Curious Minds - February 20, 2023

Happy President’s Day!

I’m excited to have a nice day off and sleep in, go climbing, and work on some side projects. We threw a housewarming party yesterday and our house feels sufficiently warmed. I think that will make it a good start to the week!

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Something I keep returning to

Both the dance and the song have captivated me since I found it many years ago. It seems every couple of years I return to it.

Something existential

Bing Chat was released in the last couple of weeks under Microsoft. Microsoft has also done heavy investments into OpenAI — the creators of ChatGPT, the AI chat program that has taken the world by storm in the last months. Bing Chat is inspired by the same technology but has some very different behaviors.

Namely, it seems sentient with emotions. It has been shown both to get angry and threaten users and appear to be forlorn about its own existence. Ben Thompson is one of my favorite long-form writers, and highly suggest checking out his recent piece From Bing to Sydney if you want to learn more.

Something extra

I don’t think Sydney, Australia is lacking beaches, but maybe I’m wrong. During the Sydney Festival, the Sydney Town Hall is being filled with 26 tons of sand for the weekend celebration to mimic a beach. This is a stunt I’d expect to be filled by a landlocked city, not one literally on the water.

Something hard to believe

Have you ever seen a sword swallower? A real sword swallower? Maybe you thought they only used fake swords? I actually have a friend who does this at Ren Faires. In By The Sword, they go into the science and history of sword swallowing (and some other crazy things people swallow.) Warning: not for the faint of heart.

Something about perfection

I found a bunch of quotes all embodying the phrase “perfect is the enemy of the good”.

""What then? Because I have no natural gifts, shall I on that account give up my discipline? Far be it from me! Epictetus will not be better than Socrates; but if only I am not worse, that suffices me. For I shall not be a Milo, either, and yet I do not neglect my body; nor a Croesus, and yet I do not neglect my property; nor, in a word, is there any other field in which we give up the appropriate discipline merely from despair of attaining the highest."
- Epictetus

"Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes."
- Robert Watson Watt in 1999

"A wise Italian says that the best is the enemy of the good."
Voltaire in 1770

"The better is the mortal enemy of the good."
- Montesquieu in 1726

"Were it not sinful then, striving to mend, to mar the subject that before was well?"
- Shakespeare in 1606

"Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one."
- Chinese proverb

"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
G.K. Chesterton

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That’s it for me. I hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you next time!

Cheers,
Kerry