P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #395

Rescued from the indoors

my story 🚀

We’re fortunate to spend lots of time outdoors. This week we had the extra fortune of hanging out on a Monday off from school. I told them we were going to an Island of Dogs. It is in fact an island, and also an off-leash dog park, so it was technically true. That’s a hill I’m ready to die on!

fun facts 🙌

Who died and left the US $7 billion? “It was the biggest estate-tax payment in modern history, but no one knew who made it. Then an anonymous phone call pointed to one man.” ~ learn more

Why the US can’t build icebreaking ships. I don’t want to overstate it, but it does seem like the inability to build important infrastructure is a pattern in the United States. “The Coast Guard has handled all U.S. icebreaking since 1966, and estimates that it needs 8-9 polar icebreakers (4-5 heavy and 4-5 medium) to fulfill its needs. But it currently has only two: the heavy icebreaker Polar Star, and the medium icebreaker Healy. The U.S. hasn’t built a heavy icebreaker since 1976.” ~ learn more

Keep the units. “Of all the cognitive tools our ancestors left us, what’s best? Society seems to think pretty highly of arithmetic. It’s one of the first things we learn as children. So I think it’s weird that only a tiny percentage of people seem to know how to actually use arithmetic. Or maybe even understand what arithmetic is for. Why?” ~ learn more

oh, austin 🤠

One of Austin’s hottest restaurants online is a place you’ll never eat at. “Caviar-topped French fries, honeycomb-doused cheesecakes and Moo Deng-shaped croissants are just some of the treats curated and shared on the Instagram account for Ethos, Austin’s self-proclaimed No. 1 restaurant. More than 73,000 people follow the page, with commenters expressing excitement for the dishes and curiosity over where, exactly, Ethos is located.” ~ learn more

tech, startups, internet ⚡

How the semiconductor industry actually works. One of the comments on Youtube for this interview is “Feels like you need a security clearance for this episode”. I absolutely loved this discussion between Semianalysis publisher Dylan Patel, Asianometry creator Jon Y, and podcaster Dwarkesh Patel. Highly recommended. ~ learn more

The state of AI report 2024. This 7th annual report by Nathan Benaich of Air Street Capital is as educational as ever. It’s also available as a condensed blog post and video. ~ learn more

Do AI companies work? “In other words, the billions that AWS spent on building data centers is a lasting defense. The billions that OpenAI spent on building prior versions of GPT is not, because better versions of it are already available for free on Github.” ~ learn more

AI today (a year and a half ago). “This is the condensed version of the "Fireside Chat: With Ilya Sutskever and Jensen Huang: AI Today and Vision of the Future (March 2023)"” ~ learn more

better doing 🎯

Did you climb the wrong status hierarchy? Aaron Renn grew up in southern Indiana, went to Indiana University, moved to Chicago to eventually become a managing director at Accenture, and now believes he screwed up royally at the very start. He thinks he should’ve gone to Harvard (where he didn’t apply). This was very thought provoking, especially paired with the link about college admissions consulting below. I personally have yet to regret skipping Harvard (I also didn’t apply). ~ learn more

The problem with building good habits. The author of this post was super into habits (a la James Clear’s Atomic Habits) until he had some sort of breakdown and now think it’s done him more harm than good. My hot take is that he was way out on the fringe of optimization and his advice does not generalize. If I could generalize my response it’d be that you will develop and stick to habits whether you intend to or not, the only question is whether you will develop the ones you intend. ~ learn more

to your health ⚕

Are continuous glucose monitors worth it for those without diabetes? Jared Dashevsky is an MD and publisher of the Healthcare Huddle industry newsletter. I’ve been a reader since years ago when he hated consumer CGM usage. Glad to see he’s now a fan of Nutrisense! ~ learn more

Why does Ozempic cure all diseases? “There’s a pattern in fake scammy alternative medicine. People get excited about some new herb. They invent a laundry list of effects: it improves heart health, softens menopause, increases energy, deepens sleep, clears up your skin. This is how you know it’s a fraud.” … but also … “But I don’t believe it’s all pharma marketing. These drugs seem really special. We’re going to have an exciting next few years as we fully unwrap this weird new gift Nature has given us.” ~ learn more

Point solution fatigue is very real. “The term refers to companies that are selling a product or solution targeted to a single condition, such as headaches or diabetes or pregnancy.” This post considers the market for these employer-paid and patient-focused services. ~ learn more

under the microscope 🔬

New algorithm helps read QR codes on uneven surfaces. It’s the little things. “The new system does not depend absolutely on the underlying topography, and is applicable to QR codes that can be found on tubular surfaces (bottles), food trays, etc.” ~ learn more

teaching the kids 👩‍🏫

The insane industry behind elite college admissions. This WSJ article chronicles Jamie Beaton and his company Crimson Education. “This year, Beaton's clients made up nearly 2% of students admitted to the undergraduate class of 2028 at several elite schools including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.” I currently don’t have any desire for my kids to attend an ‘elite’ university. Feel free to check in with me in about a decade to see if my feelings have changed. ~ learn more

thanks for reading!