Transmission #55: AI as an Epoch-defining thing, Ruthless Efficiency, Herzog, and Spandex Kittens
Design, ideas and other flotsam
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This is Transmissions by me, Marty Brown.
What is Transmissions? It’s an ongoing, usually fortnightly newsletter that collates some of the more interesting stories, links, quotes and other curios that float my way.
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Design
Evolving Minds
Packy McCormack • Notboring • Link
There is a deep seated desire amongst many of us to feel like we are living through truly unprecedented times, or at very least, times that are exceptionally interesting on a historical timescale. The breathless, hyperbolic mantras that we hear (‘Change is Exponential’, ‘ Truly Revolutionary’, ‘Faster than Ever Before’) contrast starkly against observations that, aside from the presence of a microwave and maybe a mobile phone charger, an average kitchen today would look no different from one in the 1960’s (except perhaps for the lime green wallpaper).
But what if we actually are living through a truly epoch-defining moment, right now, in 2023? This is the argument Noah Smith recently put forward, and here Packy McCormack expands upon it: that the emergence of LLMs, and the advancement of AI’s are not just useful as a tool, but will become foundationally important to the way human beings think, to extent that that writing has been. That humans pairing with, and learning from AI can actually extend the capabilities of the human mind beyond where it has been before.
Consider this study, which suggests that since AI ‘mastered’ the game of Go, the best players have got considerably better, because they have been learning from how AI plays the game.
It goes without saying that is extremely unwise to make future predictions in the middle of a hype-cycle, but this is a provocative thought regardless.
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Two more interesting blog posts about the impact of LLM’s on software engineering, from actual software engineers:
Steve Yegge talks excitedly to the sheer scale of revolution LLM’s present, and offers some theories of how this will all become optimised into engineering workflows.
(Another, different) Steve also writes excitedly to the sheer scale of revolution LLM’s present, but offers some caveats from real life scenarios that explore yawning deficiencies in what LLM’s can accomplish: things like exploration and optimization, judgement and taste, and genuine puzzle solving.
Ideas
Inside Temu: the fiery culture and a perpetual efficiency machine
Friends of MW • The Lowdown, Momentum Asia • Link
If you haven’t heard of Temu, you will soon. It’s the latest e-commerce phenom from China, in the mould of the all-conquering Shein.
As explored in the excellent documentary American Factory, there are stark philosophical disagreements in work culture between American and Chinese firms.
Whereas American firms centre on concepts like Engagement to encourage discretionary effort, here’s how Temu motivates employees:
In order to better tap into employees’ proactiveness, Temu strictly implements a “horse racing” mechanism internally, with fierce competition.
Temu will assign the same project to different teams to execute, and judge the abilities of each team based on the final results, with losers being eliminated.
In the eyes of outsiders, [Division A] and [Division B] are Temu’s core executives and should work together, but they are actually in a competitive relationship.
According to Temu’s rules of the game, [Division A] and [Division B] will each designate the other’s primary business as their secondary business. Once the revenue from Party A’s secondary business exceeds the revenue from Party B’s primary business, the Party B’s team and business will be moved to report to Party A.
Quote of the Week
Werner Herzog on the importance of prompt engineering (ht Nabeel Qureshi)
Chart of the Week
Seen something you’d love to share? Drop me a note in the comments.
Other
🔠 Technical masterpiece? Sisyphean waste of time? Both? Jony Ive spent 4 years and doubtless an eye-wincing sum of money creating a new, infinitesimally better version of the Baskerville typeface. Link
📖 Instruction manual from Microsoft for writing better prompts for LLM’s. Lots of good tips. Link
🥷 Microsoft's cybersecurity division is changing the taxonomy of names it uses for the hundreds of hacker groups that it tracks. So now these nefarious, shadowy groups are now being called names like Pumpkin Sandstorm, Spandex Tempest and Charming Kitten. Link
📺 A magisterial, forensic examination of the financial position of Waystar Royco, the fictional media conglomerate at the centre of the TV show Succession. Link
👩💻 Peter Merholz writes: ‘UX Directors in a World of Hurt’. Posted without comment. Link
🚶♀️ Paul Salopek is undertaking a herculean mission to walk a 24,000-mile route from Africa across Europe, all the way down America to its southernmost tip. He’s filing stories with National Geographic along the way. Link
Thanks for reading! See you in a fortnight.
Good stuff - thanks for this!