Capitalogix

Living Longer And Healthier

I am on my way back from Dave Asprey’s BioHacking Conference.

I enjoy going and being exposed to people and products committed to life extension and regenerative medicine.  

Here are some of the things I found interesting and useful.

• SleepMe
• Eng’s NanoVi
• BrainTap
• Hapbee
• Viome
• Carol AI Bike
• PowerPlate
• RapidRelease
• Zona
• BEAM Minerals

I own and use every product on the list above. One of my biggest insights from this year’s conference was that I already have great stuff. I have to remember to use it. Some of the stuff is terrific. I know it is. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t sit unused in a room upstairs (or in a box under my stairs). The scary thing is that I know better.  Now I have to do better!

Each year I get a little bit more focused on what I can be doing to get more out of my time and to increase the quantity of time left.

Even with a renewed focus on health, it isn’t always easier. As my friend Ben Hardy says, Willpower Doesn’t Work – you have to identify goals that are bigger than yourself, create consequences and rewards for achieving or failing to achieve those goals, and change your environment to make success easy.  

I don’t just want to be healthier to increase my time on earth, but to better support my family, my business, and to create a positive impact on those around me. 

When you have a vision of who you want to be, and what you want to accomplish, achieving your goals becomes a lot easier. 

When the goal is health, there are definitely some decisions that are proven to help. You can click to see the image in full-size. 

via informationisbeautiful

On top of the science, here are some of my anecdotal opinions on living longer, healthier, and better:

• Losing weight is as simple as calories in, calories out. It doesn’t matter if you’re on keto or eating only twinkies if you can keep your calories ingested below your calories burned. An equally simple alternative is to consider whether what you are about to eat, drink, or do is “cleansing” or “clogging”.  We already know better!
• Getting enough water and sleep are tips echoed so much that they get annoying. Nonetheless, they are true and help significantly. 
• In life, and in diets, shortcuts end up hurting you long-term more than they help you short-term.  If something is worth doing, it is usually worth doing right.
• Living “right” doesn’t mean you can’t let loose … it means that it’s the exception instead of the rule. If your lifestyle doesn’t let you have fun with your friends or family, it’s probably not the healthiest lifestyle. Mental health is just as important as physical health.  From my perspective, deprivation or repression are far less effective or sustainable than delayed gratification.

I’d love to hear your favorite “trick” to living better. Feel free to send me an e-mail. 

Thanks! Live Long and Prosper!

The New Era of Energy

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about oil production.  This week, I want to look at the current energy landscape. 

 

View the full infographic at visualcapitalist

Over the past several decades, there has been a massive shift in how we produce and consume energy.  This has been driven by the tech boom - as well as by climate awareness.

The practical realities of widespread tech adoption directly impact energy consumption.  For example, there are now over 7 billion people with smartphones.  As the population (and the number of gadgets and tech we use) grows, logically, so does our energy consumption.

Luckily, we're also getting better at powering them. 

On a different front, oil is still a meaningful and vital part of the energy ecosystem … but, now, it's being supplemented by multiple renewables. 

View the full infographic at visualcapitalist 

Over the last decade, investment in green technologies has helped the cost of renewable energies drop precipitously. 

That spurred a different set of products and use cases.  For example, we've seen the number of electric cars grow exponentially.  In 2011, there were approximately 70,000 EV units in the world.  Now there are around 16.5 million. 

This isn't a commentary on the environmental benefit of renewables; it is an observation about the direction energy is heading. 

And, just like with AI, despite being a space that's existed for a long time, it is still in the "early adoption" phase. 

Based on estimations, the IEA projects an 8x growth in EV by 2050.  This also means that we will use an increasing amount of batteries and rare metals.  Currently, China controls the supply chains and critical resource constraints. 

If our goal is to be energy independent, we have a long way to go ... Nonetheless, recognize that this creates massive business and investment opportunities. 

Onwards!

Some Cool "Futuristic" Tech You Might Not Have Seen

I joke that I have a "tense" problem. I spend a lot of my time thinking about what will be possible in the future. And once I know something is possible, in my head, it has already happened.

It isn’t a reality distortion engine … it is a reality creation engine.

For me, this is centered around the way technology is transforming the world and how it affects my business. 

