P.S. You Should Know... | Issue #347
So much to read
my story 🚀
fun facts 🙌
What would your street look like if it were Dutch? Enter your address and it’ll spit out a version of your street fit for a cycling lifestyle. Don’t expect perfection, though. It’s just AI! ~ learn more
Rubberducking. “The name is a reference to a story in the book The Pragmatic Programmer in which a programmer would carry around a rubber duck and debug their code by forcing themselves to explain it, line by line, to the duck.” ~ learn more
Hearing bad grammar results in physical signs of stress. “The new study reveals a statistically significant reduction in HRV in response to grammatical violations. This reduction reflects the extent of the grammatical violations, suggesting that the more errors a person hears, the more regular their heartbeat becomes—a sign of stress.” ~ learn more
5 of the most famous typos in history. One is the Wicked Bible: “In a reprint of the King James Bible by royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the word “not” was egregiously left out of the Seventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” which was mistakenly printed as “Thou shalt commit adultery.” ~ learn more
oh, chicago 🏆
Maria Pappas 2024 calendar. She’s the Cook County Treasurer. I hope this is real, though I’m still not sure. One problem is that July appears twice! But she does publish an annual calendar showcasing her collection of jackets — link to a story about last year’s calendar. ~ learn more
tech, startups, internet ⚡
Venture studio online conference. I’ve always loved the idea of a venture studio, but for many years I remained a skeptic because I had seen very few successful examples. I’ve turned my skepticism into excitement in large part thanks to research that Max Pog has conducted and shared. Follow this link to see presentations from studio leaders at Hexa, OSS Ventures, Enhance Ventures, Merantix, and High Alpha Innovation. ~ learn more
Thoughts on the wearable pin form factor. “Personally I built prototypes of all wearable AI form factors: pins, clips, watches, ear-pieces, necklaces, etc. Humane will have the following issues…” ~ learn more
The Forward CarePod, an AI doctor in a box. “Rather than the more traditional primary care that Forward offers at these clinics, the CarePod is an attempt to fully automate a check-up: A patient approaches the metallic, square 8x8 foot box, which is eight feet by eight feet, and unlocks it with their phone. Once inside, they find a chair and a large screen, where a robotic voice walks them through a body scan or blood pressure reading or finger prick blood draws — all of which they do on their own.” ~ learn more
AI sports narrator. “Passed every frame of a football video to gpt-4-vision-preview, and with some simple prompting asked to generate a narration.” ~ learn more
to your health ⚕
Why doctors in America earn so much. There’s a perpetual shortage of doctors, which drives up compensation. The Economics blames the shortage on “a mismanaged training system that has artificially depressed the supply of medics.” Mismanaged implies its not intentional, but I’m not sure that’s accurate? This context about DOs was new to me: “In reaction to this artificial doctor shortage, a new type of medical degree gained popularity: dos (doctors of osteopathic medicine). In 1981, there were only 14 osteopathic medical schools. Today there are 41. In most countries, an osteopath is someone who manipulates middle-aged spines. In America dos are fully-licensed doctors.” ~ learn more
Who profits most from America’s baffling healthcare system? Another well-deserved jab from the Brits at The Economics over our nation’s kinda screwy approach to health. “Pharmaceutical firms and hospitals attract much of the public ire for the inflated costs. Much less attention is paid to a small number of middlemen who extract far bigger rents from the system’s complexity.” ~ learn more
Medical debt is disappearing from Americans’ credit reports, lifting scores. “Under mounting pressure from patient advocates and government regulators, the three major credit agencies over the last two years have taken a series of steps to remove some medical debts from credit reports, including unpaid medical bills under $500. The changes appear to be having an impact. As of August, just 5% of adults with a credit report had a medical debt on their report, down from almost 14% two years earlier.” ~ learn more
retail therapy 💸
Charlie Munger’s first longform podcast in his 99 years on Earth. “He offered lessons and advice for investors today, and of course he shared his speech on the virtues of Costco once again (among other favorite investments).” ~ learn more
under the microscope 🔬
Light can make water evaporate without heat. “Chen says that in principle, he thinks it may be possible to increase the limit of water produced by solar desalination, which is currently 1.5 kilograms per square meter, by as much as three- or fourfold using this light-based approach.” ~ learn more
AI model can diagnose diabetes from 10 seconds of your voice. “Canadian medical researchers trained the machine-learning AI to recognise 14 vocal differences in the voice of someone with type 2 diabetes compared to someone without diabetes. The auditory features that the AI focussed on included slight changes in pitch and intensity, which human ears cannot distinguish.” ~ learn more
GLP-1 vs SGLT-2: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. I was mostly unfamiliar with the latter, which comes in pill form vs injection. It’s slightly less effective for weight loss and A1c reduction, but also relatively safer. I hear that your company’s HR/benefits department is quite familiar with it, and it’s keeping them up at night because they fear how costly it’ll become. ~ learn more
thoughts of food 🍔
Doritos is a software company now. “To “help gamers keep the crunch to themselves,” Doritos is debuting what it calls “Doritos Silent.” Gamers download Doritos Crunch Cancellation software and when the technology is turned on, the software detects the crunching sounds and silences it while keeping the gamer’s voice intact.” ~ learn more
on the blockchain ⛓
Nike-RTFKT's crypto universe nears $1.4 billion in NFT trading. “The primary example of that may be Nike and RTFKT's non-fungible token universe which has, in less than two years, while facing a bear market much of the time, generated more than one billion dollars in trading volume and more than one hundred million dollars in earnings.” Major caveat: “While the majority of those numbers are thanks to the success of the CloneX collection, which launched during the height of crypto's bull run, the volume and earnings of the other collections is still noteworthy.” ~ learn more
profiles of people 🚶
Death, sex and money: the Tom Ford exit interview. “He sold his company and has set his sights on new goals. As he walks away from the fashion world, Tom Ford talks candidly about all of it: the empire he built, the grief he’s endured, and what he’s planning for his third and final act.” ~ learn more