Full steam ahead
A photograph of Brandon Head in Co. Kerry which momentarily looked like a giant locomotive trailing clouds of steam.
Quote of the Day
”To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
- Henry Kissinger
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Ronald Binge | Sailing By | BBC Symphony Orchestra
The the background soundtrack for generations of Radio 4 listeners: it’s the intro music for the late-night Shipping Forecast, among other things.
Long Read of the Day
The Making Of Dario Amodei
A good profile by Alex Kantrowitz of someone who (IMHO) is one of the most interesting person in the ‘AI’ race.
Dario Amodei doesn’t hesitate when I ask what’s gotten into him. The Anthropic CEO has spent 2025 at war, feuding with industry counterparts, members of the government, and the public’s perception of artificial intelligence.
In recent months, he’s predicted that AI could soon eliminate 50% of entry-level, white-collar jobs. He’s railed against a ten-year AI regulation moratorium in the pages of the New York Times. And he’s called for semiconductor export controls to China, drawing a public rebuke from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Underlying his efforts, Amodei says, is a firm belief that AI is moving faster than most of us appreciate, making its opportunities and consequences much closer than they appear. “I am indeed one of the most bullish about AI capabilities improving very fast,” he tells me. “As we’ve gotten more close to AI systems that are more powerful, I’ve wanted to say those things more forcefully, more publicly, to make the point clearer.”
Amodei’s outspokenness and sharp elbows have earned him both respect and derision in Silicon Valley…
Worth a read.
So many books, so little time
Reading muscle
Diane Coyle’s review of Edward Tenner’s Why the Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge
There are loads of aha! moments in the book. One of my favourite essays is ‘The Importance of being Unimportant’, arguing that the highest profit margins come from essential components that are a small proportion of the total cost of the finished product – bicycle valves for instance. This introduced me to the work of Edwin Mansfield, who estimated that stronger sewing thread had “contributed more to productivity and well-being than any other innovation, including information technology.” (And who knew that Kenneth Clark of Civilization fame was so rich because the former inherited money from the IPO of the Coats thread-making business.)
Which is interesting because I’ve been re-watching the re-run of Clark’s Civilisation TV series on iPlayer and wondering how he could afford the magnificent Saville Row suits he wore — with collar and tie even in the sweltering heat of Mediterranean countries! Now we know where his money came from.
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