Capitalogix

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - May 31st, 2020

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• SpaceX Launches New Era of Spaceflight with Company's First Crewed Mission. (NationalGeographic)
• Space Exploration's next Frontier: Remote-Controlled Robonauts. (Bloomberg)
• As States Start to Reopen, Here's Where People are Going. (Washington Post)
• Primer: Demystifying Data Science. (TheNewStack)
• Meeter is a New Mac App for Quickly Joining Zoom Meetings, Google Hangouts, and More. (9to5Mac)

 

Trading Links:

• Is China Overtaking the US as a Financial and Economic Power? (TheGuardian)
• Singapore's Financial Centre Will Emerge as Big Winner of a Draconian Chinese Law. (Insider)
• The UN Says a New Computer Simulation Tool Could Boost Global Development. (TechReview)
• U.S. Stock Market is Overpriced by 16%, Warns Oxford Think-Tank. (CCN)
• A Wall Street Firm Studied Every Crash over the past 100 Years and Concluded that the Unusual Performance of 7 Tech Stocks is Masking the Risk of a Prolonged Meltdown. (BusinessInsider)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - May 24th, 2020

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• We are Doing in a Few Months What Would Normally Take a Drug Development Process Years to Do' with AI. (ZDNet)
• Findings From The AI Index Annual Report. (Stanford-AI)
• Terrifying Black Light Videos Show How Easy It Is to Catch Coronavirus. (BGR)
• Why Zoom Meetings are So Dissatisfying. (Economist)
• Travelers Now Scoring $700 Business Class Flights to Europe with Sneaky Loophole. (DMarge)

 

Trading Links:

• Hertz Files for Bankruptcy after 16,000 Employees Were Let Go. (Forbes)
• One Chart to Catch You up on 2020 ... And the Economy. (HowardLindzon)
• Second Stimulus Check Proposes $1,200 Extra with Round 2. Here's the Situation. (CNet)
• The World's 25 Richest Billionaires Have Gained Nearly $255 Billion in Just Two Months. (Forbes)
• What History Tells Us about the Accelerating AI Revolution. (Wall Street Journal)

Selective Attention: What Are You Missing?

Sticking with the philosophy theme, I encourage you to watch this video below on selective attention. 

Daniel Simons' experiments on visual awareness have become famous.  The primary conclusion drawn from his research is that we can miss incredibly obvious things, right in front of us, if our attention is focused elsewhere.

While watching the video, count how many passes the team in white makes. 

This is worth doing so you experience it yourself.

OK, click the video to do it now.

via Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris (Click Here To Read The Full Paper)

First, did you get the number of passes correct? Second, did you see the gorilla?

If you have already seen this video or heard of the study, it's much easier, but most people absolutely miss the Gorilla, despite it not being hidden. 

Think about how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.

This next video demonstrates "change blindness".  In an experiment, 75% of the participants didn't notice that the experimenter was replaced by a different person.

 

via Derren Brown

Warning: Objects In Your Attention Span Are Fewer Than You Perceive.

It's well known that we often miss objects in our field of view due to limited attention and change blindness, but, it's true with more than just sight. Moment by moment, the brain selectively processes information it deems most relevant. Experiments, like these, show the limits of our capacity to encode, retain, and compare visual information from one glance to the next. 

More importantly, this suggests that our awareness of our visual surroundings is far more sparse than most people intuitively believe.  Consequently, our intuition can deceive us far more often than we perceive.

 

via Pickles

As an entrepreneur, when I focus fully on something, it's as if everything else goes away. That level of focus can be a gift - but it can also be a curse. In Genius Network, we have a form we fill out at the beginning of each meeting. In it is a diagram where you rate your score on 8 factors: physical environment, career, money, health, friends & family, significant other, personal & intellectual growth, and fun & recreation

It's rare that I'm fully succeeding in all 8 ... we only have so much focus and bandwidth, it's inevitable I'll miss things. Clearly, in an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource. So, pay attention (or automate the things you know need to be done right, every time).

What are you currently prioritizing, and what's falling to the side due to that focus? What are you missing?

