Vimoh Writes

I am Vimoh, a writer and YouTuber from India.

[vimohwrites]

Readers of web fiction. I am starting to write a web serial called WESTWARD STRANGER. It's an action and adventure fantasy featuring a haunted hero in a world full of dark magic.

"Timir is travelling west, for reasons known only to him and to Koru, the god that haunts him. He will meet troubled people on his way, and monsters almost as fearsome as him. But he can't always fight, or make friends, or enjoy the wondrous world he is walking through, because Koru won't let him stop."

You can follow it on the following fiction platforms.

(Original cover art by Pradeep Yadav)

✔ Wattpad - https://www.wattpad.com/story/410985088-westward-stranger

✔ Royal Road - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/166158/westward-stranger

✔ Tapas - https://tapas.io/series/Westward-Stranger/info

✔ Substack - https://aagaami.substack.com

[vimohwrites]

Don't let them guilt you for valid anger

When someone has decided that you are their enemy and nothing short of your utter destruction is going to satisfy them, then the responsibility of striking a balance is not on you. You didn't start the war. You are only trying to survive it somehow.

When those who have declared you their enemy tell you that you are taking things too far, their goal is not to protect your moral fabric. It is to hijack your moral values in order to guilt you into paralysis. If you fall for it, you will be responsible for your defeat and consequent demise.

So the way to counter every argument that starts with "you are becoming what you hate" is with "I know what I hate". Your enemy isn't an expert on you. You are. You are already fighting a war you didn't ask for. Don't make matters worse by letting your enemy decide what weapon you will use.

Hold fast to your moral centre, sure. But remember also that you didn't start the war. It was thrust upon you by those who want you destroyed. The last thing on their mind is equality and harmony. The last thing they care about is honour. They have acquired power through lies and deceit and hatred. And deceit is how they seek to keep that power.

None of these things are secret. Their conduct exposes them all over the place. Don't let them trap you in your own armour. You are good, but that doesn't mean you have to be stupid.

[vimohwrites]

The office-going victim

When we speak of insidious conditioning that turns people into their most subservient selves, we speak of domesticated women, toxic men, and dehumanised members of minority communities. But we don't often talk about the self-hating worker. These days, since the influence of corporations on culture is widely visible, it's worth thinking about how the working class remains cut off from civic life and why.

The average blue collar office-goer remains convinced that the highest compliment anyone can pay him is that he is "employable". He measures his self worth using estimations of how "productive" he is. He boasts about working longer hours than he is paid for as if it is not exploitation. For all intents and purposes, this is someone conditioned to think of his abuse as a favour. He dumps large amounts of time and effort into acquiring objects that help him achieve the carrots that hang before him - status, house, car.

He willingly traps himself into cycles of debt and repayment. He lashes out against those who say he is actually a labourer and has more in common with those he treats like freeloaders than the rich men he adores and worships. He spends his days reading up success stories of the one percent and refuses to engage in movements to ensure that labourers get their rights.

The blue collar office-goer has essentially been programmed his entire life to hate himself, to think of himself as less-than, and to think that unless he measures up to every standard set by those who exploit him on a daily basis, he will never amount to anything. His "lifestyle" is a prison designed to keep him away from the real world. This is why even when his human nature rebels and he wants to join in a fight, he simply cannot afford to because he has working hours, bills, meetings, and loans to worry about. These are the walls of the insidious prison that he has spent his entire life thinking of as home.

[vimohwrites]

AI backlash isn't like any other tech backlash

I keep getting comments from people who say: "People opposed computers in the 90s. Opposition to AI is just the same. These people are opposed to technology." I find this horrendously clueless because it has no sense of proportion attached to it. Since I am from the 90s myself, I wrote a comment to explain the differences today. Sharing it below.

The question I am answering is: Vimoh, why your concern about AI is not same as 90s people used to think about computers?

Computers are reliable. AI is not. Computers give you consistent and reliable results. AI is fundamentally unreliable and this has been shown to be true in multiple major and minor institutions and companies by now.

Computers were not replacing human beings, simply moving them from one kind of job to another. AI is ending human employment as a concept. AI company CEOs are OPENLY saying they want all human jobs to go away.

Computers created a lot of jobs. Most of us today are working because of computers. AI is creating no jobs. Even AI data centers don't employ more than a few hundred people.

Computers didn't destroy the environment the way AI does. AI data centers are leeching off huge amounts of electricity and water supplies that humans need, especially in these times of great climate change. Computers plugged into existing power systems and worked just fine.

Computers were adopted by people because they were genuinely useful. AI is being forced on people in offices. If it was actually useful, people would happily use it. People using AI frequently produce bad or substandard work and that low quality output is becomign a new standard. It's a collective lowering of value.

Computers enhanced creativity and enabled humans to create tons of culture. AI is reducing the value of human culture by turning the entire internet into slop.

Computers were not part of a massive financial bubble. AI is. This has been reported on a lot by now. You can read about it.

