Tariffmaggedon, Facebook hypocrisy, YouTube hacks, and love growing cold
And the CCP's plans for the Bible
In this NerdLetter:
How to absorb 12 hours of video in less than 2 hours …
I blocked off time to just explore new tech online …
… but I'm giving it all a Sabbath (why didn't I think of that before?)
Do nations that abuse their God-fearing people suffer economically?
Tariffmaggedon might be a boon to the Canadian manufacturing sector …
What to read in the Bible if you want to get depressed, lightning-fast …
Is China's economy tanking?
One nuclear job loss can make your whole day …
Facebook doesn't care about your kids (but do care about their own) …
Get ChatGPT to teach you Economics 101 …
The Chinese Communist Party is creating a new Bible "translation" …
And there's more juicy stuff I wanted to post, that I just haven't had time to ready. It'll come next week.
HUMAN
China’s economy is tanking
Eugene Bach has a theory that nations prosper when they respect their Christian sub-population (or at least don't abuse them). Their economies go downhill when they ramp up persecution of Christians. He mentions a couple of studies in the podcast apparently supporting the theory. However, he doesn't attempt to explain why the correlation is also a causation. He uses China as an example, which he would know well - he's spent a large chunk of his working life in China. Apparently the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has never exactly expressed an undying love for Christianity, started ramping up persecution in 2019, and that’s when their economic slide began. While it’s a theory that one might want to believe, I’d love to see some more evidence and rational thought behind it.
Campus antisemitism is alive and well
This is deeply depressing. Campus antisemitism has been somewhat out of the news lately, but if this article is anything to go by, that's just because journalists were getting bored of it. it hasn't gone away at all. I so wish it had.
Tariffmaggedon may have a silver lining
This story straddles the border between Human and Technology. The Agenda's
just interviewed 4 technocrats in the Ontario manufacturing space. I expected nonstop doom-mongering about Trump. Not a bit of it.A couple of them have just returned from Hannover Messe, the big annual industrial tech trade fair, where Canada was official Partner Country this year. Their take is: Canada is viewed as having a highly-skilled manufacturing sector (though declining since the 90's) and being a reliable trading partner. The US is now un-reliable. And even if they weren't, their unemployment rate is just 4%, so their ability to re-shore manufacturing is very limited. Therefore, Trump has just handed Canada (and particularly Ontario) a golden opportunity (assuming Canada doesn’t squander it). Was not expecting to hear this at all, and it was refreshing.
TECHNOLOGY
The poison is for you, not for us
This one straddles the Human/Technology border too. In
, Sarah Wynn-Williams testified before a US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, in which she detailed how Facebook (and by extension, Silicon Valley tech execs generally) keep their kids away from the digital products that they spend their working days developing and promoting for everyone else to consume.In short, they know full well the dangers of what they're pushing. And they're quite happy creating one system for EVERYONE ELSE, and simultaneously a safer, better system for THEM. This is Elite Hypocrisy on steroids.
Reminds me of Boris Johnson's time in 10 Downing Street, as his team brazenly partied at Christmastime while lockdown restrictions were in effect for the rest of the country. The rules are for you, not for us, doncha know!
Professor ChatGPT is in the room
6 months ago,
decided she wanted to understand economics. But she's already a smart lady. She didn't go back to uni, or sign up for a Coursera, EdX or other MOOC. Instead, she asked ChatGPT to design her a course from the best of Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc. Now she's studying it, writing essays as per the course, and publishing the essays here: https://tomorrowtodaynow.substack.com/p/history-of-modern-economic-thought. Professor ChatGPT, having created the course, is also marking her essays - check them out. This is all really clever.
IDEAS & DISCOVERIES
One of the frustrations I've long had with YouTube is with the sheer volume of juicy-looking content. And the disappointment when you fall for the clickbait, and it fails to deliver any juice (esp if it's anything longer than 10 minutes).
Few weeks ago, it occurred to me there must be some way of speeding this up. I was right. Quizzed ChatGPT, and found my way to Tactiq. Enter the URL of the YT vid, download the transcript, go to ChatGPT, ask for a summary and paste the transcript. Presto. It works.
But even that has process has friction to it. And only this morning did it occur to me to go look for a YouTube video summariser Custom GPT. Lo and behold, there are dozens of ‘em. Picked the top one, and binge-"watched" 22 videos in 2 hours, just by digesting the summaries.
What would have taken probably about 12 hours (not that I'd have had the stamina for that) allowed me to soak up the essentials of a ton of content, and knock my Watch Later list way down.
(Drawback to this hack: You need a paid version of ChatGPT.)
Now, of course, I'm stuck with 22 summaries that I'd like to condense down even further, or at least collage into one single document, rather than delve through 22 separate chats. Gotta be a way to solve that problem! In fact, some of the vids were on AI agents (which are the current AI flavour of the month) and one was on NotebookLM, which I think will do the trick.
(You AI whizzes are laughing at me for being so far behind. Hey, everybody's gotta learn at their own speed!)
It goes to show that content creation is now far faster than content absorption (never mind understanding).
MY WORK
Sabbathize the Tech
I've started ignoring my phone or laptop on Sundays.
By this, I don't mean switching the phone off entirely - my octagenarian mum lives in continual fear of not being able to get ahold of me quickly, and I couldn't do that to her. And I have an unusual responsibility at my local church - I act as host for online streaming of Sunday services, for which either smartphone or laptop are indispensable.
But other than that, from sunset Saturday to sunset Sunday, I don't use it for anything else - no Substacking, no YouTube, no podcast listening, no googling, no email. Just me sitting wherever, daydreaming, pen and notepad nearby if something needs jotting down. Even after sunset Sunday, I allow myself an hour max on the laptop to plan for the coming week. That's it.