Sometimes it's nice to take a step back and look at all the "quality of life" improvements. The gadgets that make you say "Wow!" … even though they may not benefit you directly. 

So, here are a few that caught my eye over the last few weeks. 

Augmented Reality Running 

In 2020, Ghost Pacer put together a pair of AR glasses that would give you a virtual running partner. The app would analyze the running route and the wearer's desired goals and set them up against a virtual runner who would push them to their limits. 

Last year, SNAP and Nike teamed up to create a new AR running experience as well. 

 

Spectacles via YouTube

This is a great way to get moving for those (like my wife) who benefit from a structure around their exercise. 

Magnetic Slime Robot for Healthcare

 

New Scientist via YouTube

Watching the video of this slime is somewhat uncanny. Its movements feel almost lifelike. That being said, the potential for this custard-like slime worm is massive. It can navigate narrow passageways, grasp objects, and more. There are already plans to use this to remove foreign objects from people.  

Functioning Hoverboards 

 

RIDE via YouTube

Multiple generations of kids have dreamed of hoverboards after watching Back To The Future. While it's not in homes yet, it is now a reality as seen in this video with Tony Hawk riding one. Unfortunately, since breaking into the scene in 2015 with a successful Kickstarter, I have not seen much from Hendo Hoverboard. 

Thankfully, they're not the only company in the space anymore. If you're willing to drop almost 15K, you can own a working hoverboard from Arcaboard. 

I remember when we used to go outside to play or exercise.

We live in interesting times!  

What Tasks Should AI Take Over?

One of the most common pop-sci questions about Artificial Intelligence is whether it will take our jobs.  

There's a lot of fear from workers about a future where their roles are taken. Gartner recently surveyed workers on what tasks they wanted AI to handle. 

Gartner via Statista

According to VentureBeat, some survey respondents did not want to use AI at work at all. Their reasons were privacy and security concerns. 

I think one of the tasks that will be thrust upon AI companies is to help workers understand that AI is not meant to replace or take over their jobs, but to help workers be more effective and focused on higher-value tasks. 

Onwards.

Understanding Data Breaches

In 2016, I received this e-mail from my oldest son, who used to be a cybersecurity professional.

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2016 at 7:09 PM
To: Howard Getson
Subject: FYI: Security Stuff

FYI - I just got an alert that my email address and my Gmail password were available to be purchased online.

I only use that password for my email, and I have 2-factor enabled, so I'm fine. Though this is further proof that just about everything is hacked and available online.

If you don't have two-factor enabled on your accounts, you really need to do it.

Since then, security has only become a more significant issue.  I wrote about the Equifax event, but there are countless examples of similar events (and yes, I mean countless). 

When people think of hacking, they often think of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack or the media representation of people breaking into your system in a heist.

In reality, the most significant weakness is people; it's you ... the user.  It's the user that turns off automatic patch updating.  It's the user that uses thumb drives.  It's the user that reuses the same passwords.  But, even if you do everything right, you're not always safe. 

Your data is likely stored in dozens of places online.  You hope your information is encrypted, but even that isn't always enough.  Over the last 17 years, 17.2B records have been "lost" by various companies.  In 2021, a new record was set with 5.9 billion user records stolen. 

VisualCapitalist put together a visualization of the 50 biggest breaches since 2004. 

Click To See Full Size via VisualCapitalist

InformationisBeautiful also put together a great interactive visualization with all of the breaches, if you want to do more research. 

Click To See Interactive Version via InformationIsBeautiful

It's impossible to protect yourself completely, but there are many simple things you can likely do better. 

• Use better passwords... Even better, don't even know them.  You can't disclose what you don't know.  Consequently, I recommend a password manager like LastPass or 1Password, which can also suggest complex passwords for you. 
• Check if any of your information has been stolen via a website like HaveIBeenPwned or F-Secure
• Keep all of your software up to date (to avoid extra vulnerabilities)
• Don't use public Wi-Fi if you can help it (and use a VPN if you can't)
• Have a firewall on your computer and a backup of all your important data
• Never share your personal information on an e-mail or a call that you did not initiate - if they legitimately need your information, you can call them back
• Don't trust strangers on the internet (no, a Nigerian Prince does not want to send you money)
• Hire a third-party security company like eSentire or Pegasus Technology Solutions to help monitor and protect your corporate systems

How many cybersecurity measures you take comes down to two simple questions ... First, how much pain and hassle are you willing to deal with to protect your data?  And second, how much pain is a hacker willing to go through to get to your data?

