The hottest Substack posts right now

according to Hacker News
Category

Productivity boosters, 2x revenue, saying NO, engineering as marketing, writing 5 books.

Play Permissionless • 259 implied HN points • 07 Feb 23
💼 Business Productivity Self-help Writing Entrepreneurship Revenue growth
  1. Finding a productive work environment with like-minded individuals can significantly boost productivity and focus.
  2. Saying no to certain business opportunities is crucial for maintaining quality and ensuring sustainable growth.
  3. Engaging in deep, long-form writing like book projects can lead to clearer thinking, coherence, and nuanced understanding, even with just a small daily time commitment.

So... what is multi-modal AI? And why is the internet losing their mind about it? [Math Mondays]

Technology Made Simple • 159 implied HN points • 10 Oct 23
🕹 Technology AI Machine Learning Data Models Embeddings
  1. Multi-modal AI integrates multiple types of data in the same training process, allowing models to represent data in a common n-dimensional space.
  2. Multi-modality adds an extra dimension to data, expanding the search space exponentially, enabling more diverse and powerful AI applications.
  3. While multi-modality enhances model performance, it does not solve fundamental issues with AI models like GPT, and simpler technologies may be more effective for certain use-cases.

Bernbach to the future

Thoughts on Writing • 339 implied HN points • 06 Jan 23
💼 Business Branding Marketing Ethics Purpose Advertising
  1. The purpose vibe shift in the industry reflects a changing attitude towards corporate purpose and its impact on growth.
  2. Bill Bernbach's ethical stance on advertising, such as turning away cigaret accounts, highlights the importance of principles over profit.
  3. Purpose in business should be a human imperative, acting as a counterbalance to corporate excesses, rather than a marketing tool for profit.

Links for 2024-02-09

Axis of Ordinary • 78 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Politics Miscellaneous
  1. Neural networks can now control behavior from pixels to actions without teleop or task-specific code.
  2. Transformers can play chess at a Grandmaster level when operating at a sufficient scale.
  3. Google AI has developed methods to improve generalization of models by addressing spurious features and simplicity bias.
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Learning from Under Armor's failed Big Data push [Finance Friday]

Technology Made Simple • 159 implied HN points • 14 Oct 23
💰 Finance Market Analysis Financial Management Investing Business Ethics Tech industry
  1. Data-driven decisions and AI can be valuable, but they must serve a larger purpose to avoid financial ruin.
  2. Investing heavily in technologies like Big Data without a clear strategy can lead to disaster, as seen with Under Armor's failed Big Data push.
  3. Leaders should carefully consider the cost and benefits of implementing AI into their processes, ensuring it aligns with their overall goals and strategy.

Creating Inclusive AI: A Strengths-Based Approach to Accessible Design

UX Psychology • 138 implied HN points • 10 Nov 23
🕹 Technology User Research AI Methodology Frameworks
  1. Designing AI systems using a strengths-based approach can empower users across a wide array of abilities, rather than highlighting deficits.
  2. Key frameworks like Universal Design, Ability-Based Design, and Design for User Empowerment help create more accessible and empowering intelligent systems.
  3. Using qualitative research methods like co-design and long-term engagement can provide deeper insights into diverse user experiences, enhancing the design process.

Brief: Pentagon's new AI chief is former Google Trust & Safety exec who previously helped guide U.S. special operations

All-Source Intelligence Fusion • 569 implied HN points • 14 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Digital AI Social media Artificial Intelligence
  1. Radha Iyengar Plumb, a former Google Trust & Safety exec, will become the Pentagon's new Chief Digital and AI Officer in April, replacing Craig Martell.
  2. Iyengar Plumb has had a diverse career, transitioning from a professor to roles at RAND, the National Security Council, Google, Facebook, and now the Pentagon.
  3. Executives like Iyengar Plumb moving between tech companies like Google and roles in the defense and intelligence community highlights the intersecting realms of technology and national security.

Understand how generative AI tools retain your data without dissecting their terms of service

Deploy Securely • 78 implied HN points • 09 Feb 24
🕹 Technology AI Data security Legal Compliance
  1. New products and services in the AI world frequently emerge, making it challenging to keep track of them all.
  2. Excessive data retention poses security risks as well as legal implications.
  3. It is crucial to stay updated on the data retention policies of service providers to manage security and legal risks effectively.

