Kicking Poverty’s Ass (Issue #174)
ChatGPT hype, handling homelessness, caffeine facts, businesses and worker fairness, weird internet art, crypto zeitgeist, network states, US poverty, solving starvation, punk rock energy, NFTs r cool
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
This week ended up being all about Kicking Poverty’s Ass. I guess all the politics and government changeovers and elections and what not resulted in this eternal issue to come to the for. It’s a difficult subject that people don’t like to talk about, like some part of your legacy code base that has so many gremlins and tech debt that nobody likes to go near it in case they make it worse. Well my friend sometimes you got to face the music head on. And that’s what we are going to do in this issue, but the twist is that I’m going to show you that not only can it be quite interesting, it might even be fun, and maybe even amazing.
There’s an excellent piece about homelessness in America that I really think you should listen to. It’s respectful and companionate, and reminds you that homeless people are actually pretty awesome even if they are often in difficult situations. There’s some great advice on how to bridge the gap. You have to have the right mindset when you go into difficult code, you can’t be all judgey and perfectionist. This code was written under difficult circumstances that you don’t understand. It is the way it is for reasons. But it can be updated for the better, but remember there are real people swimming in this code.
There’s also a great episode from John Stuart’s Daily Show all about poverty in America. This has some quite astounding facts in it that will make you realise the scale of the problem, and why we absolutely need to get a handle on this poverty monster that is all around us.
And then there’s loads of cool tech stuff that in some way is related to the eradicating poverty theme, from a better more realistic understanding of these new powerful AI tools we are building, to creating a fair environment for businesses and workers, to highlighting societies quirks through weird internet art, the current zeitgeist in crypto and beyond, futurism with network states, comedians talking about solving starvation but also lots of fun shit, punk rock tunes to keep us energised and remind us we can get through this, and some stuff about NFTs that I honestly have no fucking clue how they are going to help yet, but they actually do seem kind of interesting.
We need to change the mindset so that fixing poverty is as cool as sending rockets into space. It can be done. And yes we need to check the numbers and it’s not going to be easy, but it can be done. Assume for the duration of this issue that the numbers are correct. Open your mind to the entire problem but also all the possibilities that are out there everywhere.
It’s important we do this now, because things like Bitcoin and AI are going to massively change our future and we need to be sure we cleanup the code as we go, to ensure we don’t lock ourselves into a false minimum reality. Solving poverty will ensure we have the foundations as a civilisation to explore the cosmos without a self imposed maximum. The universe is infinite, we need to be infinite too.
I wrote several pretty interesting blog posts this week, worth checking out:
Rogan’s secret to building cool businesses https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/07/20/rogans-secret-to-building-cool-businesses
An architecture for art https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/07/21/an-architecture-for-art
Balaji on civil wars, nations and the state https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/07/23/balaji-on-civil-wars-nations-and-the-state
Why people aren’t into politics https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/07/26/why-people-arent-into-politics
Solving poverty even cooler than rocket science https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/07/26/solving-poverty-even-cooler-than-rocket-science
The final poverty one is obviously related to this issue, so worth checking that out if you want to hear more about how we can actually build a better future for all. The other ones are interesting too, feel free to share with the rest of the world :)
I’ve been continuing the newsletter preparation experiment, and to be honest it’s been a lot more effort, but I’m happy with the results, so I’m going to try to keep doing it. It’s definitely not super obvious, especially because the world I’m living in is so chaotic and adversarial at the minute. But I’ll give it a go.
I did manage to get quite a bit of coding done on moving all the static site generator plugin build workflows to using a single reusable workflow. It’s looking really neat and tidy and will be so much easier to manage than all the individual workflows in each repo. I built a cool way to pass in sets of environment variables into the reusable workflow so it can be used for any project that uses the static site generator. I’ll hopefully get that tested and working next week. If I’m still alive that is. Starvation world willing and all that.
That’s all for this week. Hopefully you all have a bit of a glimpse at what could be possible. We can totally end poverty, we just have to choose that path and do it.
