My dad had three heart attacks, in quick succession, about an hour after I officially clocked in for my 34th trip around the sun. I spent most of the day helping him settle into his second admission into a hospital in less than a month, and reflecting on the brevity of our time.
The evening prior, I celebrated my 33rd birthday with a theme of triangles - It was a night heavily laden with threes.
Our proclivity to imbue symbols with deep meaning is fundamentally human. Yet, I find myself surprised, still, to have what started as a bit of a joke turn into one for myself.
Jung became fascinated with synchronicity - a term he used to define the coincidences in life that convey great meaning to the observer. I can’t argue that I haven’t left the experience with a souvenir. A simple triangle now immediately invokes something in my spirit — the desire and will to make my own meaning in life; and to cherish what I have.
If we have three acts in life, I’ve now left my first - the era of becoming; origins; genesis. I’ve become the adult who cares for an aging parent, the father to a boy who aspires to defeat super-villains, and a man who still looks at the darkness in the world with the delusional optimism that it can be conquered.
But as I realized with my father’s fortune in living to make jokes about the hospital food - we do not know when our end will come, or whether our third act will ever arrive. We must endeavor to make the life and the world we want with the time we have; the day at hand.
I have not yet accomplished all I want to in my life, nor become the person I aspire to be — Yet. But I am working, day by day, towards it.
There are many things happening in the world that bear commentary, but today the world has seen 100 years of wisdom leave us, in the passing of Charlie Munger.
I recall reading a list of book recommendations from Jason Fried in my late 20s, and committing myself to reading every book on it. I had a lot of respect for his perspectives on business, and figured I’d learn a fair bit. Turns out, I learned quite a lot, because that list included a reference to Poor Charles Almanack: The wit and wisdom of Charles T. Munger.
Charlie Munger wasn’t someone I was too closely familiar with at the time. I knew of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hatheway, but Charlie was less of a prominent figure in the media. He was wise, that way.
When I set out to read the book and learn more about him, I frankly thought I’d learn mostly things relevant to investing and business. Instead, I find that while I did, the things I cherish more are those lessons about living a wise life.
I don’t know that I can impart all of the wisdom I gleaned from his writing & speaking, and frankly I’m not sure it would be very engaging. Charlie had a way of packaging that wisdom up in short, witty quips that sucker punch you with insight. I’ve not yet developed that skill - In fact, I fear that I ramble quite exhaustively when allowed to. Perhaps 70 more years will allow me to grow out of that.
Because the most important takeaway from Charlie is that we can be as eager to learn as we were when young.
“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy that helps, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.” - Charlie Munger
Take care of yourself out in the great unknown, Charlie - and thanks.
State of the Art, Art invoked & composed by author with Fine-tuned SD
Hundreds of years ago, the expert painters of the Renaissance had apprentices. The expert was free to direct the act and flow of creation to service the whims of the culture and their patrons, as they delegated work to the apprentice, who learned their techniques and skills from these mentors.
In many ways, art has changed. The tools professional artists use are different, and the work itself is often ethereal. Digital stylus instead of brush; .png instead of framed canvas. In a matter of months, we’ve seen our perspective shift dramatically on what is possible — again. With the developments in machine learning (ML), creating visual media has been made as trivial as asking for a picture.
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Our Machine Apprentices
The current wave of applied ML has already disrupted the way that art is created. In professions requiring the the creative substantiation of concepts and ideas, their craft will increasingly be facilitated and assisted by AI tooling. Yet, how the technology develops is still being debated in the words and actions of those who build it.
The materials used to train the models powering this technology include content that many argue was included unethically, without consent. Yet, the world of intellectual property from the 20th century is a poor construct to understand the world of AI - in practice and in truth. As evidenced by the recent decision of the US Supreme Court in the Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith case, we have very poor guidance and consensus on what “fair use” means.
Arguing against fair use in the training of foundational models could actually work against many artists. Professional artists, in the course of commercial work, are routinely required to transfer copyrights to other parties. The biggest winners in a world where model creation is limited to copyright holders is not artists, but the large corporate entities who acquired as much content as possible before anyone, including artists, knew what would be possible with technology.
