Links & What I've Been Reading Jan 2023
Bored this Sunday? I’ve got you covered. Take a look at the top 10 essays/articles I’ve read in the past month:
The top 5
Staring into the abyss as a core life skill, by Ben Kuhn
A tract on why you need to take hard life decisions head on, even with a degree of enjoyment, and how this character trait is distributed.
Why we stopped making Einsteins, by Erik Hoel
Interesting on the extreme, outlier effectiveness of 1:1 (‘aristocratic’) tutoring
To quote, tutored kids “performed two standard deviations better than students who learn via conventional instructional methods—that is, "the average tutored student was above 98% of the students in the control class.”
Assistants with GenAI capabilities will disrupt/destroy matchmaking platforms like MyTutor. Do you want your kid to be taught by an AI that has read everything there ever is to read for pennies, or a hungover uni student that charges £40 p/h?
Soon, every kid will have a personalised tutor, not just the rich and privileged. AI is often panned for systematising inequality, but at times it will be a great equalizer.
Over the long term, the marginal cost of cognitive intelligence trends towards 0 – this is just another manifestation.
The mystery of the miracle year, by Dwarkesh Patel
Similar in theme to the above – what triggers spurts of human genius in scientists and inventors?
AI: Startup vs Incumbent Value, by Elad Gil
Gil doesn’t post much, but when he does it’s always worth reading. He’s one of the better trend analysts out there and I think is prescient on value accrual in AI.
He’s also one of the more interesting solo investors dealing with serious money ($100ms) - that’s more than some dedicated funds can even raise - along with Lachy Groom / Nat Friedman / Daniel Gross.
The latter has one of the best humble brags ever on his personal website.
How to make money from Generative AI, by Michael Stothard
This is a rare VC thought piece that is actually pretty good.
The rest
How to be successful, by Sam Altman
Worth revisiting after Sam - former Y Combinator President and now OpenAI CEO - has finally hit his own company out of the park.
Your life in weeks, by Wait but Why
Excellent low fi visualisations.
A new tech world view, in The Economist
Includes a pseudo profile of Sam Altman.
The Cormac McCarthy I know, by Nautilus
I read The Road years ago, but never realised that Cormac was so accomplished and multidisciplinary.
Expect another one of these next month. As always, share this Substack with people who might find it interesting:
And subscribe here