Ghost in the Machine
Valerie Veatch premiered this at Sundance in January and it has since been picked up by Independent Lens. It examines artificial intelligence through the longer history of human technological advancement, and it is not a friendly film toward the current moment. One critic described it as a Molotov cocktail thrown into the middle of our overinflated AI hype, which gives you a sense of the register. I am invested across this sector and I still think the strongest skeptical case deserves a real hearing. This is that case, made well.
Machine God
John Greer and Lei Huang have been building a documentary on accelerationism and the people pushing hardest toward artificial superintelligence, and the trailer alone tells you the register they are working in. Watch it back to back with Ghost in the Machine and you get the two poles of the current argument in their strongest form, which is a more useful education than reading another hundred posts from either camp. The interviews behind it include some of the most committed accelerationists working today.
The Oldest Person in the World
Sam Green spent more than a decade following successive holders of the title of oldest living person, which means the film keeps losing its subject and finding a new one. What starts as a documentary about extreme longevity turns into something closer to a meditation on time, luck, and what it actually feels like to outlast everyone. It premiered at Sundance in January and reviews have been strong. For a category I spend real money and attention on, this was a useful corrective. Living longest is not the same thing as living well.
More …
The Art Of Winning Requires One Thing Most People Won't Give
Arnold Schwarzenegger has told versions of this story for forty years and it still works, mostly because he is not selling anything abstract. The thing most people will not give is the unglamorous volume of reps, done when nobody is watching and nothing is happening.
How To Explain Anything To Anyone
Sharran Srivatsaa packs a genuinely useful communication framework into about sixty seconds. Clarity wins when you give people four things: context, understanding, practical guidance, and one obvious next step.
More …
AI agents are starting to eat SaaS - Martin Alderson
We spent fifteen years watching software eat the world. Entire industries got swallowed by software - retail, media, finance - you name it, there has been incredible disruption over the past couple of decades with a proliferation of SaaS tooling. This has led to a huge swath of SaaS companies - valued, collectively, in the trillions.
The Simple Path to Wealth: Your Road Map to Financial Independence and a Rich, Free Life
The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins is a popular personal finance book that offers a straightforward guide to achieving financial independence through simple, long-term investing strategies, focusing on low-cost index funds and avoiding complex financial products. It provides actionable advice on debt elimination, retirement accounts (like 401(k)s, IRAs, and HSAs), and asset allocation, all presented in an accessible, often humorous style, based on the advice Collins gave his daughter.
Swearing Can Actually Be Good For You, According to New Research
Dropping an F-bomb can boost your performance by helping you feel stronger, more focused, and disinhibited, say scientists. Most who curse like a sailor know that letting out a swear word in a moment of frustration can feel good. Now, new research by psychologists suggests that it really can be good for your well-being.
More …
