Multi-source Learning
Learning the Principles of Ray Dalio
Free your newsletters from the inbox: Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The app has features designed to supercharge your learnings from your favourite writers. Become a more productive reader and cut out the noise with Meco - try the app today
Friends,
The infiltration of AI in our lives has been cited as a need to know less, because we have ChatGPT on tap. I refuse to accept that. I think it means we need to learn more, but we need to learn differently - and lean into what works for us. The week before last I attended an edtech trade exhibition, where industry meets. The discussion is usually the same - how can we can incrementally build more learning, do more learning, and help the learner. That’s great and helps push education on - but I started to hear more from startups trying to solve learning from a plethora of media. And I want to loosely call it “multi-source learning”.
When I finished my undergraduate, I thought that was the end of formal education. But education, as I found out was just beginning. There were training courses, required certifications and the e-learning compliance modules that made me feel a bit queasy. I went back to university, but as education accessibility changed, so did the modality. How I learn now - and how we all learn now is different.
I’ve been (for some time) interested in the wisdom of Ray Dalio recently, so let me use that as an example, especially Principles for Dealing with The Changing World Order - a book I recommend we all read.
To school myself up, I would
Buy the Book or Ebook - it's a tome, so I might choose to dip in and out
I’d spend an hour watching his video on Youtube. I’d also binge on some of the lessons he has on his channel
I’d watch an interview with him Thomas Friedman and some recent ones including one from the All-in-summit
I may also listen to the book on Spotify (included with Premium) or Audible as part of my daily walk (or drive)
I’d listen to him on a Podcast with Lex Friedman, Chris Williamson, Tom Bilyeu
I’d get a summary including critique’s thoughts from ChatGPT (other LLMs are available) - and perhaps there would be a GPT to query (in the future)
I’d maybe watch his TED talks
Sign up to his App on iOS or Android where you can get do some assessments
..sign up to his newsletter
and follow him on LinkedIn or other socials
Check and read summaries on Blinkist, Shortform or Headway
Find out his view (application) on topical subjects like AI
You get the point.
If there was an online course by Mr Dalio, I might pay for it.
Where once we would learn from a textbook and teacher, our world has become multi-modal. This is not a traditional curriculum-driven route, but by a level of immersion and relatively low cost, you can really get into a subject.
Solo learning can be tough but through dedication to a cause, you get different sources, different ways - and different journeys to the end goal. You might blend a few of them and be richer for it. But you might miss the group project or the live tutor. But, in some subjects, even those are available.
This week the Apple Vision Pro launched. It’s way too expensive at $3500, but at the conference I tried the Meta Quest 3 which is the cheaper more accessible product from Meta ($500+) With Mixed Reality (and VR) - this opens up even more avenues for learning. I had a pretend chemistry lesson in my demo, which was pretty cool.
The opportunity for learning is huge - if you want to take it. I think the issue we have in learning is not what we can learn but which source is the the best most relevant resource(s) for us as individuals.
I’ll leave you with this. It’s the best explainer on Generative AI that I have watched. Education like this didn’t exist 20 years ago. Things may be more complicated, but access to free resources like this, man, that’s just phenomenal. Please watch it.
Stay Curious - and don’t forget to be amazing,
Here are my recommendations for this week:
Now
‘My life will be short. So on the days I can, I really live’: 30 dying people explain what really matters: Facing death, these people found a clarity about how to live. Sometime we need a jolt to remind ourselves what really matter. These are stark reminders that our lives are predefined by a beginning and an end. We can make a difference in many ways - however you choose. Somewhat related: How to give a eulogy, and other difficult speeches, according to a Stanford business school lecturer & 6 Questions to Ask at the Midpoint of Your Career
A Practical Guide to Quitting Your Smartphone: While we might think this is the way to destress, improve our mental health - it’s increasingly difficult to navigate daily life - the need to use QR codes for entry, codes for transport. Our phones are there for communication, commerce, entertainment - as well as everything practical from banking to transport. The best recommendation to stave off addiction is going greyscale. Have We Reached the End of TikTok’s Infinite Scroll?
The AI Age Begins: The beginning of a step change in human capabilities: Peter Leyden gives a view that I very much believe in…..that we are living through history. We have witnessed what will be widely understood as a world-historical event with the arrival of Generative AI in 2023. The breakthrough of GenAI allows the opening up of artificial intelligence to everyone and so marks the true beginning of The AI Age. Humans are now going to move through a step change in our collective capabilities as we start to apply machine intelligence to all that we do. The arrival of this super-tool, this new general-purpose technology, will drive a lot of changes through the 2020s, fundamentally rework how our economy and society operates over the next 25 years, and ultimately will make for civilizational scale change. This development we just witnessed is a very, very big deal. Few of us are thinking big enough about what lies ahead. Few of us are moving fast enough to deal with the many implications.
