April 2023
Hey all,
In last month's newsletter, I talked about making big career changes, but didn't say what I was going to do next. So here's the big news: I've decided to join the cloud-cost visibility and optimization company Vantage as Director of Community.
I thought a lot about all my possible career options before starting at Vantage. It feels strange to leave the familiarity and comfort of a FinOps Practitioner position (where the work is clear and directly measurable) for this new DevRel (developer relations) role that I didn't even know existed a year ago.
But I'm excited and thrilled. Vantage is a great product built by a smart team, and also has a Manhattan office. I'm so excited to no longer be working remote. I know it's not for everyone, but I'm happy to be back on-site.
Basically, all the fun things I've been doing in my free time for the past several years (writing about FinOps, hosting meetups, connecting with people, sharing knowledge) is now my day job. How cool is that?
If you're in NYC, you should come to my first in-person event at Vantage. If you're not in NYC, keep an eye out for new virtual events.
This is going to be a blast.
-Dann
🤖 This month in AI
Things are moving so fast in the world of artificial intelligence that it's hard to keep up. New things — substantial things — happen daily. I could easily make this entire newsletter about AI, but I won't do that to you (plus Ben's Bites is already doing it way better than I ever could).
Instead, here are three things that happened this month that I think you should know about:
Amazon is staying true to its retail heart, and not investing in its own LLM models. Instead, "it says it wants to act as a neutral platform for businesses that want to incorporate generative AI features." Like the Switzerland of the cloud.
When it comes to Human/AI romance, it's turning out Her with Joaquin Phoenix was a bit too optimistic. People are falling deeply in love with AI, despite its limitations (like the fact that it's not sentient). Keep an eye on this space, and hold onto your hats.
The biggest development in the space is "generative agents." Here's the research paper (PDF) that took the world by storm. You create an generative agent by giving your AI 1) a memory, 2) a process to synthesize those memories into higher-level reflections, and 3) the ability to retrieve them dynamically to plan behavior.
Want to unleash your own AI agent to accomplish some task for you? You can do that now. We are absolutely racing toward the threshold where AI will either reach the singularity or annihilate all humanity.
*flips a coin*
🛷 ...Let's go exploring
I recently pre-ordered a book sight-unseen. The mere mention of its existence in an article made me click over to Amazon, purchase the book, and then go back and read the full story.
What caused this knee-jerk reaction? Bill Watterson, genius and famed recluse creator of the comic Calvin and Hobbes is coming out with a new book called The Mysteries.
From Simon and Schuster:
In a fable for grown-ups by cartoonist Bill Watterson, a long-ago kingdom is afflicted with unexplainable calamities. Hoping to end the torment, the king dispatches his knights to discover the source of the mysterious events. Years later, a single battered knight returns.
October can't come fast enough.
📸 Old school cool
Remember Hipstamatic? In a pre-Instagram world, it was the first iOS app to introduce the concept of photo filters. But Hipstamatic faded into the background as Instagram grew in popularity, just like Myspace in the Facebook era.
But Instagram sucks now. It's no longer a place where you post photos and view your friends' photos. It's full of TikTok-like videos, ads, and a non-linear timeline. I've been wishing there was a photo-sharing app that would just go back to basics.
That's why I've been having a blast with the new Hipstamatic X, a fresh take on a social photo-sharing from the creators of the OG app. It's totally free, but offers paid memberships to support development, meaning no ads.
I'm not sure if it'll overtake Instagram, but I'm certainly using it more.
🤝 See hand shake
For those of us above a certain age, the sound of a dialup modem connecting to the Internet will stay with us forever. It's iconic and unforgettable.
Those a bit more technical know that this sound is often called a "handshake," or the sound of two modems having a conversation with each other to establish a connection. These sounds, among other things, helped determine the strength of the connection over a telephone wire originally meant for human speech.
If you find this interesting, this spectrogram of the audio handshake clearly labels and explains each part. It's one of the better illustrations I've seen.
Oh, how far we've come.
🔥 I am the very model
I'm really glad that I watched this 25-minute video of Bobby Fingers (a professional model maker maybe?) creating a diorama of Michael Jackson catching on fire during the filming of a 1984 Pepsi commercial. But I'm not sure why I'm glad.
Maybe it's just the surreal, dark humor that's right up my alley. Perhaps it's also because I enjoy when people use highly specialized skills (model making, metal forging, filming and editing) to create highly absurd things.
Whatever the case, if any of this sounds appealing to you, you'll probably appreciate this video, too.
End note
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I'll be sending out these emails once per month, and I'm happy you're along for the ride. I'm trying to make it one of the best things that arrives in your inbox each month, so thoughts and feedback are always appreciated. You can just reply to this email.
Also, if you find anything interesting, send it my way.
Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Dann
The Dann Chronicles: April ☔️