609: ChatGPT Health & the Democratization of Medical Knowledge, Nvidia + Groq, Reed Hastings, Dan Wang, The Invisible Cognitive Tax, Green Tea, and Bruce Springsteen
"That’s basically a sci-fi innovation"
He who angers you conquers you.
—Elizabeth Kenny
🛀💭📷🎥🤖 Growing up, I felt a divide between my childhood, surrounded by adults who frequently took photos and shot video, and my parents, who had only a few black-and-white photos of themselves as kids, or my grandparents, who maybe had a single wedding photo.
It felt like my era was being documented in high fidelity, while the past was more elusive.
But compared to my kids growing up in the iPhone era, my childhood in the 1980s and 1990s was barely recorded. Now, consider the AI era. I think it’ll make everything else seem quaint.
A kid born today will leave behind a trail of very detailed digital artifacts that AI could easily parse.
Think of it like a super-advanced version of ChatGPT’s memory feature, which learns about you and retains context across threads and queries.
Inputs won’t just be what you ask via text or voice. Systems will ambiently collect audio and video from your phone, glasses, watch, computers, and household devices. The convenience of having it always on and aware of the context will mean that most people will accept it, despite the privacy concerns.
This means that a child growing up in that world could have their whole life documented, Truman Show style.
☔🚗❄️👨🔧 A few years ago, I got religion on car tires 🛞🛞🛞🛞
Before that, I didn’t care. I just bought whatever was cheap or on sale.
Then I did a bit of research and realized how CRITICAL car tires are for safety and performance, especially here in Canada with our loooooong winters.
I’ve now got pages and pages of notes on exactly which models I want to buy next for summer and winter tires (the new Continental VikingContact 8 looks like a good Nordic model).
Well, I guess I’m a bit slow, but I’m finally getting how important windshield wipers are.
I used to replace them at random intervals, usually when I got a free pair with an oil change, or when they were obviously broken. I’d just get whatever was cheapest.
In the past year, I learned how to improve performance by cleaning them with rubbing alcohol once in a while, and extend their life by using fine-grit sandpaper (600-1000) to remove the top layer of dried rubber.
It depends on where you live and how much you drive, but a good rule of thumb is that the whole thing should be replaced about every 6-12 months, or whenever performance drops.
It’s such a nice quality of life upgrade for a small time/money investment, as well as better for safety. Too many people drive around with impaired vision because of old or low-quality wipers (even self-driving vehicles won’t ‘see’ as well if the wipers aren’t doing a good job and cameras are looking through a dirty, streaky windshield).
(If you’re curious, my current set is Bosch ICON wiper blades)
🏦 💰 Business & Investing 💳 💴
🤖🍎🇹🇼🐜 Nvidia Passes Apple to Become TSMC’s #1 Customer
Broadcom is also expected to spike, rising to 4th place right behind AMD.
The Mobile era, which succeeded the desktop era, is now passing the baton to the AI era… The cycle of life, Simba
h/t Ben Bajarin
🤝 Thoughts on Nvidia’s Groq Deal: Many Ways to Win 🤔
I’ve been thinking about Nvidia’s acquisition of Groq… well, the licensing + hiring deal that they did to get around typical M&A rules, announced on Xmas eve 🎄 to further avoid scrutiny.
They paid a lot of money in absolute terms, and almost tripling the last funding round ($6.9bn in September). But Big Tech companies are now so big that our brains are probably losing an intuitive feel for their scale.
$20 billion represents 0.45% of Nvidia’s current market cap 🤏
Considering the multiple ways in which this asset can be useful, it feels like a pretty good deal:
