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Friends,
When I was a kid, I read Peanuts comics religiously. Snoopy, Linus, and of course, Charlie Brown. If you grew up with them, you know the drill. Every time Charlie Brown tried to kick the ball, Lucy yanked it away at the last second. He would fly through the air, land flat on his back, and somehow, he always fell for it again. And Again.
And again.
Charles M. Schulz, when he finally retired, was asked if he would let Charlie Brown kick the ball just once. He refused. That was the point. The game wasn’t meant to be won.
Lately, I feel like Charlie Brown, but instead of a ball, it’s AI. Every week, something new drops: DeepSeek, Deep Research, Mistral’s latest, and Google’s Gemini 2.0 update. Just when I think I have my workflow figured out, something shifts. The tools I just got used to are outdated.
But unlike Charlie Brown, you and I don’t have the luxury of frustration. The only way forward is to adapt constantly. AI isn’t going to slow down to let us catch up. The ball is always moving. The real skill isn’t mastering one tool, it’s staying ready for whatever comes next.
What we do know is that, whether it’s this week or next week, this year or next year, models are getting faster and more powerful - and more nuanced. The research that you once did actively in the foreground and might have taken hours or days is done in the background, while you are planning other stuff. Your communication skills need to be sharper and you need to be open to see what is possible. If not you, then it will be someone else.
One example is Deep Research (the new product from OpenAI that launched last week) It costs $200 per month but can:
Produce a long list of potential applicants for a job you are hiring for
Professionals e.g. finance, science, policy who need well-cited, structured reports
Strategists conducting competitive analysis or trend forecasting
Researchers and students gathering information from multiple sources
A comprehensive news briefing 100% tailored to you
Shoppers and consumers making high-stakes purchasing decisions (e.g., cars, appliances, real estate)
Review data available only in different language, translate it back and present results in English.
Journalists, and analysts who require fact-checked, multi-source insights
The use cases are unlimited. But, as I said, this is a moving goal post. Or for Charlie, a moving ball. There will be more advances, as this is only one small step towards Agentic AI where AI will discover new knowledge for itself. Good Grief!
Stay Curious - and don’t forget to be amazing,
PS. For those who know, humanity lost one of the greats this week. Aga Khan Obituaries: AKDN, FT, Times, NYT
Here are my recommendations for this week:
One of the best tools to provide excellent reading and articles for your week is Refind. It’s a great tool for keeping ahead with “brain food” relevant to you and providing serendipity for some excellent articles that you may have missed. You can dip in and sign up for weekly, daily or something in between -what’s guaranteed is that the algorithm sends you only the best articles in your chosen area. It’s also free. Highly recommended Sign up.
Now
Why AI Is A Philosophical Rupture - The symbiosis of humans and technology portends a new AIxial Age. AI is reshaping how we understand intelligence, blurring the lines between human and machine cognition. Traditionally, intelligence was seen as exclusive to humans, rooted in our ability to reason, create, and reflect. But AI challenges this view by demonstrating its own form of learning, problem-solving, and abstraction, often in ways beyond human capability. Tobias Rees argues that AI isn’t just a tool but a philosophical rupture, breaking centuries-old distinctions between living and non-living, natural and artificial. Just as writing transformed human thought by enabling self-reflection and abstraction, AI could unlock new ways of thinking that were previously unimaginable. The challenge isn’t whether AI is truly intelligent but how we integrate its unique capabilities with our own. Instead of seeing AI as a competitor, the opportunity lies in symbiosis, using AI to extend our intelligence, not replace it. Those who shape AI must engage with its philosophical stakes, ensuring it enhances human potential rather than merely automating tasks. Completely unrelated: 'Mewing,' 'Sigma,' and Other Gen Z and Gen Alpha Slang You Might Need Help Decoding
‘There has never been a more dangerous time to take drugs’: the rising global threat of nitazenes and synthetic opioids - Nitazenes, a powerful class of synthetic opioids, are emerging as a major threat in the UK’s illegal drug market. More potent than heroin and comparable to fentanyl, these drugs are cheap, easy to produce, and widely available online, making them attractive to dealers and dangerous for users. Their presence in low-purity heroin has already caused hundreds of deaths, and with Afghanistan’s heroin supply disrupted, synthetic opioids could become even more widespread. While the UK has taken steps to control nitazenes, the situation could escalate if larger criminal networks transition to trafficking them. The challenge is not just enforcement but also harm reduction, treatment access, and anticipating shifts in drug supply before they spiral into a crisis.
Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential - Most companies are investing in AI, but only 1 percent have successfully integrated it into their workflows. The real obstacle is not employees who are eager to use AI but leaders who hesitate to act. AI has the potential to drive trillions in economic value, yet many businesses are stuck in pilot mode, unable to scale. Employees trust their own organisations to implement AI responsibly, but they need clearer direction, better training, and a roadmap that turns experimentation into real productivity gains. History shows that companies that fail to adapt to major technological shifts risk irrelevance. AI is no different. Leaders who hesitate will watch their competitors pull ahead, while those who act boldly will shape the future of work.
Burgernomics - The Big Mac index shows how burger prices differ across borders - Always intrigued by this and the latest Big Mac Index shows that Switzerland still tops the list with the world’s most overvalued currency, while Egypt, India, and Indonesia have some of the most undervalued. The British pound sits just 1.1% below its implied fair value against the US dollar, meaning that a Big Mac in the UK costs almost exactly what purchasing-power-parity suggests it should. Meanwhile, the Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, and South African rand remain heavily undervalued. This year’s update also continues the GDP-adjusted version of the index, which accounts for local wages and economic development—helpful for understanding why burgers cost less in lower-income countries. Despite its origins as a joke, burgernomics has become a widely used shorthand for global currency misalignment, proving that sometimes, fast food offers insights into more than just your calorie intake. Food, not economics related: How My Trip to
How glorifying ignorance leads to science illiteracy - If we wish to tackle the very real problems society faces, we require expert-level knowledge. Valuing it starts earlier than we realize. - Glorifying ignorance isn’t just a cultural quirk. It has real consequences. From childhood, we learn that being too smart makes us a target, leading many to reject expertise in favour of uninformed opinions. The result? Science denial, misinformation, and policies that harm society. People resist changing their views because admitting ignorance requires effort and humility. But ignoring facts doesn’t make them disappear. Whether it’s rejecting climate science, vaccine effectiveness, or basic physics, bad information spreads fast. If we want a functional society, we need to celebrate knowledge, trust experts, and stay open to learning, because reality doesn’t care about feelings. Related: Habits Therapists Are Begging You to Break for the Sake of Your Mental Health
Next
How is Fortnite's Attempt to Become the YouTube of Gaming Going? - Fortnite is trying to become the YouTube of gaming, offering creators a space to build, monetize, and attract players. Its creator program has grown rapidly, with over 70,000 contributors and $350 million paid out in 2024. But Fortnite faces a “cold start problem”—unlike YouTube, it competes with itself, as its main game draws more attention than creator-made content. To truly succeed, Fortnite must evolve from being just a game to a platform, where individual islands function like YouTube channels. The challenge is balancing incentives, fostering innovation, and avoiding the pitfalls that once hindered YouTube’s own rise.
The Sims Turned Players Into Gods. And Farmers. And Vampires. And Landlords. - The Sims, turning 25, remains a cultural phenomenon that blends creativity, satire, and social experimentation. Originally dismissed by executives, it became a sandbox for players to build lives, control chaos, and even game the system. Over time, fans have transformed it into a universe of extreme realism and absurdity—introducing complex financial systems, violence, and even digital mafias. Creator Will Wright envisioned it as a reflection of American consumerism, but modders have pushed its boundaries far beyond. With no Sims 5 planned, The Sims 4 continues evolving, proving that digital dollhouses can shape how we “play with life.”
Tech Giants Double Down on Their Massive AI Spending - Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta pour billions into artificial intelligence, undeterred by DeepSeek’s rise
OpenAI unveils a new ChatGPT agent for ‘deep research’ - Basically, ChatGPT deep research is intended for instances where you don’t just want a quick answer or summary, but instead need to assiduously consider information from multiple websites and other sources. If you’ve played with this, you can see that this is just not going to stop.
The future belongs to idea guys who can just do things - Ya know that old saying ideas are cheap and execution is everything? Well it's being flipped on it's head by AI. Execution is now cheap. All that matters now is brand, distribution, ideas and retaining people who get it. The entire concept of time and delivery pace is different now.
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