You might explicitly think in systems, or you might do it without realizing. Regardless of which camp you're in, there are some important considerations you should make to ensure the implicit and explicit models you're creating for the systems in your life are still effective. How to safely think in systems - Will Larson / Irrational Exuberance
What if you measured success in terms of the time you spent away from work? It's honestly a pretty alien concept to me, as I'm lucky to really enjoy the work I get to do, but I can empathize with and understand those so-called 'time millionaires' who work as little as possible with a goal of maximizing their time not-working. Time millionaires: meet the people pursuing the pleasure of leisure - Sirin Kale / The Guardian
You may have heard that Joe Manchin, lamentably the most powerful (and coal-fueled) man in American government at the moment, is blocking climate-focused components of Joe Biden's major budget initiative. I'll admit I haven't been following the grueling marathon slog of this particular piece of legislation, which is why I found Bill McKibben's recent missive explaining and contextualizing this latest American climate failure to be especially helpful. It really is pretty bad. Gutted - Bill McKibben / The Crucial Years
Many believe the next phase of humanity's digital evolution is currently unfolding in the form of web3 technologies. Venture firm Andreessen-Horowitz is a strong proponent of this theory. They recently published a white paper laying out their broad vision around web3, calling for and proposing a structure for government regulation, and listing the ways in which web3 could transform society as a whole. How to win the future: An agenda for the third generation of the internet / Andreessen-Horowitz
Researchers have found 2,000 year-old Roman concrete that remodels itself as it degrades. The volcanic aggregate used in the construction of this noblewoman's tomb on the Appian way disintegrates in such a way that it reforms itself, meaning any cracks are filled in as they form. Was it that the Romans were hell-bent on experimentation and arrived at this innovative material mixture, or that their lax material standards meant they were bound to happen upon a super-resilient composition once in a while? Who knows. Maybe there's a startup aphorism in there. 2,050-year-old Roman tomb offers insights on ancient concrete resilience / MIT News
In the late 1980's, Wang Huning traveled America to understand the country. He was shocked at the disarray and disorder pervasive throughout the liberal democracy, and returned to China to pen a bestseller warning his countrymen of the perils of embracing liberalism. Huning has become one of the most enduring, powerful, and shadowy figures in the ruling Chinese communist party over the past decade, and is behind the recent government focus on controlling culture manifested in the literal erasure of high-profile entertainers, legal limits on video game consumption, and even the breakup of monopolistic companies. The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning - N.S. Lyons / Palladium Magazine
Going to space can have lasting effects on they way people understand the universe and their place in it. This "Overview effect," which William Shatner experienced this week as he took a quick round trip to the edge of the atmosphere, has been noted by many astronauts as a life-changing perspective shift. The Human Brain in Space: Euphoria and the “Overview Effect” Experienced by Astronauts - Ian O'Neill / Universe Today
We're getting closer to figuring out how deep learning actually works. We have these deep neural networks that oblige us when we ask them to do things like tell me how man dogs are in this picture. The problem is, even though they are entirely human creations, we don't have a real understanding of how they're arriving at their accurate conclusions. A New Link to an Old Model Could Crack the Mystery of Deep Learning - Anil Ananthaswamy / Quanta Magazine