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19 September
18 September
17 September
16 September
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korrents.com
Nervous credit-market sentiment around the AI datacenter buildout could suddenly reverse and collapse the boom.Their words
And when market opinion is nervous, it might turn and collapse the boom at any moment.
15 September
From one piece The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formation 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
it was a chance to stand up to the oligarchs and this technology they've staked their future on.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formationbillmckibben.substack.com
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Their words
one way to understand a data center is that it's a device for burning natural gas, the latest excuse (after Ukraine and Iran) for the fuel that Big Oil is counting on to keep its business model afloat even as the world turns away from internal combustion cars and crude demand begins to drop.
The Two Horsemen, Riding in Formationbillmckibben.substack.com
14 September
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Their words
AI data centers resulting in lower electricity prices for consumers
10 September
9 September
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Their words
data centers are nowhere near the biggest climate problem with artificial intelligence.
7 September
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Their words
So I would not "declare AGI" until we have AI that is, at last, capable of invention -- conceptual breakthroughs, novel insights, new real-world technology, etc.
6 September
4 September
3 September
2 September
1 September
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korrents.com
Stoke's reusable launch vehicles will be shipping Starcloud's data centers into orbit within a few yearsTheir words
In a few years, Stoke's reusable launch vehicles are going to be shipping Starcloud's data centers into orbit.
31 August
30 August
28 August
26 August
25 August
From one piece I think the data center backlash is mostly about data centers 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
I have a long separate post here looking at the evidence we have, and I come away thinking the data center backlash is basically entirely homegrown.
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korrents.com
The data-centre backlash is about the buildings themselves, not about what people think of AI.Their words
All this combined with the survey data on Americans’ stated reasons for opposing data centers makes me think that attitudes toward AI are probably a meaningful factor for a minority of people opposed to data centers, but I don’t think the backlash overall is driven by people’s thoughts on AI.
22 August
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Their words
Preventing companies from building data centers in America wouldn't slow down the rate of progress in AI. It would merely slow down the rate of progress in AI in America.
21 August
From one piece A year in, the data center/AI battle starts to clarify 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
The buildout of AI data centers is part of a broader extension of oligarchic control over people's lives.Their words
It's clear by now that this is all part of the extension of oligarchic control over our lives.
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korrents.com
AI and the data-center buildout underlying it pose real and significant dangers to society.Their words
Its's clear by now that AI, and the data center development underlying it, pose real and significant dangers.
19 August
18 August
14 August
13 August
12 August
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Their words
they found that Big Oil's use of AI to produce more oil and gas could create 3.3 to 13.3 times more climate pollution than powering AI's data centers.
11 August
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Their words
The fastest-growing political movement in America is dead-set on stopping the construction of data centers, which are critical to the growth of the fastest-growing industry in America.
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Likedrcmnd.app
The Design of DesignTheir words
The Design of Design by Frederick P. Brooks. It never received the attention that The Mythical Man-Month got, yet The Design of Design shares many of its qualities. It's a book that grows, and there's a wealth of insights on offer.
10 August
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korrents.com
Data centre opposition only pushes construction to the parts of America that regulate energy and pollution least.Their words
It seems pretty clear that the only thing data center opposition is doing is pushing data center construction to the (many) places in America that won't regulate energy or pollution. Weird thing to pat oneself on the back for.
9 August
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korrents.com
Opposition to data center buildouts is fundamentally driven by public anger about money in politics.Their words
His Lansing rally with Bernie and AOC, more than anything else, crystallized the connection between data center opposition and voters' anger about money in politics.
8 August
5 August
4 August
3 August
31 July
29 July
27 July
24 July
20 July
11 July
7 July
30 June
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Their words
One is it seems like there's a really strong correlation between the people who come up with genuinely novel insights and also who are actually quite clear in their communication of it.
24 June
12 June
10 June
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Their words
I know through my experiences that even the most advanced artificial intelligences don’t have adequate enough insights to allow one to blindly follow them and that unique human understanding and insights are still invaluable, and that that is especially true in investing where value-added is a zero-sum game (so that, when it comes to adding value, what is widely known is of little value.)
