Tom McAllister: “Don’t outsource your life story to A.I…The only thing under my control as a teacher is what I do in my classroom. I will continue to teach students that, whether they go on to write a best-selling memoir or simply scribble in their journals occasionally, we can try to do the work as honestly and earnestly as possible, bringing our full obsessive selves to the page. The act of writing itself can be an act of self-preservation, even one of defiance. That spark of rebellion is our greatest strength, and it’s found nowhere else but within us.”
Tech Buzz China: “Now home to more than half of the world’s humanoid robotics firms, China has seen nearly 100 new companies emerge in the past year alone, driven by rising investment and technological advances. Recent headlines might suggest China is catching up—or even surpassing—the West in this field, but the reality is more complex. While its growth is undeniable, China still lags behind in key areas such as AI sophistication, high-precision manufacturing, and software-hardware integration. That said, the field is still in its infancy, making it difficult to draw clear lines of progress. Humanoid robots, in particular, may not even be the most practical pursuit in robotics. With no clear market leader and no definitive benchmarks for success, it remains uncertain whether China’s surge in humanoid robotics will lead to long-term dominance—especially when it’s still unclear whether humanoid robots are the most viable path for large-scale automation.”
Yann LeCun: ““I am not interested anymore in LLMs. They are just token generators and those are limited because tokens are in discrete space. I am more interested in next-gen model architectures, that should be able to do 4 things: understand physical world, have persistent memory and ultimately be more capable to plan and Reason.”
ET: “Digital creators are evolving from mere brand endorsers to crucial advisors in narrative building and engagement strategies for brands. Both mainstream and niche influencers are securing lucrative consulting roles, reflecting a shift in recognizing the comprehensive value creators bring to brand storytelling and strategy.”
FT talks to Rolls Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgiç and discusses how he restored growth at the 119-year-old British engineering group: “Rolls-Royce’s transformation is underpinned by a carefully worked out framework of four “pillars” — an approach he has used before. The first of these, Erginbilgiç describes as “holding up a mirror” to make clear to staff the reality of the company’s position..His second pillar is to set a clear, granular strategy that engages employees…He describes his third pillar as “performance management” — which flows from the strategy and is about how you manage the business, with very clear targets. The fourth is to do all three with “pace and intensity” to show you are delivering…If you don’t score quickly, you lose people.”
Jim O’Shaughnessy: “There may not be a secret, easy path to success. But there is still a path. The REAL path is one most people don’t want to take (why do you think so many people play the lottery?) The real path is emotionally hard. The real path requires you to often hold uncomfortable opinions and challenge conventional thought. The real path requires you to learn, learn and then learn some more, without an end date. It requires you to seek out wisdom and the latest thinking continually in a never-ending commitment to gaining knowledge. Note I say knowledge, not information. That’s another part of the real path–after all that reading, listening and watching, you have to critically separate the wheat from the chaff. And given the information tsunami we have today, that’s a task that gets harder and harder. The real path requires you to have a burning desire to not only *know* but to then also *act* on that knowledge.” The Infinite Loops Canon. Also: Writing in the 21st Century
