Gianfranco's Best of December 2024 Reading List

Welcome to the December 2024 edition of my monthly reading list.

This month, I've curated my favorite essays across various categories: Artificial Intelligence, Business, Technology and Society, and Self Improvement and Growth.

If you only have a few minutes, these three posts were my favorite, and are included in the list below:

• Debanking (and Debunking?) - Bits About Money
  • This article explores how banks close accounts without clear explanation — a practice known as “debanking.” It highlights regulatory constraints, AML concerns, and internal risk assessments that particularly impact crypto customers, arguing that solutions should emphasize stronger compliance strategies rather than a complete overhaul of banking.
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• Solitude and Leadership - The American Scholar
  • Arguing that real leadership is cultivated in solitude rather than in external pursuits, this essay posits that deep thought, moral clarity, and genuine introspection prepare future leaders to take principled stands and make consequential decisions, challenging conventional notions of success built on constant networking.
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• Scaling Laws – O1 Pro Architecture, Reasoning Training Infrastructure, Orion and Claude 3.5 Opus “Failures” ($) - SemiAnalysis
  • Despite concerns over the plateau of AI scaling laws, new approaches such as reasoning-specific models, synthetic data generation, and advanced reinforcement learning are fueling continued progress. The piece also suggests that post-training and inference-time compute have emerged as additional frontiers for scaling sophisticated AI capabilities.
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Artificial Intelligence

• How to Read a Book Using o1 - Tyler Cowen
  • Cowen posits that AI tools like o1 revolutionize reading by enabling immediate, interactive engagement with texts, fostering a deeper understanding through on-demand clarification and continuous questioning. This shift encourages a more active and inquisitive approach to learning, fundamentally changing how we interact with written material.
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• Scaling Laws – O1 Pro Architecture, Reasoning Training Infrastructure, Orion and Claude 3.5 Opus “Failures” - SemiAnalysis
  • Despite fears of AI scaling laws breaking down, new dimensions like reasoning models, synthetic data generation, and reinforcement learning are enabling continued rapid progress, with post-training and inference-time compute emerging as critical scaling vectors.
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• Being First Is a Moat - Air Street Press
  • This article argues that being first to market in the AI space provides a significant competitive advantage, or "moat," due to the challenges of overcoming user inertia and the complexities of integrating new technologies into existing systems. While superior technology can eventually win, early market leaders like ElevenLabs and Synthesia benefit from established customer relationships, brand recognition, and accumulated data, making it difficult for even technically advanced competitors to displace them.
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Business

• Debanking (and Debunking?) - Bits About Money
  • This article examines the practice of "debanking," where banks close customer accounts, often without clear explanation, and its impact on individuals and businesses, particularly within the crypto industry. While often attributed to political motives or AML concerns, the author argues that debanking frequently results from banks' internal risk assessments, regulatory pressures, and systemic challenges in monitoring transactions, proposing that solutions should focus on mitigating the effects of the "Current Thing" on compliance decisions rather than overhauling banking.
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• Y Combinator and Power in Silicon Valley - Commoncog
  • This case study reveals how Y Combinator (YC) leverages its unique position within the Silicon Valley ecosystem—its control over early-stage deal flow—to exert power and protect its portfolio companies, even against established players. When tiny YC-backed AdGrok was sued by the much larger Adchemy, YC's Paul Graham and Sam Altman used their influence with investors and industry connections to force Adchemy to back down, demonstrating the potent combination of strategic relationships and the willingness to wield them decisively.
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• Intel’s Death and Potential Revival - Stratechery
  • Intel's decline stems from its failure to adapt to the mobile-first era, clinging to its x86 architecture and integrated device manufacturer (IDM) model while competitors like TSMC and ARM embraced foundry and RISC designs respectively, which then extended into the AI boom. The U.S. government now has a strategic interest in reviving Intel's foundry business as a national security imperative to reduce reliance on TSMC and Taiwan, potentially using an AI-focused "Manhattan Project" to integrate software and hardware development, creating a new market and integration point for a revitalized Intel.
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Technology and Society

• The Gen AI Bridge to the Future - Stratechery
  • Ben Thompson argues generative AI will be the crucial bridge to mainstream wearable computing, just as applications bridged mainframes to PCs, and the Internet bridged PCs to smartphones. Rather than apps being the interface layer for wearables, AI will generate contextual UI on demand—showing users exactly what they need, when they need it, based on their surroundings and state.
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• How We Got the Lithium-ion Battery - Construction Physics
  • The lithium-ion battery, a cornerstone of modern technology from portable electronics to electric vehicles, is not a singular invention but the result of decades of incremental advancements, research detours, and unexpected discoveries across various institutions and researchers globally. Commercialization hinged on not only the core chemistry breakthroughs but also the relentless pursuit of material efficiency, manufacturing scale, and a tolerance for unpredictable research trajectories.
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• Is Google’s New Quantum Chip Actually Useful? - Zach's Blog
  • Zach argues that Google's new "Willow" quantum chip, while a step forward in error correction, is not yet practically useful, as the benchmark used to demonstrate its speed (Random Circuit Sampling) is contrived and lacks real-world applications. He suggests that the field is still in its early stages, akin to the "vacuum tube era" of classical computing, and needs a fundamental breakthrough in device physics, like the invention of the transistor, to become transformative.
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• Energy Cheat Sheet - Construction Physics
  • This piece breaks down the complexities of U.S. energy infrastructure, illustrating how we move, store, and convert energy—largely around hydrocarbons—and the inefficiencies that result. It argues that while electricity is more efficient and versatile, it can be harder to store and transport at scale, requiring a fundamental rethink of infrastructure as the country decarbonizes.
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Self Improvement and Growth

• Solitude and Leadership - William Deresiewicz
  • This essay challenges the conventional view of leadership, arguing that true leadership emerges not from relentless networking and external validation, but from the inner work of solitude, where individuals cultivate independent thought, moral clarity, and the courage to challenge the status quo. The capacity for deep introspection, whether through focused work, sustained reading, or intimate friendship, allows future leaders to develop the strength and wisdom needed when faced with decisions of profound consequence.
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• Why I Write (An Invitation) - Samuel Gieschen
  • This essay explores writing as a way to process experiences, confront inner truths, and connect with oneself and others on a profound level. Gieschen likens writing to a spiritual exercise, a form of prayer or meditation that offers solace, clarity, and a unique path to self-discovery and emotional healing, ultimately arguing that writing is an essential act of being fully alive.
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• Beware Incommensurable Life Advice - The Diff
  • This piece cautions that success hinges on unpredictable blends of luck, talent, and internal motivation, making standard prescriptions untrustworthy. Because outlier performers often lack self-awareness about their own advantages, attempts to emulate them can distort realistic goal-setting. The author urges focusing on manageable inputs aligned with personal strengths rather than fixating on others’ outcomes.
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• The Most Important Question of Your Life - Mark Manson
  • Mark Manson argues that genuine fulfillment is determined by the adversity you’re willing to endure rather than the easy goals or fantasies you dream of. Embracing discomfort—whether it’s long work hours, relationship hurdles, or fitness sacrifices—is what ultimately shapes your identity and leads to meaningful success.
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