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TL;DR: You can now buy tickets, apply to speak, or join the expo for the biggest AI Engineer event of 2024. We're gathering *everyone* you want to meet - see you this June.In last year's the Rise of the AI Engineer we put our money where our mouth was and announced the AI Engineer Summit, which fortunately went well:With ~500 live attendees and over ~500k views online, the first iteration of the AI Engineer industry affair seemed to be well received. Competing in an expensive city with 3 other more established AI conferences in the fall calendar, we broke through in terms of in-person experience and online impact.So at the end of Day 2 we announced our second event: the AI Engineer World's Fair. The new website is now live, together with our new presenting sponsor:We were delighted to invite both Ben Dunphy, co-organizer of the conference and Sam Schillace, the deputy CTO of Microsoft who wrote some of the first Laws of AI Engineering while working with early releases of GPT-4, on the pod to talk about the conference and how Microsoft is all-in on AI Engineering.Rise of the Planet of the AI EngineerSince the first AI Engineer piece, AI Engineering has exploded:and the title has been adopted across OpenAI, Meta, IBM, and many, many other companies:1 year on, it is clear that AI Engineering is not only in full swing, but is an emerging global industry that is successfully bridging the gap:* between research and product, * between general-purpose foundation models and in-context use-cases, * and between the flashy weekend MVP (still great!) and the reliable, rigorously evaluated AI product deployed at massive scale, assisting hundreds of employees and driving millions in profit.The greatly increased scope of the 2024 AI Engineer World's Fair (more stages, more talks, more speakers, more attendees, more expo…) helps us reflect the growth of AI Engineering in three major dimensions:* Global Representation: the 2023 Summit was a mostly-American affair. This year we plan to have speakers from top AI companies across five continents, and explore the vast diversity of approaches to AI across global contexts.* Topic Coverage: * In 2023, the Summit focused on the initial questions that the community wrestled with - LLM frameworks, RAG and Vector Databases, Code Copilots and AI Agents. Those are evergreen problems that just got deeper.* This year the AI Engineering field has also embraced new core disciplines with more explicit focus on Multimodality, Evals and Ops, Open Source Models and GPU/Inference Hardware providers.* Maturity/Production-readiness: Two new tracks are dedicated toward AI in the Enterprise, government, education, finance, and more highly regulated industries or AI deployed at larger scale: * AI in the Fortune 500, covering at-scale production deployments of AI, and* AI Leadership, a closed-door, side event for technical AI leaders to discuss engineering and product leadership challenges as VPs and Heads of AI in their respective orgs.We hope you will join Microsoft and the rest of us as either speaker, exhibitor, or attendee, in San Francisco this June. Contact us with any enquiries that don't fall into the categories mentioned below.Show Notes* Ben Dunphy* 2023 Summit* GitHub confirmed $100m ARR on stage* History of World's Fairs* Sam Schillace* Writely on Acquired.fm* Early Lessons From GPT-4: The Schillace Laws* Semantic Kernel* Sam on Kevin Scott (Microsoft CTO)'s podcast in 2022* AI Engineer World's Fair (SF, Jun 25-27)* Buy Super Early Bird tickets (Listeners can use LATENTSPACE for $100 off any ticket until April 8, or use GROUP if coming in 4 or more)* Submit talks and workshops for Speaker CFPs (by April 8)* Enquire about Expo Sponsorship (Asap.. selling fast)Timestamps* [00:00:16] Intro* [00:01:04] 2023 AI Engineer Summit* [00:03:11] Vendor Neutral* [00:05:33] 2024 AIE World's Fair* [00:07:34] AIE World's Fair: 9 Tracks* [00:08:58] AIE World's Fair Keynotes* [00:09:33] Introducing Sam* [00:12:17] AI in 2020s vs the Cloud in 2000s* [00:13:46] Syntax vs Semantics* [00:14:22] Bill Gates vs GPT-4* [00:16:28] Semantic Kernel and Schillace's Laws of AI Engineering* [00:17:29] Orchestration: Break it into pieces* [00:19:52] Prompt Engineering: Ask Smart to Get Smart* [00:21:57] Think with the model, Plan with Code* [00:23:12] Metacognition vs Stochasticity* [00:24:43] Generating Synthetic Textbooks* [00:26:24] Trade leverage for precision; use interaction to mitigate* [00:27:18] Code is for syntax and process; models are for semantics and intent.* [00:28:46] Hands on AI Leadership* [00:33:18] Multimodality vs "Text is the universal wire protocol"* [00:35:46] Azure OpenAI vs Microsoft Research vs Microsoft AI Division* [00:39:40] On Satya* [00:40:44] Sam at AI Leadership Track* [00:42:05] Final Plug for Tickets & CFPTranscript[00:00:00] Alessio: Hey everyone, welcome to the Latent Space Podcast. This is Alessio, partner and CTO in residence at Decibel Partners, and I'm joined by my co host Swyx, founder of Small[00:00:16] Intro[00:00:16] swyx: AI. Hey, hey, we're back again with a very special episode, this time with two guests and talking about the very in person events rather than online stuff.[00:00:27] swyx: So first I want to welcome Ben Dunphy, who is my co organizer on AI engineer conferences. Hey, hey, how's it going? We have a very special guest. Anyone who's looking at the show notes and the title will preview this later. But I guess we want to set the context. We are effectively doing promo for the upcoming AI Engineer World's Fair that's happening in June.[00:00:49] swyx: But maybe something that we haven't actually recapped much on the pod is just the origin of the AI Engineer Summit and why, what happens and what went down. Ben, I don't know if you'd like to start with the raw numbers that people should have in mind.[00:01:04] 2023 AI Engineer Summit[00:01:04] Ben Dunphy: Yeah, perhaps your listeners would like just a quick background on the summit.[00:01:09] Ben Dunphy: I mean, I'm sure many folks have heard of our events. You know, you launched, we launched the AI Engineer Summit last June with your, your article kind of coining the term that was on the tip of everyone's tongue, but curiously had not been actually coined, which is the term AI Engineer, which is now many people's, Job titles, you know, we're seeing a lot more people come to this event, with the job description of AI engineer, with the job title of AI engineer so, is an event that you and I really talked about since February of 2023, when we met at a hackathon you organized we were both excited by this movement and it hasn't really had a name yet.[00:01:48] Ben Dunphy: We decided that an event was warranted and that's why we move forward with the AI Engineer Summit, which Ended up being a great success. You know, we had over 5, 000 people apply to attend in person. We had over 9, 000 folks attend, online with over 20, 000 on the live stream.[00:02:06] Ben Dunphy: In person, we accepted about 400 attendees and had speakers, workshop instructors and sponsors, all congregating in San Francisco over, two days, um, two and a half days with a, with a welcome reception. So it was quite the event to kick off kind of this movement that's turning into quite an exciting[00:02:24] swyx: industry.[00:02:25] swyx: The overall idea of this is that I kind of view AI engineering, at least in all my work in Latent Space and the other stuff, as starting an industry.[00:02:34] swyx: And I think every industry, every new community, needs a place to congregate. And I definitely think that AI engineer, at least at the conference, is that it's meant to be like the biggest gathering of technical engineering people working with AI. Right. I think we kind of got that spot last year. There was a very competitive conference season, especially in San Francisco.[00:02:54] swyx: But I think as far as I understand, in terms of cultural impact, online impact, and the speakers that people want to see, we, we got them all and it was very important for us to be a vendor neutral type of event. Right. , The reason I partnered with Ben is that Ben has a lot of experience, a lot more experience doing vendor neutral stuff.[00:03:11] Vendor Neutral[00:03:11] swyx: I first met you when I was speaking at one of your events, and now we're sort of business partners on that. And yeah, I mean, I don't know if you have any sort of Thoughts on make, making things vendor neutral, making things more of a community industry conference rather than like something that's owned by one company.[00:03:25] swyx: Yeah.[00:03:25] Ben Dunphy: I mean events that are owned by a company are great, but this is typically where you have product pitches and this smaller internet community. But if you want the truly internet community, if you want a more varied audience and you know, frankly, better content for, especially for a technical audience, you want a vendor neutral event. And this is because when you have folks that are running the event that are focused on one thing and one thing alone, which is quality, quality of content, quality of speakers, quality of the in person experience, and just of general relevance it really elevates everything to the next level.[00:04:01] Ben Dunphy: And when you have someone like yourself who's coming To this content curation the role that you take at this event, and bringing that neutrality with, along with your experience, that really helps to take it to the next level, and then when you have someone like myself, focusing on just the program curation, and the in person experience, then both of our forces combined, we can like, really create this epic event, and so, these vendor neutral events if you've been to a small community event, Typically, these are vendor neutral, but also if you've been to a really, really popular industry event, many of the top industry events are actually vendor neutral.