Happy Birthday, Alan Turing

1. This quote

2. Happy Birthday, Alan Turing

Happy Birthday to Alan Turing, the brilliant mind whose work and ideas continue to shape the world today. When he wrote in his seminal 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” he introduced what is now known as the Turing Test and predicted the age of artificial intelligence that we now find ourselves in. His life and work were tragically cut short at the age of 41. Forty-one.

This resonates deeply on multiple levels as we rush headlong into innovations and inventions aided by AI and also as we celebrate Pride Month. Here's to honoring Turing's legacy, remembering his life and perseverance, and continuing to push the boundaries of innovation and acceptance.

3. Craig Newmark on Twitter

I don't know why I love this tweet so much: Is it the fact that Craig responds so guilelessly? The fact that his “self-identity” differs so drastically from the media attempt to put him in a bucket? The fact that he did not blow a gasket but rather started his reply with a compliment? Or the fact that few people noticed this exchange - a testament to how lowkey and down to earth he remains?

It's a reminder that authenticity and humility often go unnoticed but are nonetheless powerful.

4. Fall in love with the problem

Overhead on Ben Thompson’s Stratechery podcast when he interviewed Alex Wang

5. A cure for hiccups

Dr. Luc Morris, a surgeon at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, proposed back in 2004 a potential technique for stopping hiccups that he named “supra-supramaximal inspiration,” abbreviated as SSMI.

1. Exhale completely

2. Inhale deeply and hold for 10 seconds

3. Without exhaling, inhale a little more

4. Hold your breath for another five seconds

5. Inhale a tiny bit more air

6. Finally, exhale completely

It’s frustrating that SSMI is not more widely known 20 years later, partly because it is so simple there is no treatment nor product to be marketed and sold. Ironically the Atlantic article that brought SSMI and its history to light is behind a paywall.

I cannot wait to have hiccups so I could give SSMI a go.

6. Workout myths that drive me crazy no more

1. You should stretch before you work out

   Turns out stretching a muscle for more than 90 seconds temporarily reduces its strength. Either don’t hold the stretch too long or save it for a different time.

2. You need to ice your body after working out

   “Not all inflammation is bad inflammation.” Who knew? “When you work out, you create useful inflammation by strategically stressing your muscles, and as the body heals, it builds strength.” Unless you are tending to an injury, instead of icing immediately, let your muscles repair naturally or use a sauna, which research shows may be safer and more effective for recovery.

3. You need to lift heavy weights to build muscle

   Lifting relatively light weights for more repetitions can be just as effective. The key is consistency.

4. You need 10,000 steps a day to be healthy

   The “10000 steps” goal is more marketing than science. The health benefits of walking peaks at around 7,500 steps per day. That being said, staying active is always better than a sedentary lifestyle, so every step counts.

Source: New York Times

7. Canva’s color palette generator

Just google “canva color palette”.

8. Siteinspire

Siteinspire is “a showcase of the finest web design”, curated by Howells Studio in the UK. The site has become one of the popular arbiters of good design, demonstrating the power, and perhaps even the necessity, of curation.

In today's world, where we're constantly bombarded with information from all directions, the role of curation has never been more crucial. With so much content available at our fingertips, tastemakers, or curators, will increasingly play a vital role in how we consume information and understand the world around us. Rightfully or wrongly. As we rush to explore various use cases using AI, replicating the nuances of personal taste and aesthetic judgment may just be one of the few things that will elude AI - after all, there’s no accounting for taste; there’s no algorithm for taste.

9. This rant against AI hype is the catharsis we did not know we needed

I Will Fucking Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again

10. This attempt to catch AI doing bad math

Scrolling through the comments looking for the correct answer (because I also got it wrong), I realized that the discussions in the thread nicely demonstrate the importance of how prompts are constructed. Quite often, you are not asking the right question, literally. You are not asking the question right.