Principled Thinking and AI Need to Go Togetherraydalio.substack.com
26 May
23 May
13 May
From one piece Why Anthropic’s ultra-dirty deal shouldn’t surprise you at all 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
there is nothing fundamentally inherent to the concept of a building full of computers that causes choking air pollution, water impacts and climate change.
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Their words
The fundamental drivers of this change are panic and impatience, and that is what is behind the worst impacts of data centre growth, including a material risk to decarbonisation and climate action.
5 May
2 May
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Their words
This post is about whether data centers waste the land they’re on relative to what they compete with, and my claim is that they mostly don’t compete with things we need more of (housing) and mostly compete with things we need less of (farmland).
1 May
From one piece The exact wrong lesson to learn from data centre infrasound fears 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
AI data centres cannot be meaningfully reformed without a fundamental change of course and ideology in the industry.Their words
Reformation is impossible for AI data centres, at least, not without a massive change of course and an ideological reckoning.
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korrents.com
Data centres are being built in such number, size and speed that the industry cannot realistically be reformed.Their words
There are simply too many data centres being built, and they're too big, being built too fast.
30 April
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korrents.com
Data centres will become the majority driver of electricity demand growth in Australia's National Electricity Market.Their words
Even if a small fraction of this pipeline ends up operational, data centres will drive far more than 50% of demand growth in the NEM.
26 April
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korrents.com
Listening to customers is invaluable, but you should not build the thing they asked you for.Their words
All of those insights that we you know, received just from listening to folks made a huge difference in the product design process, but we didn't build exactly what they asked for. We we empathized and then you know, came up with something new.
23 March
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Their words
Now, the second thing is we have to build data centers that gracefully degrade.
13 March
From one piece Dylan Patel — The single biggest bottleneck to scaling AI compute 5 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
um humanoid robots maybe start to or robotics at least start to but the main factor is going to be for reducing the number of people is modularizing things and making them in factories in Asia
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Their words
Yeah, I think the biggest bottleneck is compute and for that the longest lead time supply chains are not power or data centers. They're actually the semiconductor supply chain themselves, right? It switches back from being power and data center uh as a major bottleneck to chips.
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Their words
oh 50 gigawatts of economic you know sort of capex in in the data center and what gets built on top of that in terms of tokens is even larger right it might be hundred billion dollars worth of AI value into the supply chain is held up by this $1.2 two billion dollars worth of tooling that simply just cannot expand its supply chain quickly.
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korrents.com
Getting a data centre permitted in the empty middle of America is far easier than putting one in orbit.Their words
And so I think people are figuring out how to build these things and permitting like I I just like ultimately like permitting and red tape in middle of nowhere Texas or middle of nowhere Wyoming or middle of nowhere like New Mexico is probably a hell of a lot easier than sending stuff into space
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Their words
So, space data centers effectively are not li limited by, you know, hey, we have this energy advantage. It's actually just limited by the same contended resource. We can only make 200 gawatts of chips a year by the end of the decade.
25 February
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Likedrcmnd.app
You’re Not ListeningTheir words
Being a great listener when people speak. Deep insights about understanding, connection, helping people express themselves, overcoming assumptions, the ethics of gossip, and more. Specific techniques for the support response, encouraging elaboration, and keeping it balanced. You can’t be ethical without being a good listener. When people say, “I can’t talk right now,” what they really mean is “…
22 February
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korrents.com
Third-party frontier AI auditing is urgently needed and would help prevent extreme concentration of power.Their words
I think frontier AI auditing (covering both safety and security) is both urgently needed and doable, and can help avoid extreme concentration of power, since it introduces external oversight into the decision-making of people with a "country of geniuses in a datacenter" at their disposal.
We're in Triage Mode for AI Policymilesbrundage.substack.com
13 February
From one piece Dario Amodei — “We are near the end of the exponential” 4 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
on the basic hypothesis of you know, as you put it, within 10 years we'll get to, you know, you know, what I call kind of country of geniuses in a data center. I'm at like 90% on that. Um and it's hard to go much higher than 90% cuz the world is so unpredictable.
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Their words
I actually think profitability happens when you underestimated the amount of demand you were going to get and loss happens when you overestimated the amount of demand you were going to get because you're buying the data centers ahead of time.
