NYTimes: ‘A slew of factors goes into investments and status in Silicon Valley. Lately, an intangible one has pulled ahead as a predictor of success or failure: “signal.” If your behaviors are deemed high-signal: Congratulations, you’re coming across as a winner and rewards may follow. If your actions are seen as anti-signal: Sorry, you’re radiating cringey energy that may hamper your chances.”
Anindya Chatterjee: “What are engineering jobs that AI cannot do? Jobs that require skill with both computers and hands, travel to jobsites, human presence, unexpected connections between ideas, and situations where data is unavailable or confidential. These, more than entrance-exam ranks and offer-withdrawing recruiters, need thinking about.”
Noah Smith: “Over the last two years, I’ve felt like my job has become a bit less important than it used to be, for three reasons: (1) The rise of populism on all sides of the political spectrum in the U.S. means that smart ideas are simply not as likely to be implemented by the people in power. (2) The general shift to Substack and other monetizable direct-to-audience channels has made punditry less conversational. (3) The rapid proliferation of AI writing has increased the demands on readers’ attention (including my own).”
WSJ: “The memory armageddon has arrived…Buyers of consumer electronics are getting hit. The primary driver is the skyrocketing cost of memory and storage chips, especially those known as DRAM and NAND flash memory, which are essential for transferring data and storing information on devices. These chips are the same ones craved by artificial-intelligence companies, which use them to help train and run large language models, coding agents and other tools. As AI adoption has exploded, the memory-chip industry—dominated by just three companies: South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics and Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology—is suffering from a major capacity crunch.”
