Farewell to 2020

December 31st, 2020

One year passeth away, and another year cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.

The distance between the countries compensates somewhat for the excessive closeness of the times.

There is a place we call home and a place we long to be. The human condition funambulates between homecoming and adventure, the temporal and the eternal, Hobbit-like homely order and rapturous exploration. Man insatiably yearns for both—at the same time—and more often than not, he doesn’t have the slightest idea of what he’s doing or where he wants to be.

Yearning for home should not be thought of as an escape from the world but an affirmation of it—in other words, the return journey is at the same time the forward journey into the place of belonging. In many ways, the year of our lord 2020 has been a year of an all out war against entropy. In reality, our return journey, which is a journey back to a much desired normalcy—the old and known and usual—has been a forward journey forged by audacious science and progress, our new homecoming.

We didn’t know where we wanted to be. “For,” as Ulysses said to Athena, “I see the true state of all us that live—dim shades and weightless shadow.”

Yet, in the grand scheme of things and amidst the onslaught of all the horrible events of the year past, we echoed Isaiah (“I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said, Here am I; send me.”) In spite and because of all that happened, we are coming back roaring and growling, punching our way through all the adversity. 2020—or at least its ending—has been in a sense Kazantzakian: “we are wounded but still standing on our feet.” We don’t usually look far ahead unless for a fat tail that shakes us to our core. There is an inherent pessimism in the micro and optimism in the macro: we are aloof until we aren’t.

Bertram Cooper reminds us of a Japanese saying, “a man is whatever room he is in.” And we’re now in the room delivering. The first ever working mRNA vaccines for humans. (The Moderna vaccine was designed in two days and without access to COVID-19.) A powerful new CPU architecture by Apple. SpaceX reminding us that we’re still pioneers and that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us. GPT-3 showing us the future of man, machine, and language. Proliferation of electric and driverless cars. Starlink attempting satellite-based internet connections across the world. Tremendous progress in solar power. The possibility of a universal flu vaccine. A revolution of biotechnology with new CRISPR techniques.

To put it on a bumper sticker: the world is open for play. Don’t give up the ship. Some work of noble note may yet be done. Nothing ends here.

Newsletters I read

June 29th, 2019

About a year ago I wrote about the podcasts I listen to. I think of newsletters in (about) the same vein; I’m looking for ones that are “smart, intellectually stimulating and thought provoking, to the point, and refreshing”. I’m subscribed to 15 (!) such newsletters, however because they are of high quality and are delivered either weekly or monthly, it never feels like my inbox is swamped. They cover topics like tech, third culture, management, finance, hedge funds, venture capital, economics, markets, law, and China. Sort of an overlap with the podcasts I’m subscribed to.

Before I jump to the list (just like in my podcasts post,) I want to briefly mention how I read newsletters. Frankly, in contrast to my Overcast setup, my newsletter setup is very simple but for one cool trick: Smart Mailboxes. My “Newsletters” Smart Mailbox declutters my inbox and acts as a unified list of my to-read subscriptions. It doesn’t matter if I archive or otherwise act on an email, it’s always there.

I’ve listed my newsletter subscriptions below. (Ranked in the order of my Smart Mailbox.) Am I missing something? If your favorite newsletter is not listed below but merits to be, please do let me know. I’m all in for great content and expanding this medley of thought streams. In the words of the novelist Ian McEwan, I think, you, the readership of this blog and I are looking for content that is “open-minded, free-ranging, intellectually playful… an unadorned pleasure in curiosity, a collective expression of wonder at the living and inanimate world… an ongoing and thrilling colloquium.”

Matt’s Thoughts in Between

One of my favorites newsletters. A unique collection of thoughts on tech, economics, politics, paired with great links by Matt Clifford who runs Entrepreneur First.

Edge

On third culture, long term thinking about the future, technology, and more.

Gwern

New content, edits, as well as links by the legendary Gwern. From philosophy, statistics, and psychology, to programming.

Breaking Smart

Venkatesh Rao’s newsletter on technology, ideas, management, and more.

Harvard Law Review

Constitutional law is one of my hobbies.

Benedict’s Newsletter

A weekly newsletter with Ben’s notes about tech, Silicon Valley. Great insights about the industry from one of the best.

Porcupine Letters

My only—and favorite—Greek newsletter. Yannis’ links (from design to management and productivity) are excellent.

Albourne Village

Hedge fund and finance news and links. Industry favorite.

a16z Newsletter

The definitive way to catch up with a16z’s takes on tech, how software is eating the world, and their investments. Pairs well with their podcast.

Sinocism

“The presidential daily brielf for China hands.” As you may know, I’m interested in China and Africa lately.

Credit Writedowns

Edward Harrison, a seasoned banking and business professional (who started as a diplomat) writes one of the best finance, macroeconomics, and foreign policy newsletters out there.

Digital Culture

A monthly essay mixing serious thoughts and more trivial observations on technology, finance, culture, and investing.

Nicolas Colin’s weekly work, readings, & writings

A newsletter about technology, startups, and investing.

Briefings by Goldman Sachs

Goldman’s definitive weekly roundup of trends shaping markets, industries, and the global economy.

Thoughts for the long run

Aimun writes a very interesting weekly newsletter about long-term investing (from mental models to investing trends) in venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds.

