P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #409

Reading list

my story 🚀

I finished my 2024 review a couple weekends ago. In the past I’ve shared the summary here but this time it feels too personal. One thing I am proud to share is that I mostly stopped eating after 9pm and staying awake past midnight. 2024 was also a busy travel year with 20 (mostly short) trips — 12 for fun, 6 for business, and 2 unfortunately related to my grandfather’s death.

I also now accept that I will always read more books than I make time to write about. So here’s my reading list from 2024, in case you’re looking for inspiration or want to judge my taste:

• Critical Mass By: Daniel Suarez

• Supercommunicators By: Charles Duhigg

• The Beginning of Infinity By: David Deutsch

• How to Think Like a Roman Emperor By: Donald J. Robertson

• Outlive By: Peter Attia MD, Bill Gifford - contributor

• Mind Magic By: James R. Doty MD

• Jeeves and the Leap of Faith By: Ben Schott

• The Light Eaters By: Zoë Schlanger

• Henry V By: Dan Jones

• Jeeves & Wooster By: P. G. Wodehouse

• Scarcity Brain By: Michael Easter

• Dark Genius of Wall Street By: Edward Renehan

• Human Compatible By: Stuart Russell

• 10x Is Easier than 2x By: Dan Sullivan, Dr. Benjamin Hardy

• Crucial Conversations (Third Edition) By: Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Emily Gregory

Feel free to write me if you have questions or comments on any of the above!

fun facts 🙌

The most Mario colors. “Most Mario games with polygonal logos have a different color per letter, but the sequence of colors in Mario’s name is rarely the same sequence across games. This captivated me—for some reason—and I set out to analyze every Mario video game logo to see if I could find a pattern for specific arrangements of colors and to determine the “most Mario” color scheme.” ~ learn more

The invisible electrostatic wall at 3M adhesive tape plant. “David Swenson of 3M Corporation describes an anomaly where workers encountered a strange "invisible wall" in the area under a fast-moving sheet of electrically charged polypropelene film in a factory. This "invisible wall" was strong enough to prevent humans from passing through. A person near this "wall" was unable to turn, and so had to walk backwards to retreat from it.” ~ learn more

My team’s intern just found a crigical bug by shitposting in our codebase. “Turns out his Gen Z spider-sense wasn't just tingling for the memes. Man actually found a validation bypass that's been lurking in our code since Obama's first term. The kind of bug that makes security auditors wake up in cold sweats.” ~ learn more

Dutch uncle. I watched an old video where Leo Burnett used this term and had to look it up. “Dutch uncle is an informal term for a person who issues frank, harsh or severe comments and criticism to educate, encourage or admonish someone.” ~ learn more

oh, chicago 🏆

Michael Madigan trial. “After eight hours over two days, prosecutors still haven’t finished their initial argument to the jury.” ~ learn more

A very Chicago deal for Bally’s casino offering. “And this partially explains why Chicago is holding a roadshow in African American churches attempting to convince participants to invest in a mezzanine-y equity slice of a casino at a $1 billion valuation, perhaps at 100X leverage.” This Patrick Mackenzie post is maybe a bit too lengthy, make sure you get to the structure and leverage part! ~ learn more

tech, startups, internet ⚡

A full unbiased demo of OpenAI’s Operator agent. “Yesterday, OpenAI gave us an agent that can control a browser to do your bidding. I stayed up until 4 AM to put this demo together for you, going through several use cases: 1) Hotel recommendation 2) Data gathering 3) Flight booking 4) Legal paperwork 5) Infographics” ~ learn more

They tried replacing 1000 human jobs with AI. “Ryan Brandt and I scraped over 1,000 latest job postings and used the latest AI models (o1, Claude, Gemini) and agents/tools (Windsurf, Axiom, etc.) to apply for jobs and attempt to complete tasks. The results? AI could solve ~15% of tasks…but we made exactly $0. Here’s what we learned—and what this means for the future of work…” ~ learn more

Genspark, an app that researchers and builds a deep-dive report on demand. Here’s the report I commissioned: “Comprehensive Analysis of the Sport Fishing Industry: Structure, Brands, and Value Chain” ~ learn more

better doing 🎯

I am (not) a Failure. This is wonderful. “Growing up, I had two major life ambitions… I didn't accomplish either of those goals. I never even got an interview for an academic job, let alone tenure. I made six (and a half) attempts to found a startup. All of them failed.” ~ learn more

So you made it into the SaaS C-Suite. “Patrick Lencioni’s concept of the First Team is the idea that true leaders prioritize supporting their fellow leaders (the most senior team they sit on) over their direct reporting lines.” ~ learn more

retail therapy 💸

I guess I’m into Gorpcore fashion. “Once completely unnoticed in the lifestyle, manufacturers of camping equipment are now experiencing a real renaissance, and on the 'fashion' or 'streetwear' market, brand names that were previously associated only with survival or bushcraft fans are increasingly appearing. From the growing need for a hassle-free but stylish exit from the city straight into the wilderness, while avoiding the unnecessary process of 'changing clothes' in the process, a functional style/trend/trend/movement called Gorpcore was born.” ~ learn more

under the microscope 🔬

Even better AI detection of lung diseases. The best part about this is that it’ll be old news in a year. “A breakthrough new AI model is able to detect the presence of different lung diseases from ultrasound videos, with 96.57% accuracy, and it is even able to distinguish whether the abnormalities are due to pneumonia, COVID-19 or other conditions.” ~ learn more

big ideas 📚

New measurement confirms universe is expanding too fast for current models. “This discrepancy between model and data became known as the Hubble tension. Now, results published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters provide even stronger support for the faster rate of expansion. "The tension now turns into a crisis," said Dan Scolnic, who led the research team.” ~ learn more

on the blockchain ⛓

YesNoError. An AI error checker for research papers plus a crypto token. “The $YNE token will enable users to request priority audits of specific research papers.” (disclosure: I bought a few tokens, which is almost certainly a bad investment) ~ learn more or see it

The madcap rise of memecoin factory Pump.fun. “Yet beneath this belch of Internet weirdness and low-fi web design lies one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency businesses ever: Pump.Fun, a platform for launching memecoins, a type of crypto coin whose value rises and falls in line with the popularity of the memes it references. The platform went live in January 2024. In the 12 months since, it has been reported by third parties to have brought in more than $350 million in revenue through a 1 percent cut of trades.” ~ learn more

thanks for reading!