Iterate Weekly - Issue 4
Welcome to Issue 4 of the Iterate weekly newsletter! My name is Chris Jennings. If you really have no idea who I am and why you’re receiving this e-mail, take a look at the about page for a reminder.
You’ll see that the content here is broken down into 4 categories.
Tech - This will be the main focus of the newsletter. I’m dedicated to helping people improve their relationships with technology.
Learning - I consider myself an autodidact and like to examine the concept of learning how to be a more productive learner.
Health - None of these other topics are important if you’re not healthy enough to enjoy them.
Grab Bag - This could be something personal, something silly, something fun that doesn’t quite fit the other categories.
Finally, we’ll wrap things up with a quote of the week and a piece of content that I recommend you check out.
Yes, there may be the occasional affiliate link to a product I recommend, but no one is paying for placement in this newsletter. Thank you so much for reading, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and let me know what you think of this format.
Tech
AI Video is Coming...
Last week, AI Video startup Synthesia received a $12.5 million round of Series A capital. Why is this important? Well, if you’re not familiar with the company, they offer software to help create AI video content. You can use one of their paid actors as the star of your video, or upload some footage of yourself to create your own avatar. The intended use case here is for corporate and enterprise video content. Things like monthly team status updates could be treated as a video rather than boring text. The possibilities are endless really, but it will allow video content to be created with no traditional video editing skills needed. Once you have an avatar loaded up, you can export a video of the person saying pretty much anything.
And that’s where the risk lies. I’m not about to give the doomsday scenario of AI video robots taking over the world, but this is a slippery slope. Synthesia claims that they’re building in security features to keep tabs on exactly what types of videos are created by the AI avatars. Theoretically, you would be notified if your likeness starts posting videos that you didn’t authorize. But this is still a super scary proposition. Right now they say have over 1000 companies using a beta version of their software.
As this technology becomes more prevalent (and it will), mainstream content creators will have the same abilities once only afforded to big corporations. Descript is another company offering some of these automated video editing functions. The ease and simplicity of cranking out AI-powered videos for different content initiatives is tempting. But will there still be that same feeling of accomplishment after taking hours to edit a video? Will audiences appreciate the content as much as the original versions? It’s too early to answer all of these questions, but it’s an exciting new arm of technology that will revolutionize the way people create video content. Would you use something like this for your video creation?
Learning
What Can Whales Teach Us?
We’ve all heard the sounds that whales make right? It’s sort of a low-pitched bellow mixed in with some clicking sounds. Whales are some of the largest creatures on earth, and even if they don’t have the largest brains, there could be a lot we can learn from their language.
This long-form read (about 20 minutes) from National Geographic talks about scientists' new initiatives to help better understand what whales are saying to each other. Let’s hope this research leads to breakthroughs in human communication as well.
“They aim to capture millions of whale codas and analyze them. The hope is to expose the underlying architecture of whale chatter: What units make up whale communication? Is there grammar, syntax, or anything analogous to words and sentences?”
Health
Yes, Our Brains Need Breaks!
New research shows that our brains just aren’t wired to be in back to back-to-back meetings. Not surprising right?
A team at Microsoft is undergoing a large study on the future of work. As work evolves to be more digital, more remote, more asynchronous, people are finding themselves with less time for breaks between tasks. An article of their findings boils things down to 3 key takeaways:
1. Breaks between meetings allow the brain to “reset,” reducing a cumulative buildup of stress across meetings.
This may seem obvious, but it’s nice to have some research to back it up. It’s up to you what type of break you want to take. For me, being outdoors and walking/stretching help reset me.
2. Back-to-back meetings can decrease your ability to focus and engage.
Whenever possible, I try to allow some extra time between meetings to avoid this. Or at least try to group similar types of meetings together. When the work is radically different, it can be harder to switch gears.
3. Transitioning between meetings can be a source of high stress.
I’m sure we’ve all had a colleague who comes into meetings (whether in-person or virtual) and just emanates stress. Maybe they’re physically out of breath. Maybe they seem irritable. Whatever it is, it is highly contagious and can ruin a meeting. But hey, let’s give them a break, it’s not always easy to transition from one meeting to the next if we haven’t taken an adequate break.
Kudos to Microsoft for their research on the subject. We can’t be stagnant when it comes to working. It’s an ever-evolving premise and our brains will thank us if we consider them more!
Grab Bag
The End of West Coast Field Hockey?
This story comes out of the world of sports. But sadly, it’s about the phasing out of a sport, field hockey.
Recently, Stanford has agreed to cut Field Hockey from its athletic ranks. And this has caused a lot of tough decisions for student-athletes who chose the school in order to play the sport they love.
It’s part of a growing movement to cut less traditionally popular sports on the collegiate level. Stanford had been one of the few options for women to play a sport on the west coast that experiences much more popularity on the east coast of the United States.
Sadly, this leaves the University of California at Berkeley and UC Davis as the only remaining options for collegiate field hockey in Northern California. It’s also becoming harder and harder to find any options west of the Mississippi.
Quote of the Week
Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strengths - Corrie Ten Boom
Content Recommendation
The Sound of Metal
This week my wife and I watched “The Sound of Metal”
Whether or not you consider it a contender for the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards, this film was wonderful.
Without spoiling too much, it’s the story of a musician who loses his hearing. But really, it’s more about being unable to do something that you love.
I highly recommend it.
You made it to the end of my newsletter, nicely done! If you enjoyed this and know of someone else who may enjoy it, please share it with them.