Friday 7 April, 2023

Into the light

Escapees from St Pancras.


Quote of the Day

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”

  • Albert Einstein

Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news

Handel | ‘Where’er you walk’ | Semele | Academy of Ancient Music

Link


Long Read of the Day

Tyler Cowen’s conversation with Dean Swift

Maybe this should really be the Long Listen of the Day, because there’s an audio version as well as a transcript? Tyler had access to OpenAI’s newest Large Language Model (LLM), GPT4, and he used it to have an imaginary conversation with the great Irish satirist.

It was such an original idea that I laughed out loud when I first learned of it. (And of course wished that I had had the idea myself. I had to content myself with asking ChatGPT to write an entry in Virginia Woolf’s diary for Saturday 19th March, 1926. — with uninspiring results that I described on Tuesday this week.)


Chart of the Day

Looks like a career in tech isn’t the bed of roses it used to be.


My commonplace booklet

Tyler Cowen: How to visit Italy

Link

Crisp, succinct and informative — as usual with him.

E.g.:

  1. Venice, Florence, and Rome have, on average, the worst food in Italy. They have some wonderful places, but possibly hard to get into, requiring advance planning, and often expensive. For random meals, those cities are not impressive, noting that Rome, due to its size, is much better than Venice or Florence.

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