What I'm Reading: December
- Ben Leibowitz
- Jan 1, 2024
- 4 min read
Tech
A workbench for learning / tinkering with distributed systems
In general, not really. But it seems like the tablets and apps pilots use to aid them are vulnerable
Tech jobs are no longer the sure-thing for young, ambitious kids looking for their pot of gold
Monzo has a clever way of authenticating calls to you to protect you from fraud
Better algorithms, better data structures, lower level solutions, and accepting a less precise result
Building an AI company that is different than the rest
Many new AI companies are wrappers around ChatGPT - those are easy to duplicate, expensive to operate, slow, and not very customizable
Instead, try solving the problem without AI first, and build specialized AI models to fill in the gaps
Towards modern development of cloud applications
Instead of breaking a monolith into independently deployable microservices, break it down into logical components that runtimes figure out how to distribute and call via RPCs
Etc
Why passive aggression took over the world
In professional environments, politeness may be valued over anger and direct confrontation, exacerbated by remote work where written communication has less context than in-person.
NY legislators tried to ban non-compete agreements, but Kathy Hochul vetoed it after corporate lobbying
Why is India standing with Russia on Ukraine?
India and Russia have had a relationship since the '60s - Russia has supported India in Kashmir, is its #1 source of oil, and has armed India's military. Russia and India often back each other in diplomatic struggles against the UN and the West.
Cities that offer the best middle class life
San Jose, Austin, San Francisco, Baltimore (!!!), and Washington
Based on the price growth of goods vs. wages in the city
Also found that these cities have a good split of low-earning, mid-earning, and high-earning jobs
A life without nature is a lonely one
A stronger relationship with nature is correlated with stronger social connections and less loneliness, and makes you more likely to help other people
A French experiment showed that people who had just spent time walking in the park were more likely to return a stranger's dropped glove than those who hadn't yet entered the park
From the '70s to the late '90s, Americans have gone from entertaining friends at home 15 times per year to 8
Lonely individuals tend to think more negatively of others, distrust others more, leading to more isolation
"Take out the trash" - very clear and very harsh
"You'd better take out the trash" - somewhat clear and very harsh
"Could we take out the trash?" - not clear and not harsh
And lots of other examples...
Private equity wants to snag a share of the "mini-millionaires" ($1m - $5m in investable assets)
The number of households with $1m - $5m net worth has doubled between 2006 and 2022
But the money doesn't come easy - these investors often need liquidty to pay medical bills, divorces, or disasters, and have a reputation for reneging on their investment pledges
The economics of all-you-can-eat-buffets
Margins on buffets are thin, so restaurants need to drive volume and keep costs down (minimized labor costs with self-service and bulk cooking, repurposing food scraps you couldn't use, and buying food in bulk).
The more you eat, the more the restaurant loses - so restaurants use fun psychology tricks to get you to eat less
Cheap, filling stuff is at the front of the buffet
Smaller plates
Large serving spoons for cheap things, and small serving utensils for expensive things (e.g., small tongs for meat)
Extra large glasses with frequent refills
And for the few who over-eat and cost the restaurant money, you'll get kicked out :)
Younger generations more likely to express an interest in addressing climate change
I Haven't Forgotten About You, RadioShack
In January and March of '23, I noted that RadioShack was under new ownership who was trying to turn it into some weird, crypto exchange scam.
I compared it to several ill-fated (and self-servingly transparent) attempts at cashing in on a buzzword, like Kodak's KodakCoin and Long Island Iced Tea's rebranding to Long Island Blockchain
I checked in on RadioShack recently - it looks like their owners threw in the towel... they sold RadioShack, and the RadioShack "crypto exchange" app website is no longer reachable (radioshack.org now redirects to their consumer website, radioshack.com), and even the documentation for their crypto scheme is gone: https://docs.radioshack.com/radioshack-defi/fundamentals/why-radioshack-defi.
At the time, I wrote:
RadioShack isn't public, so it doesn't seem like they're trying to pump the stock (unless they plan to go public again soon). The only real reason I can see for this DeFi buzz is that the two guys who own the parent company are trying to pump their upcoming RadioShack token, RADIO (which I'm guessing they will own a lot of).
Well, if the owners of RadioShack were hoping to get rich on the sale of their RADIO token, they must be pretty sad... RADIO started out at $0.0374 and is now worth... $0.0004885. Ouch.
Just one more get-rich-quick crypto scheme to bite the dust. This one seemed like smoke and mirrors from the beginning, but it's definitely a good reminder that a few hot buzzwords and a website does not a business make.