RRR17: Oversimplification, Chess, More on Birth Rates, Future of Junto Club, GXO Logistics, HOAM Index, and NBA Thoughts
🙄♟👶🏻♣🤖🏡🏀
First things first - a big shoutout to nature for delivering some additional snow here in Connecticut. It’s been particularly cool to see all of the animal tracks in my backyard…
On many occasions I’ve seen groups of deer in the yard, but my latest forensics suggest they’re stampeding around out there. Time for a camera so I can see what the heck is going on?
Hey, one last thing before we get into this weeks edition. If you don’t already, would you mind subscribing? It’s 100% free, and you’ll get interesting content here that you likely won’t find elsewhere. Just wait until you read about the online chess engines in this edition… your TikTok algo isn’t serving you that up, is it? 😂😂.
Oversimplification of nuanced subjects is like looking at a peacock through a black and white lens - it diminishes the richness of what’s in front of you.
Of course, we humans have developed a tendency to engage in this practice for our own benefit:
We can ignore minor details to support quick decision-making
It makes us feel good (i.e. I understand this because I’m smart)
However, I think we may have started using this tactic to our own detriment far too often.
Consider the following example - someone says, “Automation is going to take our jobs”.
This has been historically inaccurate time and time again
Lacks any mention of the plethora of economic, political, and social factors that absolutely do impact unemployment
It’s dangerous because of its simplicity - an easy next step if you believe this is to say we shouldn’t strive for greater automation, full stop.
It seems that we may possess very bad radar to sense when an issue is truly complex in nature.
I vow to have the courage to say, “I don’t know”, or, “I need more information to have a truly informed opinion”.
It’s not wrong to have an opinion on something if you’re not an expert in the subject.
Just be open to the idea that your thoughts might be anywhere on the spectrum from completely, somewhat, or even a little bit wrong.
In Recent Times…
Hear me out - chess is really fun.
Last week, I stayed at a friend’s house in Philadelphia. Between trips to Pho75, and discussing plans to improve quality of life in Philadelphia, we played chess. We had so much fun playing that we vowed to continue our matches occasionally on chess.com.
In the time that has passed, I’ve actually signed up for a paid account, which allows me to have my games analyzed by the chess engines on the website. You can then go move by move and see other options you could have chosen. Here’s an example from a recent game:
It categorizes your moves into various quality scores, and it has a super cool “analyze” feature that lets you play out different lines to see what could have happened if you played differently.
I’m getting pretty comfortable with one opening strategy. From there, I allow instinct and creativity to guide me in the middle and end games. I’m making less mistakes, and learning to balance defense and aggression a bit more elegantly than when I first started.
Aside from how much fun I had playing with my friend, this interview between Lex Fridman and Magnus Carlsen opened my eyes to how many positional variations, styles, and tactics are possible in chess.
♟ #315 - Magnus Carlsen: Greatest Chess Player of All Time ♟
Right now my only goal is to keep improving and have some fun with it. Let’s see how it goes! As of now, my rating is a measly 437.
If you want to play, my username is “TikoCoassin”.
Content of the Week 📖🎙📺
In an ironic twist, the Chinese government has since tried to boost the falling birthrate by incentivizing mothers with tax breaks and free college tuition. However, these efforts have yet to take effect: the country’s natural population growth rate — calculated as the number of births minus deaths — now stands at -1.48%.
Immigration is one way China can buoy its population - I wonder if they will adopt more liberal policies that encourage people to move there, and if that will even work 🤔💭.
To sprinkle in an American POV, something aside from immigration we might want to consider is making it more affordable / comfortable for people to have kids…
PEW Research on Teen Social Media Usage
If you go through and read the fact sheet, YouTube seems to really reign supreme. It is quite an amazing site, and I generally feel better about kids being on YouTube constantly than sites like Instagram and TikTok.
