P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #475
A new learning curve
my story
🔥 I decided to get better at grilling. So, after a couple weekends of cruising Facebook Marketplace, I am pleased to report that I’ve picked up a new-to-me grill. Day one of grilling was a complete flop, and I had to revert to cast iron pan in my kitchen. However, I am applying a growth mindset and therefore am confident that next time will be much better!
🧑💻 I had a pretty great ‘the future is here’ moment recently as I watched Claude take command of Excel and Powerpoint to do my bidding. In Issue #300 on December 25, 2022, when the AI wave was just beginning to build, I wrote that “… soon you’ll see a model that can use digital tools, including a web browser, from Adept.ai. Seriously, you have to watch these demo videos where natural language prompts lead to effective use of redfin, salesforce, craigslist, and even google sheets.” While the demo video I linked to is long gone, and Adept basically seems like a failure to launch, the underlying capability is now here and broadly available. Seriously, Claude is quite good at manipulating Office software now. Try it!
fun facts 🙌
‘Nonnamaxxing’, the Italian grandma lifestyle. “Never think of yourself as old,” says Licia Fertz. “You are born young.” The piece calls this part of the Italian nonna mindset, and links it to research suggesting a more positive view of ageing may be tied to living longer. ~ learn more
The Marriage Pact is very popular at Ivy schools. On LinkedIn the founder posted that, “At 25 different US colleges—including half the ivy league—you’re more likely to do marriage pact than you are to graduate.” It’s a campus wide survey that matches students using what it calls “groundbreaking algorithms and a little linear algebra.” The pact is that if matched pairs are unwed by 45, they’ll default to one another. ~ learn more
Chinese ‘flying money’. A short lesson on global money laundering. This six minute video explains the “absolutely insane practice of how $4T+ gets laundered every year” through trade and manufacturing. ~ learn more
The handmade beauty of Machine Age data visualizations. "What they shared is a conviction that drawing, diagramming, and composing images was not a decorative step added after the thinking was done. It was how the thinking got done." The piece is a mini tour of Machine Age data visualization, from William James sketches to du Bois posters, with a side point about what gets lost when we automate design. ~ learn more
oh, austin 🤠
A Meow Wolf bathhouse coming to Austin. “We’re not building a spa. We’re building a portal.” Meow Wolf co-founder Corvas Brinkerhoff is opening Submersive, a 20,000 square foot “immersive art” bathhouse near Barton Springs with saunas, hot baths, and cold plunges across 12 distinct spaces. ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Many small steps for robots. “Robotics progress is not gated by a single breakthrough. There is no single fundamental innovation that will suddenly automate the world.” Evan Beard, co-founder of Standard Bots, argues that the key to unlocking economic value in robotics today lies in taking small steps across a spectrum of tasks rather than waiting for a giant technological leap. ~ learn more
Context is the fifth primitive. “Now with the AI platform shift, context will be the fifth primitive for marketplaces and agent-networks are the emergent NFX paradigm.” The pitch: start with a single-player agent that’s genuinely useful, then let those agents “backflip into multiplayer coordination” as they transact with each other. ~ learn more
Competitive strategy in the age of Al. “Commoditizing the complement does not demand a best-in-class replacement. A free, good-enough product is enough to change market dynamics.” Tom Tunguz connects Google’s old playbook (free maps, email, browser, OS) to Anthropic’s recent push around MCP and embedded apps. ~ learn more
better doing 🎯
Say yes to the real world. “Your kids are asking to do something in the real world…say yes!” A nice reminder. ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Printing press for biological data. “Lab automation right now is stuck at the Petri dish and the microtiter plate level. It’s equivalent to handwriting manuscripts in the 15th century, sometimes. And so what we’re building is a printing press for biological data.” Sterling Hooten explains why biology needs a better interface: PCB-based microfluidic bioreactors that can culture and sense cells while streaming data in real time. ~ learn more
Seeds wake up to rain. “If you’re a seed that’s within a few centimeters of a raindrop’s impact, the kind of sound pressures that you would experience in water or in the ground are equivalent to what you’d be subject to within a few meters of a jet engine in the air.” MIT engineers found rice seeds germinated 30 to 40 percent faster when exposed to rain-like sound vibrations, likely because the vibrations jostle gravity-sensing “statoliths.” ~ learn more
big ideas 📚
Eat electricity, skip the farm. “Startups like Solar Foods aim to make “food out of thin air,” growing edible protein by feeding microbes with electricity and carbon dioxide.” It to turn air, water, and energy into food, nudging us toward something like “Sun-eaters.” ~ learn more