Hope this was a helpful reminder. Let me know what you think about posts like this.  Thanks.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - May 3rd, 2020

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• China Has Started a Grand Experiment in AI Education. It Could Reshape How the World Learns. (TechReview)
• I Have Seen the Future And It's Not the Life We Knew. (The Atlantic)
• Army Ranger School is a Laboratory of Human Endurance. (Outside)
• Watch Picasso Make a Masterpiece. (YouTube)
• Michael Jordan Reportedly Once Turned down a $100 Million Appearance Fee. (FTW)

 

Trading Links:

• Buffett's Berkshire Posts Nearly $50 Billion Loss as Coronavirus Causes Pain. (Reuters)
• Bets against the Stock Market Rise to Highest Level in Years. (Wall Street Journal)
• NYSE Research Shows Humans on Exchange Floor Limit Volatility, COO Says. (Cheddar)
• Nasdaq, Cboe Fix Feeds Facing Options Overload. (WatersTechnology)
• China's National Blockchain Will Change the World. (CoinDesk)

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - April 26th, 2020

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Harvard Professor Wants to Ban Homeschooling Because It's Authoritarian'. (NYPost)
• Amazon Asks Workers to Request Leave If They Continue Staying at Home. (EnGadget)
• You Can Now Download the Government's Controversial Contact Tracing App. (Timeout)
• A Startup is Pitching a Mind-Uploading Service that is 100 Percent Fatal. (TechReview)
• Burning Man is Going Virtual, and So are the Orgies. (Vice)

 

Trading Links:

• This Pandemic is Over. Let's Stop the Economic Suicide, and Get Back to Work. (RealClearMarkets)
• Negative Oil Prices Were a Warning, Not an Anomaly. (Bloomberg)
• Ken Fisher on Nixing the VIX. (RCM)
• Hedge Funds are on Defense and Testing the Stamina of a $5 Trillion Stock Rally. (Bloomberg)
• Who's On Top in the S&P 500 Before and After the Coronavirus?(SeekingAlpha)

Some Much Needed Coronavirus Levity

 People are going a little stir crazy – and tensions are running a little bit higher than normal. 

I saw this video and I chuckled (although the agitated in me recognized the agited in him ... Namaste).

 

For some much-needed levity, here's a cover of Adele's "Hello (From The Outside)" called "Hello (From The Inside)". 

 

via Chris Mann

If you want more COVID music: 

• Ballad of A Hand - Jon Lajoie
• Coronavirus Rhapsody - Adrian Grimes
• My Corona - ZDoggMD

Hope you enjoyed. Stay safe (and try to stay sane). 

The Age of AI: How Far Is Too Far?

Let's take a break from talking about the Coronavirus to talk about something else that will affect the global population. 

Of course, it's the pace of innovation and the effects of AI. I've been on the record for years saying things like

• AI will transform the planet much like electricity did
• Data will be more valuable than oil 
• And, the only thing more impressive than our population growth is our technology growth 
• Or, from the precautionary side, Artificial intelligence isn't a substitute for lack of the real thing

It can be difficult to have a nuanced discussion around AI online. There's a lot of PopSci around it, people conflate a very diverse range of algorithms and intentions into the general "AI", and realistically when you get too in-depth into what algorithms are best for what problems, most people lose interest. 

That's why I'm personally a proponent of any discussions around AI. Awareness is important, and if more people can understand the basics, then some subset of them will become better educated... rinse and repeat. 

Robert Downey Jr. and YouTube partnered for an 8-part docuseries on the Age of AI. I've only watched one episode, but that episode did a decent job of addressing the highest-level issues with AI. 

 

via YouTube Originals

I won't go through the whole video with you - because  you're quarantined and I think it's worth watching, but there are a couple of points I wanted to re-emphasize. 

Your Data Is Becoming More Important, Not Less Important

"Everyone's concerned about identity theft. Meanwhile, they're giving all their data for free on the internet. I'm what I like. I'm what I don't like. I'm where I go, I'm who I know. I'm what I search. I'm my thumbprint. I am my data" - will.i.am

My son, Zach, has ultimately given up on privacy - his argument is that everyone's information is out there anyway. Even my eldest son, Ben, who is a cybersecurity expert, has semi-resigned himself to his data being out there. He takes many precautionary measures but recognizes that he's not truly anonymous. 

