The Dice — 003

“What a week” doesn’t adequately describe the last one of May 2024. A short week that felt like Monday on repeat. And it was busy with contract writing, product research, marketing writing, code writing, and podcast launching. On Friday Brett and I dropped our first episode of a short weekly program called The High Five! In it, we cover ideas around leadership accountability as it relates to individual performance. And then we talk about interesting and cool things we recommend. We’re just getting started (a pervasive theme in my life right now) but it feels great to be publishing and launching new things.

There is no mention of political news in this issue, but I did post thoughts about that one story that dropped on Thursday.

Alright, enough of that. Punch it Chewie!

Some people with nothing better to do “delved deep into the web, sifting through tens of thousands of posts to uncover how Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing both business and daily life” to come up with a list of the top 100 use-cases for using generative AI. We’ve all seen the stupid pet tricks people are making AI do, so I wasn’t prepared for “therapy and companionship” in the top three. Neither was I prepared to start regarding USC film school student, George Lucas, as an arbiter of the future and yet here we are.

As sad as this sounds The Economist reported that “330m adults go at least two weeks without talking to a single friend or family member.” Want to challenge AI’s grip on society? Reach out and touch someone. 

While the ongoing tire fire train wreck that is AI continues to storm through every nook and cranny of the Internet—during an election year!—it’s a good time to prepare how to navigate this white-hot mess. Begin by practicing how to trust your brain online and the art of asking smarter questions. Meanwhile, don’t forget that deja vu is “usually a glitch in the Matrix.”

Eyes wide people.

Weeks ago Rachel Kwon published a fantastic post about keeping one foot in the physical dimension of our digital world. I replied in support of Rachel's thinking and I’m here to double down on one medium in particular. There’s no substitute for print. None. Nadda.

Speaking of print, I wish Boing Boing still published zines ala McSweeney’s Internet Tendency.

While we’re on the subject of paper publishing, here's a delightful story submitted by Dice correspondent, Mr. Anthony (No blog of his own) Baker: A tour of bookmaker Arion Press in San Francisco by Anthony Bourdain. The short film provides an eye-opening look into the craft of hand-making books. Like a Swiss watch, these one-of-a-kind books go for thousands of dollars. Just take a look at their mind-blowing, out-of-print, rendition of Winnie the Pooh.

While not entirely the same, after browsing through their products I thought about Frank Chimero’s Everything Easy is Hard Again.

Without any advanced promotion, Godzilla Minus One was released on Netflix this Friday, and it’s about damn time. I have been waiting for this news ever since the movie earned a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and received an Oscar for visual effects despite a modest budget of $15m.

Alright, let's end this run with some interesting levity that comes from the most complicated sport in the world, Formula 1. While most races take place on dedicated tracks there are a few street races that take place in the middle of cities. Monaco is the most famous and the oldest of the street circuits and I enjoyed watching how they convert the city into a race track. Here's a similar trasformation of Las Vegas.

Done and done. Hey, be kind to your neighbors and enjoy the first week in June. Happy Pride Month!

This issue was assembled while on the road in Canon Beach, Oregon — 45.887° N, 23.962° W