Lastly, I am 90s people. I love computers. I remember the issues people had with computers then. It wasn't even remotely anything like what AI backlash today looks like. Anyone telling you it is, don't know what they are talking about.

[vimohwrites]

Readers of web fiction. I am starting to write a web serial called WESTWARD STRANGER. It's an action and adventure fantasy featuring a haunted hero in a world full of dark magic.

"Timir is travelling west, for reasons known only to him and to Koru, the god that haunts him. He will meet troubled people on his way, and monsters almost as fearsome as him. But he can't always fight, or make friends, or enjoy the wondrous world he is walking through, because Koru won't let him stop."

You can follow it on the following fiction platforms. I don't know much about this area, but my preliminary research has told me that RR is the best place for a story like this.

✔ Wattpad - https://www.wattpad.com/story/410985088-westward-stranger

✔ Royal Road - https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/166158/westward-stranger

✔ Tapas - https://tapas.io/series/Westward-Stranger/info

✔ Substack - https://aagaami.substack.com

[vimohwrites]

Paying for AI

AI helps me use correct grammar. You could correct grammar before AI. AI lets me write. You could write before AI. AI lets me illustrate and create designs. You could do that before AI. Many image manipulation tools are still free. AI lets me read emails. You could read emails before AI. AI lets me write scripts. You could write scripts before AI. AI helps me study and prepare. You were studying and preparing before AI

The list is long. But if you think about it, you might find that generative AI has not added to the number of things you can do. It’s just helping you get sloppier, lazier, and saving you a few minutes on tasks you were already doing just fine.

The question is: Are those few minutes worth the massive cost you and the world are paying for AI? And by cost I don't mean the twenty odd dollars (soon to be way more than that by all estimates) that you pay for your AI tool subscription.

Maybe the answer is yes for you. Maybe you do believe that data centers that destroy thirty thousand jobs and create a hundred jobs are a good price to pay for those few minutes. Maybe you do think that corporations firing tens of thousands of people and replacing them with dumb as rocks malfunctioning chatbots is a good price to pay for those few minutes. Maybe you do consider the massive financial bubble that is threatening the world’s economy right now to be a good price for those few minutes.

Or maybe you don’t and will accept that this shit is not worth it and that you can easily go back to doing things the regular way instead of vapourising the water supply of a small town every time you want to generate a piece of slop to stuff into your social media feed.

[vimohwrites]

In times of darkness, there is a kind of hope to be had in visions of a decaying world that was whole once. In the thought that perhaps life and love will find a way through this madness, and one day bloom once more, perhaps only to wilt and try again. Glory and eternity live in trying.

[thememedaddy]

[vimohwrites]

Superheroes ‘save the day’ and bring things back to ‘normal’. But we don’t often stop to consider what normal means. Sure, a giant monster rampaging through a city is not normal. But before the monster was even on the horizon, the city was in a state that the superheroes were apparently okay with. In fact, some of them actually benefited from it.

Before the monster came, and after it was vanquished, the city was home to inequality and oppressive practices. The rich superhero, who spent billions building tech that helps him fight monsters was okay with it. The mystic with the power to alter reality never tried to alter social realities and give minimum wage to those who are supposed to look skywards and cheer for flying men when they punch rampaging monsters in the face and cause them to tumble backwards and fall.

Why is this?

It’s because we, as readers of this superheroic literature, are okay with this ‘normal’ as well. It’s because we, with all our privilege, either relate with the privileged superhero or aspire to be them. We are okay with some definitions of reality being stretched but not with others.

We will suspend disbelief when we are told that dragons exist, but we won’t do it for stories where female dragon-slayers exist. We will accept stories about men with the strength to move mountains, but not extend the same courtesy to similar characters with darker skin tones. The ‘normal’ that the world returns to after the superhero has ‘saved’ it is usually one where we are comfortable. Anyone who isn’t comfortable in our normal gets judged for not being grateful. Stories are often reflections of the reader’s privilege.

[vimohwrites]

Hi bhaiya, have you ever felt disconnected from the people around you and felt that I don't belong here. Not that you dislike them or anything but because your interests don't collide with them and no matter how hard you try to find friends in person, you just can't seem to find the ones you can have deep conversations with. Like, for example; a few days ago I was playing this game called " The legend of zelda: the minish cap" and I realised that I have no one to talk to because all my friends are into multiplayer games(I know it's a very gen Z example) and they will never try games like these where actual mysteries and stories are involved, or another example that I would like to share is that I have been trying to get into reading books and have been reading " The God of small things" and "Musashi", but to my frustration I have no one to share these interests of mine and because of it, I feel lonely at times and I just don't understand how to deal with this situation.

I do remember not having friends who did not share my interests. Some my closest friends, even today, don't share any of my interests. Maybe you can find a friend who has an interest that you have. Maybe they can be happy to have found you. The trouble with growing-up years is that we are all in our heads a lot. If you ask around, you might find that some of your friends won't mind trying out your hobbies.

