Here is another roundup of the best reads, podcasts, internet people + projects, and anything else I’ve discovered the past month.
Podcast Recommendations
I don’t know what was going on this month, but the podcast feeds were on fire.
1.) The Social Radars
- Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy have both funded and advised thousands of companies. They recently launched a new podcast where they talk to some of the most successful founders about how they did it. I recommend starting with the Paul Buchheit episode!
2.) Aarthi & Sriram’s Good Time Show
- I’ve been a huge fan of Aarthi and Sriram’s podcast for a few weeks now. They are married so their chemistry is awesome and they have casual conversations with some of the smartest folks working in technology today. Their recent conversation with Lenny Rachitsky about how to grow a community through writing online and other content creation is a good one to start with!
3.) Sam Altman on Lex Fridman + Ilya Sutskever on Dwarkesh Patel’s Lunar Society
- Artificial Intelligence is changing the world rapidly and everyone should get to know the basics now. Remember that famous David Foster Wallace speech where he told the story of the two fish swimming past one another. One says “how’s the water today” and the other says “what the fuck is water?” Soon we will be surrounded by AI, so now’s the time to orient yourself. Listen to these two podcasts for uncomplicated discussions with the two cofounders of the company leading the AI / Large Language Model revolution, OpenAI. Sam Altman is the CEO and the conversation with Lex is more high level and focused on social impact. Ilya is the Chief of Science of OpenAI and has a slightly more technical conversation with Dwarkesh.
4.) Nat Friedman on Dwarkesh Patel’s Lunar Society
- Two episode recs in one roundup, you know Dwarkesh is doing something right. This conversation is fascinating and immersed me immediately. Nat, who was the CEO of GitHub (within Microsoft), has partnered with Dr. Brent Seales to launch the Vesuvius Challenge: a million dollar prize for reading an unopened Herculaneum scroll for the very first time using AI and computer vision. Hundreds of ancient scrolls were buried in ash and mud and crumble at the slightest touch. Past attempts to unroll them were unsuccessful, despite cool inventions like a machine that unrolls the scroll by mere millimeters over 24 hour days. Now, with the assistance of technology, we might be able to read the never before seen text. Nat is definitely practicing polymathematics. Go listen and checkout the Vesuvius Challenge!
5.) Sci-fi master Ted Chiang on AI, time travel and more
- Ted Chiang is a genius. You may have experienced a version of his work if you’ve seen the movie Arrival. If you haven’t see that movie yet you have to watch it today… and Ted’s story is the basis for it. I am currently reading his second collection of short stories Exhalation and it is blowing my mind. I’ve found a magic time portal in the back of a bazaar shop, discovered and experienced the heat death of the universe in a universe powered by air, seen people abuse virtual pets that can speak English, and much more. I thought I oughta look for an interview to get to know this genius I’ve been vibing with lately and found some wonderful conversations. Turns out Ted thinks just as well in conversation as he does in his writing. Dive in and read his work.
Reading Recommendations
As always, you can keep up with what I am reading here. You can also check out my Reading This page to see the five things I am currently recommending.
1.) How an IBM Computer Learned to Sing (1961) – Ted Gioia
This is the exact kind of essay I hope for when I sit down to read in the early morning of a Sunday with a fresh cup of coffee in my hand. Ted Gioia continually nails it.
“For the instrumental parts of the song, the Bell Labs team relied on contributions from Max Matthews, who had created a breakthrough sound-generating program called MUSIC back in 1957. In those ancient analog days, he had hooked up his violin to an IBM 704, and was thus the first performer in history to transfer live music to a computer for synthesis and playback.”
2.) First Word Art / Last Word Art – Michael Naimark
I think I’ve recommended this before, but I find myself thinking about this 2001 essay a lot lately, given the pace of AI.
“How can anyone do anything well if the medium is still evolving? Don’t confuse exploration with expression. Rudolph Arnheim wrote in his 1932 “Film as Art” that when cinema went from silent to sound, the level of art went down since everyone was interested in the novelty more than anything else.”
Twitter, Cool People + Projects
I recently reached 200 followers on Twitter! It has been awesome slowly finding the corner of Twitter with people building cool things, thinking clearly in public, and having important discussions about meaningful topics. I’ve already connected with a handful of brilliant and friendly people. My Twitter feels like a blend of the nets Valentine and Peter Wiggin post on in Ender’s Game and a crowded café in the neighborhood most suited for me. The tweet below sums it up nicely I think.
Man oh man, my favorite musician just dropped his first solo album Shabang. You gotta listen to this incredible record from Scott McMicken and THE EVER-EXPANDING! I am literally looping the album closer as I write this, it is the perfect album for Spring.
Personal Updates
ChromeGPT hit 80 users! This is a Chrome Extension I built last December after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. ChromeGPT lets you chat with GPT from anywhere on the web. ChromeGPT has users in France, Malaysia, China, the UK and the US. So sweet seeing something I built getting used around the globe. You can try it out here! If you need help getting it set up, read this set up guide I made.
I also launched a new project this month called Cubicle!
Cubicle is a productivity tool I built for myself to help me get more work done during the day. I set myself twenty minute “productivity sprints” where I set out to complete three tasks. Then I take a brief break, set three new tasks, and repeat! I’ve also integrated my calendar, a notepad, and just integrated ChromeGPT so now you have an AI assistant right in your cubicle. To lean into the 90’s office vibe, I also programmed a fun feature where every few minutes you get a “memo” from “corporate” which scrolls across your screen before disappearing. The memos are powered by AI so you never know what they will say and you’ll never see the same memo twice. They are typically announcements of new initiatives, words of encouragement or an inspirational quote, and sometimes even petty office gossip like the one above. If you think this might be useful to you, let me know and I can get you set up!
Thanks for reading this month’s roundup!
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