Build & Defend Newsletter 7

One email a week - something from which I hope you'll get real value. We talk about things we can build, and how to defend them. That can apply to cybersecurity, physical buildings, digital products, and .... just about anything. It gives me a lot of latitude in what I can write about, but the two concepts are important for progress - as individuals, and as society.

Today's topic is: Building anything!

I saw someone say on X yesterday: "You have to be unemployed to keep up with AI rn" - and he's all but correct. That or sleep a lot less. (I've regretfully chosen the latter.)

Okay, so it's getting a bit crazy. The pace of acceleration - itself a measurement of the change in velocity - is accelerating. It's amazing. What is the third order for speed? You'll be happy to know I asked Gemini:

Apparently it's called "jerk". I'm not sure what to make of that. However, I know I'll have more fun now that I know that!

(In case you're wondering, and since we'll likely need it for the future, the fourth order is "snap" or "jounce".)

This is literally what it means to be in the Singularity - and why Elon Musk suggested we were actually in it - because the rate-of-the-rate-of-the-rate-of-change itself starts to accelerate - and then the fourth, fifth, and sixth orders start to accelerate as well. At a certain point, no human will keep up.

The reason I'm bringing this up is that it's possible at this point for your artificial intelligence to make literally anything that can be done with a computer. When you start to add in 3d printing (whether consumer or otherwise) suddenly we become the masters of our own little universes, and quite possibly, whether as a collective or whatever, quite possibly the bigger one as well. I had my AI write a book - and make the pictures. I built a copy of my 2nd Brain in Obsidian (a backup for Evernote) in the time it took to export files. I now have three instances of AI working for me (Talos on my Mac Studio, StarQ on my laptop, and Claude CoWork on the Mac Studio as well) and I have bots trading for me too. I have a 3d Printer that I'll be setting up this weekend, and I will literally be able to build anything. All this while having a full-time job. Since I also have a WIFE (you read the last newsletter, right?) (Water, Internet, Food, Energy) the only thing that stops me is .... me.

Here's what I built (most just in the last week). ("I" built .... we might have to look at whether I can be taking credit?)

Now add in that my actual wife is building an app, and my son a website/business, and suddenly our family is ridiculously productive - to lengths not even possible before.

All this is great, but at the same time, I mentioned above that the downside (aside from the extra sysadmin work that comes with 2 extra VMs, 2 extra Mac Minis, and 3 OpenClaws) is less sleep. That and the feeling that you *have* to keep up (fear of missing out - FOMO). You don't have to keep up, but this is quite possibly the last revolution that humans could potentially keep up with to a certain point, so (to me at least) it seems worth trying for the time being. But what can we do to defend all this productivity and still remain sane?

It seems fairly straightforward, but these are almost always the things that suffer once we start working like mad or getting AIs to work like mad while we supervise them.

If you need help, don't be afraid to talk to someone. Try not to make it an AI (though that's better than nothing!)

(As I originally typo'ed this, would "neutraceuticals" be neutral for you? Hhhhmmmm.... I wonder.)

While you're keeping up, and also defending your sanity as above, there are some "cheats" that you can do, in the form of little pills. No, I'm not suggesting you take drugs, and obviously before you take anything you should talk to your doctor. (Try not to make it an AI though.) However, the following things can help especially as we get older, and/or spend less time outside:

Those are the things that work for me. Note that it is almost impossible to get too much of those - with the exception of caffeine. Obviously, if you follow any labeling after you do your own research and talk to your doctor, you can do some minimal bio-hacking as needed and then things may get a little easier.

(Amazon links are affiliate links.)

Tiago Forte: 2nd Brain
https://amzn.to/3Pn9yrp

Tiago Forte: The PARA Method
https://amzn.to/4bN31xu

Dave Asprey: Superhuman
https://amzn.to/41sWEdY

Multiple Authors: Nutraceuticals: The Complete Encyclopedia
https://amzn.to/3NmDx24

Still at about $325 per month on passive income. Still working!

Thanks for reading this newsletter! Feel free to respond any time.

Thomas

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