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Their words
but it's not an infinitely compelling product, and I don't think even AGI or powerful AI or country of geniuses in a data center will be an infinitely compelling product. It will be a compelling product enough maybe to get three or five or 10x a year growth even when you're in the hundreds of billions of dollars, which is extremely hard to do and has never been done in history before, but not infinitely fast.
+ 1 more
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Their words
on the basic hypothesis of you know, as you put it, within 10 years we'll get to, you know, you know, what I call kind of country of geniuses in a data center. I'm at like 90% on that. Um and it's hard to go much higher than 90% cuz the world is so unpredictable.
12 February
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Their words
But then you actually sit down and do the maths, and then for most people if you just skip one burger per month, that compensates the, the CO2 output, or, like, the water use in equivalent of tokens.
10 February
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Their words
The economics of orbital “datacenters” or essentially glorified Starlink satellites with a bunch of GPUs attached are likely to be even better than Starlink.
Space AI: I guess we’re doing Moon factories nowcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com
6 February
From one piece Why I joined OpenAI 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
I've realized that performance engineering as we know it may not be enough - I'm thinking of new engineering methods so that we can find bigger optimizations than we have before, and find them faster.
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korrents.com
eBPF, Ftrace, and hardware performance counters are proven tools for finding datacenter performance wins.Their words
given those technologies are proven for finding datacenter performance wins, it seems likely
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korrents.com
AI datacenter growth makes performance engineering critical for saving the planet, not just cutting costs.Their words
The staggering and fast-growing cost of AI datacenters is a call for performance engineering like no other in history; it's not just about saving costs - it's about saving the planet.
25 January
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korrents.com
A/B testing cannot touch anything that actually decides a company: not strategy, not vision, not insight.Their words
AB testing doesn't work very well and it doesn't work on most things. It won't work on strategy or vision or insights like nothing actually important to the success of the company. You don't AB test whether Uber is a good idea.
10 January
7 January
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Lovedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
Product LeadershipTheir words
: “Your guide to navigating product leadership, the one I never had. Within these pages you’ll hear a diversity of opinions from the industry’s most successful and respected product leaders, insights that will help you lead your team and deliver exceptional products.”
28 December 2025
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Lovedrcmnd.app
BreakneckTheir words
Breakneck by Dan Wang takes you on a fascinating journey through China's engineering state, juxtaposing it against America's lawyerly society in an effort to reveal what each country should learn from the other. I've been a keen reader of Dan's personal blog for many years and am delighted to report that this book, his first, features everything I love most about his writing: his unbounded curiosity, thoughtful analysis, compelling storytelling, self-awareness, offbeat sense of humor, and insights born of lived experience.
8 December 2025
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Their words
On the flip side, these captive solar power plants will be curtailing approximately 75% of their generated power and will be able to provide net power on all but a few days per year.
11 October 2025
From one piece The AI water issue is fake 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
A data centre earns its county far more tax revenue per gallon of water than a golf course does.Their words
Data centers are so much more efficient with their water that they generate 50x as much tax revenue per unit of water used than golf courses in the county:
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Their words
It’s very common that I’m told that data centers poison the water around them.
30 September 2025
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korrents.com
Telegram has never shared a single private message with anyone, governments and intelligence services included.Their words
No, never. Telegram has never shared a single private message with anyone, including governments and intelligence services. If you try to access any server in any of the data center locations, it's all encrypted.
28 September 2025
11 September 2025
3 September 2025
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Waste BooksTheir words
Tweets from 1765-1799 by a 4’9” hunchback physicist, friends with Goethe and Kant, admired by Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, etc. Such wonderful random thoughts, beautiful perspectives on thinking for yourself, observing nature, language, freedom, philosophy, religion, and more. Hundreds of initial insights, especially inspiring because they’re undeveloped.
30 August 2025
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korrents.com
American data centres consume about 66 million gallons of water a day, a small fraction of what they withdraw.Their words, before
Taking this into account, actual water consumed by data centers is around 66 million gallons per day.
Their words now
So to wrap up, I misread the Berkeley Report and significantly underestimated US data center water consumption.
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Their words
However, the methods used to produce these estimates are debatable, and seem to have been chosen to give the maximum possible value for data center water consumption.
