10 Assorted Reads
My favorite links of the week.
What Kind of Bubble is AI? Our policymakers are putting a lot of energy into thinking about what they’ll do if the AI bubble doesn’t pop – wrangling about “AI ethics” and “AI safety.” But – as with all the previous tech bubbles – very few people are talking about what we’ll be able to salvage when the bubble is over. (Locusmag)
We’re all addicted to cheap stuff — and Temu knows it. How the new Chinese shopping site came from seemingly nowhere and is changing the way we shop. (Vox)
How bad are search results? Let's compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT. (Danluu)
Noise could take years off your life. NYT used a professional sound meter to measure the din of daily life and talked to scientists about the health risks it can pose. (New York Times)
Substack Turns On Its ‘Nazis Welcome!’ Sign. The key point: your reputation as a private site is what you allow. (Techdirt)
We Could Fix Everything, We Just Don't. The rapid current of technology means that we are swept along faster and faster, making it exponentially harder to steer away from the icebergs ahead of us. We must address our coordination failures. We must build systems that foster better cooperation, or this century won’t be a turning point for humanity, it will be the end of humanity. (Erik McClure)
10 Predictions for 2024. I encourage everyone to make a list like this. It will serve as a reminder twelve months from now about how wrong you were about so many things, and hopefully that will encourage you to not invest in a way that counts on you getting the next twelve months right. (The Irrelevant Investor)
My Top 50 Books of 2023. Recommended books for various categories. (Advisor Perspectives)
How Big is Youtube? Pew reports that 93% of teens use YouTube – the closest service in terms of usage is Tiktok with 63% and Snapchat with 60%. (Ethan Zuckerman)
Top 20 Channels That Gained The Most Subscribers in 2023. (MrBeast)
