Content I Consumed: 8 Techniques to Evaluate Character and Selecting Astronauts for the Moon
And some Sci Fi and Fantasy books I read recently
Hey all -
I tried to use Notion’s AI tool to write the summaries for this newsletter. Beyond one link, the results were actively bad. It may be user-error or it may be that Notion’s AI tool is in Alpha and still has bugs.
Technology
My Ordinary Life: Improvements Since the 1990s. Time goes by and technology improves. Looking back at how things were helps us appreciate all the progress that we’ve made. We used to rewind VHS tapes. And then one day we didn’t.
Exclusive Q&A: John Carmack’s ‘Different Path’ to Artificial General Intelligence - The founder of Oculus VR, which sold to Meta for $2b, is looking into AGI. AGI is a trillion-dollar+ technology that VCs are spending boatloads on. AGI is software that is actually intelligent. John Carmack is post-economic and using his time and energy to develop AGI without groupthink.
Misc
Tim Urban, who writes the successful blog Wait But Why, has two tweet threads looking back at 2022. I like his writing because he simplifies complex ideas and makes them useful. 22 tweets from 2022 that might blow your mind and 22 thoughts from 2022 I'd like to take into 2023.
My 8 Best Techniques for Evaluating Character. When someone uses the term “character,” I think of Calvin’s dad in Calvin and Hobbes. The term character seems old-fashioned, but here are 8 ways to evaluate it. I find that these techniques are ones that I use implicitly, but I’ve never explicitly stated them as personal rules.
Inside the secretive process to select the first astronauts for NASA’s next moon mission. We are going back to the moon. But who gets to go? It is a secretive process. CNN did some digging to learn more. One thing we do know - there will be three Americans and one Canadian.
“Florida Man” Wins Seven Marathons on Seven Continents in Seven Days. Kilgore recently won the World Marathon Challenge, an event that requires runners to complete seven marathons in seven days in seven different continents. He completed the challenge in an impressive total time of 119 hours and 19 minutes, setting a new record for the event. This is a remarkable achievement for Kilgore and an inspiring reminder of the power of human potential and determination. [Only blurb written by Notion AI - prompt: “summarize in three sentences [URL]]”
Books
Tress and The Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. Brandon Sanderson had the biggest Kickstarter in history. He raised $41.7M in one month for four secret novels that he wrote during the pandemic. Tress is the first one about a young woman who goes on a quest to find her love. As usual, Sanderson’s books are hard to put down and have well-thought-out magic systems. Fantasy. Excellent, 5 stars
The Peace War by Vernor Vinge. What if we could put an indestructible bubble around an object - a nuclear weapon, a person, a government? How would governments use this technology to stop nuclear war and promote peace? Vinge writes about the conflict between those that have this technology and those that don’t. Sci-Fi. Solid, 4 stars
Upgrade by Blake Crouch. What happens in a world where we have more control over DNA? What are the downstream effects of bio-engineering mistakes? And what happens when we can upgrade ourselves so that we are smarter, faster, and stronger? Will we still be human? Do we need those upgrades in order to survive on our changing Earth? Crouch writes mass-market digestible Sci-Fi that are fun escapes. 4 stars
Podcast
On the Search for Growth podcast, we interview Jamie Shanks. He is the CEO of Pipeline Signals, a SaaS tool that allows you to use relationship signals to help you strengthen your sales processes. We chat about how he became an entrepreneur and his various businesses.