My son always says, "you've already been hacked ... but have you been targeted?" Something to think about! 

Can AI Be Curious?

“Nobody phrases it this way, but I think that artificial intelligence is almost a humanities discipline. It's really an attempt to understand human intelligence and human cognition.” —Sebastian Thrun

We often use human consciousness as the ultimate benchmark for artificial exploration. 

The human brain is ridiculously intricate.  While weighing only three pounds, it contains about 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections between them.  On top of the sheer complexity, the order of the connections and the order of actions the brain does naturally make it even harder to replicate.  The human brain is also constantly reorganizing and adapting.  It's a beautiful piece of machinery.  

We've had millions of years for this powerhouse of a computer to be created, and now we're trying to do the same with neural networks and machines in a truncated time period.  While deep learning algorithms have been around for a while, we're just now developing enough data and computing power to change deep learning from a thought experiment to a real edge. 

Think of it this way, when talking about the human brain, we talk about left-brain and right-brain.  The theory is that left-brain activities are analytical and methodical, and right-brain activities are creative, free-form, and artistic.  We're great at training AI for left-brain activities (obviously with exceptions).  In fact, AI is beating us at these left-brain activities because a computer has a much higher input bandwidth than we do, they're less biased, and they can perform 10,000 hours of research by the time you finish this article.

It's tougher to train AI for right-brain tasks.  That's where deep learning comes in. 

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning based on unsupervised learning from unstructured/unlabeled data.  Instead of asking AI a question, giving it metrics, and letting it chug away, you're letting AI be intuitive.  Deep learning is a much more faithful representation of the human brain.  It utilizes a hierarchy of convolutional neural networks to handle linear and non-linear operations so it can think creatively to better problem-solve on potentially various data sets and in unseen environments. 

When a baby is first learning to walk, it might stand up and fall down.  It might then take a small stutter step, or maybe a step that's much too far for its little baby body to handle.  It will fall, fail, and learn.  Fall, fail, and learn.  That's very similar to the goal of deep learning or reinforcement learning. 

What's missing is the intrinsic reward that keeps humans moving when the extrinsic rewards aren't coming fast enough.  AI can beat humans at many games but has struggled with puzzle/platformers because there's not always a clear objective outside of clearing the level. 

A relatively new (in practice, not in theory) approach is to train AI around "curiosity"^[1].  Curiosity helps it overcome that boundary.  Curiosity lets humans explore and learn for vast periods of time with no reward in sight, and it looks like it can do that for computers too! 

OpenAI via Two Minute Papers

Soon, I expect to see AI learn to forgive and forget, be altruistic, follow and break rules, learn to resolve disputes, and even value something that resembles "love" to us.

Exciting  stuff! 

_______

[1] - Yuri Burda, Harri Edwards, Deepak Pathak, Amos Storkey, Trevor Darrell and Alexei A. Efros.  Large-Scale Study of Curiosity-Driven Learning
In ICLR 2019.

First Photos From the Webb Telescope

The Hubble Telescope was conceived of in the 1940s, but launched in 1990. It revolutionized our ability to see the complexities of the universe. 

Now, the Webb Telescope is taking it to the next level. 

via NASA

The picture above shows the "Cosmic Cliffs," which is actually the edge of a young Nebula called Carina. 

Below, is a picture of a cluster of galaxies called Stephan's Quintet. 

via NASA

Not only does this help us see far away systems that we've never seen before, but it also provides detail to the things we have seen.

First, bring order to chaos …. Then, wisdom comes from making finer distinctions.  With that in mind, I'm excited to see how this drives the future of science. 

Here's a brief video from Neil Degrasse Tyson on the new telescope. 

