417: Google Leak on AI & Open Source, Microsoft Admits Defeat, Semiconductors, Amazon, Shopify, Todd Combs, OpenAI, and Dune 2

"optimize your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat"

When you meet someone special, try not to fool yourself.

Treat it like the magic moment that it is.

—Frederik Gieschen

☀️🪟🪟🛋️ I read the1977 book called ‘A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction’ by Christopher Alexander many years ago.

It lists a bunch of ‘timeless patterns’ to help design and improve towns, neighborhoods, and houses.

There’s one pattern that I’ve always remembered, and I notice it whenever I’m indoors:

159. Light on Two Sides of Every Room

People will gravitate to rooms with natural light on two sides. 

Light from two sides limits the glare on others’ faces, allowing people to understand each other better through clear facial expressions and hand motions.

One more reason why the corner office is so coveted!

🛀💭🤪🔐 What decisions did you make back when you were stupider, and why do you still feel bound by some of them?

Is it sunk cost?

Inertia?

Lack of imagination?

The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken...?

I’m of course talking to myself here, trying to figure it out… 🤔

But I encourage you to ask yourself the same question.

🎥🗣️📺 🔥💣 It may be hard to believe if you weren’t around back then, but about 15 years ago, the “TED Talk” brand used to mean “differentiated”, “curated”, and “quality”.

People gave speeches there that they had never given anywhere else, and because of the prestige of it, they made a real effort. The organization didn’t put every talk online, so only the very best speeches made it. As a viewer, you ended up with a pretty impressive collection.

However, they took a wrong turn somewhere and went full Tommy Hilfiger on it. They ruined it by slapping the brand on anything, diluting it so much that it became a punchline.

I wonder what is today’s equivalent of TED back then. A brand that is slowly ruining the trust it built with its audience 🤔

🎓👩‍🏫🚌🔌🚙🔋👦🏻 I have told you many times that I believe kids can learn very quickly if they’re interested in something and the way it’s presented.

I recently saw a good example of this when my 9yo boy was asking about the electric car we want to buy.

I showed him a YouTube review video that went over *every single detail* of the car in about 25 minutes.

Later during dinner, my wife asked him about it, and he could recite every single feature and spec of the car from memory, every variation between the different trim levels, and every pro and con mentioned by the reviewer. He’s never been interested in cars before, so it was not new data that was slotting into existing knowledge. It was all brand new to him.

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🏦 💰 Liberty Capital 💳 💴

We all start somewhere 👆