In many ways, despite the controversy still playing out in courts, open-source models provide a path forward for artists that protects them from having their access to these revolutionary tools restricted. These open models are largely considered to be “sub-par” on their own - They need additional training and fine-tuning to effectively achieve the highest quality results. The technology exists to provide professionals the ability to train these models further, on their own work, such that they serve as just building blocks to personalized tooling - And most importantly, provide the ability for those same artists to claim ownership over the generative model itself, allowing them to license it and use it freely for their own work.
Times are changing, and so too does our relationship with art. Yet, while we create differently, the art itself remains, and we find ourselves once again teaching apprentices to create our work. This time, those apprentices are our machines.
The Future of Art
In conversations with artists, one thing is clear - few understand how the technology works. They are not alone. Many misunderstandings of how “AI” works, generally, are leading to broad and misguided narratives taking hold in public discourse.
Many who have had their work used in the creation of these models will tell you that their style is only replicated in a shallow, hollow way by the unspecialized general tooling available - even when explicitly invoked in the prompt. While some may write this off as evidence of the forever subpar nature of AI artwork, I would propose that this is instead proof that to truly understand a specific perspective on art, these tools need an artist to train it directly.
If creatives are provided the affordance to train their own model, they have the power to produce a true apprentice. Further, despite the concern for the risk of their artwork being stolen for the same purpose, artists are the best equipped with the capability of truly teaching it their style. They have the ability to generate new work to better instruct it, and can use these proprietary protected datasets to distill their perspective, treating the model as a lens that reflects their style as the AI generates new work.
The possibility of exclusive ownership over these capabilities is afforded only by open-source models. This makes it absolutely baffling that legislation in Europe has proposed attempting to punish open-sourced technology in this space. We have an opportunity to change the future of technology to ensure equitable access to these capabilities. Change is painful, and there is no doubt that this technology is disruptive. However, there is a path towards a better outcome for artists, where human creativity is channelled and harnessed in a new way.
Our Responsibility
As a builder working in this industry, I will unabashedly state that the world of “AI” is imperfect.
There have been projects incorporating stolen code with disregard, and fine-tuned models created based on artists works that are distributed without consent or compensation. I’m committed to fixing those problems systemically.
I have long desired to put my effort toward building technology the right way, choosing the path of conscience over convenience in building a team and product that serves users well. I want to enable artists and designers to benefit from their work, rather than have them exploited by the system as commodities. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that technology, particularly AI, is not just a tool for progress, but a beacon for ethical standards, inclusivity, and respect for individual creativity and rights being designed into these emerging systems.
We are at the emergence of a dramatic societal shift. As we venture deeper into the age of artificial intelligence, we must not lose sight of the human element that lies at the heart of creativity. The journey towards better leads to a future where art and technology coexist, not as competitors, but as partners in a dance that celebrates the boundless potential of human creativity. The work will be difficult and challenging, but that end is more than worth endeavoring toward.
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The Compass and the North Star, Art invoked by author with Stable Diffusion
Heading North
Ancient explorers, sailing under clear night skies, relied on the brilliance of the stars to navigate swiftly towards their destination.
Life, however, is rarely as straightforward as a clear night at sea. More often, it feels like a disorienting storm where the unknown hinders our ability to steer in the direction we desire.
Surprisingly, we tend to tie our happiness to dreams of what our life might become, rather than what we are making it to be right now. We set distant goals as our "north stars," believing that once reached, happiness will follow. In doing so, we lose sight of the present moment and settle for unease, anxiety, and a perpetual sense of impending failure.
What if we could find purpose in navigating life's waters well, rather than focusing solely on reaching a distant shore?
The Open Purpose
The idea of a grand, far-off purpose is appealing, as it allows us to believe we were born to achieve something great. Ancient Greeks called this ultimate purpose "telos." Aristotle described it as the realization of our full potential and the highest Good possible.
However, holding on too tightly to distant goals causes anxiety within us, and prevents us from appreciating the virtues of our efforts.
Instead of questioning our life's ultimate purpose, we should view each day as purposeful in itself. By reflecting on and learning from our daily actions, we embrace an open purpose that continuously evolves.
Our purpose, then, is less about where we are going, and more about the path we intend to walk to get there.
Our Compass
In today's world, we find it difficult to escape comparisons between what we have and unattainable illusions of what life should be. We’re left with a miserable, clouded state of mind.
Sailors who lost their ability to navigate by stars turned to compasses. A compass has us focus on the direction we are moving, rather than the destination.
