π first Derivative [110]
βοΈ a spring poem | πͺπ¨ Latin American gangs | π―π΅ Japan's state visit | πͺ¦ notable deaths
π¬ Q1 Film & TV Update
One of my New Yearβs resolutions this year was to watch <100 movies to make more time for reading books and the startup Iβm working on. So I havenβt seen as many movies as I wouldβve normally.
Of the movies that have come out this year that Iβve seen (5), I only really recommend Dune: Part Two (review) although Dev Patelβs directing debut, Monkey Man, was solid. Iβm trying to catch The First Omen, Problemista, and Civil War, which are all out in theaters right now.
Out of all the movies Iβve seen this year (22), I can strongly recommend Network (1976), Legends of the Fall (1994), The Outpost (2019), and The War Room (1993). Maybe Iβll write more about these later in the year but Network (review) was one of the best movies Iβve seen in a while and for me, lived up to its reputation. Iβm sure itβs a bit of a clichΓ© to talk about how prescient it was and relatable it still is. Not only did it anticipate the advent of figures like Bill OβReilly, Jon Stewart, and Tucker Carlson, you could substitute TV in the movie for TikTok today without missing a beat. Faye Dunaway also puts in an electric performance as a manic media Lilith.
On the TV side, Iβve been enjoying ShΕgun and Masters of the Air. I wrote a bit about ShΕgun here and was on
βs podcast to talk about it. MotA is no Band of Brothers but still an enjoyable watch.Gabriel and I are interviewing director Ed Zwick (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Glory) next week about his new book: Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions: My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood. If you have anything you want us to ask him, let me know.
I helped
out with annotating the latest episode of his excellent podcast, this one with AI researchers Sholto Douglas at Google Deepmind and Trenton Bricken at Anthropic. I highlighted Dwarkesh last fall and an episode he did with Sarah C.M. Paine, a professor at the Naval War College. I highly recommend listening to that episode, especially if the Japan stuff in this issue resonates with you.I found this AI episode super interesting although much of it went over my head. After listening to it a few times though, I got the odd feeling that like the neural nets under discussion, Iβd associatively learned some super specific AI facts and concepts that I didnβt quite understand but now knew how to put, in an abstract and formal way, into relation with one another. Is that reasoning or true learning? Who knows. I will say, the more I learn about AI models the more Iβm impressed with the capacity of the human brain. Dwarkesh is a great interviewer and the episode gets super granular about how quickly AI development is scaling, how it can be accelerated, and also the immense value of high agency and independent, shared research in opening up opportunities in oneβs career. Itβs a great listen but youβll get more out of if you already have an intermediate+ knowledge of AI.
Inspired by all the podcasting, Iβm trying something new this week. Up top you should see my voiceover of this issue. If people like listening the audio, I may keep doing it. Excuse any first-time recording issues.
Good reading (and listening),
βTK
Hereβs a link to my 2024 News Journal where I'm collecting the headlines that catch my interest each day so that when we look back at that under the year, we'll see when things happened, what kind of patterns emerged, without the problem of hindsight bias.
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βοΈ Itβs great to see A.O. Scott, longtime New York Times chief film critic who stepped down last year, living his best life doing idiosyncratic stuff like this for Times Book Review. Iβd never read the poem before, Frank OβHaraβs βHaving a Coke With Youβ. It feels fitting for the this time of year when spring is creeping back into the city and everyone seems to have a little pep in their step. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
πΈπ» I wrote last February about Nayib Bukeleβs anti-gang crusade in El Salvador and how his βauthoritarian policyβ¦ will become an attractive model for others to copy or a cautionary tale.β Homicides are now down ~70% from when Bukele took office in 2019 and he was re-elected earlier this year with more than 85% of the vote, despite criticisms over his suspension of civil liberties and allegations that the government negotiated a truce with the gangs. Still, itβs hard to argue with the results and their domestic approval and easy to shoot back against the civil libertarians: in what way were people really βfreeβ living under the gangs?
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