 

via NBC News

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - July 17th, 2022

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

Lighter Links:

• Biden is Very Unpopular. It May Not Tell Us Much About the Midterms. (FiveThirtyEight)
• The 23 Best New Productivity Apps for 2022. (FastCompany)
• Meet the Man Keeping Blockbuster Alive. (DallasNews)
• Was Warfare Responsible for the Origin of Complex Civilisation? (NewScientist)
• Create an Action Figure Version of Yourself With Hasbro's "Selfie Series". (Hypebae)

 

 

 

 

Trading Links:

• Does Elon Musk Have a Strategy? (HBR)
• JPMorgan CEO Dimon Sums up U.S. Economy in One Paragraph And It Sounds Bad. (CNBC)
• Where Did the Stock Market's $7 Trillion Loss in Value Go? (Marketplace)
• The Speedy Downfall of Rapid Delivery Startups. (Wired)
• Why Hasn't the Russian Economy Tanked Yet? Putin Has Been Preparing for this Moment for Years. (Fortune)

 

 

 

Reinventing The Wheel

When I think about the invention of the wheel, I think about cavemen (even though I know that cavemen did not invent the wheel).

Lots of significant inventions predated the wheel by thousands of years.  For example, woven cloth, rope, baskets, boats, and even the flute were all invented before the wheel.

While simple, the wheel worked well (and still does).  Consequently, the phrase "reinventing the wheel" often is used derogatorily to depict needless or inefficient efforts.

But how does that compare to sliced bread (which was also a pretty significant invention)?

Despite being a hallmark of innovation, it still took more than 300 years for the wheel to be used for travel.  With a bit more analysis, it makes sense. In order to use a wheel for travel, it needs an axle, and it needs to be durable, and loadbearing, requiring relatively advanced woodworking and engineering. 

All the aforementioned products created before the wheel (except for the flute) were necessary for survival.  That's why they came first.

As new problems arose, so did new solutions.

Necessity is the mother of invention. 

Unpacking that phrase is a good reminder that inventions (and innovation) are often solution-centric. 

Too many entrepreneurs are attracted to an idea because it sounds cool. They get attracted to their ideas and neglect their ideal customer's actual needs. You see it often with people slapping "AI" on to their product and pretending it's more helpful. 

If you want to be disruptive, cool isn't enough. Your invention has to be functional, and it has to fix a problem people have (even if they don't know they have it.) The more central the complaint is to their daily lives the better.  

Henry Ford famously said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Innovation means thinking about and anticipating wants and future needs.

Your customers may not even need something radically new. Your innovation may be a better application of existing technology or a reframe of best practices. 

Uber didn't create a new car, they created a new way to get from where you want with existing infrastructure and less friction. Netflix didn't reinvent the movie, they made it easier for you to watch one. 

As an entrepreneur, the trick is build for human nature (meaning, give people what they crave or eliminate the constraint they are trying to avoid) rather than the cool new tech that you are excited about.  

Human nature doesn’t seem to change much … Meanwhile, the pace of innovation continues to accelerate. 

The challenge is to focus on what people want rather than the distraction of possibility.

It gets harder as more things become possible.

We certainly live in interesting times!

Americans' Top Financial Concern

It's no secret that the economy is slowing - with high inflation rates and rising interest rates. 

According to Mohamed El-Erian, from Queens College at Cambridge University, we're experiencing stagflation - which is when inflation is high but growth is slowing significantly. Theoretically, that leads to recession. 

via visualcapitalist

The Consumer Price Index has also grown by over 8% in the past year, so the American household is facing financial threats from many angles. 

Many feel that the Fed has responded disappointingly recently, and their response (or lack thereof) will be a major dictator of whether we enter a recession. 

I believe that emotions play a role too. When people are afraid, they spend less and hoard what they can to save themselves from an unknown future. They feel anticipatory grief.  And their fear, uncertainty, and doubt ripple through society and our lives. 

Personally, I've weathered my heaviest storms by sailing toward the future regardless of the threats. An abundance mindset is a powerful tool, and as more people feel confident it becomes a macroeconomic trend with real influence. 

I'd encourage you to think about what opportunities there are and will be. There are always seasons of change … Winter eventually comes – and goes. Nevertheless, winter can be a great opportunity to plan your next moves and build the infrastructure to sow more seeds in the coming spring. 

As well, unlike nature, you can personally have springtime while the majority are in winter. We're currently in an A.I. springtime - and I believe that will continue regardless of economic trends. 

Happy to talk about this … Let me know what you are thinking and feeling!