So, too, we can focus on the direction we work to move in each day, to help us appreciate the lives we have. We can then strive to live each day to the best of our abilities, examining where we spend our time and how we treat others, as the only measure we need to determine whether we are fulfilling our purpose.
This is not to say that everything will work out, or that we should abandon long-term goals. Rather, it encourages us to reflect on our progress and focus on living the present day to the fullest.
In doing so, we can find fulfillment in the journey itself, embracing failures and successes both as opportunities to live wisely.
The Metaverse, Art invoked by author using Stable Diffusion
As the notion of a “metaverse” becomes a popular and controversial talking point at VC and corporate water coolers alike, we enter into a future that very well may change how culture manifests itself in our daily lives. Yet, the metaverse is a poorly defined and oft misunderstood concept.
Early people explained the world through myth, using metaphor and the shared experience to teach those things that can only be learned through imagined experience. When we are immersed in a story, we are transported to a different dimension - Our mind’s eye envisions that other place, and we exist there even if only for a moment. Those experiences often change our worldview, providing insights that then reshape the reality to which we return when the tale is at its end.
In some ways, the “metaverse” is a story - a digital history that exists and persists, with individuals participating and navigating that set of truths. How might that story, increasingly meaningful to “digital natives” that are growing up online, come to guide their behavior offline?
Harari’s Sapiens makes one thing clear - It is the tendency to rationalize through narrative that creates the order found in our communities, societies, and economies. These stories guide and shape our lives. Property rights, money, and the meaning of a flag can all be seen as tales we’ve come to take for granted as “real”, despite their intangible nature. They have become so foundational to our worldview that it is seen as laughably foolish and impractical to insist that these things don’t exist outside of our imagination. We operate pragmatically in an imagined world that is collectively accepted.
Imagine that a younger generation were to find that the status and achievements obtained in an online universe meant something significant to them. Social comparisons with their peers and the ‘in-group’ would begin to focus on this digital system. Eager to establish an identity in this new social world, they would seek to display symbols of prestige or dominance. Being able to claim affiliation with some tribe could prove just as meaningful to the individual seeking community.
The above captures the phenomenon of Instagram and Fortnite just as well as it describes the world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and digital assets. We are human, and have a natural inclination to establish ourselves in the social groups that we deem relevant. It is continued relevance, in the eyes of our community and society, that dictates whether a status symbol is sought or discarded in the pile of meaningless junk that mattered to some older generation. The value of a rare Beanie Baby is in the eye of the beholder’s social circle.
The most forward thinking people I speak with get excited at the notion of a “metaverse” when it endeavors to serve as a digital perpendicularity to reality. Instead of serving purely as an evolution of digital escapism, the metaverse could become a set of digital identifiers and assets that are navigated as a pragmatic reality in business and global order. In this sense, the truest incarnation of the metaverse will aim to augment reality, instead of merely replacing it. The term “augmented reality” has historically been reduced to just the visual interface used to display information to a user. As we begin to better appreciate how society is changing, I propose that our understanding of this term will develop as well.
If this vision of a metaverse is realized, it will serve as an evolution to the myths we already assume to be true and real - Property rights, social identity, and the obligation to fulfill our agreements with one another. As this additional layer of technology becomes increasingly embedded into the standard interactions and interfaces we navigate daily, we will be forced to revisit our notion of what is ‘true’.
It is worth commenting on the modern fascination with NFTs. There is significant debate over the foolishness of paying inflated prices to “own a picture”, referring to assets like CryptoPunks and BAYC. If Ethereum (the platform these tokens are built on) serves as the digital asset management layer for the metaverse, the earliest assets that captured cultural attention will resemble the Gutenburg Bible more than niche collectibles. That being said, I have less conviction in derivative projects that don’t offer any novel development on the concept.
There are significant risks with this technology that must be recognized and addressed. Yet, as our culture increasingly promotes participation and interaction with the story that is the metaverse, it is inevitable that perspectives will change. Only time will tell whether this collective hallucination will take hold and come to serve as the evolved myth of property itself. If it does, it could advance human civilization to a new age of freedom and geopolitical accountability. However, if it is misused or subverted by the worst inclinations of our species, it could also doom us to the tyranny of a digital hell.
Whatever the case, our lived experience - “reality” - is at stake.
