November 2023
Hey all,
I watched my first ever Hallmark Christmas movie this Thanksgiving. I'm not sure how I managed to completely avoid them until this point in my life, but recently discovering Pluto TV and feeling nostalgic for pre-streaming television had me open to new experiences.
In an ending scene, two will-they-won't-they characters take a Christmas Day stroll through New York City, It's snowing, and everything is dusted with a fresh clean layer of white.
It's the kind of holiday weather we just don't get anymore. At some point between when I moved here in 2004 and now, the chance of Christmas snow dropped to zero. It's a not-so-subtle reminder of climate change. Remember, NYC is officially subtropical now.
Anyway, I guess I'd give the movie about a "B.""
-Dann
🎁 Peak Consumerism
I don't usually promote my individual blog posts in my newsletter (did you know that I'm also semi-regularly posting content to my website?) but I had a lot of fun with this one and wanted to share.
I made my own 2023 Indie Holiday Gift Guide. I called it "indie" because it's just me — usually these type of gift guides are a collaborative process published by big magazines or newspapers. But why should they have all the fun?
I've always had a soft spot for holiday gift guides, as strange as that might sound. It's the closest I'll get to fun mail-order catalogues of my youth. I used to love pouring through Oriental Trading and Things You Never Knew Existed every time a new issue arrived in the mail, despite the fact that they were 90% the same issue-to-issue.
Online shopping took away much of the joy and novelty of mail order catalogues, but the spirit lives on in holiday gift guides. I always love seeing which products I recognize and which are new to me. You can get a sense of each publication by the products each chooses to include in their respective guides.
If you were to put together your own holiday gift guide, what items would you include?
📌 In defense of screens
Remember Quibi? It was a new video platform, designed specifically for smartphones, that promised to change the entire industry. It raised $1.75 billion before it even launched and lasted only six months before shutting down back in 2020.
I'm asking because I feeling some deja vu.
There's a tech company that's been operating in stealth, yet getting a ton of pre-revenue buzz. It was founded by a bunch of ex-Apple employees, with a plan to kill the smartphone as we know it, allowing us to give up screens without giving up functionality. It raised over $200M to fund this mission.
The company is Humane and this month it launched its first product, the AI Pin.
If I was skeptical of the company before the product launch, I'm straight up doubtful now. If you have ten minutes (or less at 2x speed), you should watch the product launch video yourself. It's truly bizarre.
Sean O'Kane covers all the little infuriating details on his blog (side note: Sean and I actually went to college together, and he joined The Verge shortly after I left). But one flub stood out against the rest.
When the AI Pin is asked about the best place to view the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, it confidently answers Australia. That is 100% wrong—North America will have the best views.
It's since been fixed (the AI voiceover now answers Nazas, Durango, Mexico in every version of the video). But how does an error that big make it into a launch this big? Sort of amazing.
🍪 Limited time only
I've discovered a new favorite treat at Trader Joe's, the unassuming Chocolate Dipped Danish Cookies. It's one of those treats where the cashier will gush about how much they love it, too, and how they were surprised it was so tasty since they look sort of dry and boring (actual conversation).
If you live near a Trader Joes and want to try them (which you do), you should act fast. I don’t have any insider information that these will be discontinued soon, but remember that I'm a retail harbinger of failure (as I discussed before), so the mere fact that I love them means they’re not long for this world.
💌 Do Not Email
I always consider November to be Do Not Email month, mostly because it's the best time to unsubscribe from all those emails you don't actually want to be getting.
The 1-2-3 punch of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday means nearly every company that has your email is going to be sending you an email.
What most people don't realize is that those little unsubscribe links at the bottom of marketing emails actually work. So I encourage you to take 10 minutes each day to actually unsubscribe from emails that you don't want to be receiving (even if it's this newsletter...I don't want you on my list if this email doesn't bring you joy).
While you're on a roll digitally, maybe you want to get fewer flyers and catalogs in your physical mail as well. There's actually a solution for that, supported by the FTC.
As explained on the FTC's website, you can register with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and asked to be excluded from physical marketing mail. Registration costs $4 (because of course it does) but it lasts for 10 years. I signed up in December of 2022, and there's since been a noticeable drop in physical junk mail.
Happy Do Not Email month!
✂️ The darkest timeline
If I were to believe in the multiverse, I might think there was a very distinct timeline split this past weekend—in one timeline, humanity thrives and in another it completely dies out.
Late in the afternoon on Friday, it was announced that Sam Altman (co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT) was fired by its board of directors. The given reason was that the board concluded that Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board."
My initial thought was that he was somehow lying about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—that point in the (not-so-distant?) future where AI crosses the threshold of human intelligence and the real existential threat to humanity starts.
The following weekend+ was a wild ride, and here are the main points of the journey:
Sam Altman fired, the board publicly announces the news with a blog post
Public uproar, Altman then rumored to be in talks to return as CEO
Hours later, the board announces a new CEO (not Altman)
Overnight (before market open on Monday!) Microsoft announces it is hiring Altman
Board members flip and take Altman's side
The board refuses to elaborate on Altman's wrongdoings (even to the new CEO) and 700 of 770 employees threaten to quit unless Altman is reinstated
Rumors that Altman is in talks to return at CEO (again)
Altman is back with a (largely) new board
Following along, it honestly felt like the first season of Game of Thrones (back when it was good). Not just because of the power struggles, but because of the potential danger to humanity posed by AI, and the fighting over who gets to control it.
The public largely took Altman's side. No surprise, since he's such a likable public figure. He's the darling child of AI, just like Sam Bankman-Fried was the darling child of crypto.
From what I can tell (and again, these are rumors) the board may have wanted to slow down the pace of innovation, and Altman was full-speed again. There may have been a disagreement about risk tolerance and safety.
Or maybe a board member was catty about being in the dark about a recent OpenAI product launch, and staged a "coup."
But I don't know what to think. I just don't have enough information. But it does make me feel better, now that Altman was reinstated, to know that nearly all OpenAI employees wanted his return. I have to assume they have access to information that I don't have, and are making an informed decision.
But really, that's all we have to go off of. If this was actually a timeline split, I sure hope we're not on the dark path.
Further reading:
WSJ's Behind the Scenes of Sam Altman’s Showdown at OpenAI (bypass paywall)
Reuter's OpenAI researchers warned board of AI breakthrough ahead of CEO ouster, sources say
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: November 2023 🍪