Content I Consumed: Fusion Breakthroughs and Morning Routines
And a satirical update to middle school games.
Going home for the Holidays this weekend. Looking forward to some East Coast weather.
Podcast
Generative AI, What is It and Where We are Going - ChatGPT is all the rage these days. Alfie and I talk about generative AI and where we are going.
Health
The Best Morning Routine (Backed by Science) - Routines are foundational to health. I try to balance a routine that is easy to accomplish every day and one that is comprehensive. Here are good suggestions on habits to include in your mornings.
Science Breakthroughs
Unlimited clean energy will be groundbreaking for our climate, geopolitical tensions, and technical progress. The running joke is that fusion is always 30 years away. Well, Fusion energy breakthrough by US scientists boosts clean power hopes and a Twitter thread on why fusion is closer than we think
End-of-year round-ups are here. Here are two that give high-level overviews of how science is changing the world. MS and Cancer breakthroughs. Seeing the universe with the James Webb telescope. And obviously AI. Breakthroughs of the Year and Techno-optimism for 2023
Growing up, I loved reading the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. In the series, there is an academic field called “Psychohistory” in which mathematicians can predict the future based on evaluating societal trends. It begs the question - is society more predictable with more computing power and more data? Some think the opposite. Our world is getting harder to predict because technology is amplifying an individual’s impact on the world. Is the world getting harder to predict
Shows
Have more time during the holidays? Here are some shows I’ve enjoyed this fall:
1899 (sci-fi show created by the creators of Dark, Netflix, Rotten Tomatoes: 79%)
The Peripheral (based on a sci-fi William Gibson book, Amazon Prime, Rotten Tomatoes: 77%)
Slow Horses (funny spy show with Gary Oldman, Apple TV+, Rotten Tomatoes: 97%)
Misc
Middle School Party Games Revised for Thirty-Five Year-Olds - One example from this satirical McSweeney’s article: “Truth or Dare - If a player chooses “truth,” they must reveal how much money they make. If they choose “dare,” they must hand someone their phone and let them look at every tab they have open on their browser.”
Disarming Viktor Bout - US / Russia exchanged Brittney Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout. Here is a 2014 New Yorker profile on him. It is a fascinating look at what arms dealing entails and the sting that captured him.
Professional sports teams are expensive and lucrative. Here is an article on what is happening: What’s Behind the Exploding Prices of Pro Sports Franchises? They attribute the exploding prices to the rise of television, billionaires, and how sports are regulated.
Tomasz Tunguz, a Dartmouth alum and former VC at Redpoint, writes why there is cause for optimism in software valuations. Short and data-driven - What the $6B Coupa Acquisition Means for Software Startups