Podcasts
The Academics That Think ChatGPT is BS (Better Offline Podcast) - I didn’t take detailed notes on this one, and probably should have, because it was packed with very insightful and well thought out hypothesis’ about how LLMs work but also about how we should view them, whether they are actually thinking, how they differ to human learning, and how they are impacting academia. These researchers highlight some of the most important things to consider, such as lying vs bullshitying vs hallucinating, and the danger of anthropomorphising them. It vears into philosophy and psychology, but grounded in computer science and mathematics. You'd think these boffins would have the whole thing figured out, but even these guys occasionally run into difficulty describing what’s going on. LLMs seem to be teaching us humans about our own cognition and consciousness. It’s the sort of episode that should be required listening when using these tools, they are powerful but could be detrimental to your abilities if used in the wrong way long term. IMO, use them as a booster rather than a crutch, imagine they could be taken away at anytime, you still need to be able to function at a high level without them.
J. Malcolm Garcia on the humanity of San Fransisco's homeless community (Keen On Podcast) - Homelessness is a difficult subject to talk about and I think Andrew and Malcolm manage to have an interesting conversation, while being respectful to the people they are talking about. Many have experienced significant trauma, there is mental illness, sometimes drugs or alcohol, but they are real people with both happy and sad stories, and they can be very interesting and even fun to talk to. It can be awkward at first to strike up a conversation, and it can be risky as you might end up liking them, and feel a responsibility, but the truth is regular folks "need some skin in the game". It’s worth breaking down the barriers, they are within the community even if they aren’t a part of it. Waiting for the government to fix things in many places might be unrealistic. I think it’s worth remembering the world they live in is very different to the one lived by the housed, so they will likely be in a very different mindset to you. They spend most of their time thinking about things you probably never even have to consider. Things you take for granted that take minutes can take days to accomplish for them. Their timelines are very different. They might not trust you initially, they have likely had many bad experiences talking to housed people in the past so they might be cautious, not wanting their situation to get any worse than it already is - Malcom ends by reminding us that "they are great people".
Selects: The Duality of Caffeine (Stuff You Should Know Podcast) - Very useful episode, especially since I started drinking coffee again this week. Just another what are the chances. Turns out there are quite a few health benefits to caffeine, but also downsides. I’ve been finding it definitely improves my ability to write blog posts, especially in adversarial environments. The science behind how caffeine works is kind of fascinating. If you drink coffee definitely worth listening to this episode. https://podcastindex.org/podcast/827592?episode=25342528134
What do small businesses think about the new worker’s rights? Ep#77 (The Rest is Money Podcast) - Robert and Steph have on Dragon’s Den dragon Deborah Meaden. A load of interesting discussion around the change in government and what it means for small businesses. Why the need for employment rights, pros/cons of zero hour contracts, weening employers off of their reliance on immigration to keep wages lower, and betting on the green economy future. They then have a more personal chat with Deborah about her entrepreneurial journey, touching all sorts of topics including running your own business, franchising if you don’t have money, investing in other entrepreneurs, scaling up, British risk aversion vs US risk appetite, dealing with business failures, time value vs impact value, technical vs instinct when making investing decisions, crowd sourced investment, looking beyond the pitch deck, meeting founders and other investors, and the importance of shared values. Great episode with a good mix of the current business zeitgeist and more general long term advice for entrepreneurs. https://podcastindex.org/podcast/6582865?episode=25401707733
The all-seeing AI webcam (Vergecast Podcast) - Will Poor piece that looks at Dries Depoorter, who not only includes Will’s family name in his family name, but also creates weird absurdist internet based AI / surveillance themed art and installations. He’s flemish belgian so has a cool accent and a downtempo kind of vibe. His projects tend to turn the tables on power, highlight important aspects of modern society that we aren’t considering, and create tools that use the latest AI models to create delightfully odd tools that make you think. https://podcastindex.org/podcast/415434?episode=25377551455
ROLLUP: Trump Pump | ETH ETF Next Week | Mt. Gox & Germany | Crypto Wars 2.0 (Bankless Podcast) - They are all about crypto but I feel that the Bankless guys are often a bell weather for what’s going on in the wider world. Their takes are often sensible yet also they regulary appear to notice important trends before others do. This Rollup episode has all sorts of interesting titbits from commentary on the Trump assassination and it’s aftermath, but also prediction markets becoming more mainstream, top bitcoin holding countries worldwide, ETF and Larry Fink fully orange pilled and maybe opening the door for etherium, bullish miners, uniswap browser wallet improvements, legal cases changing the playing field and tracking the growing crypto lobby. https://www.bankless.com/rollup-trump-pump-eth-etf-next-week-mt-gox-germany-crypto-wars-2-0
