Posts

On Power and Progress

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As the wise philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel opined, "the only lesson from history is that we do not learn from history." I said I was going to stop listening to AI CEOs cos they're just marketers sprouting whatever so their investors will keep pumping money. So I'd rather focus on what educated economists are saying about all of these brouhaha So I got recommended this book, Power and Progress by two brilliant economists. So I figured to learn their theories about AI I haven't even gotten to the chapter on Artificial Intelligence but I just keep seeing parallels from the different waves of tech advancement From the Steam Engine to the Loom, to Mining, to Agriculture, To even Establishment of Trade Routes in both Suez Canal and Panama. Funny enough, we did all of these in my history undergrad but when you don't have real experience to tie to, so you don't really know what to analyze or draw parallels unfolding events. Cos basically none of the cla...

On Erotomania

One minute you have millions of subscribers on YouTube. Getting signed to a record label. Actually releasing your own songs now, building a solid fanbase. Even getting compared to Ariana Grande. Performing on stage and singing your hearts out. Next minute you're dead.  Just see the light in her eyes and her stage presence. Little did she know that this would be her last performance in life. Guess what killed her?  You would be correct if you mentioned a man. This was the last performance by Christina Grimmie.  Her growth sprouted from the phase of YouTube of everyone and their grandmas were making covers. But the difference is that Christina can actually sing. Go watch her cover of Titanium and Rihanna's Only Girl in the World. So after this performance she was doing meet and greet with fans. Then she opened her arms to hug a fan who approached her and this dude shot her point blank in her chest and forehead. Why you ask?  This dude was deluded that she was meant to ...

On Karma

There's this train of thought people like to have about if someone refuses to help them (usually financially), that the person might need their (the borrower's) help in the future. They think: "if you need my help in the future, I'm not going to help you." Maka na nụ anyị nọ secondary or university? Heck even in school then, people like to be like, if you don't tell answer in the hall, you'd need the help. Well I wasn't going to need any dullard's help in the hall before, no? There's nothing to glean from them. For the money, Nollywood has brainwashed a shit load of people... Falling from grace to grass. lol Actually in the real world, the more ventures you have undertaken and have failed, the more connections you get because people see you as "having skin in the game." And certainly, the previous borrower can get more successful, no disputing that. But so is the other person that'd already had their money. They will more li...

On Power to Persuade

Chapter three of the work I’ve been reading is mostly on precision and technology. It surmises how, for instance, someone like Ferdinand de Lesseps was able to persuade governors to start with the Suez Canal and then eventually Panama. I don’t think I concentrated much on the topic, but I want to tie it back to the documentary I just finished by Untold. I’ve written about it yesterday but this is maybe a fond, forward piece on it. But I also wanted to highlight the manager, Bob Whitsitt (I can’t pronounce it). He got that role because, for some reason, he knew Paul Allen. What he brought up was that he was managing not just this, but the women’s NBA, the other subsidiaries Allen owned which spanned from the Seahawks, and I think about five businesses overall that he was managing. And the question you would ask is: why is he doing all five of them for him? Why didn’t Paul hire more people, or at least delegate some of these. Maybe have him delegate these to other people? And I thin...

On Untold - Jail Blazers

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So I just finished this documentary by Untold. I think I love Untold because they cover various industries and across various sports so it helps me get used to different spheres.  Yesterday I watched the one about chess, but today I decided, “Okay, let me try the basketball one again.” This time it was about the Trail Blazers, and coincidentally this same team was owned by Paul Allen.  Paul Allen is Bill Gates’ co-founder for Microsoft. He even coined the name from Microcomputers and Software. When I was reading about monopoly and financial markets and about Dr. Ola Brown's lecture on traditional and pure software companies valuations, I did further reading on Microsoft and I discovered that Bill Gates, in his very selfish behavior, wanted to oust his friend Paul Allen when Paul Allen was suffering from Hodgkin’s illness.  But that’s a bit of a digression; coming back to this post…  We have the scenario of, you know, the man Bob Whitsitt hiring all of these Black fol...

On Control of Technology

I started reading this book yesterday that was recommended by Professor Gruber. The book was about technology and how the world has changed over time because of it. So I think the first comment I had was: you know, the whole “productivity” discourse.  Ever since this whole AI thing came out, I don’t know why tech billionaires are so obsessed with it. “AI is going to take your job; you’re not going to need to hire everyone.” And it’s going to make employees 10 times more productive; you’re going to get “100x engineers,” one person can do 100 jobs and deliver faster.  And then it brings me back to “policy congestion,” which is a term that I learned from a systems-thinking lecture. What “policy congestion” means is: when people go on and on about a new tool, at the end of the day it’s because of the newness, and it still creates congestion. For example, let’s say there’s traffic, and a new road is built to reduce congestion on some other roads.  Now, because the new road...

On Interest in football and Ronaldinho

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When I was younger, I used to watch football with my brother and sisters. But my interest increasingly waned as I got older. My brother used to ask me why I am no more interested in watching games and for the longest time, I didn't know the right answer.  Until I started seeing some Ronaldinho's clips recently. I now know precisely why my interest waned. There was an art to football back then. It was all about how great you can dribble your opponent, play with the ball and Dinho was a god in that domain. He made football a beautiful beautiful game to watch so much so that even if the match ends with 0-0, it was just a great experience to have sat through. Now it's all about the stats. How many goals scored. Who won X and Y. Ronaldo vs Messi comparison. Plus the ever changing constraints they keep adding to the game. Love this video compilation attached. I remember practicing that right, left right again dribbling in the 30% mark. Not sure I'd get back to being a fan but...