2023-08-07 Links

Daily Reads:

Simon Willison’s annotated presentations workflow is interesting

Geoff Marlow’s post on the Double Disconnect between decision-making on one side, sense-making and action-taking on the other rings so loud and true. The people who make sense of the situation are usually at the front-lines, and are also the ones taking action. Decision makers (often stated as being the top of the organisation food chain) are not involved sense-making at all.

arXiv: Self-consuming generative models go mad Model collapse is risk with multiple models being trained on synthetic data. This paper suggests that a small dose of synthetic data, using like salt in cooking, may improve the performance of the models. Glass coffin, I say.

Jack Clark’s "Tech Tales" section of his newsletters are a huge draw card for me. In Episode 335, Sentience Is For Rich People got me thinking about my own kids, and access to technology at home.

Kashmir Hill profiles tech reporter Mike Masnick in the New York Times. What (he) doesn’t have in wealth, he makes up for in influence.

Rishad Tobaccowala’s writing has been another of my weekend (or Monday morning) staples. He’s shared a celebratory post, with a collection of some of the most read (popular?) posts from the last 3 years.

Scott Belsky: 12 Thoughts on Running (and Leading Teams and Building Products).

Brink Lindsey explores the question What Are Humans For? in the context of generative AI and it’s perceived threat to employment. First and foremost, they are for making and taking care of other human beings and enjoying their company. We may someday employ intelligent assistants to help us in these tasks, but we can never lose sight of the fact that vital connections to other flesh-and-blood people are at the heart of what makes life worth living. Furthermore, humans are for exploring and seeking to understand the world — and the larger universe — around them, and then using that understanding to serve human purposes.

Eric Nehrlich: The price and cost of belonging resonated strongly.

QOTD:

and it is also my quote of the day
And yet I still struggle to feel like I belong, still feel pressure to prove my value in every moment, as these childhood habits are still wired into my unconscious nervous system. This helps me in some ways; my hypervigilance and sensitivity to what is happening around me means that I detect subtle cues while coaching that can lead to deeper conversations. It also helps me to be a better parent. But it has a cost, as I live much of my life in a fight-or-flight activated state with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline flooding my body.

Music:

Jeremy Keith posted this on his blog Adactio – his friends Rowan Piggott & Rosie Hodgson turn a glass of beer into wonderful song