Rob Jefferies

www.oneusefulthing.org/p/setting…

So many important processes assume that the amount and quality of our written output is a useful measure of thoughtfulness, effort, and time.

A professor from NYU said, on one of the nightly news shows, that the written word is no longer the symbol of human thought. Long term this is very true but there will be a short term arbitrage in those that can use AI tools in their work.

Will AI’s accurate code generation slow adoption of new programming languages? A lack of a broad code base for new languages may lead to bias towards existing languages.

Finished reading: The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell 📚(5/5)

I thoroughly enjoy reading and listening to works authored and narrated by Gladwell, and his latest offering does not disappoint. This captivating piece is part podcast and part historical novel, where Gladwell delves into the lives of the men who shaped America’s WWII bombing strategy. Through their moral views and beliefs, Gladwell highlights how their decisions impacted not only the war but also our present-day lives.

Ford has submitted a patent to automate the vehicle repo processs. www.theverge.com

Those include sending messages to the owner’s smartphone or the vehicle itself, locking drivers out entirely, disabling functions like air conditioning, geofencing drivers to only operate within a certain time or set area so they can still get to work, and in one especially harrowing example, enabling an autonomous car to just drive itself to an impound lot — or a junkyard if the car’s market value is determined to be below a certain threshold.

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you

Finished reading: Authentic by Paul Van Doren 📚(4/5)

The making of the Vans shoe. If you enjoy books about how businesses are built, skate culture, and a bit about life in SoCal in the 60-80’s this a fun quick read/listen.

Finished reading: Taste by Stanley Tucci 📚(4/5)

Enjoyable audiobook read with the gentle and smooth voice of Stanley Tucci himself. Parts of the book ran long, but the penultimate chapter was a shock to me and put the whole book into a new context. A book about the love of food turned into a book about gratitude in a wonderful way.

Finished reading: The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon by Todd Zwillich 📚(4/5) an Audible Original.

“The story of John C. Houbolt, an unsung hero of Apollo 11 and the man who showed NASA how to put America on the moon.” It’s the story of determination, achievement, perseverance, and the struggle for recognition. Doing the right thing isn’t always rewarded at the time we feel it should be.

For the first time in my life, I heard a radio station play the same song twice in a row, and not for any type of marathon. Santeria (song) - Wikipedia. Odd.

7 marathons - 7 Continents - 7 Days

David Kilgore just ran—and won—seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. The 31-year-old American runner averaged about 2:56 per marathon, which means he ran 183.4 miles at 6:43 pace per mile.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Remarkable

Kottke.org - New Massive Image of the Milky Way with 3.32 Billion Individual Objects

It’s impossible to wrap my mind around this.

Tonight the NBC Nightly News had a story about a woman who found her father’s bucket list after he was killed in a distracted driver accident. The list included about 60 items of which about 6 where already completed. When she found the list she felt compelled to finish the bucket list and in doing so found new strength inside her as well as a connection to her father. She finished the list in about 5 years.

NBC Nightly News - Daughter honors late father by finishing his bucket list

As I watched this episode I thought about how this father’s bucket list was like a treasure map. It was a plan laid out for someone to follow. It gave the daughter a plan to act upon without struggling to think of her own bucket list (though she may have had one).

Is this a bad thing, to have a challenge laid out before you? Probably not, who knows if she would have accomplished her own bucket list in just a few years without the impetus or challenge from her father.

So the lesson here is to take the leap, find a list, any list and get started.

Wired - Robot Cars Are Causing 911 False Alarms in San Francisco

In a letter filed with a California regulator yesterday, city agencies complained that on three separate occasions since December, Cruise staff called 911 after a passenger in one of its driverless vehicles became “unresponsive” to the two-way voice link installed in each car. Each time, police and firefighters rushed to the scene but found the same thing: a passenger who had fallen asleep in their robot ride.

Now that is some confidence in self driving taxis, or just a few folks sleeping one off.

Finished reading: PSYCHOLOGY OF MONEY. by MORGAN. HOUSEL 📚 (4/5)

Great money lessons best summed up by:

• Build wealth by saving more
• Save by more spending less than you make
• Spend less by desiring less
• Desire less by not caring what other people think

Simple is not always easy

Watched Savage Waters on Outside+ (4/5)

Savage Waters is an adventure to find an awe inspiring wave recorded in E. F. Knight’s personal journal in 1891. The film wonderfully captures our desire to connect to the wonders of our world across generations. From the journal…

“When we were close to it, the sea happened to break, and the sight was a lovely yet a terrible one. A huge green roller, very high and steep, suddenly rose as if by magic from the deep; then swept over the shoal, and, when it reached the shallowest part its crest hung over, forming a cavern underneath, through whose transparent roof the sun shone with a beautiful green light; and lastly the mass overtopping itself fell with a great hollow sound, and was dashed to pieces in a whirl of hissing foam.”

The Cruise of the “Alerte” by E.F. Knight

Savage Waters - Official Trailer on Vimeo

The Cruise of the ‘Alerte’: Knight, E. F. on Amazon (Affiliate)

It’s amazing how many side conversations held during meeting breaks become part of the core “canon“ of the meeting following the break. It’s easy to consider these brakes a waste of time, rather than a time to process what has been said.

Finished reading: We Are What We Eat by Alice Waters 📚(3/5)

A manifesto about how we eat affects who we are. A bit preachy, but isn’t that what a manifesto is? Chapters tell you a ton about the focus of the book.

Part 1 : Fast Food Culture

Convenience, Uniformity, Availability, Trust in Adverising, Cheapness, More is Better Speed

Part 2 : Slow Food Culture

Beauty, Biodiversity, Seasonality, Stewardship, Pleasure in Work, Simplicity, Interconnectedness.

I have noticed that my breathing stops or slows while I work. I will stop breathing while scanning for “threats” during calls, checking my inbox, reviewing my task list, or in meetings. Mindfulness and awareness help me identify these times and just breathe.

Right now. Breathe