Trevor McKendrick - Be alive

I linked to this last week but I enjoyed it so much I wanted to remind all of you again:

“One day we will vanish and our problems will vanish with us. Problems are a feature, not a bug. Problems are for the living, not for the dead. Problems are an excellent indicator that you are alive. The state of no problems, is the state of death.”

Be alive!

Trevor

The best critique of the printing press in the 17th century(article)

It’s so good - it matches almost idea for idea with modern fears around social media & now AI.

It’s from Francis Bacon, commentary here:

1. “He argued that the printing press had flooded the world with too many books”
2. “He argued that the printing press had encouraged the idolatry of books and authors, as people tended to accept the authority of printed texts without examining their merits, sources, or methods.”
3. “He argued that the printing press had hindered the advancement of learning by promoting the imitation and repetition of old opinions, rather than the invention and experimentation of new ones.”
4. “He argued that the printing press had fostered the dissemination of false, frivolous, or harmful knowledge, such as superstitions, fables, libels, and scandals”

Introducing researchGPT (twitter thread)

It takes in a research paper & then lets you ask questions about it.

Amazing!

How Duolingo reignited user growth (article)

Retention über alles - solve retention & you will become very rich.

@aniiyengar (tweet)

“Taco Bell is so good because they're basically a startup lab for different kinds of vaguely Mexican-flavored foods. No ‘cultural tradition’ could've come up with the Cheesy Gordita Crunch that's just pure American capitalistic striving to create the perfect instrument of satiety”

Made me laugh with pride.

Will Manidis (tweet)

“your life will be much easier if you convince yourself that demons are literally real and have great influence on our world

dramatically easier to avoid bad behaviors and temptation when you believe they are external to yourself, and have their own agency that you can fight”

In hindsight, this was the greatest tiktok ever created (tweet)

Pain. Pain! A couple talking earnestly about how they made money trading stocks on Robinhood.

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