What I Wrote Last Week

Book Review – Gut, The Inside Story Of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ

Business

Why OpenAI’s $157B valuation misreads AI’s future. While I share the author view that the future outlook doesn’t look particularly well for OpenAI, my dominant thought regarding the AI arm race is that nobody knows what will happen. Precisely because of such uncertainty, it’s remarkable how venture capital firms pour money into AI projects. How exactly will they recoup returns on the massive investments? I have not heard one single plan of how AI companies plan to monetize their products so well that desirable ROI is achieved.

Marc Andreessen argues that AI won’t cause unemployment because it is already illegal in a lot of industries. He may have a point about suffocating red tape and head-spinning layers of regulations. However, it begs the question: well then how exactly will AI change the world to the extent that VCs said it would? How exactly will it change so that it justifies the enormous investments that were, are and will made?

Trump Will Hit Mexico, Canada and China With Tariffs. Get ready to pay more for a lot of goods starting Feb 1st. Tariffs are a legitimate tool to protect trade interests, but levying tariffs on three of the biggest trade partners to half immigration flow is just a behavior of a bully. America will pay for this President’s recklessness. He’d better hope that these countries will cave first. If he is the one who caves, no future threats will carry weight. So far, this administration provided nothing, but uncertainty and the market hates it more than anything.

Inside the planning for Trump’s new tariffs war, from the biggest company to the smallest family business. Companies can get ahead of tariffs by frontloading goods, but it doesn’t come free. Even if smaller companies wish to do so, they may not have the bargaining power to. Welcome to the business environment under Trump.

How Walmart is becoming a better-for-you grocery destination. Walmart has been transforming itself remarkably. It attracts high income customers who find value from shopping at Walmart. The company modernizes its tech stack, proven by the Scan & Go technology at Sam’s Club. Then, it is pushing hard for sustainable and natural offerings. The stock price reflects how well investors and shoppers receive such changes.

The Race for All-Powerful Pot. “Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, businesses have difficulty getting bank loans, are barred from routine tax breaks and can’t transport products across state lines. Prices have dropped amid an oversupply and a persistent rivalry with the illegal cannabis trade. And the industry faces a growing threat from intoxicating hemp-derived compounds such as Delta-8, which can be sold more widely and with fewer restrictions. More growers embraced breeding techniques to increase the potency of the marijuana smoked in joints, blunts and bongs, pushing the THC levels to as much as 30 percent. (The typical level a generation ago was less than 5 percent.)“

Other Stuff I Find Interesting

Life Lessons from the First Half-Century of My Career. Valuable advice.

The mind-altering power of yoga could improve your mental health. “In epilepsy sufferers, for example, practicing yoga has been seen to significantly reduce the number of seizures – or even prevent them entirely. Yoga has been used as an intervention to help manage type 2 diabetes, reduce chronic pain, and aid in stroke rehabilitation. Studies show practicing yoga positively impacts both the structure and function of parts of the brain including the hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and brain networks including the default mode network, part of the brain involved in introspection and self-directed thought. Neuroimaging has revealed yoga can lead to an increase in the volume of grey matter in the brain“

The secret formula for Apple’s rounded corners. There are little things that show the dedication and attention that Apple shows to details. I wonder if Apple thought of the psychology effect of pointed corners or if they just did it because the devices would look better.

An interesting investigative piece on Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, from his childhood, his youth to his saga with Facebook and Zuckerberg.

Your phone, a rare metal and the war in DR Congo. “The tantalum within your device weighs less than half of the average garden pea but is essential for the efficient functioning of a smartphone, and almost all other sophisticated electronic devices. The unique properties of this rare, blue-grey, lustrous metal – including being able to hold a high charge compared to its size, while operating in a range of temperatures – make it an ideal material for tiny capacitors, which temporarily store energy. It is also mined in Rwanda, Brazil and Nigeria but at least 40% – and maybe more – of the element’s global supply comes from DR Congo and some of the key mining areas are now under the control of the M23.“

Stats

Marijuana is a $32 billion industry in the US

The Vietnamese logistics sector is a $40 billion industry

Users between 50 and 64 years old make up 20% of ChatGPT’s user base

Aldi saves shoppers who usually buy brand name products $4,000 in annual grocery spending

Nearly 18 million Americans now report using marijuana daily or near daily