How to build your GTM strategy from scratch

Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged • 291 implied HN points • 06 Nov 24
💼 Business Strategy Startups Marketing Growth Sales
  1. Building a go-to-market (GTM) strategy involves understanding stages like problem-solution fit, product-market fit, and go-to-market fit. Each stage helps you grow and attract more customers.
  2. Create an Early Customer Profile (ECP) based on real evidence to identify your first customers. This helps you target those who have a strong need for your product and are willing to pay.
  3. Differentiate your product by refining your unique value proposition (UVP) and unique selling proposition (USP). This makes it clear why customers should choose you over the competition.

How American AI Chip Policy Could Lead Us Right into World War III

Future History • 190 implied HN points • 13 Feb 25
🕹 Technology International relations AI Semiconductors Supply Chain Chip Manufacturing
  1. The US heavily relies on Taiwan and South Korea for advanced chips. If China were to invade Taiwan, it could cut off the supply of these crucial components, affecting everything from smartphones to cars.
  2. Building chip manufacturing capacity in the US is not happening fast enough. The current efforts, including the Chips Act, are insufficient compared to what countries like South Korea are investing.
  3. Current tensions and trade policies can push China towards aggressive actions. If chip trade restrictions continue, it might lead to a conflict, putting the whole world at risk.

The stream processing model behind Google Cloud Dataflow

VuTrinh. • 39 implied HN points • 27 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Stream Processing Cloud Computing Data processing Big Data Software Engineering
  1. Google Cloud Dataflow is a service that helps process both streaming and batch data. It aims to ensure correct results quickly and cost-effectively, useful for businesses needing real-time insights.
  2. The Dataflow model separates the logical data processing from the engine that runs it. This allows users to choose how they want to process their data while still using the same fundamental tools.
  3. Windowing and triggers are important features in Dataflow. They help organize and manage how data is processed over time, allowing for better handling of events that come in at different times.

Social Theory for the Mid-21st Century: Part III. How Can the Experiences of Past Societies of Domination Be Relevant for Us?

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 269 implied HN points • 17 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Social theory Technology Ethics History Political Economy
  1. Past societies often operated under systems of domination, where a small elite would take resources from the majority. This made it difficult for anyone to improve their situation without facing threats or violence.
  2. Technological progress today is much faster than in earlier times. This rapid change creates new challenges that previous societies never had to deal with, making lessons from the past less applicable.
  3. Understanding the internal workings of elite groups in past societies can provide some insights today. However, we shouldn't assume we are bound by their limitations because our circumstances are very different.

DoRA is The New LoRA!

Aziz et al. Paper Summaries • 59 implied HN points • 07 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Software Development Programming Data science Machine Learning
  1. LoRA helps fine-tune large language models without changing all their parameters. It uses two small matrices, which keeps the performance quick during use.
  2. LoRA's updates to weights can miss valuable details you'd get from full fine-tuning, because it treats magnitude and direction together.
  3. DoRA improves on LoRA by separating magnitude and direction, leading to better performance on reasoning tasks and other applications. It works best with smaller settings, making it efficient.

Nvidia's Margins May Be Safe

Tapa’s Substack • 59 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Cost Analysis AI Chips Networking Performance
  1. Nvidia's GPUs are so good that even if competitors offered their chips for free, it's still not enough to beat Nvidia's performance. Overall, focusing only on GPU prices misses the bigger picture of total ownership costs.
  2. Networking costs make up a large part of the expenses when using AI chip clusters. Even if you find a cheaper GPU, the added networking costs can make it more expensive overall.
  3. AI chip startups need to consider the entire system's costs, not just the price of the chips themselves. If they don't, they may struggle to compete with Nvidia's established products.

Spotlight: Raphael Roettgen - General Partner @ E2MC

Space Ambition • 59 implied HN points • 15 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Space Tech Venture Capital Investment Entrepreneurship Deep Tech
  1. E2MC is a global venture capital firm focusing on space technology. They invest around $500k in seed and pre-seed stages, and they're open to startups worldwide, except in geopolitically complex areas.
  2. Raphael Roettgen aims to engage more people in the space sector. He wrote a book explaining the space economy, making it easier for entrepreneurs and investors to understand and join the industry.
  3. He emphasizes the importance of diverse talent in space tech. E2MC has a higher percentage of female leaders in its portfolio than the industry average, and he encourages educational efforts to support women in STEM fields.

Weekly Dose of Optimism #148

Not Boring by Packy McCormick • 98 implied HN points • 13 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Health tech AI Innovation Startups
  1. Childhood leukemia treatment has greatly improved, with survival rates jumping from under 10% in the 1960s to about 85% today in many countries. This is fantastic news for families and shows that medical advancements can really save lives.
  2. The World Bank is now willing to fund nuclear energy projects, which could help meet energy demands and reduce emissions. This is a positive step toward developing clean energy sources that are reliable and safe.
  3. Startup companies, especially in the tech and energy sectors, are seeing a lot of investment and growth. This surge in startup activity shows that innovation is alive and well, and it might lead to some exciting new advancements in the future.

