Iterate Weekly - Issue 63
This week we create images with DALL-E, ditch the video meetings, Neon Buffalo is a gym in a bag, read novels via email, and regain your Stolen Focus!
Welcome to issue 63 of Iterate Weekly!
Just a reminder that you can always reply to this email or leave a comment on the web version. I read all of them, and I appreciate the feedback, questions, and insights from all of you.
Let’s jump into this week’s stories.
🤖 Tech
DALL-E is Here to Change Creativity Forever
You may have heard about DALL-E. It’s the creatively named artificial intelligence that will allow you to create images based on text.
What exactly does that mean? Well if you type in something like “An Astronaut playing basketball with cats in space in a minimalist style” you’ll get the image you see above. No, that image didn’t already exist somewhere on the internet. DALL-E was able to create it.
I was somewhat familiar with the tool, but learned a lot after reading Casey Newton’s wonderful recount of his experience in his Platformer newsletter. The latest iteration of the software is technically called DALL-E 2. Its creator OpenAI first launched the technology in early 2021 and has been slowing improving its accuracy.
It may be a while before DALL-E is opened up to a wider audience (as of this writing there is a waitlist that’s rumored to take months if ever to be accepted). But this feels like one of those major tech advances you tell your friends about (as Newton referenced in his article).
While it may lead to certain types of human illustrators becoming less in-demand, it certainly opens up a whole new world of potential ideas for the amateur artist.
Have any of you had a chance to try out DALL-E 2 yet?
🎓 Education/Productivity
Should We Ditch Video Meetings?
I can assume that many of you find yourself in video meetings throughout the day. They can be a great way to connect with remote colleagues. And they can also be absolutely draining if you’re glued to your desk all day smiling into your camera without a break.
Recently, I read Angela Lashbrook’s fantastic argument for why a phone call is better than a video call.
Her research suggests that:
…in many cases, video calls are no more effective at emotionally connecting you with your conversation partner than the good old fashioned phone call — or even just Zoom with the video turned off.
She advocates for calls happening while taking a walk or doing chores around the house. Many “important work meetings” could certainly be done while getting other simple tasks done around the house. For me personally, there are few meetings that require that intense eye-contact that we attempt on a video call.
Is there a call this week that you can conduct with only audio?
♻️ Health & Environment
Neon Buffalo - Complete Gym in a Bag
If you’ve been reading my work for a while, you know that I’m not a fan of working out in a traditional gym environment. No, I like my home or outdoor workouts. And most of these happen with the aid of some amazing products from the folks at Wild Gym.
They just wrapped up a Kickstarter campaign for their latest product called “Neon Buffalo.”
It’s billed as “a complete gym in a bag”. I think that’s a bit ambitious, but I did back the project. It is a system of sand bags that can be used for weight training and aerobic exercise. Think of it as a versatile kettlebell system with different weights and handle placements.
It’ll still be a few months until I receive the product, but I’m really excited to add it to my workout routines.
If you’re looking to add some new wrinkles to your regular fitness routine, I can’t recommend the Wild Gym gear enough. Try them out!
🛍 Grab Bag
Read a Serialized Novel on Substack
I’m always excited to recommend some new Substack publications for you to check out.
Today, I want to share a whole genre of creators who are releasing classic novels as serialized newsletters.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the size of a classic novel like Moby Dick? Would you be more likely to finish reading it if someone emailed you a chapter or two each week?
It’s a really clever use of the medium, and it can create new communities around classic pieces of literature. Think of it like a book club with extra accountability built in.
Do you like the idea of consuming classic literature via email?
💬 Quote of the Week
“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.”
- Robert Collier
📕Content Recommendation
Stolen Focus
![Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again by [Johann Hari]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73d0aab2-1e65-4883-b42c-00b458bc42ba_228x346.jpeg "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention--and How to Think Deeply Again by [Johann Hari]")
This week I’m recommending the book “Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari.
It struck me as an incredibly important book to read if you spend any extended amount of time in front of a screen (which is basically all of us).
Hari breaks down the causes of our inability to pay attention as a modern society. Things like diet, sleep patterns, and (most importantly) the way our technology is programmed to be addictive, all play a role in this problem.
The book isn’t perfect. Hari hasn’t figured out solutions to a lot of these problems. He tried going off the grid for a summer and locking his phone in a timed lock box but still has his struggles. It’s not a book meant to solve the problem, it’s a book meant to alert you of the problem if you weren’t already aware.
I know it’s already been a popular non-fiction release lately, and I could see this being at the top of my “must read” list for the year. If you can get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend reading it.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!