Martin Vidal
Bio
Author of A Guide for Ambitious People, Flower Garden, and On Authorship
martinvidal.co
martinvidal.medium.com
Instagram: @martinvidalofficial
Stories (19/0)
How AI Made My Dream of Being a Songwriter Come True
I absolutely love music. I spend a couple hours every week finding new music and building playlists, which I then share with family and friends for all of us to listen to over the coming weeks. My 2023 Apple Music Replay shows that I was listening to different songs for 100,000 minutes last year!
By Martin Vidal2 days ago in Beat
The Definitive Guide for Writing a $700+ Story on Medium
Summary This article will first review the five factors that Medium uses to determine how much you get paid for each article, and then offers techniques for improving on each of those metrics. It concludes with a list of actionable takeaways.
By Martin Vidal2 days ago in Writers
I Went on 57 First Dates Last Year
57 is a big number when it comes to first dates in a single year, but to really understand the magnitude of it, I need to drive home the point that these are all real people, who like you or me, are the main characters in their lives. To that end, here’s a list of names:
By Martin Vidal3 days ago in Confessions
Arguments Against the Existence of Time
I would first premise that “time” as we conceive of it can have no beginning and no end. I elaborated on that thought fully in another article, “On Limitations,” but I will give a brief explanation of how I reached that conclusion here as well.
By Martin Vidal3 days ago in FYI
Is Stock Trading Just Gambling?
I split my time between stock trading and writing. One of the questions I often get when I talk about my trading is the one in the title: Isn’t stock trading basically just gambling? After you’ve dedicated years learning about and perfecting your trading, it can feel a little grating having it reduced to what people do when they sit down and pull the lever on a slot machine. However, there’s some validity to the claim, so let’s explore the question in detail.
By Martin Vidal12 days ago in Trader
The Drake-Kendrick Rap Beef: A Case Study of Mob Psychology
The following article contains disturbing allegations of criminal activity that some readers may find upsetting. The most famous example of “mob psychology” is the Salem Witch Trials. Since witches do not exist, the absurdity of that situation is self-evident. Yet, the same psychological dynamics which brought that almost comedic tragedy to bear are ready to be tapped into in any society at any time. The Red Scares and the internment of Japanese-Americans are other notable examples in American history. Similar things have happened on much smaller scales, though typically within a continuum, such as the famous trial after the Boston Massacre or, more recently, the case involving the Central Park 5. Sometimes, it’s a zeitgeist of paranoia that sweeps over a nation; at other times, it concerns just one person and a small group of people to outnumber them. Yet, no matter how many people are involved, it always looks the same.Four characteristics of mob psychology allow it to self-perpetuate with devastating consequences: 1) it abandons nuance, 2) it labels defenders of the accused as guilty of the same thing as the accused, 3) it rewards those who promote its aims, and 4) it does bad in the name of good.
By Martin Vidal12 days ago in Psyche
Should the U.S. Pay Reparations to Black Americans?
I know that most people are already fixed in their position for or against reparations, and many will prematurely close out this article as soon as it looks like the conclusion being reached doesn’t agree with their own. However, there are many factors being considered below and the argument is a winding one. Ultimately, any that are entirely for or entirely against are likely to disagree in part with the final conclusion reached.
By Martin Vidalabout a month ago in The Swamp
Why Creatives Shouldn’t Be Afraid of AI
AI, like any powerful technology, will have both positive and negative effects on society. But what’s particularly scary about this technology is that its development is moving incredibly fast, and it represents a way for technology to replicate and replace human functions like nothing before it. These ills are compounded by the unethical business structures surrounding AI. AI’s owners are relatively few, whereas the information that went to feed these machines was cultivated by all of us. They’re taking the works of individuals, giving it to the machine to study, and then having the machine recreate fundamentally derivative works without ever compensating the original creator. If they’re making a deal with a company like Shutterstock, YouTube, or even a platform like the one you’re reading this on, to be able to use their data, the shareholders of both the content company and AI company will see a financial windfall from it, but the content creators who actually supply that data are so far being left out. The same thing is likely to happen when companies use this technology to boost productivity. They will need less workers, and the people who will primarily benefit from this are those at the top. It should be clear by now that this article is not in defense of AI, nor is it a message of optimism about how AI will impact society. Instead, the aim here is to assist the creative in working through their reasonable fear that their contributions to the world are soon to be replaced and devalued from oversupply. We will find, however, that there is nothing to fear.
By Martin Vidalabout a month ago in Writers
How to Deal with the Fact that Everyone We Love Will Die Someday
There's obviously a degree of pragmatism built into the human psyche, which enables us to carry on each day while somehow completely ignoring life's largest and most alarming truths. Yes, everything is meaningless, and we find ourselves floating about on a speck in an infinite universe, and we have no real idea how any of this came about, yet, for a time, one can manage to focus all their attention and care on the fact that they're running late to their morning shift at the grocery store. But every now and then these truths sweep over our awareness, and in an instant, the whole world becomes unrecognizable.
By Martin Vidal2 months ago in Humans
Why Are Black-Specific Colleges, Caucuses, and TV Channels Acceptable, but Not White-Specific Ones?
Previously, I wrote an article that sought to answer the following question: Why does it seem to be more acceptable for Black people to joke about or criticize White people than the other way around? It received a lot of attention, and some of the comments others posted under it were questions that I wanted to address in turn.
By Martin Vidal3 months ago in The Swamp