John MacGaffey
Chickens and Goats
You could, given enough time, transmit the entirety of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 to someone half a mile away by tossing chickens and goats off a bridge.
John MacGaffey
Lacking in Substance
I'll never forget the feedback I received on a paper from one of my college professors: "Beautifully written as always, John, but lacking in substance."
Links for January 23, 2022
🧠 The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence — Wait But Why
Tim Urban's multi-part essay on artificial intelligence has informed a lot of my own writing about technology, particularly this week's post "Humility in the Face of Progress."
His core argument, that progress compounds, invites
Anticipation
Some advice for next time you host a dinner party: Make sure that some aromatics – garlic, ginger, thyme, etc. – have landed in a pan of hot olive oil before your guests walk in.
Moral Absolutism
The world is messy, and our attempts to paint it in black and white often fail to capture its complexity.
Default to Progress
Countries that make becoming an organ donor opt-out by default, rather than opt-in, have higher percentages of organ donors.
Change Your Mind
The world is changing quickly, and many of us would be better off changing our minds more often to reflect new information.
Humility in the Face of Progress
Reflecting on technological progress reminds us that things that look impossible today might be commonplace just decades from now.
Fast Food
Henry Ford had the famous insight that if you assign each factory worker one task, you can dramatically increase production capacity. Today, in most industrial systems across every market, this is the norm.
Links for January 16, 2022
🎟 Theranos Was a Losing Lottery Ticket for Investors — Bloomberg
Speaking of writing fiction in Excel, the Theranos trial is old news now, but Matt Levine has a candid take on the kinds of stories some investors want to hear:
But another theory is: No, those investors really want to be