I Was Wrong About Data Center Water Consumptionconstruction-physics.com
27 August 2025
15 August 2025
From one piece China is killing the US on energy. Does that mean they’ll win AGI? — Casey Handmer 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
We're not going to run out of natural gas at 1 gawatt per year indefinitely. Okay, what if we're doing 5 gawatts per year? What if we're doing 50 gawatts per year? What if we're doing 100 gawatt per year? Like, you can you can just break the situation.
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Their words
actually it turns out that you can significantly decrease power consumption with a very small reduction in overall compute. So if you if you've got like three really bad days in a row or something, you can actually just like you can dial back your power usage quite a lot without compromising your inference or or um or training.
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Their words
But then all you need to connect that to the outside world is like an optical fiber, right? An optical fiber cable which you can string up on poles, you can run underground, you could even use microwave links if you really wanted to.
2 August 2025
23 June 2025
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korrents.com
Current AI models cannot produce insights beyond human understanding, however impressive they seemTheir words
You should remember that the best AIs can perform at the level of a very smart person on some tasks, but current models cannot provide miraculous insights beyond human understanding.
12 May 2025
6 May 2025
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Their words
Unless you’re an extreme power user, asking AI questions every day is still a rounding error on your total electricity footprint.
What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?hannahritchie.substack.com
30 April 2025
16 April 2025
18 March 2025
13 January 2025
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korrents.com
If the AI build-out does become a bubble, power and data centres are the assets that will carry it.Their words
In today’s world, I think the increase in self-fulfilling asset prices will be due to power and data centers.
31 December 2024
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Their words
There’s still plenty to worry about with respect to the environmental impact of the great AI datacenter buildout, but a lot of the concerns over the energy cost of individual prompts are no longer credible.
16 December 2024
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Mixed onrcmnd.app
First, Break all the RulesTheir words
Gallup interviewed thousands of high-performing teams and managers and found a dozen of things each of these teams had in common. While the insights are good, the content itself was quite dry for my taste.
10 June 2024
From one piece How to Build an AI Data Center 4 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
But many of these gains have already been achieved: the best data centers already use just 10% of their electricity for cooling and other non-IT equipment.
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korrents.com
Available power, not land or capital, is what now limits how many data centres get built.Their words
In particular, operating a data center requires large amounts of electricity, and available power is fast becoming the binding constraint on data center construction.
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Their words
But there's also reason to believe that data center power consumption will nevertheless rise substantially.
+ 1 more
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Their words
Utility companies see major electrical infrastructure as a long-term investment to be built in response to sustained demand growth.
18 April 2024
From one piece How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordable 5 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
The cooling systems in most data centers are energy hogs and contribute no direct value.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
Efforts to improve efficiency and remove vestigial features pay off handsomely.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
Deleting the UPSs could knock off ~$750/kW after considering equipment, installation, and square footage reduction.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
+ 2 more
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Their words
The 100-megawatt facility might have ten 10-megawatt blocks served directly by a 1500V DC feeder line without connections to other blocks that would require extra switches and routing.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
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Their words
Some efforts, like nuclear-powered data centers, are reminiscent of Toyota's hydrogen push.
How to Make Off Grid Data Centers Affordableaustinvernon.site
17 April 2024
5 April 2024
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Likedrcmnd.app
Between Us: How Cultures Create EmotionsTheir words
Cultural psychology, studying emotions through the lens of culture. Your emotions are created by your culture. You should not be too sure that you share the emotional experiences of individuals from other cultures. Culture and emotion make each other up. Great insights!
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Recommendstheir ownrcmnd.app
Total AnnarchyTheir words
Join 61,199 others who get insights and inspiration on marketing, writing, and life (plus high-spirited shenanigans).
4 April 2024
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Their words
The copper backplane in the data center rack is effectively the new advanced packaging in the system-level Moore’s Law race.
10 March 2024
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Likedrcmnd.app
China’s World ViewTheir words
Senior academic advisor to the Chinese Communist Party feels most political tensions come from a misunderstanding of China’s world view, hence the subtitle “demystifying to prevent global conflict”, and his intrinsic desire to explain. I love its insights and historical context, especially around “Respect-centered diplomacy” and how the CCP is structured.
