A Few Things: Bremmer on Globalisation, The Economist on New Asia, Spotting Fakes, Relationship Secrets, Chip Supremacy, CRISPR Next Advance, a16z on AI, Ben Thompson on Zuck, Ellison on Gen-AI...
I’m Ahmed Husain, feel free to connect here on LinkedIn or here on Twitter. Every week, I share my view on developments across markets, technology and being a better human. I advise and work with global family offices and investors looking to understand the world and find investment opportunities.
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Quotes I Am Thinking About:
"The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.”
- Robert Frost
“The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself”
- Rita Mae Brown
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
- Maya Angelou
“Creativity is the residue of time wasted”
- Albert Einstein
“Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”
- Wayne Dyer
A. A Few Things Worth Checking Out:
1. AI is going to drive a new globalization: Ian Bremmer on CNBC.
2. The Economist had a good piece titled: How Asia is reinventing its economic model.
The big idea: we are in a transformative phase in Asian commerce, with a significant shift towards regional economic self-reliance and integration, outlining the profound economic and political ramifications this shift imposes on the region’s future.
Increasing Intra-Asian Trade: By 2021, intra-Asian trade had reached 58%, a considerable increase from 46% in 1990, fueled by the rise of sophisticated supply chains, primarily in Japan and China, increased movements of intermediate goods, and elevated levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) within Asia.
Economic Integration and Localized Activities: Post the 2007-09 global financial crisis, Asian local banks have become significant players in overseas lending, marking a shift towards more localized economic activities and a decrease in Western economic influence in the region. Also, the emerging need for new supply chains has spurred investment in transport, logistics, and infrastructure within Asia.
Demographic Changes & Consumption Patterns: Wealthier and older Asian countries are investing heavily in the younger and poorer economies within the region, altering urbanization and capital flow patterns. Increased local consumption and demographic shifts make local economies more appealing markets, with approximately 91 million of the 113 million people entering the global consumer class next year predicted to be in Asia.
Political Implications: Closer commercial links have resulted in the synchronization of business cycles across Asian economies, with increased exposure to economic fluctuations in China rather than America. While America's influence in security matters persists, its economic relevance in the region is diminishing.
Future Projections: The region is experiencing a return to more "normal" trade patterns, focusing more on internal development and less on Western interaction. This trend is predicted to continue, with Asia becoming increasingly self-reliant and regionally integrated due to ongoing developments in local factories, increasing consumption, and substantial savings from the aging population in Asia.
3. You know you're talking to a domain expert when you feel the need to frantically write down everything they're saying, because so much of it is new to you. Learning to recognise real expertise from fake expertise is a skill worth cultivating.
It helps you sniff out the charlatans from people with serious game. I've picked up a few ideas: (1) great people speak in specifics, and (2) they're so comfortable talking about their craft that the rhythm and patterns of their speech don't change when they do.
With the Ryder Cup this weekend, let’s check out domain expertise in action in this 2-minute Phil Mickelson distillation of all the factors that go into a golf shot.
4. James Sexton is one of America’s top divorce attorneys. This guy has seen it all. Every type of relationship imaginable and every ending imaginable.
He was on the Lex Fridman show discussing Marriage, Relationships, Sex, Lies and Love.
5. British politics, traditionally class-based is now witnessing age as the pivotal division. Labour attracts the younger demographic with its progressive stance, while older citizens lean towards Conservatives.
The article meticulously explores this divergence, utilizing data from the British Social Attitudes report to analyze differing generational attitudes and expectations regarding political ideologies and government functions.
It evaluates the impact of varying perspectives on inequality and government spending, offering comprehensive insights into the changing political landscape and party preferences of modern Britain.
6. If you missed Chris Miller’s Chip War, this FT video will catch you up on why semiconductors are in the news daily and why that will continue. It’s filled with interviews with policy makers, experts and investors on where we are headed.
Think Industrial Policy, CHIPS Act, IRA…
7. Jennifer Doudna: CRISPR's next advance is bigger than you think. For context, Prof. Doudna was one of the discoverers of CRISPR and is the first living person Walter Isaacson wrote about in his book: The Code Breaker.
B. The Technology Section:
1. Andrej Karpathy is an AI OG. Hee’s building a kind of JARVIS at OреոΑӏ and was previously Director of AI at Tesla. He shared a thoughtful tweet:
2. a16z recently held their AI Revolution event, this podcast summarises the key ideas and presentations from folks like OpenAI, Anthropic, CharacterAI.
Here are then full talks from the AI Revolution event.
3. Ben Thompson shared his latest piece titled: AI, Hardware, and Virtual Reality.
The big idea: The convergence of AI, hardware, and virtual reality, emphasising the role of hardware in making AI more accessible, intuitive, and immersive. The advancements from companies like OpenAI and Meta are pushing the boundaries in creating seamless interactions and experiences, breaking human constraints in media consumption, interaction, and communication.
While technological advancements are making significant strides in AI and VR, the true realization of their potential lies in developing hardware that can make these experiences more natural, intuitive, and frictionless for users. The integration of AI in everyday devices like smart glasses might soon become the norm, allowing users to interact with their environment and digital entities in ways that were not possible before.
See Zuck’s presentation from yesterday:
This convergence of AI and hardware, in essence, is the next step in realising the full potential of what we term as "virtual reality," which is not just confined to visual experiences but extends to any form of interaction that breaks the bounds of human constraints and offers a seamless transition between the digital and physical realms.
4. Larry Ellison is worth about $120bn, since he owns 40% of Oracle, a technology company founded in 1977. He also owns 1.5% of Tesla and was an early investor.
Oracle is the bedrock of enterprise technology. Earlier this year, NVIDIA choose them as their Cloud Infrastructure partner to offer AI Services.
Larry discussed Oracle’s vision for the future and where he thinks Generative AI is headed. It’s a compelling presentation.
Believe it or not, that “♡ Like” button is a big deal – it serves as a proxy to new visitors of this publication’s value. If it was helpful to you, if you got value out of reading it, please let others know.