P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #440

The worst ___ I've ever heard of

my story 🚀

📢 I was reminded this week that all publicity is good publicity, which in turn reminded me of this movie clip which will live in my head forever: You are the worst pirate I’ve ever heard of.

🫐 And for good measure, this is a clip I think of whenever the topic of quality comes up: I want an equal amount of blueberries in each muffin.

fun facts 🙌

The day Return became Enter. This one is for anyone who has memories of typewriters or interest in modern keyboards. ~ learn more

The traveling salesman problem. “Is it possible to compute the shortest route through a large number of stops? … Join mathematician Bill Cook as we explore the history and applications of this fascinating challenge, and examine state-of-the-art approaches to solving it.” ~ learn more

How to build a medieval castle. It’s called experimental archaeology: “The project launched in 1998 with a straightforward mandate: Build a thirteenth-century castle using only thirteenth-century tools, techniques, and materials.” ~ learn more

Is Rotten Tomatoes still reliable? A statistical analysis. “If every movie is ‘Certified Fresh’, then maybe Rotten Tomatoes has changed, potentially skewed by corporate interests.” ~ learn more

tech, startups, internet ⚡

AI needs clinical trials. “Harvard Business School professor Karim Lakhani shares groundbreaking research on AI's impact in the workplace through rigorous "clinical trials" at major organizations like BCG and Procter & Gamble. These studies reveal how AI fundamentally transforms work by lowering the cost of expertise—enabling average performers to reach 95th percentile levels and giving individuals access to cross-disciplinary knowledge previously requiring entire teams.” ~ learn more

The last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicycles. “There are plenty of benchmarks full of numbers. I don’t get much value out of those numbers. There are leaderboards, but I’ve been losing some trust in those recently. Everyone needs their own benchmark. So I’ve been increasingly leaning on my own, which started as a joke but is beginning to show itself to actually be a little bit useful! I ask them to generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle.” ~ learn more

Physical AI: the operating system for the real world. Venture fund RRE published their thesis on the conversion of robotics, autonomy and AI. “As models improve and compute gets cheaper, founders are unbundling the full-stack robotics paradigm into scalable and modular primitives. This return of capital and interest validates our thesis: the next wave of iconic companies will build the operating system for the real world.” ~ learn more

better doing 🎯

The management skill nobody talks about. Drawing from Dr. Becky Kennedy’s parenting advice, the article highlights the importance of "repair" in management. Acknowledging errors, taking responsibility, and genuinely fixing the fallout can build more trust than trying to be flawless. ~ learn more

You can try to like stuff. “It could be food or music or people or just the general situation you’re in. I recommend this hobby, partly because it’s nice to enjoy things, but mostly as an instrument for probing human nature.” ~ learn more

to your health ⚕

The ROI of exercise. Imagine investing just one year in physical activity over your lifetime and gaining 10 additional years of living. That’s the impressive return on investment exercise poses, according to Herman’s analysis. ~ learn more

retail therapy 💸

Streetwear brands losing steam? “The trick is to move on to the next must-have before the existing one goes mainstream. But smaller brands lack the capital to scale up quickly and keep innovating. A newcomer’s invention only has a year before big brands march in on its turf, a fraction of how long it used to take, according to Bernstein analyst Luca Solca.” ~ learn more

under the microscope 🔬

Searching for useful proteins in the DNA junk heap. “In their search for a new obesity treatment strategy, researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California have used CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to closely examine an understudied class of molecules once thought to be junk: microproteins. They’ve presented their findings in a recently published study.” ~ learn more

Treasured forest fungus fights inflammation and stifles cancer cells. Researchers have unearthed a potent compound from a rare Taiwanese fungus that could block inflammation and halt cancer cell proliferation. “It's a new discovery from a treasured fungus that has long been used in indigenous and traditional Chinese medicine for liver problems, fatigue, poisoning and more.” So, old news if you’re into Eastern medicine, but now with a lab-coat-wearer’s stamp of approval. ~ learn more

big ideas 📚

We can already stop climate change. I’ve long believed that humanity has all the technology we need, but humans so far lack the will. It’s great when someone else spells it out more clearly than I ever could. “If you hear anybody complaining about how we can’t stop climate change, show them this. If they start complaining about nuclear, capitalism, grinding mountains, or irrational fears of acid rain, tell them to study these solutions, or they’re just posing and don’t really care about climate change.” ~ learn more

Understanding global events. “These 20 lessons, when taken together, provide a great framework for understanding just about every single issue on the global menu today. They also provide some warnings for how things might evolve and clues for how we might solve some of our most intractable problems.” ~ learn more

thanks for reading!