2 stars
‘Every day I cry’: 50 women talk about life as a domestic worker under the Gulf’s kafala system | The Guardian
Denounced as giving a ‘veneer of legality to slaveholding’ and despite claims of reform, kafala laws persist, allowing bosses to abuse women, who vanish from society. This is their testimony, gathered over two years in a Guardian investigation
Japan is not a xenophobic country | Noahpinion
It has a substantial amount of immigration, as well as pro-immigration policies and attitudes. […]
Japan’s xenophobia may be largely a thing of the past, but the trope of Japan as a closed-off, stubbornly homogeneous nation seems to be deeply rooted in the Western psyche. When there’s a persistent stereotype like that, people tend to A) come up with creative interpretations of evidence in order to protect that stereotype, and B) seize on anecdotes, real or false, that seem to confirm the stereotype.
#40. Long-Term Harm of Early Academic Training | Play Makes Us Human
These programs are being implemented and expanded despite a long history of research showing that early academic training has long-term negative effects.
In this letter I will begin with what is the best-controlled, most scientifically valid study of such a program conducted to date: The Tennessee Preschool study. Then I will describe the results of several previous studies of long-term effects of early academic training, which, as far as I can tell, have been completely ignored by those developing education policy.
Why I Don’t Invest in Real Estate | Uncharted Territories
Real estate has been a great investment for so long that people think it always will be. This is a mistake. I don’t think it will.
Powerful forces have been raising housing prices for decades. But they are now petering out, even reversing. As time passes, housing prices might shrink.
Superhuman? | One Useful Thing
The explicit goal of many of the most important AI labs on the planet is to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), an ill-defined term that can mean anything from “superhuman machine god” to the slightly more modest “a machine that can do any task better than a human.”
Given that this is the aim of the companies training AI systems, I think it is worth taking seriously the question of when, if ever, we might achieve AGI - “a machine that beats humans at every possible task.” […]
The increasing ability of AI to beat humans across a range of benchmarks is a sign of superhuman ability, but also requires some cautious interpretation. AIs are very good at some tasks, and very bad at others. When they can do something well - including very complex tasks like diagnosing disease, persuading a human in a debate, or parsing a legal contract - they are likely to increase rapidly in ability to reach superhuman levels. But related tasks that human lawyers and doctors perform may be completely outside of the abilities of LLMs. The right analogy for AI is not humans, but an alien intelligence with a distinct set of capabilities and limitations.
London, please love yourself. | The Garden of Earthly Delights
I moved to London about ten years ago. London was and is the place to go in Europe if you're young and ambitious, and/or your passport is frowned upon by metropolises closer to the heart of the current global Empire, like New York or San Francisco. Or if, like me, you're an eternal anglophile longing for the return of the old Empire and hope this time they don't skip the worthy, quite substantial and fertile landmass close by - Eastern Europe. We had such a good run with the Austro-Hungarians. I can only imagine what some higher-grade colonialism would have wrought. […]
Whenever I mentioned something positive about British history or anything about the virtues of the indigenous population, it invariably sounded out of place because I didn't preface it with sarcasm or the socially expected prostration. There was a specific tone I was expected to strike as a recent immigrant. I was supposed to be someone who knows her interests and navigates the inevitable racism but perseveres despite it. I was also supposed to be in the UK primarily for financial reasons, which would, of course, be understandable because the poverty of the place I left must have had at least some obscure link to colonialism. I refused to play along because, for me, it was clear that there was a reason why we were all in London. This was a cradle of civilization, beauty, innovation, and culture. I was a bit burdened by this unfashionable nostalgia for a past that, admittedly, wasn't ideal but was undeniably crucial to the quality of life everyone around me enjoyed. It was unfair for the British to be carrying this ridiculous burden of guilt despite all the gifts that their ancestors had given the world.
Kevin Kelly [Twitter]
Additional new bits of advice I wished I had known earlier (not in my book), as my gift on my 73 birthday: […]
• When shopping for anything physical (souvenirs, furniture, books, tools, shoes, equipment), ask yourself: where will this go? Don’t buy it unless there is a place it can live. Something may need to leave in order for something else to come in. […]
• Asking “what-if?” about your past is a waste of time; asking “what-if?” about your future is tremendously productive. […]
• In a museum you need to spend at least 10 minutes with an artwork to truly see it. Aim to view 5 pieces at 10 minutes each rather than 100 at 30 seconds each. […]
• When you find yourself procrastinating, don’t resist. Instead lean into it. Procrastinate 100%. Try to do absolutely nothing for 5 minutes. Make it your job. You’ll fail. After 5 minutes, you’ll be ready and eager to work.
1 star
The On-and-Off Debate About Luka Doncic | The Ringer
There’s no denying the Mavericks star’s greatness, but his impact on winning is a different story. Is Luka really as valuable as he looks on the court and in box scores?
Plato’s final hours recounted in scroll found in Vesuvius ash | The Guardian
Newly deciphered passages outline Greek philosopher’s burial place and describe critique of slave musician
30 Years, Not A Single Lost Bag: Osaka Kansai’s Unmatched Record Puts U.S. Airports To Shame | View from the Wing
Airport rankings for least mishandled bags – note that this is not the lowest number of mishandled bags at the airport, but mishandled bags attributable to the airport itself rather than an airline – are reportedly as follows, with none of the best airports in the United States.
False Necessity is the Mother of Dumb Invention | Marginal Revolution
Unfortunately, I suspect that US workers will object more to $3 an hour remote workers taking “their jobs” than to AI. As a result, we will get AI cashiers and labor displacement of both US and foreign workers. Doesn’t seem ideal.