This week’s reading and listening (ending October 20 2024)

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Reading

• Quantum Computing: Between Hope and Hype (Shtetl-Optimized): Great summary of the real prospects of Quantum Computing
• On War and Apocalypse (First things): Exploring the origins of human society through the lens of archaic religion and sacrificial rituals, arguing that sacrifice was humanity’s way of managing conflict caused by mimetic rivalry.
• Why I Brought My Toddler to Watch SpaceX’s Flying Skyscraper (The Free Press): Inspiring article from Tim Urban
• Bitcoin’s Exchange Theory of Value (Gradually, then suddenly): As more people use bitcoin to transfer value — either directly for goods and services or indirectly through fiat exchanges — its utility as money increases, thereby driving up its overall value and solidifying its role as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.

Listening

• Lex Friedman Podcast — Jordan Peterson: Nietzsche, God, Hitler, Psychopathy, Suffering & Meaning
• BG2 Podcast — Jensen Huang: Interview with Jensen Huang on scaling AI
• All In Podcast: Presidential interviews, Uber bid for Expedia, SpaceX milestone

SB’s Tune of the Week

🎵 Can’t win — LABRYS

SB’s Most Read Post of the Week

🏆 Chess challenge

Eugène Delacroix’s “The Education of the Virgin” (1852)