Iterate Weekly - Issue 69
This week we're implanting computer chips in human brains, Caveday is getting major press, my review of vegan Babybel cheese, disappearing baby shoes, and "The Perfect Bid"
Welcome to issue 69 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
It’s official, we’ve put a computer chip in a human brain!
It may sound like sci-fi, but it’s totally a real news story. A company called Synchron has implanted the first computer chip into a patient’s brain.
No, it isn’t for this person to be directly fed updates from their social media feeds right into their head. It’s a more noble cause for sure. Scientists are implanting these chips into the minds of patients with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and Parkinson’s as a means to allow them to “translate thoughts into digital commands”.
The device in question is a 1.5 inch chip that enters the brain through a catheter that flows into the person’s jugular vein, then into a blood vessel in the brain. The procedure is far less intrusive than the one proposed by the Elon Musk-led competitor Neuralink.
Neuralink is still fighting to get approval for surgically inserting chips directly into a patient’s skull. Right now they claim to have run a positive test in a monkey but there is no imminent human approval on the horizon.
While both companies are in uncharted territory, Synchron has definitely found a much smoother way to bring this science fiction to reality.
Let’s all take a minute to appreciate just how amazing this feat is. Kudos to Synchron and I’m eager to see what’s next for the company!
🎓 Education/Productivity
Caveday is blowing up
If you’ve been reading my work for a while, you’ve undoubtedly heard about my work with Caveday. I regularly lead deep-work sessions on the platform and am a big believer in these virtual co-working spaces as the offices of the future.
Having said all that, I just wanted to give them a few quick shout outs after some major publicity in the past few weeks.
First they were the subject of a New York Times article (soft pay-wall) about he rise of virtual co-working spaces.
Second, you can watch an interview below with my friend and co-founder of Caveday Jake Kahana with Yahoo Finance.
It’s amazing to see this tiny company really taking off and getting some positive press. I’m really honored to be a part of it and encourage all of you to sign up for a cave to check it out for yourself! Here are a few offers if you’re interested. You can use them here.
First month of membership for $1
CODE: "1STMONTHONE"
Free Three Sprint Cave:
CODE: "TRYACAVE21"
♻️ Health & Environment
My personal review of the vegan Babybel cheese
Back in Issue 58, I mentioned the arrival of a new vegan version of the popular Babybel cheese.
This was big news as my almost 3-year daughter is quite the connoisseur of the original Babybel (in the red wrapper). It’s become a staple of her daycare lunch box for the past few months. It’s often the first thing she eats when opening the box (it beats out the peanut butter sandwich and fruit).
Anyway, I had given her the purple version of the cheese in the past (I think it’s a slightly sharper taste but I barely noticed the difference) and she had a fit. It wasn’t the original taste or wrapper color she was used to and it was not going to be tolerated.
Recently, I saw the green wrapper vegan version of the cheese at the store and had to try it for myself. Yes, I was was strictly vegan for about 7 years and am well versed in the world of cheese alternatives. And while I don’t keep a strictly vegan diet these days, I have been impressed with all of the new vegan cheese offerings.
The vegan Babybel gets a 7/10 for me. It isn’t terrible. It tastes reasonably similar to the original version of the cheese. If you’re a strict vegan who has been missing this processed cheese taste and texture, it’s worth checking out!
Did my daughter like it? No, not really. She didn’t spit it out and make a nasty face, but she didn’t want more than one bite. I think her biggest gripe was the odd little dots on the cheese, clearly an imprint from a mold they used to make it. It doesn’t have the same totally smooth surface as the original, and that will turn off some folks.
For now, she’ll consider the red Babybels as hers and the green ones as Dad’s.
🛍 Grab Bag
Disappearing baby shoes
If any of you are parents, you know how many pairs of tiny baby clothes and shoes you go through in the first few months of your kids life.
Well, a company called Woolybubs (amazing name) is making a new sustainable pair of baby shoes that can just dissolve in water when your kid outgrows them.
All you have to do is boil some water, throw in the shoes, and 40 minutes later they will be gone!
The shoes are made of a 100-percent biodegradable silk fabric. That fabric is then coated in a water-soluble plastic (similar to those washing detergent pods). So they will disintegrate in the boiling pot of water, but will be safe if your kid decides to splash in a puddle or throws the shoe in the toilet.
It’s a fantastic idea that I hope can be replicated in other products.
Would you rock a pair of these if they came in adult sizes? I absolutely would!
💬 Quote of the Week
“I think that age as a number is not nearly as important as health. You can be in poor health and be pretty miserable at 40 or 50. If you're in good health, you can enjoy things into your 80s.”
- Bob Barker
🎥 Content Recommendation
Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much
I have a movie review this week. I’m a sucker for any type of pop-culture documentary, and recently I watched Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much.
If you’re of the right age in America, you likely have some connection to the show “The Price is Right.” For me, it was the daytime television show that you’d watch if you were home sick from school or had a magical snow day. It was one of the more kid-friendly daytime options in a sea of soap operas and news shows.
Anyway, this movie looks at a contestant who was just too good at the game. I’ll refrain from spoilers, but when you have a contestant who is a combination of a math genius (his day job was a math teacher), consumer product savant (he had a database of the prices and model numbers of thousands of home goods, appliances, and foods), and computer programmer (he created his own version of a Price is Right video game to practice his pricing skills) you know that he’s going to ruffle some feathers on the show.
It’s a quick, entertaining watch about a fascinating man and a game show that still airs today but feels like it’s stuck in the 1970s.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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