November/December links

Happy new year! We're easing back into the rhythms of life and work after a bunch of unstructured and joyous free time over the holidays. It's hard to snap back into it.

One of my holiday projects was getting back into beer brewing after an eight year hiatus. I cooked up two all-grain batches at the end of December: A SMASH pale ale and a hazy pale called Cosmic Trident. I messed up the first one. The recirculation hose fell out of the mash tun when I wasn't looking and squirted sticky wort all over the laundry room floor for five or ten minutes. That meant we lost a lot of sugar volume and so the beer came out pretty low-ABV. Still, surprisingly drinkable from the keg!

Fiona and I have decided to call our homebrewery Strange Creature, named for many things, but one being that we're Utah/California transplants in eastern Idaho–strangers in a strange land. Weird logo is pending. And more notes on brewing to follow.

From the past couple months

From me:

• A look back at 2023 [Link]
• Christmas Eve backcountry skiing with my dog [Link]
• Climbing Castleton Tower (short) [Link]

Applying leverage as a product manager - from years ago, but timeless wisdom from Brandon Chu [Link]

To-scale: Israel mapped onto the San Francisco Bay Area (via ACX) [Link]

A Starfield review I found myself nodding along with [Link]

Make your own GPT now [Link]

Animating still images with AI [Link]

Dictator book club: Hugo Chavez [Link]

Nature conservancy photo contest winners [Link]

On not stressing about super intelligent AI takeover [Link]

I've been into watching niche sports recently:

• Timbersports [Link]
• Professional "chase tag" [Link]
• Armwrestling [Link]
• 2023 Microsoft Excel world championship [Link]

Sam Altman fired from OpenAI [Link]

Sam Altman re-hired to OpenAI [Link]

Mister Organ. I'd highly recommend any work by David Farrier. Mister Organ is a documentary about a narcissist living in New Zealand. Wild and exasperating. [Link]

A very happy bunny made with GPT (via my buddy Nic B.) [Link]

Anduril anti-drone drone [Link]

No way [Link]

Why potato chip flavors differ around the world [Link]