Iterate Weekly - Issue 86
This week we're looking at Woz's new company, AI generated wall art, compostable plastic, no cream-colored uniforms in the NBA, and the What Works book!
Welcome to issue 86 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
Woz is coming up for Air!
If you’ve been wondering what former Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been up to lately, he’s involved with a company called AIr that is looking to change the way people store content on the internet.
Wozniak claims to have not been so excited for a project since working on the Apple II. That’s a pretty bold statement, and a recent Product Hunt update helped increase the buzz about Woz’s new endeavor.
Why would someone as accomplished as Wozniak put his name behind something as seemingly mundane as cloud data storage? I suppose he wouldn’t unless it was something really special. which is why I’m even writing about this now. Woz has a certain kind of “nerd street cred” that his partner Steve Jobs could only dream of. People just seem to respect the hell out of Wozniak and he often stays out of the public spotlight.
So him making big claims about revolutionary new software is a big idea. Let’s take a closer look at Air (the name is terrible in my opinion, but oh well!). Air has been around for three years and has mostly existed in anonymity as another solution for cloud storage. But after a $10M round of funding, they are ready to super-charge growth and compete with other big storage platforms.
I can’t say that I’ve used Air myself yet, but it’s on my radar. Beyond storage, it offers collaboration tools similar to Notion or Airtable. What really seems to set it apart is a simple, intuitive AI (something Woz knows extremely well). It’s aiming to become the de facto option for companies and individuals to store, manage, and share digital assets in this age of ever-increasing digital assets.
I’m thrilled to see Woz working on another relevant tech platform and will definitely be checking out Air for myself soon.
Anyone out there already using Air?
🎓 Education/Art/Productivity
AI Generated Framed Art
AI generated art is still somewhat of a novelty. DALL-E has become a mainstream fascination, but a majority of internet consumers aren’t finding personal use cases for the technology yet.
Well a company called For The Wall is hoping to change that.
They’re selling AI generated wall art that is easy to create, ship, and hang up on those boring walls of your home, office, or home office!
When creating your masterpiece, you’ll see a layout pretty familiar to AI art enthusiasts. You can enter in some text to act as a prompt for the software to create whatever strange things you can think of. Then choose a border, background, and frame and just like that you have something to put on your wall. With prints starting at just $24.99, it’s an affordable way for people to experiment in this new realm of artistic expression.
This seems like the most compelling use for this technology to date. I know I often struggle to find art work that I really connect with. It’s too impersonal to just throw any random piece of art on your wall. It’s good to have a story behind it. Aside from photos you’ve taken, or art that you’ve painted, using a service like For The Wall seems like the next best thing for those who don’t deem themselves artistically gifted.
In the early days of digital art, I remember playing around in Photoshop and Illustrator to create some abstract graphics that ended up on a wall many moons ago. Since then, I haven’t been brought to create any new personal art for my walls. But I love the idea of using AI to come up with something interesting to brighten up my home decor. And it will still have a personalized story when friends ask about it.
Anyone else excited to get some AI generated art on their wall?
♻️ Health & Environment
Compostable Plastic
Plastic has been a pretty great invention right? It’s allowed the creation of millions of things that we just wouldn’t be able to wrap our heads around using previous materials. But there is obviously one huge downside. Even when recycled, it can take a huge toll on the environment.
Well, what if we could create new plastic that is compostable? That’s what a British company called Shellworks is looking to do.
The company has created an entirely compostable material to be used in packaged goods. This material can break down completely in a year. Compared to other forms of plastic that must be incinerated or buried in a landfill, this is a huge development.
It’s sad to learn just how few types of plastic can properly be recycled in a typical municipal recycling plant. Sure, plenty of plastic bottles can find a new life as a recycled material. But what about all those other little odds and ends made of plastic that are scattered throughout our life? They typically end up in a landfills.
The material that Shellworks is using is created from microbes found in soil and marine environments and can be shaped into solid jars or containers, as well as more flexible products. Then when these materials find their way to landfills or compost heaps, organisms will recognize these microbes and break them down as a new source of food.
It’s a huge development that could cut down waste in a variety of industries once Shellworks is able to scale up production. Just imagine all of the tiny containers in your life that could potentially be made in a much more sustainable manner. And even if consumers don’t place Shellworks products in the compost bin, they’ll still break down in traditional landfills. It’s a foolproof way to limit waste even if consumer behavior doesn’t change.
I encourage you all to take note of all the non-recycle-able plastics that are in your life. Let’s hope that Shellworks and companies like it can really take off in the next few years to combat this problem!
🛍 Grab Bag
No More Cream Unis in the NBA
Here’s a fun story from my pal
over at .If you’ve been reading this for a while, you know I’m a fan of NBA basketball. I’m also a huge fan of athletic aesthetics and the great writing of Paul Lukas. Recently he broke news about a ruling in the NBA that I was not aware of.
NBA teams have been banned from wearing “cream” or any sort of “off-white” uniforms for a frustrating reason. The unis are interfering with high-tech digital advertisements super-imposed on NBA courts during live broadcasts.
For many years, NBA teams were required to wear white uniforms at home (the Lakers were allowed to wear yellow) while the traveling team would wear their colored jerseys. A few years back, all rules were thrown out the door in an effort to sell more unique uniforms. Teams could wear almost whatever color they wanted whether at home or on the road.
In response to this, teams got creative. In particular, the Milwaukee Bucks created a cream colored uniform to celebrate its distinction as the “Cream City”. I had no clue that this was in reference to the color of bricks used in Milwaukee buildings rather than the dairy industry. Kudos to Paul’s story for setting me straight on that.
The Philadelphia 76ers also donned a similar hue and called it “parchment” as in the color of the Declaration of Independence (or any other old piece of paper really). But there was just one problem with these jerseys. When a player walked on the court past one of the digital ads, it would glitch out and cause the viewer at home to not see the ad or logo. It’s a similar effect to having a meteorologist wear the color green when standing in front of a green screen map of the weather. They end up looking like a floating head.
So in response to this, the NBA has outlawed these creative uniform concepts. It just shows that the almighty advertising dollar is more important that civic pride or brand creativity. If you’re at all interested in the details, I encourage you to read Paul’s full story as he explains it far more eloquently than I can with a first-hand interview with an official with the Milwaukee Bucks.
💬 Quote of the Week
"A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic."
-Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
📕Content Recommendation
What Works
This week I’m recommending a great book called “What Works” by Tara McMullin.
Tara and I actually worked together on several of her CreativeLive courses back in the day. And I produced many episodes of her “Power Profit Pursuit” podcast. She’s a pretty prolific creator, marketer, podcaster and just all-around intelligent human.
But this book really caught my eye because it’s about changing the way we tackle goal setting. And iterating and reaching goals is a big part of the work I do so I wanted to get her approach.
There are tons of nuggets of wisdom here. She’s all about focusing on process and practice rather than outcome-driven goals (something I totally agree with). She even dives deep into the factors that have shaped our current relationship with goals (things like protestant work ethic, 9-5 industrial revolution work schedules, etc.).
As we head into the typical goal setting and resolution season at the start of a new year, I can’t think of a better book to read in preparation.
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Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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