One AI-generated human race, part II

Conspirador Norteño • 16 implied HN points • 14 Dec 25
🕹 Technology AI Misinformation Social media Advertising Cybersecurity Content Moderation
  1. A coordinated TikTok spam network of at least 76 accounts posts highly repetitive AI-generated videos of nonexistent people, and many clips show obvious AI glitches.
  2. The network’s content has broadened from friendly messages to recurring themes like romantic couple scenes, dating prompts, and staged emergency workers, all using similar fake people and backgrounds.
  3. Many accounts later pivot to commercial spam—mainly dietary supplements in English and Spanish with Paid Partnership labels—suggesting the AI videos were used to farm engagement before trying to monetize.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 503

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 219 implied HN points • 14 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Data science Cloud Computing Data Engineering Machine Learning
  1. Machine learning is making its way into finance, and researchers are identifying practical uses for it. This can help finance professionals learn new tools and statisticians find interesting financial problems to solve.
  2. AI platforms, like social media, are becoming crucial in our lives but can be confusing and unreliable. People are figuring out how to use these platforms effectively despite their unpredictability.
  3. Large language models are changing how data scientists work. These models can automate many tasks, allowing data scientists to focus on managing and assessing the AI's outputs.

Collaborative Markdown with Lix Change Control

Opral (lix & inlang) • 7 HN points • 07 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Software Development Version Control Automation
  1. Using Lix Change Control for Markdown makes collaborative writing better. It helps everyone work together smoothly and keeps track of changes easily.
  2. With Lix, you can make changes, submit them for review, and see who changed what. This makes it easy to approve or reject edits.
  3. Automation features let you set rules for content quality and manage updates or translations. This saves time and ensures the final product is accurate.

Social Theory for the Mid-21st Century: Part II. From -73000 to 2055: Malthusian Poverty to Modern Economic Growth

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 269 implied HN points • 17 Nov 24
📖 Philosophy Economic Growth Social theory Population Studies Historical Analysis Technological Change
  1. Throughout history, technological growth has drastically changed, particularly in the last 150 years. This period saw growth that's far beyond anything in earlier times.
  2. Today's society is much better off than before, with greater access to resources and technology. Most people have standards of living that are far superior compared to the past.
  3. Understanding our economic growth is complex. It's important to measure not just resources, but also how people work together and use ideas to improve life.

AI applications are more than an LLM

The AI Frontier • 19 implied HN points • 20 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Programming Software AI Data Engineering
  1. AI applications are more than just using a big model; they need careful design and planning to be effective. It's like building a nice piece of furniture versus just putting some wood together.
  2. Quality comes with a cost, and building great AI solutions takes more time and resources. Cheaper options might save money now, but they often lead to poorer results.
  3. Not all AI applications perform the same, even if they use the same tools. Good performance comes from thoughtful engineering and working with the data properly.

Sabotaging the Miracle Machine: The High Cost of Luddite Policies

Future History • 80 implied HN points • 15 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Innovation Health Energy Agriculture Society Policy
  1. Technophobia can slow down progress, leading to missed opportunities in health and technology. This means that fear can directly cost lives and advancements we could have achieved.
  2. When activists oppose new technologies like nuclear energy or stem cell research, they may be unintentionally causing more harm. The costs of inaction include more pollution and fewer medical breakthroughs.
  3. Regulations should encourage innovation rather than stall it. Thoughtful regulation allows for safer technologies while helping society benefit from new advances.

Minds Aren't Programs. Neither Are AIs.

Outlandish Claims • 19 implied HN points • 20 Jun 24
🕹 Technology Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence AI Creativity Programming
  1. Most artificial intelligences were computer programs executed by code, fundamentally different from human minds.
  2. Artificial intelligence 'trainees', like GPT, aren't classified as programs or minds but act as learners mimicking human expertise.
  3. The process of creating AI 'trainees' involves converting inputs/outputs into numbers, forming formulas through trial and error, and testing for accuracy.

Back to Basics: Market Cap and FDV

DeFi Education • 939 implied HN points • 20 Jan 22
🔮 Crypto Blockchain Tokens DeFi Market Analysis Investing
  1. Market Cap shows how much a token is currently valued in the market based on its circulating supply and price. It's important to recognize that this value can change constantly with trades.
  2. Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) estimates what the token's total market cap could be if all tokens were available. Understanding FDV helps you avoid tokens that may be overvalued at first glance.
  3. Investors should be mindful of token unlock schedules and how much supply is available. A low percentage of circulating supply can lead to future price drops if many new tokens flood the market.

