Rosie O’Donnell is back in the news, because Trump is clowning and trolling, and this really shouldn’t be the first thing I say because there’s a lot going on. But it’s 2025, and so Rosie O’Donnell is important again. Gotta love Executive Branch centralization. Newsom can troll too, and I wonder if he really thinks he’ll be running against Trump in 2028?
But there are better things than this in the news. For example, robots are doing the dishes now too. Optimus shows Marc Benioff where to get coffee (slowly). American Eagle revenue is up!
Come on, I can do better. How about this: Conor McGregor is running for President of Ireland. That’s real, right? What about fancy synchronized marching? Always fun. How about Putin and Xi talking on a hot mic about using organ transplants to live to 150? There’s a zinger. “Senator shows alien slideshow” is another good one, also real.
In the real world, Anthropic raised another $13 billion. Which sounds insane until you hear Dario talk about the correlation of scaling laws to revenue. Tesla has record orders and a Master Plan Part 4. Nanobanana makes art come to life and tours Middle Earth. Gemini 3 is expected soon and it’s exciting.
Ok, that’s not the real world! So Modi and Xi and Putin meet and embrace. JD Vance goes to Annunciation church. The Japan trade deal is finalized. The Australian premier joins Kim Jong-un and Xi at the Chinese military parade. Tim Kaine and Ted Cruz disagree about where rights come from. Putin talks about a multipolar world. A drug-running ship gets blown up and Venezuelan fighters flyover a US destroyer. A judge says Google doesn’t have to break up. Google and Apple are both up big. Steak n Shake leans into retro and beef tallow. The UK arrests a comedian for tweeting. Gold keeps surging (or dollars weakening, take your pick). There’s an All-InWhite House Tech Dinner with all the big names, except one. Can you guess who?
CBS buys Bari Weiss’ The Free Press for $200mm. Zuck sits next to Trump. The Rock gets skinny.
On to the reading!
Timely
AI and Jobs, again - Noah Smith with a detailed look at what jobs are going where and how the market is changing. Newsflash: there’s still lots for everyone to do.
In Defense of Inequality - A delightful speech from the President of what is probably the most interesting college in America right now. Here’s to the (positive) deviants.
3 Lessons From Building Our First AI Agent - Forbes with an actually interesting article from the founder of Jotform on what matters and what doesn’t in the agentic world.
Accelerating Life Sciences Research - This is the story of GPT-4b micro, a base model trained on DNA sequences, and its ability to “predict”— design doesn’t feel right here — proteins vastly more efficient than natural proteins. When a bio lab made them, they performed 50x better. And their vision is focused on the aging process itself.
Timeless
Where Are The Trillion Dollar Biotech Companies? - Eli Lilly isn’t too far off, but it’s still a fair question. Marginal cost is a thing, as are FDA trials, but this is a much more comprehensive dive.
Ghosting Spotify: A How-To Guide - Ever had an icky feeling listening to all the algo-driven streaming services? Start with this guide.
Done, And Gets Things Smart - I’ve been on an old school Steve Yegge kick recently and this is one of his best. A fabulous narrative on Dunning-Kruger and what it really means to be an exceptional engineer, not just the feel-good variety.
Roko’s Basilisk - DO NOT READ ABOUT ROKO’S BASILISK. There, I’ve done my duty. One of the weirder AI arguments. Also dangerous. Don’t click the link. Stay clean.
Books
Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham - The math is very light, I’ll start with that. This is more history and biography than anything, and it does a wonderful job of providing the setting for some of the most incredible breakthroughs of human thought. I read a tweet recently about someone else discovering the intensity and wild life of Gerolamo Cardano and it reminded me of one of the chapters in this book. Cardano solved the cubic equation, was arrested by the Inquisition, worked with deaf people and as a physician, gambled heavily and went bankrupt, and wrote music. Georg Cantor is just as good. Math and history are cool!
Tweets
Some good ones, so you don’t need to scroll!
The world is amazing. Cheers!