#37 Career bending times
W/C 1 May 2023
Hello and welcome to #37. A lot is going on in work and life, but isn’t it always? Been an odd week or so of news too, but that’s for another time.
Right now I can’t seem to move for the AI stories, I was talking to a friend yesterday and we both (I think) agreed that there is a lack of discussion around the impact AI will have on society. We tend to retrofit things in life, this feels like a very important moment and once that genie is fully out the bottle, well, what then? As someone said to me a few weeks ago, things are moving faster than ever, today is the slowest it will ever be.
Now, on to the #content.
1. The ‘Godfather or AI leaves Google & warns of danger ahead
I am both pro AI and worried too. In between I feel that most things we see in society as game changing take a lot longer to matter. This piece is very much in one extreme camp, but perhaps one we should all consider a little more (see my intro). Or maybe not, any extreme point of view makes me nervous when it comes to new tech, though this could and does feel different. Whatever your view, what a headline “the godfather of AI leaves google and regrets his life work” - it’s up there.
For balance and another deep read. 👇
2. How much can Duolingo teach us?
Now, the above taken into context, this use case does sound interesting. Can AI be better at teaching us than humans? Maybe. Probably? But again, what does it mean for those humans who teach? What of the folks who it isn’t? Intriguing piece though. All a bit AI heavy. I feel like a Linkedin Influencer who used to talk about Web3.
Also another useful use-case. Bard helping sheet functions.
3. Peak smartphone?
Global smartphone shipments fell 14.6% YoY to 268.6 million in Q1 2023. Q1 2023 marked the seventh consecutive Q of decline. Samsung, Apple and Xiaomi shipped more devices than all the other smartphone makers combined. What comes after the smartphone?
4. Meta on the rise
Meta has had some tough times but seems to be really back in growth. Reels is forced on most people to engage with and it’s paying off. Putting how they’ve grown, I’ve found the rumours of their death overstated.
Also, this was an interesting framing I liked.
5. 16 Hours, 16 Bets: Optimal Decision-Making
I’ve long been fascinated by decisions. I did my masters dissertation on Poker and interviewed a number of players, decision making alongside maths (interlinked mostly) were two core themes of the best players. This piece has make me think even deeper, the more we all think about decisions, the better we’ll be at them.
6. Career Bending Times
Isn’t it just? Some thoughts on the future of our careers.
7. Forget touchscreens in cars.
Years ago I worked for a (now) failed autonomous car company. Everything was about becoming a device, so much so that huge devices were put into them, think Teslas, but now there seems to be a shift away because well, it isn’t as safe or useful as we thought.
8. ReadOnlyMemory.
This is nice if you like games. 👆
Tweets and Toks
Bit on BlueSky here. and here.
My Tik Tok algo is my favourite thing. It genuinely flows with my mood, here are some things that are basic but I found interesting/lolz.
When there is a different team working on each movie…
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Professional Tik Tok is quite something.
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Bonus.
Succession, Marvellous Mrs Maisel (loving how they are trying to end it) and Beef. Also, Sweet Tooth is back for S2 on Netflix which I adored.
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.