And if that doesn't work, you can always find humans on the internet who have communities dedicated to things you are excited about. Hang out there. You may come away with new friends.

[vimohwrites]

Hi vimoh! I found out on substack that you're on tumblr. I'm glad you're active on here, its a very unique site.

My question for you is, what was your favorite cartoon growing up?

I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, so I got to watch and love Defenders of the Earth, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Phantom 2040, Mummies Alive, Thunder Cats, Silver Hawks.

Of all these, I think my favourite was Defenders of the Earth. It had a great backdrop and innovative stories. The rest were okay, but DoE ruled.

Some honourable mentions that came along a bit later must include The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Dexter's Laboratory, and Samurai Jack.

[vimohwrites]

hii sir, me mohit hu , me BA in philosophy ka student hu jo ki first year me he , me ek cafe me part job kart hu , lekin vo job muze itna thaka deti he ki me study nahi kar pata hu muze dusri part time job mil bhi nahi rahi he to me kya karu sir

Bhaiya mujhe iss baare mein zyada idea nahi hai ki tumhare area mein jobs ka scene kya hai. You should ask someone who has that education and experience. You can also ask Ravi from Logical Aayaam YouTube channel for advice as he is a career counsellor. Or you can find a student counsellor in your locality and speak to them.

[vimohwrites]

Hi vimoh! Would you start live streaming again in future?you can do it once in a month if you want.

I have spoken about this before, but my answer unfortunately is that I have no intention of going back to live streaming right now. What most people don't realise is that it is extremely tiring and takes a toll over time. There is a reason so many live streamers quit. Beyond a point, it just gets too much to handle.

I was live streaming for three years on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis. I was completely spent by the end of it. It took me months to regain some semblance of calm and quiet in my life, which is necessary for me to be able to write and create art.

The only scenario I see myself going back to live streaming is to promote my books. When that happens, you will see me return to live streaming for a couple of months. But I have to finish my book first.

[vimohwrites]

Hi vimoh! Have you read the feluda books by satyajit ray?

Hey yes. I loved those. It was quite a few years ago and I am not sure I read all of it, but I do remember reading Feluda stories.

[vimohwrites]

Rick Lewis (@ricklewisco)

My wife is a professional book editor and is looking sadder every day, because a mounting percentage of the jobs being submitted to her say

Sorry for sharing a Substack link, but this was a good post about why it is not a good idea to use AI to edit your writing. It is not improving your writing. It is simply turning it into bland and average slop.

[vimohwrites]

Why this writer keeps talking about AI

I frequently write about generative AI from the perspective of a writer. Occasionally, a chirkut tech bro with the mental horizon as broad as a his dick will ask what gives me the right to talk about tech when I am not from a tech background. Here is a list of reasons for that unfortunate soul.

The writer was happy just writing. He didn’t have to talk about your precious AI. You dragged him into it when you plagiarised from him and his people by illegally scraping creative works from all over the internet. Because of this, you left him no choice. He will now talk about AI and you will learn to live with it.

I am a journalist by training who studied what was known as New Media in 2005 at one of Asia’s most well-respected journalism institutes. I have had a career in the very same New Media in one form or the other for the greater part of the last two decades. I have watched tech affect and be affected by culture and politics of the world over the same duration of time and written about it. I know this isn’t as fancy as being from the sixteen thousandth IIT from falana town and dhimkana village, but I am sure it counts for something, no?

I personally have been online for more than two decades now. In 2006, I was one of the first Twitter users of India and have seen platforms and tools and practices rise and fall like the tides of time. I’m pretty sure that qualifies me to at least have an opinion on what is going on right now, especially because, as pointed out before, it all directly impacts me and my ability to do my work.

As an engineer with little understanding of sociology or history, it is easy for you to float away in the waves of hype and propaganda about AI that is being shoved down all our throats by big tech. For those of us who have gained our perspectives by looking at larger trends, that proves harder. I wish I could be as gullible as you, I really do! But life and experience has made that pretty much impossible. Ah the innocent optimism of youth unhindered by real life experience and fuelled by trending buzzwords!

[vimohwrites]

Which is the book or book series you keep going back to

There are no specific books that are my favourites or series that I keep going back to. I re-read the Hitchhiker's Guide sometimes, but that's about it. I'm not much of a re-reader. Mostly because I like to read new things and always have at least a few new books waiting for me.

The trouble with reading a LOT is that you can't always tell what your most favourite book is. It's a result of volume and little else really. I pass through worlds like a traveller, admiring them for what they transform me into, and then move on to other experiences.

Most recently, a book that I liked a lot was Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

[vimohwrites]

I'd love to see all the books you have, and have you read all of them?

Have I read all of it? No. But I have read most of it. About 70 to 75 per cent I think. The rest is either books that I haven't gotten to yet because they are new, or books I never finished because I hated them, or books that are reference books that I only open when I have to look something up. Please mind that this is the result of a lifetime of book-buying. I started getting them when I was in primary school. I am 43 now.