Entropy is Easy

Polymathic Being • 83 implied HN points • 13 Jul 25
💼 Business Productivity Work Culture Process Improvement Management
  1. Improvement requires energy; everything naturally degrades without it. Just like a cup of coffee cools down without heat, our goals and processes need ongoing effort to stay effective.
  2. 80% of success comes from behavior and culture, while only 20% is about the visible processes. It's not just about having everything in order; it's about how people think and act daily.
  3. To overcome challenges at work and in life, focus on key habits and apply discipline. By actively managing tasks and accountability, growth becomes easier over time.

GM Shaders: MRT

GM Shaders Mini Tuts • 98 implied HN points • 06 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Graphics Programming Shaders Gaming Rendering
  1. By using gl_FragData[0-3], you can output 4 separate fragment colors to up to 4 surfaces with one draw call
  2. Multiple Render Targets have various applications like deferred rendering, unique object IDs, and depth maps in 2D or 3D contexts
  3. Consider limitations with MRTs, like compatibility with platforms, VRAM usage, and controlling fragment outputs independently

Circle’s valuation is getting nutty

Alex's Personal Blog • 98 implied HN points • 20 Jun 25
💼 Business Technology Cryptocurrency Economics Finance Startup
  1. Circle's stock price is rising sharply, far surpassing its initial IPO price. This shows strong market interest in tech and crypto-related companies.
  2. Tesla plans to start its robotaxi service cautiously with ten cars in a limited area. This careful approach might help ensure safety and a smoother rollout.
  3. Cloudflare is working on a solution to stop AI companies from scraping content from websites without fair compensation. This could change how AI interacts with online content.

Farming Risks, Fees and Crypto Information Sources

DeFi Education • 1298 implied HN points • 11 Jul 21
🔮 Crypto Security Data Analysis Investing DeFi Market Trends
  1. There are major risks in DeFi farming like smart contract failures and rug pulls. It's important to be aware of these risks before investing.
  2. Fees can add up quickly when using DeFi projects, so timing your transactions wisely can help save money.
  3. Finding reliable data about DeFi projects is hard, and many sources might not give accurate information. It's crucial to do your own research before investing.

Zuckerberg cancelling DEI is a grim day for work

Make Work Better • 212 implied HN points • 12 Jan 25
💼 Business Diversity Leadership Corporate culture Tech industry
  1. Zuckerberg's decision to end DEI programs may reduce workplace diversity and understanding, which can negatively affect decision-making and empathy towards customers.
  2. Critics argue that recent attacks on diversity initiatives are misguided and ignore the historical disadvantages some groups face in society.
  3. There is a growing concern that the economic landscape will change, with a shift towards taxing corporations more than individuals due to the rise of AI technology.

Exposing Big Tech’s Complicity in Genocide | The Chris Hedges Report

The Chris Hedges Report • 226 implied HN points • 01 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Censorship Big Tech Digital Rights Corporate ethics Data Privacy
  1. Many big tech companies are accused of censoring information about the situation in Gaza, with some employees losing their jobs for speaking out against this censorship.
  2. Employees from companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Apple report that there are double standards when it comes to moderating content, often suppressing pro-Palestinian voices while allowing anti-Palestinian sentiments to thrive.
  3. Some tech companies are deeply involved in supporting military actions in Israel, providing necessary technology and services that could be used in the ongoing conflict.

what's all this then

eieio games • 119 implied HN points • 04 Dec 23
🕹 Technology Audience Building Creative Writing Internet culture Web Development Gaming
  1. The author, known as 'eieio', enjoys creating unique games and projects on the internet. They like using strange platforms to make fun experiences.
  2. They have a new project called stranger.video that pairs users for short, video-only chats. The call ends quickly, adding a fun twist to the experience.
  3. The author wants to build an audience but finds the process of audience-building uncomfortable. They promise to keep their communication genuine and low-key.

OpenAI Vision

Tribal Knowledge • 19 implied HN points • 20 Jun 24
🕹 Technology OpenAI Programming Image Processing AI
  1. Working with image processing technology can involve complex math but can also lead to practical and interesting projects like a Magic: The Gathering card detector.
  2. Reflecting on past coding projects can show growth in understanding software systems and the evolution of one's skills over time.
  3. Advancements in AI, like OpenAI's Vision API, have made tasks like image processing more accessible to engineers without the need for in-depth domain knowledge, offering a quicker way to experiment and validate ideas.