A machine can write the letter, learn the skill, hold the pain at arm’s length for you. This week’s #TheEdit is about the people doing it the hard way anyway – and what they get back that the shortcut can’t give them. 

• Why learn something a machine can do for you? A machine can write it, calculate it, plan it for you. So why bother learning it yourself? This podcast makes the case for effort you don’t strictly need – The Atlantic Podcast
• How our upbringing shapes our ideas of success. Why that matters and what to do about it. The career itch you can’t quite explain probably isn’t about the job. It’s about whose definition of success you’re still living inside – Fast Company
• It’s the summer of soundwalking. He is your sherpa. “We may be hearing but not listening,” says the artist who spent an afternoon proving it – one Central Park pond and hot dog cart at a time – The New York Times
• How paying attention to pain could help you heal faster. Distraction is supposed to help you cope with pain. New research says the opposite: paying closer attention to it might help you heal faster – Nautilus
• How to read the signal of your life. The present is the only moment you’re actually alive in – and the hardest one to notice. A philosopher’s case for actuality – The Marginalian  
• Writing letters is a spiritual practice for our age of speed. Handwriting a letter is slower, harder, and, according to one growing movement, that’s exactly the point – Psyche

• The Basics: What is Human-in-the-loop? AI can process, predict and automate almost anything. What it can’t do is judge – which is exactly where humans are supposed to stay in the loop – The Beautiful Truth