In the video, Will.I.Am is getting an authentic reproduction of his face, mannerisms, and voice - they even got the pimple he had during the day of filming. In doing so, he specifically asks for the voice to be a bit robotic. He does this "for his mom" but in reality, it's to make clear - this is a robot, not me. It's avoiding the Uncanny Valley. 

We're at an intersection where it's going to become harder to decide what's real and what's fake. With deepfake video and audio, protecting your personal brand and identity becomes difficult, and simultaneously more important. 

The Path Forward

The road to AI supremacy is long and fraught with booby traps, potential missteps, and ethical issues. Questions like "how far is too far?" will have to be answered, and countries will likely strive to unite around shared rules of ethical AI. 

If there's anything that makes me confident about our ability to successfully travel that road, it's looking at humanity's ability to adapt. The reality is, we've been working symbiotically with "machines" since the very beginning, but our definition of the machine simply continues to improve. It's fractal, and each time the technology we're adopting gets bigger, so does the eventual positive effect on day to day life. 

AI adoption is a big step, but the positive effect it can have on our lives is astronomical. 

Onwards!

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - March 29th, 2020

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• How the Pandemic Will End. (The Atlantic)
• A New Way to Explain Explanation. (TED)
• 20 New Technology Trends We Will See in the 2020s. (ScienceFocus)
• Smile? Results from the 2020 World Happiness Report are In. (New York Times)
• Warren Buffett's Brilliant 25/5 Rule Was Fake. Here's What He Really Said about Achieving Success. (Inc)

 

Trading Links:

• Disneyland and Disney World Will Remain Closed Indefinitely. (CNet)
• The Dow Just Had Its Best Week since 1938. It's Time to Go Shopping for Beaten-Up Stocks.(Barrons)
• Dollar Falls during Coronavirus Pandemic, Biggest Weekly Drop since 2009. (FoxBusiness)
• Understanding the Economic Shock of Coronavirus. (HBR)
• Paul Tudor Jones Says Stocks Could Retest Lows as Virus Peaks but Will Be Higher in 3 to 5 Months.(HedgeCo)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - March 1st, 2020

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

 

• When that AI Company' Isn't Really an AI Company. (TechCrunch)
• The Catholic Church Proposes AI Regulations that Protect People'. (TheVerge)
• Musicians Algorithmically Generate Every Possible Melody, Release Them to Public Domain. (Vice)
• Saudi Arabia: Riyadh Suspends Pilgrimage Visas Amid Coronavirus Concerns. (Worldview)
• Warren Buffett Says He Prefers Mike Bloomberg in the Democratic Presidential Race. (CNW)

 

 

Trading Links:

• Dow Loses 12% for Week on Coronavirus Panic; Fed Says It Will Act 'Appropriately'. (TheStreet)
• These are the Only 7 Stocks in the S&P 500 that Rose While the Market Plunged. (MarketWatch)
• Gold Prices Tumble Amid Reports of Margin Calls. (Investing)
• Nearly 40% of Europeans in Their Late 20S Still Live at Home. (Quartz)
• MIT Published a List of the 9 MegaTrends that Will Shape the World in 2030. Here's What They All Have in Common. (Inc)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading, February 23rd, 2020

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• What It Means to Be Human in the Age of AI. (CNet)
• Mommy Can't Talk Right Now She's Dopamine Fasting. (TheCut)
• I Went to a High-End Psychedelic Retreat to Address My Anxiety. (Vice)
• Inside the World of High-End Coffee | Annals of Obsession | the New Yorker. (YouTube)
• Most Dietary Supplements Don't Do Anything. Why Do We Spend $35 Billion a Year on Them? (WashPost)

 

Trading Links:

• Why Cryptocurrency Markets Defy the Laws of Economics. (BU)
• Michael Bloomberg Has Taken Andrew Yang's Place as the Cryptocurrency Candidate. (TechReview)
• It Has Never Been Easier to Launch a New Brand. (Economist)
• Elon Musk's SpaceX to Raise $250 Million, Valuing It at $36 Billion. (Uk)
• Elon Musk Says He'll Put a Million People on Mars by 2050. (Futurism)