#31 - Fifteen years in 6 months

W/C 5th December 2022

Hello and welcome to #31. It’s getting to the holiday wind down time.

“That’s a 2023 problem” starts to become a fair point, people are tired and ready for a break, as much as you can have one. I’ve started to think about my review of the year post - which started as a joke to my friends on Facebook (back in the day) but became a little more of an appreciation post of the year. I’m looking forward to 2023 - who knows whatever it may hold, but it’s the hope…

This year I’ve invested in tools outside of work, like a coach (via work and BetterUP), therapy, more regular exercise and less wine and feel much better for it. I find the beauty in difficulty and challenges which a decade (or two) ago I’d probably just not be able to handle and just not have the resilience, actually, who am I kidding, 5 years ago I wouldn’t.

Anyway, it’s been a week mostly about A.I, Twitter becoming more insane but finally, you can send yourself Whatsapp messages so, for all your A.I chat, that’s the most helpful development of the week.

I’m trying a new layout this week, let’s see how it shakes down.

Now, on to the #content.

A.I has moved on 15 years in 6 months

Well, kinda. I worked at a start-up in the AI world and left 5 years ago, this has been coming for a while, but I suspect there are bigger challenges ahead for the technology but also for us as a society. Also just because something *sounds* smart, doesn’t make it smart or right. I know, I’m doing myself out of speaking gigs here, but it’s true.

Links I thought were good:

1. This is a nice piece that goes a little deeper.

2. Oh and robots are boring is worth a read and

3. Artificial Limits too.

4. More depth.

5. The best, always, AI homework from the Stratchery newsletter.

6. Oh and why Google missed the boat, so far.

This is only the start. My position is that it’s always right to be open-minded but not too fanatical about any development. They come thick and fast these days. It undoubtedly will impact us all, how and to what extent, needs some discussion perhaps.

Gideon Lichfield 🇺🇦🌻 @glichfield

To summarize, four common concerns about #chatGPT: 1. It'll spread misinformation 2. It'll spread hate 3. It'll kill search 4. It'll turn everything on the internet into mundane, low-quality grey goo I'm mainly concerned about 4: the great mediocritization of everything

This is a little dense but really interesting. How platforms and ‘we’ as internet users are shifting from singular digital identities. This is going to become more and more common. 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇 👇

This month's Frame: How Stuart Hall's identities framework can help understand the rise of Discord and Telegram

Odds and ends, basic links. Pure linkage.

• Instagram is over. If you’re not looking for hyperbolic shares, sorry.

• YouTube VP talks Shorts and Creators.

• Tik Tok drops user growth in the US for first time, adding social features. This happened to Snap, basically, they are trying to keep players in the app.

• Mr Beast’s writing a new consumer playbook. He studied the algo for 1000 days.

• How to improve creative thinking.

• How the innovative survive.

• Apple are building chips in the US for the first time in 10 years.

• Some early 2023 trend thinking from a social agency.

• Is there no shame anymore? A piece on SBF

• The secret lives of MI6’s female agents.

• 6 themes McKinsey thinks CEOs need to focus on in 2023.

• Are we at Endless media? This sounds like we all need a big conversation about what we want our digital lives to be. I have a feeling that there is a generation coming, perhaps in 20-25 years who will totally shun the internet.

Tweets and Toks

All The Right Movies @ATRightMovies

SCORSESE and SPIELBERG, two of the masters of their craft, talking about how they decide where to put the camera when shooting a scene.

☕Stephen M. Colbert @smcolbert

Ignore stuff you don't like and amplify stuff you do like, otherwise the only thing that survives on the internet is the things you don't like.

Bonus.

White Lotus S2. I cannot wait. I cannot get enough. And where am I getting my favourite theories? Tik Tok. See you next week or so.

All the spelling and grammatical mistakes in this Substack are on purpose to test you, actually. Well done. You got them all. No, I don’t need to know about them, you have that kudos.