One thing I fear is that social media sites have gone all-in on short-form content. I’ll have to do a deep dive on this soon, because I truly wonder how much that has zapped our collective attention span in recent years. I like YouTube because you can enjoy some long-form content, which even if not for educational purposes, helps us to focus on something for longer than 5-10 seconds.
GXO Logistics 🧠🤖
A company I started following that does some super cool work is GXO Logistics.
From their website:
The supply chain management solutions that we create for you are tailored to your business’s challenges and complexities. We leverage a broad range of capabilities including ecommerce expertise, reverse logistics and manufacturing support to tackle every logistics need, from warehousing to distribution. Ultimately, our goal is simple: to help you adapt and grow with a smarter supply chain.
They specialize in pretty much all facets of supply chain, including fulfillment, manufacturing support, reverse logistics (fancy term for returned merchandise), and more.
In addition, they build their own technology to help create smarter and more efficient supply chains for their customers.
They even have “Digital Warehouses and Innovation Centers” which serve as research facilities / think tanks for their technology team.
I recently listened to this podcast (from April ‘22) with their CEO Malcolm Wilson:
They explain their POV on the market trends for warehouse automation, I found it pretty interesting!
♣ The Future of Junto Club ♣
It’s been a few editions in a row without Junto Club. While it’s one of my favorite portions of RRR to write, I’m starting to feel strongly that I can find a better home for it. When I try to squeak it into standard editions of the newsletter, it doesn’t get the oxygen that it deserves!
Moving forward, I’ll supplement the standard editions of RRR with Junto Club topics in between. I think it will be an exciting new way for me to explore a topic with you all 😊.
Reply to this email, or, drop a comment if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see discussed in an upcoming Junto Club.
HOAM Index 😪
Still a rough time for prospective homeowners in the U.S. (and much of the world, though that data is not pictured below).
Kawhi Is Still A Force, Can OKC Win It All?
Kawhi Leonard seemed to have fallen out of favor with a large swath of basketball fans. Whenever his name came up in a conversation about the NBA, the sentiment was overwhelmingly negative.
On one hand, I get it. He was hurt a lot. Additionally, there wasn’t always a lot of information out about exactly what his injury issues were. Additionally, his injuries were coming at a moment in time where angst about excessive “resting” of players was at an all time high.
On the other hand, I don’t think anyone should harbor anything but respect for Kawhi Leonard’s ability as a basketball player. He’s also missed time to serious injuries (such as an ACL tear, and most recently, a torn meniscus) as opposed to “resting”.
One thing I have absolutely loved watching this season (albeit not often thanks to 10:00PM starts in Los Angeles) is Kawhi Leonard consistently terrorizing opposing players once again.
He’s shooting 52%-44%-88% (fg%-3pt%-ft%) compared to the NBA average of 47%-37%-79% this season 😳😳😳.
Here’s some of his most recent work:
In other news, I’m starting to seriously contemplate the idea that the Oklahoma City Thunder could emerge out of the western conference playoffs to make the NBA finals.
They’re winning almost 70% of their games and have one of the best net ratings in the league. They have the league 4th-rated offense and 6th-rated defense - a hallmark of most championship teams is being top-10, if not top-5, in both categories.
They have, in my estimation, one of the three best players in the league who is capable of being the best player on the floor in any playoff series they have.
They also have a treasure chest of assets they could use to bolster the roster a bit more. They could use some insurance for rookie big-man Chet Holmgren, if not also a better option to start at shooting guard.
I know this is quite imperfect information, but I got a strange feeling watching this video of the entire organization showing up to a high school gymnasium to watch Holmgren get his jersey retired. The whole team feels very together, in an unusual way. I remember having a similar feeling watching the Warriors postgame interviews prior to winning their first championship.
Just last night they had a massive win on the road against the western conference’s first place team, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
That’s it for this week, folks. Let me leave you with some songs I’ve been enjoying lately:
On & On - Erykah Badu
Primera Cita - Carin Leon
U Don’t Know - Jay-Z
✌🏻.
Microplastics and the developing international Plastics treaty