Fasting for 36 hours: the experts’ view on Rishi Sunak’s weekly habit: PM consumes only water, tea or black coffee from 5pm on a Sunday to 5am on a Tuesday, which can have benefits for ageing and DNA repair. I have been intermittent fasting for 2 years now and feel a million times better for it. Morning clarity - and I don’t think I will go back to having a traditional breakfast any time soon! But what Sunak is doing is an intense cellular recycling process called autophagy. This kicks off in intermittent fasting - but on this level of fasting - his body is no doubt rejuvenating a ton. Whether he should be doing that every week for that long though is debatable according to the experts. Health related: The heart rate secret: what it reveals about our health – from sleep and alcohol to fight or flight and REM Sleep Is Magical. Here’s What the Experts Know.
How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent: Story of my life. This is a great article about buckling down. We all have talent. We all have opportunity. Unfortunately, no one will share this article to others for fear of offending them. I share this with you because it’s an amazing read on ambition and sweating the hard stuff.
Next
Generative AI Top 150: The World's Most Used AI Tools: I love these lists, moreso to see newer startups but also to see which ones people are using. Things are moving so fast, that it’s worth reading. This list shows a snapshot of where we are now from a survey at the end of January. Worth a skim at minimum, a deeper dive if you have time.
Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it’s not: The Apple Vision Pro is the best consumer headset anyone’s ever made — and that’s the problem. There’s a lot of pressure on the new Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s long-awaited entry into the world of computers you wear on your face. Apple claims that the Vision Pro, which starts at $3,499, is the beginning of something called “spatial computing,” which basically boils down to running apps all around you. And the company’s ads for it do not hedge that pressure even a little: they show people wearing the Vision Pro all the time. At work! Doing laundry! Playing with their kids! The ambition is enormous: to layer apps and information over the real world — to augment reality. Also: Let’s Face it and Why Tim Cook Is Going All In on the Apple Vision Pro and The Apple Vision Pro Is a Marvel. But Who Will Buy It?
Elon Musk’s Neuralink implants brain tech in human patient for the first time: Elon Musk’s neurotech startup Neuralink implanted its device in a human for the first time last week, and the patient is “recovering well,” apparently. Neuralink began recruiting patients for its first-in-human clinical trial last year after it received approval from the FDA to conduct the study back in May. The in-human clinical trial marks just one step in Neuralink’s path toward commercialization. Scary times. I sometimes feel that with all the noise on AI and Elon, Neurolink is flying under the radar. First product from Neuralink will be called Telepathy. Obviously. Related: Scientists Think They're on The Verge of Breaching The Blood-Brain Barrier Also: A new AI model called Morpheus-1 claims to induce lucid dreaming and Cyborg computer combining AI and human brain cells really works
Artificial Intelligence, Real Anxiety: How should educators use AI to prepare students for the future? There are signs that high school and college students around the world are anxious about AI and this uncertain future. While educators fret about plagiarism, cheating, and how to use AI to improve instruction, students are wrestling with more fundamental questions about what they are learning and why. They are looking at the fast-changing world and wondering if their coursework is properly preparing them for the workplaces of tomorrow. Colleges Are Lying to Their Students - They aren’t teaching them “how to think.” and How hard is it to cheat in technical interviews with ChatGPT? We ran an experiment. and ChatGPT is coming to Australian schools. Here’s what you need to know
The Rise of Techno-Authoritarianism: Silicon Valley has its own ascendant political ideology. It’s past time we call it what it is: The behaviour of these companies and the people who run them is often hypocritical, greedy, and status-obsessed. But underlying these venalities is something more dangerous, a clear and coherent ideology that is seldom called out for what it is: authoritarian technocracy. As the most powerful companies in Silicon Valley have matured, this ideology has only grown stronger, more self-righteous, more delusional, and—in the face of rising criticism—more aggrieved. Loosely related: From Unicorns to Zombies: Tech Start-Ups Run Out of Time and Money
From Vox:
Free your newsletters from the inbox: Meco is a distraction-free space for reading newsletters outside the inbox. The app has features designed to supercharge your learnings from your favourite writers. Become a more productive reader and cut out the noise with Meco - try the app today
If you enjoyed this edition of Box of Amazing, please share and help me grow this group. If you share it on LinkedIn, please tag me so that I can thank you.
If you are interested in advertising on this newsletter, please see this link