Things are Changing for you

My name is Julian.

A few months ago I started writing this newsletter out of a fascination for Agriculture. Through this I got a pretty substantial following… including you (I threw a small party when I saw your name)!

Then, I stopped. Things got busy as they do.

For the next three months, I will send this out once a week (Sunday’s) to see how it goes. There is also a YouTube video that goes along with this video.

If you’re here for just Ag content… I’m sorry, but I have to let you down. However, there are a lot of interesting things, and Ag is still top of mind.

First, you’ll see some of the articles and books I’m reading, then you’ll see some of the things I’ve learned over the last week.

Good Reads this week

• Reading Titan, a book on John D. Rockefeller

  • At the phase in the book where Rockefeller is building a massive monopoly.

  • “We have gone upon the principle it were better to attend to our business and pay no attention to the newspapers, with the idea that if we were right they could not permanently injure us and if we were wrong all their comments, though favorable would not make it right.”

  • On speaking to newspapers. “What could we say,” he asked rhetorically, ”without telling the world just how we were making our success.”

  • Reading about how he bribed politicians and everyone he could find was also interesting

  • So obvious that he knows he is doing something morally reprehensible, but he was only focused on making as much money as humanly possible. Which he did to great success

• Lina Khan: We Must Regulate A.I. Here’s How.

  • Lina Khan is the Chair of the Federal Trade Comission and a strong voice for the regulation of technology companies.

  • In the essay she doesn’t actually speak much about the regulation of AI in practical terms, but does name a few reasons it should be regulated

    • A few large technology corporations (Microsoft, Google, Facebook etc..) have power over it. This includes raw data and compute power

    • Fraud will become better and more widespread

    • Much of the data is unchecked, meaning that there could be misinformation and bias within it

  • Not sure if all of her points are completely relevant, but it’s interesting to read why she thinks it’s important

  • The title promises a how, but the article doesn’t fulfill that promise

• The Case for Big Action to Regulate Artificial Intelligence

  • Chamath Palihapitya is a Silicon Valley success story. Led growth teams at facebook and is now a hotshot investor guy.

  • Was fascinated to see what he thinks about AI regulation. My first thought was that he wouldn’t be someone for a lot of AI regulation

    • First 2 paragraphs

    • “In technology circles, people balk at the mere mention of government regulation. The naysayers argue it interferes with innovation and is a bad byproduct of big government. But history tells a different story. Transparent, accountable and expert oversight—even when implemented late or ineffectively at first—has proven to be an important part of scaling an economy.”

  • Argues that AI is too fast. We await updates in AI every week rather than every year

    • As someone who is consistently working with these systems, I can attest to this

  • We have tons of well regulated industries, and can’t rely on business to regulate itself. Look at the FDA. Imagine Big Tobacco regulating Tobacco

  • He argues we need regulation to understand the consequences of what is happening in front of our eyes

• The Rewards of Rivalry

  • This article talks about the real winner in the conflict between the US and China could be the climate

  • Historically, during times of Great Power competition existential threats get a lot of attention

    • Nuclear weapons after WW2, with the founding of the IAEA and nuclear non proliferation treaties

  • “In the long run, however, competition over green technologies might prove as beneficial as cooperative diplomacy, perhaps even more so. For instance, European countries, the United States, and others have become alarmed at Chinese dominance of the supply chain for minerals such as copper and lithium and other commodities that are essential for producing clean energy. As those governments belatedly act to shore up their supply chains, they are facilitating mining investments worldwide that could lower the costs of decarbonization for everyone.”

  • The inflation reduction act is a bill, which pushes the United States and China forward on the front of climate change by encouraging competition through investment

What I learned

Italy Trip

• A lot of how new people respond to you has to do with how you first appear to them.

  • Had a situation where we missed an interview due to a rental car issue and we then struggled to get in contact with the person we missed.

  • That first interaction soured the rest of the interactions

• Closed mouths don’t get fed

  • You have to ask for stuff. A lot

  • People say no, but that doesn’t matter

  • We had a lot of situations where we just had to go and ask people for the most absurd things and they would generally try to be helpful

Project Work

• Keep trying. Don’t be satisfied when something just kind of works. I was building a project and it came out to be that a few extra hours made a world of difference

• Use ChatGPT for everything. I switched it to my homepage so I can train myself to get really good at using it