Sara's Weekly Update #2
ChatGPT(#tech)
Just last week I wrote about Generative AI, and before I published the last week’s newsletter ChatGPT became viral.
These are some of the great blogs I came across, Building A Virtual Machine inside ChatGPT & ChatGPT, rot13, and Daniel Kahneman.
My opinion: This indeed is very impressive, this answers mostly makes sense, but to make it to replace a human customer care chat or something like that we need it work all most all the time not most of the time. So I feel like Humans will be involved in the loop at least for now & chatGPT will augment the human and increases our productivity. But very interesting space to watch.
Humanoid Drummer (#tech)
Xiaomi’s CyberOne robot demonstrated playing Drums using full body movement and these kind of experiments are helping to iterate faster and it will improve as time goes by. At least for now it looks like Xiaomi’s CyberOne is moving faster than Tesla’s Optimus.
Microsoft - Activision Blizzard (#tech #business)
This was one of the biggest acquisition of Microsoft and that caught my attention sometime back. It’ helps MS to get into mobile gaming industry. Now FTC is blocking it due to concerns on suppressing competition. Have to wait & see how this deal goes.
The FTC argues that the acquisition would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.”
The FTC is suing Microsoft to block its Activision Blizzard purchase
There’s No Place Like (Close to) Home (#general)
Interesting study on the how young adults migrate and how far they go by four major races and income brackets.
Nearly six in 10 young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up, and eight in 10 live within 100 miles, according to a new study by researchers at the U.S. Census Bureau and Harvard University.
Black & Hispanic move lessor than White. Also kids with parents in top 20% income bracket moved farther, when they move.
Black young adults moved, on average, 60 fewer miles than White young adults — 130 miles vs. 190 miles. This is because White young adults were more likely to leave their childhood CZ and, when they did, they traveled farther.
Also Black individuals move into the American South, a pattern coined the New Great Migration.
Family of fallen Capitol Police officer won't shake hands with GOP leaders at ceremony (#us-politics)
I can understand their anger, it’s a valid one. Many of the GOP senior leaders are not giving the confidence people needed and feels like they put party first rather than the people & the country. At this instance I can think of only Bhagavad Gita where it emphasis that “one should do their duty to uphold the dharma even if one fails in the process, as one’s life is relatively very short compared to the actions taken. Actions live much longer than ones lifetime.”
Unlike Liz Cheney, they have no idea what Integrity is. They can’t stand up for whats right and wrong.
China - Zero Covid (#china)
Last week I was writing about the biggest protest, and surprised to see CCP reacted quickly & eased the zero covid policy. On one side it’s a relief to the people & the world, hopefully the supply chain issues gets better. But on the other side the Covid cases are raising and could be a difficult winter for China.
Zelensky - person of the year (#Russia-Ukraine war)
He was indeed very inspirational! He could have easily run away, or give up, but he did not. I have a high regards for him & Ukrainians, for fighting for their home & rights. Hope this war ends soon. Wish him & Ukrainians the best to overcome this biggest challenging times & come out of this even stronger!
Democracy under attack? (#world-politics)
Couple of coup stories this week.
By day’s end, Pedro Castillo, 53, was ousted from power and under arrest. Dina Boluarte, his vice president, was sworn in as president and became the first woman to lead Peru.
Peru’s President Tried to Dissolve Congress. By Day’s End, He Was Arrested.
This week, authorities in Germany arrested more than two dozen suspected far-right extremists over a plot to violently overthrow the government. The plotters were reportedly inspired by QAnon conspiracy theories.
I am glad in the both cases it didn’t end up bad, but these signs are troubling. Sometimes I wonder if America exported this extreme behaviors.
How To Raise Successful People (#book)
I read the chapter 4 this week.
Don’t Do Anything for your Children That They can Do for Themselves
In talking with my friend Maye Musk, a nutritionist and successful model and the mother of Elon Musk, I learned that we were on the same page. She never checked her kids’ homework. She couldn’t. She was working five jobs to make ends meet. When their assignments required a parent’s approval, she had them practice her signature so they could sign for her. “I didn’t have time,” she told me, “and it was their work.” That’s what kids need: not constantly being controlled or overprotected, but allowed to take responsibility for their own lives.
I suggest all children have a job that’s theirs and theirs alone. They’ll build skills toward independence and also learn how to help out around the house—a critical lesson for both girls and boys.
After reading this ^^, we started involving our kids in loading dishwasher everyday after dinner. Also Surya is responsible for cleaning the table and Nila is responsible for mopping the floor. Both are really interested to do their jobs & be helpful. Hope we continue this practice. Nila even wrote a weekly planner for their activities :-)
Here’s the deal: Failure is part of learning. If you do something perfectly the first time, there is no learning. Mistakes are encouraged. Remember the motto of Silicon Valley? Fail fast, fail often, fail forward. Kids are supposed to screw up when they’re kids so they screw up less as adults.
Ten Commandments for Tech
Now, I know this will sound crazy to some people, but here’s my ultimate goal as a teacher and parent: to make myself obsolete. That’s right. I want kids to be so independent that they no longer need me.
Family Updates (#family)
We went out for brunch to celebrate Surya’s fourth birthday. Also did a small cake cutting at home. What can I say, he is already 4! And he is one funny, silly guy :-)
We watched Dolphin Tale & Dolphin Tale 2 with kids. It was a feel good movie. We were talking that we should visit Clearwater Marine Aquarium next time when we go to Florida, but learned that winter passed away last year.