P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #406
Happy New Year!
my story 🚀
🔮 Some people make predictions this time of year. Others make resolutions. I will try to make your head explode with fascinating links, same as every other week. All glory to the people of the internet who have created this wealth of knowledge for us.
Once more around the sun, fellow curious person!
fun facts 🙌
They poured their life savings into a cave. “My friends bought 34 acres of Ohio wilderness. While hiking one day, they stumbled upon a dark, dripping cavern—and decided to pour their life savings into it. Today, it's one of the world's most profitable airbnbs. The waitlist is years long. Here's the story...” ~ learn more
How Zyn nicotine pouches got so popular on social media. “He jabbers to himself for a few seconds, then breaks out into song. “Upper decky Zynnies, upper decky lip pillows, ferdaaaaaa,” he croons in a nasal voice.” ~ learn more
Seismic explorer. There is a lot of seismic activity in the world, and I guess it’s because we are all just floating on these crazy tectonic plates that can’t help but bump up against one another. Check out this time-series mapping of activity since 1980. ~ learn more
Russia fined Google more than Earn’s entire GDP for a millennium. “We’re talking about $20 decillion US dollars. That’s a two followed by 34 zeros, or $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.” ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
The next big thing in 2025 will be… “Technology has had a transformational year, with significant advancements in AI, robotics, space, biology, healthcare, carbon capture, and quantum computing. So what does 2025 have in store for us? Enjoy reading these thoughts from some of tech’s best, would love your own in the comments, and happy holidays!” ~ learn more
Ilya Sutskever: sequence to sequence learning. This is probably a pretty relevant voice to listen to on the topic of AI. “The age of pre-training will end due to that the data is not growing? What comes next?” ~ learn more
What happens when AI remembers everything? “The year is 2060. You ask your AI system to recap the loudest 23 times someone laughed at your joke. Uncle Julius at the dinner table about the chicken, July 1 2031; Brit Chavez when you fell off the porch, February 3 2054; Steven Shelton outside the Lucinda Theater, April 23 2049…” ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Most people don’t care about quality. “Paul has published an essay about official photographs of politicians. In it, he expertly points out the various deficiencies of some of them and where they show a distinct lack of quality. But, here's the thing, I don't think anyone other than a photographer would notice or care about those "problems" ~ learn more
Time for a Code Yellow? “I promised myself never again. Never again would I call a code-yellow. Code-yellows suck, drain team morale, and they leave a lingering distaste amongst all those involved. Yet, during my 8-years at Instacart, they were our most effective and consistent weapon in ensuring we made meaningful progress on our hairiest problems.” ~ learn more
Duct tape. “A founder asked me how she should prioritize which leadership roles to hire first. It led to a conversation about one of my favorite things: duct tape.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
A reminder to exercise. “William Brangham discussed more with Euan Ashley, a professor of cardiovascular medicine and genetics at Stanford University and the newly named chair of its department of medicine.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
Temu’s takeover is now complete. “Launched in late 2022, the Chinese-owned ecommerce site, known for selling a vast array of astonishingly affordable goods, took only two years to become a household name in the US. … Temu is projected to earn more than $50 billion in total sales this year, according to analysts from AB Bernstein and Tech Buzz China, potentially tripling its 2023 figure.” ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Off with her hair. “Intrasexually competitive women advise other women to cut off more hair.” ~ learn more
Effect of swearing on physical performance. “Swearing has been shown to improve physical performance in tasks that are relatively short and intense, and this effect has been repeated across experiments, suggesting that it may be a reliable effect.” ~ learn more
thoughts of food 🍔
PlasticList report — endocrine disruptors everywhere. “We were, like many others, asking ourselves if plastic chemicals would turn out to be the next public health crisis for humanity to overcome. We realized it was important to try and get closer to the true answer. Finding out how many plastic chemicals all of us really eat seemed like a good point to start, because (1) we could test that with precision and (2) if it turned out we don’t eat plastic chemicals, then maybe we shouldn’t care about their alleged health harms. So we got to work.” ~ learn more
PlasticList’s advice for food companies. “I am happy to report that no food company wants this stuff in their food and they are all eager to figure out what’s going on and how to remove it. After a while I noticed the advice we were giving was pretty similar for every company, so I thought it would be useful to write it down and share publicly.” ~ learn more
on the blockchain ⛓
What is a vampire attack? “In a vampire attack, a new platform targets established rivals by offering more attractive incentives to lure away liquidity and users. This can have a significant impact on the DeFi ecosystem, potentially luring users, draining liquidity from existing platforms, and disrupting their operations.” ~ learn more