The Sunday Drive - 12/11/2022 Edition
👋🏻 Hello friends,
Greetings from Saratoga Springs, NY!
Let's take it easy and enjoy this edition of our leisurely Sunday Drive around the internet.
Vibin'
The Vibe of the Week is Digital Man, from Rush's 1982 album Signals. This has long been one of my favorite Rush songs, partly because of the somewhat "hooky" chorus, but also due to it's "Rush Does Reggae" groove.
Keep in mind that this song was written and recorded 40 years ago.
In listening to it again, I was struck at how prescient it was in terms of foreshadowing the rise of electronic surveillance and intrusion, and the decline in personal privacy that is so much a part of society's current conversation.
💡 Quote of the Week
"The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short." - Abraham Maslow
📈 Chart of the Week
We will continue to hear, see and read more and more about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the coming years.
I doubt I'll ever be able to grasp the science of it.
However, I think the important work for me, and for most of us, will be try to understand the impact of AI on society, the economy, and our human and financial capital.
Interesting Drive-By's
🤯 ChatGPT: Optimizing Language Models for Dialogue - The possible uses for ChatGPT, the recently released AI ChatBot from OpenAI, and the future versions of it to come, are equal-parts exciting and daunting. If optimized further, it’s not hard to see a way it could threaten the dominance of search giant Google for certain queries, with the potential to revolutionize some manual tasks in nearly every knowledge-based industry.
📈 Getting Wealthy versus Staying Wealthy - Good investing is not necessarily about making good decisions. It’s about consistently not screwing up.
🏠 Housing is the new office - Can an oversupply of offices create an oversupply of housing? (Generally, no. Occasionally, yes.)
🤓 The dream of bringing back Bell Labs - The way America innovates has certainly changed since the mid 20th century. In a 2019 paper, the economists Ashish Arora, Sharon Belenzon, Andrea Patacconi and Jungkyu Suh document two major trends: the rise of university research, and the decline of corporate labs. Basically, businesses still spend a ton on R&D, but more and more of what they spend goes to development (getting innovations ready for market) than research itself.
🏈 Shout out to fellow Texan, Baker Mayfield and his leadership of the LA Rams' come from behind win against the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday Night. #TexasHighSchoolFootball
In town for just 48 hours, not a single practice with the team, and yet a very Tom Brady-esque final 98 yard drive with no time-outs to win the game.
Bravo, Baker!
If you have any cool articles or ideas that might be interesting for future Sunday Drive-by's, please send them along or tweet 'em at me.
I hope you have a relaxing weekend and a great week ahead. See you next Sunday...
Your faithful financial provocateur,
-Mike
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