u/Manderlin99

When I got bit by the G-Shock bug six months ago, G-Shock offerings were vastly different then than they are now. There were fantastic models with Tough Solar and Multiband-6 for about $120, including the GW-7900, the GW-6900, and the price for the GD-350 was about $70. The legendary GW-9400 was about $200. Things have changed. The 6900 and 7900 are getting phased out and now cost much more. Same with the 9400. One of my favorite models, the GW-9300, is long gone. The new offerings don’t seem as appealing. MIP models have been criticized for various reasons. Prices seem higher. On a positive note, if someone was asking for an outstanding model for a good price, I could tell them that the MTG M900 can still be found for under $100. Is it just me, or is G-Shock entering a new phase that might be less pleasing to fans than the era that featured the 9300 Mudman, the 7900 Rescue, and 9400 Rangeman?

I’ve been examining the effects of generative AI on my college writing students’ compositions over the last four years, and the best analogy I can come up with to get a handle on generative AI is to compare it to the way athletes use PEDs. Athletes want an advantage, they want an edge, and they don’t want their opponents to have a better arsenal at their disposal, so they feel compelled to take PEDs. Same with college students who want the AI advantage. PEDs give athletes confidence that becomes a crutch. As AI does for students. PEDs can give athletes a false sense of power, making them feel like superheroes. So does AI for busy students. Over time, PEDs make the body go flat because it acclimates to greater and greater doses. In this regard, AI makes the brain go flat after its users default to outsourcing their half-baked thoughts and letting AI generate full-blown, overwritten compositions. The disconnection between the writer and the output is soul-deadening. Just as PEDs will never leave sports, AI will never leave writing or academia. The tool is here to stay. The best thing I can do as a college writing instructor is craft assignments that defy AI use, such as field research, interviews, and personal reflections. I know full well that students will try to cheat the system and that I may have to have some blue book compositions to get a better handle on their writing, but we live in a high-performance world where often dangerous tools have to be harnessed. Otherwise, they will destroy us.

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PEDs are to athletes what generative AI is to students