As I’ve written about elsewhere, this year I am experimenting with reading more than one book at a time. This is new for me, and so far, I think it has me reading more. However, it also means it is taking me longer to finish any given book. Right now in the mix are (STILL!) the Sabbatai Sevi book, the Expanse book, and the weirdo explorer book. Added to that this week is the excellent book written by my colleagues Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox on incrementalism, Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age. Gotta finish some of these!
Also arrived this week, but not started is Outlive, the high anticipated book by my favorite longevity dude, Peter Attia. Looks dense!
I continue to think we are living through a moment of extraordinary importance for the future of the human race. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but AI is going to change everything. When, I’m not sure. I think some aspects of it (LLM dominating low level knowledge work) are coming very fast. Others, like AGI may never come. But if, like me, you essentially earn a living typing, you should be very concerned.
This piece by Tyler Cowen is blowing up the nerd-dude-o-sphere with Substack responses on top of Substack responses. I think it’s very good on the sheer disruption that is coming. Here’s a quote:
Hardly anyone you know, including yourself, is prepared to live in actual “moving” history. It will panic many of us, disorient the rest of us, and cause great upheavals in our fortunes, both good and bad. In my view the good will considerably outweigh the bad, but I do understand that the absolute quantity of the bad disruptions will be high.
The obvious face of AI right now is Sam Altman, and it’s definitely worth paying attention to what he has to say. Altman is making the rounds right now on the big podcasts, some of whom I find unlistenable. He did do a good interview with Kara Swisher though that’s worth you time.
If you want to feel both stupid and a bit scared check out Dwarkesh’s interview with Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist at OpenAI. This occasionally veers technical, but gives you a good insight into what someone who has already seen the future thinks is coming.
Finally, and on the other end of the spectrum of the challenges we face, FT has a good interview with Matthew Desmond about his new book on poverty in America. Desmond is a must read and I’ll definitely be reading his latest.
Consider reading G-Man by Beverly Gage, a very evenhanded and thorough biography of J. Edgar Hoover. At 700+ pages, it is a bit of a slog, but it takes you from the red scares of the twenties through the gangster era, WW II sabotage, McCarthyism, civil rights and him clinging onto power in his later years. Lots of detail on his personal life.