FT on quantum computing: “One of the biggest challenges has been that the quantum bits — or qubits — used in today’s machines are highly unstable and only hold their quantum states for extremely short periods, creating “noise”. As a result, faults accumulate during any quantum calculation, making the computer essentially useless. Recent advances in error correction, a technique for encoding information into qubits that compensates for this, have promised a way past this problem far sooner than most in the industry had expected.”
Bloomberg: “A teacher asks for advice that “everyone” needs to hear. [Warren] Buffett cites Munger’s advice to live life based on how you’d want your obituary to be written. He said you should marry the person who will best let you do that and to offer a similar benefit to a partner.”
The Atlantic: “Using ElevenLabs, you can clone your voice like I did, or type in some words and hear them spoken by “Freya,” “Giovanni,” “Domi,” or hundreds of other fake voices, each with a different accent or intonation. Or you can dub a clip into any one of 29 languages while preserving the speaker’s voice. In each case, the technology is unnervingly good. The voice bots don’t just sound far more human than voice assistants such as Siri; they also sound better than any other widely available AI audio software right now. What’s different about the best ElevenLabs voices, trained on far more audio than what I fed into the machine, isn’t so much the quality of the voice but the way the software uses context clues to modulate delivery. If you feed it a news report, it speaks in a serious, declarative tone. Paste in a few paragraphs of Hamlet, and an ElevenLabs voice reads it with a dramatic storybook flare.”
WSJ: “I turned to Catherine Price, who has a book and an online course titled “How to Break Up With Your Phone.” Here’s how she suggests being more mindful about your screen use and getting your attention span back longer-term: (1) During times when you don’t have to be on your phone, keep it in another room, or at least out of view. She says to get a box, or find a hard-to-reach outlet for charging. She charges her phone in a closet. (2) If you need your phone nearby, try a physical barrier like a rubber band. When you absent-mindedly reach for the phone, there’s a built-in pause (3) Identify what’s driving you to the apps, she says. If you’re lonely, could you call a friend instead? If you’re anxious, could you meditate?”
Jason Lemkin: “Mistakes less successful (but not total failure) entrepreneurs make: They can’t control the burn rate. They hide from tougher metrics. They settle on mediocre VP and other key hires. They settle for slower growth. They let better-funded competition pass them by. They let themselves get burnt out. They don’t hire a truly great CTO and dev team.”