The iPad Pro

June 10th, 2019

About a month ago I bought an 11” iPad Pro. My first iPad was a sturdy 2011 iPad 2 which I used until about 2013. I was never too fond of tablets as they seemed immovable in an indefinite gap between laptops and phones. There are two reasons behind this. First, in retrospective, until iOS 12, the platform wasn’t mature enough to explore and experiment beyond its media consuming roots. Second, every major new computing paradigm requires an adjustment period from both developers and users alike. People need time to figure out things.

These reasons beg the questions: why did I buy an iPad (again)? Is it worth it? The answer to the former is three-fold. My response to the latter is simply yes.

My iPad Pro running iSH connected to my remote Digital Ocean Ubuntu box.
My iPad Pro running iSH connected to my remote Digital Ocean Ubuntu box.

First, I became increasingly convinced that the iPad Pro can be used for real work from posts like Paul’s, Fatih’s, and the ongoing and fascinating iPad saga of Federico Viticci. I enjoyed the depth of Paul’s essay and versatility of use. Conversely, I’m not entirely in Viticci’s “iPad is the future / iPad as a desktop replacement” camp. Mainly because while the concept being certainly doable, the iPad, I think, is not a complete desktop replacement (yet.) Often, Federico goes on extreme lengths to accomplish his professional and personal tasks on the iPad. I like my Shortcuts Some of my favorites: streamlining take off messages (including flight number and tracking link) to our iMessage family group using Tripit’s calendar feature; transcribing Overcast audio segments to Evernote; converting markdown files to PDF using Pandoc; save tweets and Instapaper excerpts to Evernote. and have created a few that really cater to the intricacies of my workflow but I’m neither willing nor interested to rely on them as my only and fundamental pillar of my tech infrastructure and productivity stack. However, I’m willing to admit (and in fact argue in favor of) that there’s “a there, there.” It’s just not all there is.

Second, I love the iPad’s portability. I travel frequently and because of my use case (writing code usually in remote clusters or servers, writing, light media consumption, research, notes, and meetings, The iPad is my favorite device to run Hangouts, Meet, Zoom, and Skype meetings.) I don’t require a workhorse of a machine. Computing requirements are offloaded to the cloud. I value how light a machine is and how long the battery lasts. The iPad is excellent in these circumstances. I was quick to dismiss in the past the Smart Keyboard and similar hardware keyboards as foolish. I was (partially) wrong: the Smart Keyboard is amazing and redefines using an iPad (I still do not like over the top accessories like Brydge.) The iPad Pro form factor is close to, if not, perfect. I suppose if I were more into the creative and design side of things the 12.9” version would make more sense. Since I’m not into drawing, the smaller screen is very comfortable. I can conveniently split the screen and use two apps side by side—even throw in the floating pop-over. iPadOS (due in Fall) will make multitasking even better. I love how easy it is to use Vim with iSH in my Digital Ocean Ubuntu box. Sure, “it’s not a local development environment” but fits my needs And a great deal for only $5 per month with a free domain name and SSL.). Lastly, the battery life is fantastic: miles ahead of my 12” MacBook.

Third, iOS’ maturity—as well as where it’s projected to go. I’m excited about the iPad’s future with iPadOS. In WWDC Apple launched a truckload of great improvements. Not all are relevant to my workflow (for instance, USB thumb drive support in Files) but all are more than welcome. I should note that even before the launch of iPadOS the transition from macOS to the iPad as a near-desktop replacement was very easy. Having the same keyboard shortcuts with macOS helps. My data are already on Dropbox (photos and music on iCloud) so local storage requirements are (almost) a thing of the past. Essentially, my iPad workflow comes close to realize Rob Pike’s computing vision for me:

I want no local storage anywhere near me other than maybe caches. No disks, no state, my world entirely in the network. Storage needs to be backed up and maintained, which should be someone else’s problem, one I’m happy to pay to have them solve.

And,

My dream setup, then, is a computing world where I don’t have to carry at least three computers – laptop, tablet, phone, not even counting cameras and iPod and other oddments – around with me in order to function in the modern world. The world should provide me my computing environment and maintain it for me and make it available everywhere. If this were done right, my life would become much simpler and so could yours.

The iPad is a smart dumb terminal (and much more) and is great at it.

Play ball.
Play ball.

That said, my computing setup now is as follows: a 15” MacBook Pro Retina (the first Retina model launched in 2012; still blazing fast save a few battery and Bluetooth issues) as a desktop always-on computer connected to two monitors, a 12” MacBook and the 11” iPad Pro while I’m out and about, an iPhone XS, and an Apple Watch. The irony pertaining to Pike’s “at least three computers” remark is obvious. However, now I mostly carry the iPad with me leaving the MacBook home (ergo, two devices) and, in the worst case, both are very lightweight and easy to pack. The iPad has not (and most probably will not) replace desktop macOS for me but it’s coming very close to the point where I can be comfortably productive for the majority of my work. At the end of the day, this is a sound compromise I’m more than happy to make.

Silent FaceTime ringtones on macOS

March 8th, 2019

Ringtones are bad, intrusive, and rude. The best $0.99 I’ve ever spent on iOS was buying a silent ringtone.

Here’s how to silence once and for all FaceTime calls on macOS while keeping the notification pop-up intact.

  1. Open a terminal and run:
    sudo vim ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.tonelibraryd/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ToneLibrary.plist
  2. Type the following and save and exit Vim:
    ringtone "system:"
  3. Log out & login again.