Editor’s note

January! Crisp cold. Resolute hearts. Warm soups. And a ramshackle world that favors power over values. The party may be over, but it does not mean we should stop partying.

Please enjoy!

Unrelated-but-interesting

Tyrian purple once was an exquisitely rare and highly-valued dye. It came from the sea snails (murex) of Tyre, a city in the Phoenicia of yore, which is the Lebanon of now. Its production required tens of thousands of snails and substantial manual labor. A few kilograms of purple silk, which was reserved for emperors, was worth about 75,000 pints of beer in today's rate, which is about 400,000 US dollars. You may guilt-freely buy this 100 dollar white t-shirt you have been eyeing, or such — openculture.com

Are you stressed out? You might be living in a hierarchical society. We all do, as we both know. But baboons do too and when Robert Sapolsky studied them some decades ago, he discovered something fascinating: the more high-status a baboon was, the least stressed they were. To blame is the lack of control and lack of predictability of the low-status baboons. And the oft-rigid structures of hierarchy. Further, low-status individuals in the group exhibited higher heart rates and higher blood pressure. This marked the first time anyone had linked stress to the deteriorating health of a primate in the wild. Are we smart enough to learn from baboons? — youtube.com

Feeding peanut products to young babies could prevent life-threatening allergies. 60,000 kids avoided peanut allergies thanks to 2015 advice. Introducing such products from 3 months old onwards reduced the risk of developing allergies more than 80%. This logic may be applied to other foods that may cause problems later on. It boils down to how experimental you are with child-rearing — cbsnews.com

Most decisions are like hats. So says James Clear, author of bestseller ‘Atomic Habits’. Try the hat! If you don't like it, try another. The cost of trying or switching is low. Other decisions are like haircuts: you can turn things around, but it takes a little bit of time and you have to live with it for a while. Finally, a minority of decisions are like tattoos. Once you made the decision, you have to live with it. You might be able to revert but it might be very difficult and costly. This of course echoes Amazon's management principle about reversible and irreversible decisions. If the question you're asking yourself is reversible, do not overthink it! — jamesclear.com

Diagnosing mental health issues often falls shorts because therapists do not take the patient personality into account. Clinicians forgo the need to “infer the meaning of a symptom” says Nancy McWilliams, a renowned American author and psychoanalyst, as they reach conclusions too swiftly. Indeed, unlike physical symptoms, which nonetheless are not straightforward, psychological features emerge from a complex context. For example, understanding that a charming, cooperative patient may be so because they have psychopathic tendencies would allow for more effective care. And if therapists can also recognize the limits of their own personalities—how they may match with the patient's—we would all benefit greatly — psycounselling.com

AI & software

If nothing springs to mind, the text was probably written by an AI. This is because LLMs do not operate in the same linguistic world as us, where we struggle to use words (signifiers) to communicate ideas, concepts, experiences (signifieds). They only have words. The model has ingested all the syntax rules of humanity (what makes a good sentence) but not semantics (actual meaning). When you read text written by a human, except if you suffer from aphantasia, mental images will be conjured. We start with ideas, concepts, experiences and we find the right words to express them. The AI has no mind to connect these dots. There are other great tips in this illuminating and vital article — hollisrobbinsanecdotal.substack.com

Workers in the Philippines control robots restocking shelves in Japanese convenience stores. Japan faces a shortage of workers because of its aging and shrinking population. So some Japanese businesspeople found a way to offshore physical work. The robots are operated from a warehouse in Manila. They are paid a much lower salary than the Japanese. The robots are usually autonomous, and when they are stuck, the “pilot” takes over with a headset and joystick. Each pilot controls around 50 robots at a time. I am having a hard time determining the consequences of this — restofworld.org

Loose ends

I am not a parent, but I found this post from Tim Urban, the author of Wait But Why, about his experience of being a parent very funny (maybe that is why) — waitbutwhy.com

If you are marveling at the complexity of a system, then it is likely it is poorly designed. The hallmark of a good system design is its self-effacing nature. More insights about this topic from a GitHub Staff Engineer — seangoedecke.com

Someone didn't eat processed food for 9 weeks and noticed no significant difference in subjective and measured health — dynomight.net

Potatoes were, a long time ago, tomatoes. Dipping fries in ketchup will now be a different experience for you — theatlantic.com

“So-called jazz compositions may contain at most 10% syncopation; the remainder must consist of a natural legato movement devoid of the hysterical rhythmic reverses characteristic of the barbarian races and conducive to dark instincts alien to the German people (so-called riffs)” This is rule number 4 of the 10 rules for free jazz in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia — theatlantic.com