This has come about partly because my favourite time of day is always that first hour in the morning, coffee in hand, sitting in bed with my wife, allowing my mind to wander wherever it will. Why don't I do that on Sunday? Why this urge to constantly cram my head fuller with yet more information, more opinions, more viewpoints ... which often don't leave me feeling better? Leave 'em. They'll still be there Monday. Far better to renew my mind by being idle, and wait patiently for the Butterfly of Insight to come rest on my shoulder when it's ready.
Schedule Time for Exploring and Testing
In a similar vein, I've blocked off half a day per week for exploring side hustle ideas. (Hence the YouTube hack I posted above.) One of my self-imposed frustrations has been following up with new ideas and tools that I hear about, but deadlines and demands get in the way.
Finally realised that if I didn't schedule time for it, Parkinson's Law would kick in, and the time will get frittered away on something else labelled URGENT AND IMPORTANT. Did it for the first time this week. Mighty glad I did. I've gained a ton of new insights, and feel mentally lighter for it. I'm actually wondering if half a day is enough.
FROM THE SOURCE
Continuing my chronological read through the Bible. Finished Judges, Ruth, now into 1 Samuel. I dare you to read any of these stories, engage your imagination, and not see parallels in our own experience today.
The last 10 chapters of Judges are particularly telling. You start to see the baser elements of human nature emerge, and gather pace.
A Levite (whose line of work was supposed to be ministering in and around the temple) goes walkabout, finds a wealthy but insecure guy named Micah, who persuades him to stick around and be his own personal priest (verboten by the Torah). Micah's already got a personal priest; he persuaded his son to take on the mantle. So why hire this Levite for the same? Don't think your son's got enough of God's ear?
Not long after, the nearby tribe of Dan decide Enough, enough, it's time they took possession of the land they were allotted. (It's WAY PAST time, in fact. Where was their courage before, when Israel was having victory after victory?) They go on a rampage, but only after threatening the locals if they spill the beans to anyone. And the Danites are successful, but if I'd been God, I'd have been less than impressed.
The moral slide continues. There's a story that sounds frighteningly like a repeat of Sodom and Gomorrah, but in Israel. Civil war ensues (albeit briefly) with considerable loss of life on both sides. The surviving Benjamite are encouraged to (and in fact, do) go seize random women, so’s they don’t die single and childless. It's all there, read it for yourself. And it's beggars belief.
Seems when you abandon ordering your life around God-fearing principles, you lose the ability to think clearly about the consequences of your own actions.
I see a lot of evidence of that today.
Makes me think of a phrase in the gospel of Matthew (that chills me to the bone everytime I think about it). In the gospel of Matthew ch24, Jesus waxes lyrical about what will happen "at the end of the age", after the Twelve prompt him for inside intel on how they'll recognise it. (The "end of the age" isn't defined, but it doesn't require much imagination to elicit a meaning.)
Jesus doesn't hold back, but it's grim listening. He launches off: "Watch out that no one deceives you ..." and goes into wars, famines, false prophets, the faithless faithful ...
And then he says the line that always chills me: "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold".
Brrrrrrr ...
Don’t wanna doom-monger, but I see that everywhere I look.
VIEW FROM THE LAPTOP
Crazy what happens when you get fired
Had a fascinating chat with two Minnesota pals, Kelly Cusick and Steve Zielinski.
Kelly's a digital creative type (copy, video) currently writing a book full of stories and insights from adults caring for their aging parents. She's one of these Connectors. She knows EVERYBODY. Intro'd me 18 months back to one of my two steady clients (both of whom are now good friends). Has a sixth sense for who's gonna hit it off with who. I don't have that gift, but I'm glad I know someone who does.
Steve is a 60-something senior systems engineer in the biomedical space, who expected to be with his employer until he retired at 65-ish ... until last year when his employer told him, I don't think so, Steve. They'd merged two divisions, each with a VP, and now only one was needed. BAM, out the door, and just before Christmas, even though he was unquestionably the more qualified and experienced of the two.
But …
Within two weeks, he'd bumped into an old friend who said, WHAT? You're available? Come see me!
Year and half later, he now has THREE part-time gigs, and is effectively a fractional CTO/CAIO. One of those gigs is a startup with some traction, and could turn into a very nice equity payday. But even if it doesn't, he can't believe his luck, and wouldn't roll the clock back for anything. Ran into his old colleagues recently, and discovered from the gossip that his life would have been miserable if he'd not been bumped. The invitation to Hell 18 months earlier was actually a ticket to Heaven.
I've heard so many stories like this, it’s spooky.
The CCP is creating a new Bible "translation"
Eugene Bach (the same one mentioned atop this NerdLetter) runs a nonprofit called Back to Jerusalem. Last summer, he published a 4-part podcast in which he recounts a CCP plan to "change Christianity" by publishing a sinicized (i.e. Chinafied), socialist-friendly translation of the Bible in Chinese. The existing Chinese Union Translation satisfies most Chinese Christians, but the CCP is rounding up and destroying most copies - they’re out to make their version the only one available. Purportedly, their intention is not just to neutralize Christianity in China, however; their target is the whole world. This is as per their general strategy, which they call Borrowed Boats, i.e. don’t build your own boat if you can borrow one that. Cloak the Chinese Marxist message in Biblical language and theology, to make it palatable to Christianity.
According to Bach, this is no conspiracy theory; indeed, the CCP is quite openly stating their intentions. I did a quick query on Perplexity AI, and there are lots of reports corroborating this (not all of them Christian, either). Here’s a URL to the first part of the podcast: