Wealth Isn’t a Pie + AI Wonders & Self-Growth Insights

Sam is back home at OpenAI, so we can go back to business.

Today on the agenda: Wealth, AI, Self-improvement...

And it feels like home 🙃

Thing 1 - The Pie Fallacy

The Pie Fallacy is the belief that wealth in the world is like a pie and doesn’t get any bigger - a belief many of us hung onto since we were kids.

But that’s not how things work, not in the universe where you're all about making new wealth - startups, entrepreneurship...

But why?

Money isn’t the same as wealth. Money is just the tool we use to swap wealth around. There might be a cap on how much cash is in your wallet or in the government's coffers, but wealth itself? It’s a whole different ball game. It’s been expanding and morphing all through history.

Example

Think about fixing up an old car. You put in the time, spruce it up, and voilà – you've just scrapped up some extra wealth. Working car is worth more than a broken one. And the best part? You didn’t make anyone else a bit poorer by doing it.

Wealth isn’t a static pie. It’s more like a garden that grows and flourishes with new ideas and hard work - something you're already planting seeds for 😜

Inspired by Paul Graham.

Thing 2 - AI of the week

• Anthropic launched Claude 2.1, which comes with significant performance improvements.
• Inflection.ai announced Inflection 2. They say it's "the best model in the world for its compute class and the second most capable LLM in the world today"
• Magnific AI - image Upscaler & Enhancer that feels like Magic 🪄

• stability.ai introduces Stable Video Diffusion, their first foundation model for generative video (try it) - and it looks state-of-the-art
• AI tool that can help detect melanoma. Not new but great use case.
• Musicfy launched a feature that allows you to sing and turn your notes into any instrument you want. Try it.
• LM Studio allows you to discover, download, and run local LLMs
• trace.zip converts your ideas from text to SwiftUI a.k.a. apps for Apple devices
• Google Bard lets you chat with YouTube videos
• ElevenLabs launched a speech-to-speech converter - Transform your voice into another character and control its emotion and delivery
• Screenshot to code - converts a screenshot to HTML/Tailwind CSS

Thing 3 - Journey to Self: Paths of Progress, Focus, and Courage

When you don’t seek the best version of yourself, you end up depressed.

When you are distracted by the lives of others instead of living your own, you end up anxious.

When you keep missing out on opportunities you could have grabbed with a bit more courage, you end up angry.

- Orange Book

With this in mind, what do you do instead?

1. Keep Getting Better: Don't worry about being perfect. Just try to be a little better each day. Set small goals, learn from mistakes, and be happy with the little wins.
2. Focus on Yourself: Pay attention to what you love and what's important to you. Do more of that.
3. Be Brave: It's okay to be scared, but don't let fear stop you. Start with small steps and build up your confidence. Learn from times when you didn’t take a chance, and use that to help you next time.

Cheers, Zvonimir