P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #447
Endless Pumpkin
my story 🚀
🎃 A few years living in Austin and we’ve only just discovered Pumpkin Nights, a trail walk and festival with over 7,500 hand-carved pumpkins. They also had several gigantic (like, the size of a bath tub) pumpkins, including one that was actively being hand-carved by an incredible artist into the shape of a queen bee. When I saw it, I thought to myself “that has to be GMO, right?” Well, since our pumpkin night, I ran across this post about “How people grow GIANT 2,800+lb pumpkins…” and surprisingly it’s just old-fashioned breeding! In unrelated but related news, I also learned this week that before pumpkins, people carved turnips.
i’ve been thinking 💭
🍺 During my college days, I learned that Diesel is a nickname for the original non-light version of Budweiser. I’m in the middle of an interesting book called The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel. We’ve all grown up in a world filled with diesel engines, but may not have known (at least I didn’t) the engines are named after the inventor. So here are some interesting dots that I’d like to connect. Adolphus Busch, the founder of Anheuser-Busch, was a German immigrant who came to St. Louis in the mid-1800s. He was one of the first brewers to use mechanical refrigeration, refrigerated rail cars, and pasteurization, bringing about the industrialization of beer. His firm is the creator of Budweiser. He was also the person who bought the rights to produce the Diesel engine for the United States market immediately upon the technology’s unveiling. So it’s fitting that his Budweiser brew today is nicknamed Diesel!
fun facts 🙌
Play these number games. Quiz Math Genius offers quirky challenges like “Number Ball Sum Challenge” where you “tap on three balls that sum to the target number,” and “Prime Number Hunter” to hone your speed and number sense under pressure. ~ learn more
Is the world really running out of sand? Despite alarming headlines, “the world is not running out of sand,” says Grady of Practical Engineering. The real issue lies in using specific types for construction, as certain sands are easier to use in concrete due their unique properties. ~ learn more
The Great Tea Race of 1866. On a May morning, five fast clippers set sail from China to London in a maritime showdown for the prized first tea delivery. Ariel and Taeping reached London neck-and-neck, only to face the harsh economic reality of steamships and market saturation—years of tradition dwindling as time marches on. ~ learn more
The Spilhaus Projection. This unique map shifts focus to the vast expanse of oceans, unifying them as one continuous body and centering Antarctica, offering a much-needed perspective on our Earth’s waters. ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Andrej Karpathy on Dwarkesh podcast. Karpathy predicts, “AGI will blend into 2% GDP growth.” The conversation covers LLM cognitive deficits, the evolution of intelligence and culture, and the future of education. It’s fantastic. Also, right after, Karpathy wrote this great addendum after recording. “Basically, my AI timelines are about 5-10X pessimistic w.r.t. what you’ll find in your neighborhood SF AI house party.” He believes this decade heralds significant advancements in AI agents, but many challenges remain unresolved. ~ learn more
Starlink’s mobile ambitions shake the industry. “The spectrum will allow SpaceX to provide phone, text, and broadband services from space to mobile users throughout the United States and around the world, especially in areas where terrestrial systems do not reach.” With a $17 billion spectrum acquisition and plans for 15,000 new satellites, Starlink is setting the stage to potentially disrupt major players like Apple, AT&T, and Verizon. ~ learn more
Sequoia’s big cheese Roelof Botha. This is a fun watch if you are interested in venture capital, which Botha insists is not an asset class. Botha argued that investing in venture capital is a “return-free risk” for the vast majority of investors. ~ learn more
Data poisoning is easier than we thought. “As few as 250 malicious documents can produce a ‘backdoor’ vulnerability in a large language model—regardless of model size or training data volume.” This revelation byAnthropic suggests that data-poisoning attacks might be more practical and accessible than previously believed. ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Almost hacked by a job interview. Always keep your guard up! “I was 30 seconds away from running malware on my machine.” A sophisticated scam masqueraded as a blockchain company interview nearly tricked a seasoned developer. ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
Palmer Luckey promotes nicotine on TBPN. I think there is merit to the argument that nicotine, a stimulant, has benefits for productivity. Yet it is super addictive and can have negative impacts. This media network, TBPN, seemingly came out of nowhere and is suddenly very visible to me. It’s like a tech bro version of CNBC. ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Harnessing hypoxia. Hypoxia is an oxygen-deficient state. The Indian army’s experience at high altitudes in the Himalayas revealed unexpected health benefits among soldiers, sparking interest in the potential medical uses of hypoxia. “They experienced lower rates of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and gastric disorders.” ~ learn more
People with blindness can read again after retinal implant. “Where this dead retina was a complete blind spot, vision was restored,” says Frank Holz, an ophthalmologist involved in the study. A tiny implant has helped many regain some vision lost to advanced age-related macular degeneration. ~ learn more
The naked mole rat secret. These rodents defy aging with a unique biological design. “The unique naked mole rat cGAS had much less stress-induced cellular senescence, extended lifespan in fruit flies, and preempted organ degeneration in mice.” Their special genetic mutations may become key in understanding longevity. ~ learn more
big ideas 📚
This 1993 Atlantic article stood against laissez-faire economics. I don’t endorse this view, yet it isn’t completely baseless. “Today’s Anglo-American world view rests on the shoulders of three men: Isaac Newton, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Adam Smith.” This perspective treats their ideas as universal truths, yet outside the Anglosphere, concepts like Friedrich List’s highlight the value of deliberate economic development over laissez-faire policies. ~ learn more