Summarizing Gatsby

One thing you won’t find in the SparkNotes version of the Great Gatsby is the memorable last line: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” 

It’s among the most enduring phrases in American literature, but it doesn’t appear in the summary of the novel that high school students often turn to.

That observation came up in a conversation with my son who read both the book and the SparkNotes for a school assignment.

It made me reflect on how summarization technology is changing our mental landscape. 

Summarization has been a big theme in my career, first as a journalist and then product manager and now ghostwriter. 

My first job at Bloomberg in 1990 was summarizing other newspaper articles. I helped launch a service called First Word that provided bullet pointed synopses of market activity. Later, I worked with engineers on an automated summarization tool. 

The use of machine summarization has exploded in the past two years because of the widespread adoption of Generative AI tools like ChatGPT. 

Summarization allows us access to absorb more information much faster. It’s the mental difference between walking and taking an Uber.  

And yet, it has some pernicious limitations.

The more you use off-the-shelf summarization software the more you realize that unless you aggressively prompt the prompts you get milquetoast. 

People should understand that there is no standard, pre-set and agreed upon answer when you summarize any document.

The results depend on lots of assumptions built into the training data and algorithms. 

The SparkNotes for Gatsby faithfully recount the specific events in the novel and layer on a subjective interpretation to help readers understand the social commentary.

But they leave out the linguistic poetry that makes the book so impactful. 

I use ChatGPT and other large language models to analyze podcasts. The summaries, however, are more of a table of contents. They usually fail to capture the truly memorable highlights. 

A good example is Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s interview with Michael Ovitz on the Invest Like the Best podcast. Here was a snippet from the ChatGPT summary: 

“Surprising insight: Ovitz identified game-changers like Alex Karp and Steve Schwarzman long before they became household names. The common thread? An insatiable drive to grow, learn, and push boundaries.”

It’s not untrue. But it’s trite and doesn’t begin to convey the intensity Ovitz brings to his description of his first meeting with Karp, the CEO of Palantir.

Summarization is essential and powerful technology. Everyone should use it.

Just be mindful its not the same as the original.  

BRIEF OBSERVATIONS

NOT FOREVER, APPARENTLY: Synthetic diamonds replacing real diamonds would have been inconceivable a decade ago. A good reminder that consumer tastes do change.

ALWAYS BE WRITING: I’m a big believer that writing is thinking. It’s probably more true during the ChatGPT era. And communicating your thoughts is everything.

CHANGE IN STATUS: A chart from Axios reminding us that while you can improve your reputation you can also damage it.

BATTLE FOR BRAINS: Europe is looking to capitalize on the turmoil in higher education in the U.S. caused by Trump’s decision to cut research funding.

AI IMPLICATIONS: Everyone agrees that using generative AI helps people complete tasks faster. Its not clear yet if the implication is a jobs apocalypse, a shift in the types of work or a reduction in cost which allows a lot more work to get done.

Please reach out if you have any thoughts about today’s newsletter. I enjoy hearing from readers. Send me a message if you want to talk or meet up if you are in NYC.

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