May 2023: Illegiblity, Housing Crisis, LA, Four Tet
What I Did This Month
Published two personal pieces: “The Future of Work is Illegible” and “Beyond Vancouver’s Eternal Housing Crisis.” Wrote a thread about important writing lessons I’ve learned in my first 6 months at PostHog. For PostHog, published an issue of our newsletter about how to build new features users love, more about how we do it, a bunch of tutorials, and YouTube videos (one on how and why use GitHub as a CMS is doing well).
Went to LA, saw Four Tet (one of the best concert experiences I’ve been to), visited The Broad, went to Disneyland, and did all the rides (Rise of Resistance is worth the hype). The best food I had all trip was an from Austinite taco place.
Watched a baseball game, went to a wedding (necesito practicar mas espanol), ate Feijoada, hiked, hung out in the sun, and celebrated birthdays.
Thoughts
People often say “I want to write, I just don’t know what to write about.” My advice to them: write what you talk about often, write something only you know, use your combination of experiences and expertise that makes you unique, write something you’d really want to read, write something small, publish, and send it to your friends.
The amount of deep research being done by people is shockingly small. This is because it takes a ton of effort for a completely unknown payoff. Most people do shallow research. They just skim, find something that confirms their thinking, and use other people’s ideas. Deep research can have massive payoffs shallow research never can match. “To be original is to just have the most obscure sources.”
Surround yourself with great ideas and people and you will be drawn towards your full potential. “Pretend to be a polymath, then frantically try to make this true while no one’s looking.”
All these AI-generated "famous movies but Wes Anderson" are an extremely bullish sign for artists. Originality, or at least strong taste and curation of aesthetics, will remain scarce. AI’s ability to generate something new and interesting without massive amounts of human taste involved is weak.
Canada is living off the growth of a former era. Basically, the entire economy is held up by an earlier generation and its successes. We need new successes if future generations are going to have it as good as us.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized. The world will pass you by if you let it. Take action now and do it quickly.
Recommendations
The Iliad is an incredibly powerful text. Had two of my best working weeks in a while reading it. Alexander carried a copy of the Iliad with him wherever he went. He read it so often he could recite it from memory. A hundred years ago, US public schoolchildren (8-12 years old) asked to read it as a treat. The Fitzgerald translation is much more readable than I remember the Fagles being (it focuses on accuracy). Makes me wonder if the pushing of the Fagles in big bookstores prevents people from reading it.
Have enjoyed Nabeel S. Qureshi’s writing and tweets lately. Especially enjoyed his principles, supplementary Iliad recommendations, Vonnegut’s definition of genius, California, the shortness of life and bad habits, and asking for what you want.
How to get hype.
Dwarkesh Patel on Lyndon Johnson. Johnson’s ability to uncover an institution’s potential for power, as he did with the US Senate. Many of the greatest men come from great families that fall into poverty and humiliation. If you do everything, you will win.
Inspiring someone to read is relatively hard, especially when it comes to hard books, but this post by Ted Gioia did that for me.
Some good podcasts: Ben Evans on AI, Web3, VR and the Future of Tech, a lot of skepticism. Tyler Cowen on the risks and impact of AI, more reasonable than much of the hype men. Kevin Kelly on Advice, Travel, and Tech. Plato Uncovered: Building Influence in the Ancient and Modern World, Plato was literally an influencer, built a strong network, and created an influence machine.
Everything is the same. Nice introduction to Derek Parfit, “the most important philosopher you’ve never heard of.” Scott Alexander on “Density Increases Local But Decreases Global Prices” which inspired my BC housing crisis piece. What would you do if you had $10 million dollars?
Running away from your indolent, passive self. Content creation is cringe at first, but then lucrative and useful. Stop studying, make things. AI replacing jobs. Get big. Your memory is fickle. Just egg. The tail of human experience is longer than you think. On the outside, there is no backstop.
Upcoming
Write (unsure what personally yet). Record a bunch of YouTube videos. Finish the Iliad, and read more hard, philosophical, or classic books.
Go to Banff and Waterloo. Hike and spend time outside.