9 March 2024
3 February 2024
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Likedrcmnd.app
ArabsTheir words
3000 years of factual Arab history, and personal insights from this Oxford Brit who lived in Yemen for 37 years, translates classical Arabic, and clearly cares a lot. Huge and thorough but really wonderful for those with the interest. I loved his writing style and poetic asides. Read my notes here for a taste. What a great book.
24 December 2023
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Lovedrcmnd.app
A Personal OdysseyTheir words
A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell My review here . Insights into the mindset required to climb out of poverty and remake one’s fortunes. A countervailing perspective from the above Orwell work.
7 December 2022
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Their words
It terrifies me, because these data repositories are not only a risk to individual user privacy, they’re effectively a surveillance super-weapon.
Why encrypted backup is so importantblog.cryptographyengineering.com
8 September 2022
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Recommendstheir ownrcmnd.app
Secrets of AdulthoodTheir words
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and Better Than Before distills her key insights into simple truths for living with greater satisfaction, clarity, and happiness.
9 August 2022
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korrents.com
Organizations sincerely believe they want insights and still suppress them, because insights are disorganizing.Their words
What blocks insight is that organizations say they want insights and they want innovation and they really don't. But they're they're being serious. They think they want insights. But insights are disorganizing.
28 October 2020
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Likedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
Lean Startup MarketingTheir words
One of the hardest things about starting a business is getting your early customers. After that, you have to find a way to *scalably* acquire those customers at a cost you can afford (i.e.- profitably). Fortunately, there are thought leaders like Sean Ellis. This is collection of Sean's greatest wisdom on his startup marketing blog, updated with even deeper insights. A must read if you're just starting out on a new internet venture.
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Likedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
Work Rules!: Insights from Inside GoogleTheir words
If you're curious how Google built it's culture and the processes thanks to their extremely data & engineering driven nature, this is a great book. What held it back was being ~100 pages too long and Bock didn't always understand where what they did only fit at a $100Bn+, mega-profitable company. Still, the insights on the studies on their 50,000+ employees is well worth the read since so few of us can get similar statistical significance to apply to our teams.
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Likedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
IconoclastsTheir words
I read this because I was curious what sets the greatest entrepreneurs apart from everyone else? Where do they get their inspiration and how did they do it? While this book isn't completely satisfying, it does provide a number of interesting insights into the likes of Steve Jobs and other such icons.
+ 2 more
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Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
Tested Advertising MethodsTheir words
If you want to learn the art and science of copywriting, then this is the book for you. An expert copywriter for decades, Caples breaks down in detail what makes a great ad versus a failing one. It's loaded with examples and the kind of insights only a veteran can provide. You do need to provide a little imagination as he focuses on mail in based advertising in magazines, which isn't common today. But really, how different is that from downloading free whitepapers today?
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Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design ProcessTheir words
I've never read a book before that captures the journey of going from meh to amazing when building a product. This book does it. Part Apple / Steve Jobs pron, part memoir, and part product insights, this book is a great read on how the iPhone came to be and how they solved really hard problems. For anyone that remarks "Apple isn't what it used to be," this book helps you see what made the difference then.
12 May 2020
28 May 2019
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Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app
Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform IndustriesTheir words
Safi Bahcall, Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries: How does group behavior and the science of phase transitions manifest itself? The author, a physicist and entrepreneur, tries to show why some wild new ideas become game changers. I was skeptical, but when someone like Danny Kahneman claims “This book has everything: new ideas, bold insights, entertaining history and convincing analysis. Not to be missed by anyone who wants to understand how ideas change the world,” I pay attention.
31 January 2018
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Readrcmnd.app
PrinciplesTheir words
Reading this because everyone else is too :) Lots of insights/lessons from Ray Dalio
5 December 2016
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Lovedrcmnd.app
String TheoryTheir words
As much as I loved the book for its insights on the game, I loved it just as much for the writing itself.
1 October 2016
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Their words
Behavioral science can play an even more important role in the policymaking process in coming years if practitioners instead begin with some of the large-scale questions that economic policymakers face and then develop insights that, often as a complement to more traditional policy tools, can help solve them.
1 January 2016
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Readrcmnd.app
The ONE ThingTheir words
A few great insights, but also some cringeworthy parts. Would recommend Essentialism over this one.
18 December 2013
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Their words
the final experience often comes down to just a few key pieces or insights.
1 January 1998
Nothing matches.
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
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