Five Links - June 2023

Every month I try to share the most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share with your friends.

Here are five links worth reading…

Exploring Generative AI Bias: My Journey with Midjourney
Midjourney has become one of my favorite sources of entertainment. Here, I dive into its biases generating portraits.  

Bonus (Listen): Avlok Kohli, AngelList CEO: AI and Dual Threat CEOs on World of DaaS
Few people understand the venture ecosystem as deeply as Avlok (or have affected it as much as he and AngelList have). Avlok shares how AI will disrupt industries and what the next VC evolution will be.  

In praise of memorization by Pearl Leff
Mastering the oldest “productivity hack” in the book, and why it works. 

The age of average by Alex Murrell
In the 1990s, two Russian artists paid polling firms to create surveys on the “ideal” painting in a dozen countries around the world. The paintings all turned out more or less the same. Three decades later, that phenomenon has crept into all corners of style and culture around the world. 

Moral Injuries by Will Selber
Thoughts on Iraq in the twentieth anniversary year of the start of the war, from someone who served through the Summer of Death in Baghdad in 2006. 

Expectations debt by Morgan Housel 
“Expectations are like a debt that must be repaid before you get any joy out of what you’re doing.” What this means for markets and company culture. 

Bonus (Watch): The Diplomat
Keri Russell is excellent as an ambassador trying to prevent a war. 

Bonus (Fast): Holy Crap—Look at these SR-71 Blackbirds Together!
Some incredibly cool planes, and Major Brian Shul’s memories of outrunning missiles and measuring speed in “miles per second” in the fastest plane ever built. 

More reading links at https://twitter.com/AurenReads 

Graph of the Month:

Books:

Making Numbers Count by Karla Starr and Chip Heath
HT: Ben Casnocha

In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland

The New Book of Christian Martyrs by Johnnie Moore and … 
HT: Johnnie Moore

Tweet of the Month:

Auren Hoffman is CEO of SafeGraph (geospatial data on physical places) and GP at Flex Capital ($200M Series A and B VC firm). Engage on Twitter: @auren

and please share Five Links with your friends.