Gianfranco's Best of August 2023 Reading List

My favorite articles from August 2023:

Welcome to the August 2023 edition of my monthly reading list, where I share the best pieces I've discovered in AI, economics, leadership, venture capital, and life. These resources have been instrumental in shaping my thinking and perspectives over the last month, and I hope they provide you with the same.

Cognitive Sciences & HCI

• The Art and Science of Analogical Transfer

  • Invigorated by Michael Berstein's incisive inquiries in a Human-Computer Interaction course, the author embarks on an intellectual exploration to uncover the source of original thinking in HCI. Analogical transfer emerges as a seminal cognitive mechanism, invaluable for applying insights from one setting to a different yet relevant scenario.

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Economics & Policy

• If this is a bad economy, please tell me what a good economy would look like

  • Challenging prevailing sentiment, the author puts forth a data-driven narrative that attests to the robustness of the U.S. economy. Rising real incomes, a dynamic labor market, and contained inflation substantiate the notion of economic prosperity.

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Fintech & Innovation

• The Reimagined Paradigms of Embedded Fintech

  • Eschewing the product-centric focus that characterized fintech's recent past, the author advocates that the sector's future lies in its distribution frameworks. Embedded fintech, where financial services are integrated into non-financial platforms, appears as a transformative juncture for ecosystem-wide value creation.

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Artificial Intelligence & Productivity

• The Unsung Virtues of 'Boring' AI

  • The author critiques the fascination with the more exotic applications of AI, directing focus toward its efficacy in automating routine tasks. ChatGPT's impact on business writing is a precursor to myriad applications that can elevate operational efficiency.

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Consumer Finance & Debt Management

• The Underbelly of Consumer Finance: Debt Collection

  • Concentrating on the less explored arena of charged-off consumer debt, the author scrutinizes the financial intricacies that underpin this sub-industry, highlighting the imperative for cost-effective, scalable solutions.

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Retail & Business Strategy

• Trader Joe’s: The Maverick Grocer

  • The article investigates the strategies that have propelled Trader Joe's to exceptional success. The grocer has architected a business model that defies conventional wisdom by selectively choosing products and locations and generously compensating employees.

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Technical Perspectives on LLMs

• Demystifying the 100k Context Window in Large Language Models

  • A technical examination into the techniques enabling Large Language Models to process up to 100K tokens. From ALiBi positional embedding to FlashAttention, the author outlines various methods that alleviate limitations innate to the Transformer architecture.

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Creative AI

• The AI-Powered Canvas: Creativity Reimagined

  • The article critically evaluates the progress of AI in mimicking and occasionally surpassing human creative faculties. While acknowledging technological advancements, the author notes certain nuances that differentiate human creativity.

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Market Dynamics & Predictability

• Navigating the unpredictability of everything

  • Acknowledging market forecasting limitations, the author argues that markets possess intrinsic unpredictability even among experts. The article advocates for adaptability and agility as core strategic principles.

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Investment Research

• 13F Filings Decoded

  • The author elucidates the process of interpreting Form 13F filings and highlights their potential limitations. When read critically, these documents offer valuable investment cues and are supplemented by other due diligence activities.

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Artificial Intelligence & Tool Augmentation

• Tool-Augmented LLMs

  • The article presents a compelling exploration of how tool-augmented Large Language Models can overcome their inherent limitations. LLMs can achieve feats such as enhanced arithmetic skills, sourcing real-time information, and interpretability by harnessing external utilities, ranging from symbolic computation modules to neural networks. The discourse also projects challenges and potential trajectories in this nascent field.

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Skill Proficiency & Metrics

• 95%-ile isn’t that good

  • The author submits a contrarian view, arguing that achieving a position in the 95th percentile of any given skill is less extraordinary than one might presume. Distinguishing between casual participation and disciplined practice, the piece illustrates that percentile rankings can be misleading. The focus then shifts to deliberate improvement tactics, such as feedback loops and strategic skill acquisition.

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Personal Development & Coaching

• Personal Best

  • A surgeon grapples with the quandary of performance plateaus and the scarcity of coaching in the medical field. The author begins an intellectual survey of coaching's historical evolution in America and its impact across diverse sectors. Emphasizing the role of coaches in scrutinizing, advising, and guiding, the article raises questions about the applicability of coaching in skill-intensive professions.

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AI Team Dynamics

• How to manage a team of AI agents

  • As AI agents begin to find their way into the workplace, effective collaboration between humans and AI becomes pivotal. The article delineates best practices, such as role allocation, shared workspace configuration, and information flow management. The author also shares a case study involving MetaGPT to create a task management software, showcasing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of well-managed AI agents.

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Writing & Investment Strategy

• The Benefits of Writing

  • Targeting investors, the author asserts that the practice of writing can significantly augment analytical skills and decision-making frameworks. The piece espouses the merits of writing as an exercise in cognitive clarity and as a platform for communal knowledge-sharing. The author encourages the creation of "ugly first drafts" as a catalyst for continuous learning and engagement.

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AI Adoption & Hype Cycle

• Early days of AI (and AI Hype Cycle)

  • Charting the nascent trajectory of AI, the author posits that we are at the cusp of a step function change in AI capabilities. The article identifies four anticipated waves of AI adoption, asserting that we are still in an embryonic stage where peak hype and peak impact are yet to materialize. The article serves as a sober reflection on AI's evolving capabilities and potential.

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Until next time, happy reading 🙂