big ideas

The scale of China’s renewables.

The scale of China’s renewables. “The 22m tonnes of steel used to build new wind turbines and solar panels in 2024 would have been enough to build a Golden Gate Bridge on every working day of every week that year.” […]

teaching the kids

Negative press for Alpha School.

Negative press for Alpha School. I’m intrigued by this school’s approach to education, which uses AI to instruct and test students individually at their specific level of mastery in any given subject. Someone sent me this WIRED article to temper […]

under the microscope

The magic of moiré quantum matter.

The magic of moiré quantum matter. Though this subject matter is dense and was frankly intimidating to me, this video by Pablo Jarillo-Herrero is a fantastic introduction to “strongly-correlated quantum matter [that] has challenged physicists for decades.” ~ learn more

retail therapy

They’re not hiding this turnaround.

They’re not hiding this turnaround. From Christian Friedland, cofounder of Build.com, who once shared the small town of Chico, CA with this company: “[Lulu’s Fashion Lounge (NASDAQ: LVLU)] is trading at 0.046x sales ($14.4M market cap on $316M revenue) – […]

better doing

Meet the worst programmer.

Meet the worst programmer. “Tim’s score was consistently zero. Zero! Not just low, or trending downwards, but literally zero.” Despite these metrics, Tim excelled at elevating the entire team’s productivity through collaboration and mentoring. ~ learn more

better doing

Already they are men.

Already they are men. “Children are overbearing, supercilious, passionate, envious, inquisitive, egotistical,” noted French satirist Jean de La Bruyère in the 1600s. Before critiquing the selfishness of children, it’s a chance to reflect on our adult selves. ~ learn more

better doing

Threat of reference check.

Threat of reference check. “When you use the TORC technique, you inform candidates before even speaking to them that a final step in hiring is for them to arrange reference calls with the managers they have reported to.” By ensuring […]

tech, startups, internet

AI image generation showdown.

AI image generation showdown. “We ran over 600 image generations to compare Al models.” LateNiteSoft shares their extensive evaluation of AI-generated image quality using three models: OpenAI, Gemini, and Seedream. Each model shines in different scenarios, from realistic edits to […]

tech, startups, internet

How I use every Claude Code feature.

How I use every Claude Code feature. This post by Shrivu Shankar has tons of advice that I consider quite specific and practical. “Having stuck to Claude Code for the last few months, this post is my set of reflections […]