D-Squared Musings Week 22

Finally! For those of you willing to pay $20 a month for ChatGPT, we all now have access to plugins. If you’re not sure how to enable it (like me), it’s under settings and beta features, see the below screenshot. 😉

I never listen to Congress hearings. Ever. But this was an extremely important and interesting one from my perspective. If you’re at all interested in AI and the possible future implications of it on work and life more broadly, I highly recommend giving this a listen. Hearing the seriousness in Sam’s voice and the fear of those in Congress is humbling. Here’s a summary video if you’re not willing to listen to the whole thing.

I’m a big fan of Tesla and a longtime shareholder, so my opinion is slightly biased, but this shareholder meeting is always the most interesting to listen in on. It’s amazing to see the kind of progress they’re making on a consistent basis. Each quarter it feels like they’re making massive strides toward an energy-abundant world.

I’ve been diving down the renewable energy rabbit hole of the last couple of days and will likely continue to do so for the coming weeks (possibly months). While reading this Wikipedia page I remembered just how amazing Wikipedia is for introductory materials on semi-technical topics.

This interview will upset a good number of you reading this newsletter. It’s an amazing interview by Jordan Peterson. When learning about a topic, especially those that can be ideological (such as climate change), I try to counteract the mainstream perspective with counter perspectives. Alex is one of the few people I’ve come across with a thought-through argument (example) on how fossil fuels have been and will continue to be beneficial for humanity. FYI: I’m still a fan of renewables and see them as our future.

Nuclear energy is a topic I’ve explored in the past and this video was a good refresher. The statistics shared here help put into perspective the real dangers of nuclear, which are minimal compared to all the other dangers we humans face from energy production. Here’s a companion video on how we can and have repurposed nuclear waste to create even more energy. 🤯

I’m a fan of Seth and it was interesting to observe him in a different dynamic (outside of comedy), as well as hear more about his backstory, habits, and perspective on certain topics.