Deep Dive into NETWORK STATES with Balaji Srinivasan (Raoul Pal: Journey Man Podcast) - The whole thing is super interesting, a mix of history, politics, technology and futurism. If you are wondering about what network states are then this episode is a great place to start. I was particularly into some of the very fascinating historical context that have brought us to the present moment, but also the mechanics of how network states could change how we organise societies in the future. Though Balaji is always fascinating to listen to, he is sometimes a bit long winded, but this episode is relatively well balanced. I must have liked it because I ended up writing a blog post about it :) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/4473895?episode=25301787772
Facing American Poverty and Global Supply Chain Issues (The Daily Show Podcast) - John Stuart chats with Rev Doc William Barber about poverty in America. The very well spoken and knowledgeable reverend is endearingly religious, polite and pretty funny too. The numbers speak for themselves: 41% of Americans are poor and low wage people, that’s 135 million people, shockingly over 50% of children. It’s not even a race thing, 60% are white. These numbers are at least double what I had assumed was the case. 295000 people die each year from poverty, that’s 800 people a day. It’s the 4th leading cause of death in the country. Higher than respiratory disease, higher than gun violence. It’s unbelievably shocking that this is happening in the richest country on the planet. It’s a great interview that will let you see how bad the situation really is. It’s a bit strange to hear all this on a comedy channel, but it’s no joke. I think the humour helps us hear and see the size of the problem without our brains shutting it out. IMO this isn’t a partisan issue, both sides should make this a priority. Trump showed us that he spoke to regular folks that are getting screwed by the system, and the Democrats have historically been the party that championed and stood behind the poor. The reality is poverty will only get worse if it isn’t addressed, and that ultimately affects everyone. The sad thing is that there is technically plenty for everyone. Put aside your political views for a few minutes and listen to this short episode. It will be worth it. https://podcastindex.org/podcast/743448?episode=25518430803
Bridget Phetasy (The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast) - Great episode that takes a somewhat winding path covering all sorts of social issues of the day, a bunch of conspiracy theories, all with loads of humour and curiosity. Topics including solving starvation, reproduction & pro-choice, menstrual cycle synchronisation, creepy government and commercial tracking, 40 year old in a fake Biden suit, the entertainment business and AI, seeing behind the curtain of the fakers that run the world, trans craziness and puberty blockers, and the strange outdated sex laws that still exist in some US states. There’s a lot in there, but it’s a good mix of the latest current zeitgeist, the stuff you won’t hear on main stream media, what people are likely talking about in the interesting conversations down the pub. https://podcastindex.org/podcast/6786106?episode=25526154804
Gerry Gets Savage Ep#295 (Punk Till I Die Podcast) - Since last week’s issue had a big segment all about electronic music, I thought I’d check in with the PYID guys. It’s an awesome show, they have on Gerry who organises Savage Mountain which I gather is some sort of underground punk focussed music festival. I though his music selection was awesome, it’s got a very distinct vibe, quite pop punk in places but not scared to go off piste into some pretty dark metaly stuff. And I say pop punk, but it’s not bubblegum, it all has an edge to it. Like I said, I thought all the tracks were great. Gerry really reminds me of Anthony Scaramouchy from the Rest is Politics US Edition for some reason, so maybe he knows why many Americans think MI6 are behind the Trump assassination? I think maybe the Mooche’s wife might be a fascist communist so maybe we’ll get some interesting new punk tunes at some point, hopefully before WWIII starts. https://podcastindex.org/podcast/351697?episode=25518692320
The Kidnaping of Ape #8398 (Search Engine Podcast) - I listened to this yesterday evening, I was super tired so found it a bit difficult to focus, but it’s a very interesting episode all about the NFT craze that swept past us last year. That has sort of subsided for the minute, but I think perhaps NFTs will make a come back after the bull market when people need to park their millions. People like Raoul Pal seem to think so. The back story is kind of fascinating involving comedian Seth Green trying to create a genuinely new form of series using a blend of celebrities and the NFT characters he owns. The twist to the story is that his NFT wallet got hacked, so he had to figure out how to get back the NFTs that were stolen or the show couldn’t be made. Interesting that Quentin Tarantino and Paris Hilton are bigtime into NFTs. https://podcastindex.org/podcast/5220235?episode=25605049913
That’s all from me…
Best regards,
Mark
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