540: Anduril's Defense Platform, Google's Quantum Breakthrough, Nadella, Meta's $10bn Cable, Big Tech Capex, Gemini 2.0, Opus 3.5, Apple + Broadcom, and FPS
"my nervous system knew exactly what to do"
If it happens overnight it can unhappen overnight.
—Jack Butcher
🗄️📁🤔 Now that I have a backyard sauna and a basement gym, I can feel another long-time project rebooting from its dormant state.
Years ago, I had a standing desk and loved it.
It was a fixed height desk — I couldn’t move it up and down with the press of a button. It was actually an IKEA desk that wasn’t made to be standing height, but the design allowed you to put the desk surface higher, which is what I did.
When my wife and I had kids, we slept like crap for over a year, and standing all day became a challenge while sleep-deprived… So I admitted defeat and lowered the desk.
I planned that once sleep normalized, I’d return to standing, but then we moved to a new house and I switched desks to fit my new working space. This one couldn’t be set to standing height.
For my health — our bodies are made to move, not to sit all day — I want to return to standing. But this time, I want it to be a motorized desk so I can sit part of the time (hedging my bets?).
My research a few years ago had landed on the Uplift V2, which is very customizable. You can pick what kind of wood, the width, the type of keypad, grommet connectivity, frame type, etc.
It does annoy me that the price to ship one of these to Canada from Texas is almost what the desk itself costs. I’ve been looking at Canadian alternatives like MotionGrey (which seems pretty good based on a few reviews!), but I still need to do more research.
I’ll keep you updated on this project. Perhaps this will plant the seed in your mind that maybe you need to be standing more too (if you aren’t already).
🚨🗣️🗣️🎙️ In case you missed it, part 2 of my conversation with Mark Nelson is here:
🏄♂️🧊⛸️ Remember that balance board I mentioned in Edition #520? It just proved its worth.
Yesterday, I was taking a walk and the sidewalks were covered in ice — slippery af.
When I hit a particularly icy patch, my feet went out from under me (😬) — but instead of wiping out and breaking something, my nervous system knew exactly what to do. One moment I was slipping, the next I had recovered my balance mid-fall.
While I can't be certain, I suspect that before frequently using the balance board, I wouldn't have been able to recover so quickly and may have suffered a nasty fall 😮💨
🧠🤕🤔📃✍️🤖 I love this AI use case from my friend Tinkered Thinker (who was on my podcast twice). What makes his story special isn't just the life-changing outcome, but the ingenious approach.
Instead of wielding AI as a tool for conflict, he used it for understanding and for personal growth.
I know I’m being vague, but I want you to hear it in his own words because he tells it well and the details matter.
🪜🤕🩼♿︎♿️ This advice could save your life: If you can afford to hire a professional to do it, you should almost never climb a ladder (like to hang Xmas lights on your roof).
The medical statistics make clear that the risk/reward is not good.
Especially if you do it only once in a while. Professionals know what they’re doing, have good equipment, training, and experience. If you’re like me, you don’t.
📕💭💭🎁 Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Jim’s new book!
I think you’ll enjoy it 💚 🥃
🏦 💰 Business & Investing 💳 💴
🦅🇺🇸 Breaking Defense Silos: Anduril Opens Platform to Partners to Network the Battlefield 💻🕸️🤖🪖🎖️
Modern warfare presents two critical challenges for the U.S. Department of Defense:
Military systems operating in isolation instead of as coordinated networks
Vulnerability of forces relying too heavily on centralized command structures in contested or uncertain environments where communications may be degraded or compromised
Anduril's solution: A decentralized mesh of systems networked together across every domain where the military operates (land, air, sea, and increasingly, space 👩🏻🚀).
Everything on the network will share real-time data and act as sensors for the broader network to create a unified dataset for the people upstairs to get a better overview and make life-and-death decisions.
The company has announced a new phase of development for its platform:
They are opening it up to third parties with the Lattice SDK (a SDK is a software development kit, a way for others to integrate into Anduril’s systems via APIs and reference implementations).
They have also announced the Lattice Partner Program: “This program provides dedicated developer resources and support to accelerate the development of new applications, streamline integrations, and deploy impactful capabilities to warfighters at the edge. Members of the program gain access to the full Lattice developer experience, including developer sandboxes, detailed documentation, reference applications, representative data sets, and testing and validation resources to ensure seamless interoperability.”
They have “over 10” (aka 11) partners are launch: “Apex, Forterra, Impulse Space, Numerica, Oracle, Saronic, Scale AI, Spire Global, Striveworks, Textron Systems and Valinor”
🔮Willow: Google Unveils Quantum Computing Breakthrough (What does it all mean?) 🤔
This is very cool!
But I think most people don’t understand the implications of this news. Let’s dig into what quantum computers will be able to do amazingly well and what they will be useless at (and why):
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