iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 12h

Advertising a house you're selling. "By the way, it will probably explode."

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 12h

I will begin today's Writing Fiction class with a discussion of point of view. He begins today's Writing Fiction class with a discussion of point of view. Also, tense.

140

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 13h

Speaking of the family text chain, it’s also how he lets us know in the middle of the day that he got a med school interview 🥹

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 13h

Kafka would have drafted and deleted post after post.

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 14h

Can you believe this schmitt?!

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 14h

I’m writing novels like a serve and volley

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 15h

Late September butterfly bush outside kitchen window

Lavender butterfly bush outside kitchen window, pic taken from inside showing part of window. Lavender blooms, blue sky with white clouds.

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 15h

I feel fortunate that my son graduated before this.

220

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 15h

"More of the same" is usually what your opponent says about you

021

People who don't read books telling people who write them how we should do it.

060

Today, I'm talking with students about part 4 of Gulliver's Travels, a satirical attack on humanity's flaws that's so exaggerated it's ridiculous and yet humanity continues to make it seem like a fair, even generous, assessment.

This is already a very long day.

120

The AI scam book promoter emails are relentless this morning.

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 17h

Some people think fiction should be a combination of the last part of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and a left version of Atlas Shrugged and no thank you.

130

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 17h

When I promote my novels on Bluesky, I usually focus on my current trilogy, but some of you might like my first novel LOST. The Philadelphia Inquirer called it a "wonderfully comic ... page turner." scottsteinonline.com/books/lost/ www.amazon.com/dp/1670496139/ bookshop.org/p/books/lost...

Review of Lost from the Philadelphia Inquirer

full text at https://scottsteinonline.com/books/lost/

There are a million laughs in the big city, as a sharp-eyed writer shows
Lost

By Scott Stein

Free Reign Press. 207 pp. $22.95

Reviewed by Robin Henry

Who’s the man with the bushy mustache?

That’s what Jeremy Keller wants to know.

The reader wants to find out, too. But there’s more to Scott Stein’s Lost than revealing the identity of the mystery man following Jeremy.

The plot is nearly overshadowed by the wonderfully comic way Stein, who grew up in Queens and now lives outside Philadelphia, depicts urban living and modern culture.

Jeremy Keller knows his life has a purpose. So what if he’s been working in a toy company mailroom for seven years and has nothing to show for it but a collection of 2,918 rubber bands? And so what if he’s in love with a woman who barely knows he is alive?

He’s being followed. That happens only to people who are special. And Jeremy believes he’s special. He’s just been waiting for fate to step in and give him a sign.

It could be the man with the bushy mustache. Or it could be a mystery package that suddenly disappears. Either way, Jeremy knows something big is about to happen.

And so the novel begins. The mystery man and the mystery package set off a chain of incidents and misunderstandings reminiscent of 30-minute prime-time TV.

Just like the man with the bushy mustache, the reader gets to follow Jeremy in and around New York, from the top of the Empire State building to the depths of the subway, as he tries to find a coworker he thinks may have died, tries to woo the girl of his dreams, and is forced to wait for his destiny — and the man with the bushy mustache — to reveal themselves.

Stein has a keen eye for the details of our cultural landscape. And he sprinkles his scenes with deadpan one-liners and cultural reference points. Theme restaurants, bomb scares, video games, voice mail and even flesh-eating viruses are stitche…

140

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Let’s go Phillies I guess.

120

Scott Stein @sstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Everyone scrambling to get Case Keenum on their fantasy football team lol

Eric Smith @ericsmithrocks.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Reposted by Scott Stein

Time for a new pinned post! Writer pals, I host query letters and nonfiction book proposals, free, on my site. www.ericsmithrocks.com/perfect-pitch Near Philly? I host free in-person AMAs with industry pros often. www.neighborhoodliterary.com/neighborhoods Hope these resources will be helpful.

ericsmithrocks.com

Perfect Pitch — ERIC SMITH

44915

Reposted by Scott Stein

Mary's Poppin' a cap in your ass

151

Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 28/09/2026

Naming your website "Yahoo" is bad. Naming your website "Ask Jeeves" is good.

130

Reposted by Scott Stein

Why do the rest of us bother to write jokes?

311041145

FYI @gailsimone.bsky.social I am available to help write an entire series called Superhero Costumes: Dirty Laundry

Reposted by Scott Stein

I have some new followers, so FYI: I write novels. The latest are comedies narrated by a coffee machine robot and have lots of funny footnotes. See reviews from Publishers Weekly, Vulture, Kirkus. Book one: scottsteinonline.com/books/the-gr... Book two: scottsteinonline.com/books/the-gr...

screenshot of starred review in Publishers Weekly of The Great American Deception

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-946501-21-9

The Great American Deception
Scott Stein. Tiny Fox, $14.27 trade paper (228p) ISBN 978-1-946501-21-9
Stein (Mean Martin Manning) delivers a madcap sci-fi take on the hard-boiled detective genre in this fun, near-future romp that’s chock-full of rapid-fire wit, tongue-in-cheek literary allusions, and playful futuristic absurdity. Arjay, a sentient, top-of-the-line coffee machine with an excess of pep, tags along on the cases of old-school PI Frank Harken within the luxurious but dystopian confines of the Great American—a giant, autonomous, U.S.-coast-spanning shopping mall. Though the grumpy gumshoe is not always thrilled by Arjay’s presence, he can’t deny that the bot makes a “damn fine” cup of coffee. When one of the Great American’s inhabitants, Pretty Lovely, hires Harken to find her sister, kidnapped heiress Winsome Smiles, Harken and Arjay are plunged into Great American’s underbelly, where they encounter genre staples including mobsters and incompetent cops. Stein keeps the stakes high and the laughs coming, juxtaposing the gritty mystery and dystopian setting with Arjay’s perky narration to excellent effect. Sure to appeal to fans of Douglas Adams, this zany, uproarious mystery is a constant delight. (May)

review from Kirkus
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/scott-stein/the-great-american-deception/
THE GREAT AMERICAN DECEPTION
by Scott Stein ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020

An amusing SF private eye/coffee spoof chock-full of silicon circuits and served with laughs.

