one podcast episode, but no YouTube videos. The author feels conflicted about using Facebook and have rediscovered Medium, where they plan to publish more articles.

The newsletter also includes discoveries from MG Siegler, highlights from the iPhone Photography Awards, and insights on Apple’s upcoming event. The author is considering freelancing and will document the journey on Medium. He discusses app recommendations and express concerns over AI in photography and deepfakes.

Footnote: this summary was generated using ChatGPT as an experiment.

This morning, I submitted an article to a Medium publication. The subject is about considering going freelance. It’s been a long time since I have done this. Back in 2020 when I was much more active on Medium, submitting articles to Medium publications was the only way to get noticed and hope to make a few dollars along the way.

On My Writing Style As a Traveler

As you probably know, I’ve been writing and sharing my travel notes since the beginning of my trip to Croatia. I’m proud of maintaining the regularity to post each day, but not as proud of my writing itself. I can’t quite describe the quality of my writing, but when I read it back, it feels rather superficial. Why do I feel this way?

Well, my writing tends to list the places I visited and whether I liked them. But I almost always fail to explain why I loved visiting them. Take yesterday’s travel update, for example: I wrote that I fell in love with Sibenik and shared a photo of banners adorned with children’s drawings. What exactly resonated with me in this place? What were my emotions when I entered the narrow streets of the village and first saw the banners everywhere? It was surprising—the children’s drawings added a contrast to the old buildings’ walls, giving the city a sense of humanity. And you know what? It was the children’s festival! It’s a great way to celebrate humanity.

Part of my problem is that I’m not a native English speaker, but a French speaker. I don’t have the same level of vocabulary to describe feelings or physical places. I’m wondering if I could first write a version of my travel update in French and then ask ChatGPT to translate it into English. For today’s travel update, that’s what I’m going to do. We’ll see how it comes out this time. Let me know if you notice a difference.

Disclaimer: this text was first written in English (yes, in English!) and I asked ChatGPT to improve to the writing. It made a big difference, trust me, but I still have this feeling of owning the ideas and the final results.