Also yesterday Carlick asked me to come up with an idea for Google's machine learning algorithms. I was unprepared, and forgot that I already had a ready-made application.

Here's the idea.

I've spent many years writing on this blog. I know there are just a few themes. I repeat them over and over in different contexts. All serial writers do this. Think about Jonathan Chait at New York, Matt Taibbi at Esquire, Paul Krugman at the NYT.

So how about a learning algorithm that turns my writing into a rough draft of a coherent book. Something for me, working with a great human editor, to turn into something people can take to the beach. 

This would be worth a lot, esp if we can reboot blogging. It would give us away to turn people's ongoing stories into more usable forms of writing.