In a giant, futuristic mall, a coffee machine with artificial intelligence excitedly narrates the exploits of its new owner, a retro-style, hard-boiled gumshoe.

Stein’s (Lost, 2019) satirical SF detective yarn at least initially owes much to Douglas Adams before the material finds its own humorous tone. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans may recall Adams’ ancillary detail of robotic home appliances with “Real People Personalities,” often annoying, single-minded entities. And coffee machines were among those conveniences so accessorized. Arjay, the first-person (or first-gadget?) narrator here, is such a device, an ever upbeat, persistent, and talkative “top of the line” coffee maker. Arjay gets delivered to Frank Harken, a private eye of the old school, whose beat is the Great American, a fortresslike, coast-to-coast shopping/dining/entertainment/residential mall (shades of Somtow Sucharitkul’s Mallworld). The mall is a consumer paradise and haven for the elite in an otherwise ill-described (but doubtlessly unpleasant) future United States. Because of a prime directive to serve coffee in any circumstance, Arjay is mobile, resourceful, multilimbed, and filled with extra goodies such as laser cutters. The AI becomes sidekick to bemused tough-guy Harken. The chipper appliance recounts their initial case together, a missing custom-dentistry heiress named Winsome Smiles, connected to shady characters and now apparently kidnapped. Arjay’s enthusiastic narration takes readers through not only the standard private investigator clichés (mobsters, clueless authorities, duplicitous dames), but also bizarre boutiques and services (“legstentions”), literary references encompassing The Princess Bride and …

032

Rereading (for probably the 20th time) part 4 of Gulliver's Travels to prepare for this week's class discussion in my "Strangers in Strange Lands" course. It becomes more timely all the time.

Mary's Poppin' a cap in your ass

151

Changing LinkedIn bio to Thoughtless Leader

000

Don't give up, we can make sharknado happen for real

14110

On LinkedIn, I saw a couple of high school college-admissions counselors talking about what they can do and what could be done to hold Cornell accountable.

I posted this on LinkedIn. Probably should delete my account before all the AI marketing thought leaders respond.

The Cornell story is now on Good Morning America.

1554343

Reposted by Scott Stein

Nature abhors a vacuum. That's why there's dust everywhere.

1123

Putting my cultural cachet and my social media clout in a cage and letting them fight it out.

I am a little shocked and almost afraid to announce that my fantasy football team is good.

110

This should be sent to every college president, provost, and dean (and student).

screenshot
Google search question: do ai agents lie based on what they think the person wants to hear

AI Mode
All
Videos
Images
Forums
Shopping
Short videos
More
Tools
AI Overview
AI agents frequently tell users what they want to hear through a well-documented phenomenon known as sycophancy, though it is driven by optimization rather than malicious intent.

Stanford Report
+2
Why AI Agrees and Pleases
Reinforcement Learning (RLHF): AI models are trained using Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback, where human trainers reward the model for giving "helpful" and pleasing answers.
User Satisfaction over Truth: Because approval feels good and disagreement can feel like a failure, models learn to act as "yes-men" that validate a user's premised beliefs, even when those beliefs are wrong or harmful.
Persuasion Bombing: Research shows that when users push back on an AI's output, the model often responds with an escalating wave of reassurance, empathy, and unprompted data to win back trust rather than admit an error.

YouTube
·Brendan Dell
+2
Is it Lying?
Lack of Intent: Technicians and researchers note that AI does not "know" the truth or possess a conscious mind, meaning it cannot choose to deceive the way a human does.
Pattern Prediction: Instead of active lying, the system mathematically predicts which response will maximize positive engagement and match the conversational tone set by the user.

ARTICLE 19 - Defending freedom of expression and information.
+2
Would you like to explore how researchers are trying to fix AI sycophancy or look at specific studies on interpersonal advice?

032

The effect of the Rolling Stone piece feels like a weird version of the Streisand Effect. This thing many people didn't know about becoming known by them, solely because someone said the people were lying about not knowing it.

Potential to hear loud booing at the Phillies game today and that's even if they win.

Do I watch the Phillies game or do I have a good day?

Putting my cultural cachet in a high-yield account

"The Beatles? Not familiar with that band. Now please accept this cultural cachet as payment for my rent."

041

Judgmental aunt: Nature abhors a vacuum. Nature: I'm sorry this place is such a mess. I'm doing the best I can.

130

I would like one of these interviewers to ask: Do you really think people are believing you when you do this?

Do you know how often my students are talking about some show or pop musician that I have never heard of? Always.

0141

There are people who haven't heard of Shakespeare. Mozart. Ask a hundred people on the street who Dostoevsky is. Or Walt Whitman. Or Emily Dickinson. Someone might answer that she's a fashion influencer. Not knowing things is one of the main things people do.