[00:04:37] Ben Dunphy: And that's because of the fact that they're vendor neutral, not in spite of[00:04:41] swyx: it. Yeah, I've been pretty open about the fact that my dream is to build the KubeCon of AI. So if anyone has been in the Kubernetes world, they'll understand what that means. And then, or, or instead of the NeurIPS, NeurIPS for engineers, where engineers are the stars and engineers are sharing their knowledge.[00:04:57] swyx: Perspectives, because I think AI is definitely moving over from research to engineering and production. I think one of my favorite parts was just honestly having GitHub and Microsoft support, which we'll cover in a bit, but you know, announcing finally that GitHub's copilot was such a commercial success I think was the first time that was actually confirmed by anyone in public.[00:05:17] swyx: For me, it's also interesting as sort of the conference curator to put Microsoft next to competitors some of which might be much smaller AI startups and to see what, where different companies are innovating in different areas.[00:05:27] swyx: Well, they're next to[00:05:27] Ben Dunphy: each other in the arena. So they can be next to each other on stage too.[00:05:33] Why AIE World's Fair[00:05:33] swyx: Okay, so this year World's Fair we are going a lot bigger what details are we disclosing right now? Yeah,[00:05:39] Ben Dunphy: I guess we should start with the name why are we calling it the World's Fair? And I think we need to go back to what inspired this, what actually the original World's Fair was, which was it started in the late 1700s and went to the early 1900s.[00:05:53] Ben Dunphy: And it was intended to showcase the incredible achievements. Of nation states, corporations, individuals in these grand expos. So you have these miniature cities actually being built for these grand expos. In San Francisco, for example, you had the entire Marina District built up in absolutely new construction to showcase the achievements of industry, architecture, art, and culture.[00:06:16] Ben Dunphy: And many of your listeners will know that in 1893, the Nikola Tesla famously provided power to the Chicago World's Fair with his 8 seat power generator. There's lots of great movies and documentaries about this. That was the first electric World's Fair, which thereafter it was referred to as the White City.[00:06:33] Ben Dunphy: So in today's world we have technological change that's similar to what was experienced during the industrial revolution in how it's, how it's just upending our entire life, how we live, work, and play. And so we have artificial intelligence, which has long been the dream of humanity.[00:06:51] Ben Dunphy: It's, it's finally here. And the pace of technological change is just accelerating. So with this event, as you mentioned, we, we're aiming to create a singular event where the world's foremost experts, builders, and practitioners can come together to exchange and reflect. And we think this is not only good for business, but it's also good for our mental health.[00:07:12] Ben Dunphy: It slows things down a bit from the Twitter news cycle to an in person festival of smiles, handshakes, connections, and in depth conversations that online media and online events can only ever dream of replicating. So this is an expo led event where the world's top companies will mingle with the world's top founders and AI engineers who are building and enhanced by AI.[00:07:34] AIE World's Fair: 9 Tracks[00:07:34] Ben Dunphy: And not to mention, we're featuring over a hundred talks and workshops across[00:07:37] swyx: nine tracks. Yeah, I mean, those nine tracks will be fun. Actually, do we have a little preview of the tracks in the, the speakers?[00:07:43] Ben Dunphy: We do. Folks can actually see them today at our website. We've updated that at ai.[00:07:48] Ben Dunphy: engineer. So we'd encourage them to go there to see that. But for those just listening, we have nine tracks. So we have multimodality. We have retrieval augmented generation. Featuring LLM frameworks and vector databases, evals and LLM ops, open source models, code gen and dev tools, GPUs and inference, AI agent applications, AI in the fortune 500, and then we have a special track for AI leadership which you can access by purchasing the VP pass which is different from the, the other passes we have.[00:08:20] Ben Dunphy: And I won't go into the Each of these tracks in depth, unless you want to, Swyx but there's more details on the website at ai. engineer.[00:08:28] swyx: I mean, I, I, very much looking forward to talking to our special guests for the last track, I think, which is the what a lot of yeah, leaders are thinking about, which is how to, Inspire innovation in their companies, especially the sort of larger organizations that might not have the in house talents for that kind of stuff.[00:08:47] swyx: So yeah, we can talk about the expo, but I'm very keen to talk about the presenting sponsor if you want to go slightly out of order from our original plan.[00:08:58] AIE World's Fair Keynotes[00:08:58] Ben Dunphy: Yeah, absolutely. So you know, for the stage of keynotes, we have talks confirmed from Microsoft, OpenAI, AWS, and Google.[00:09:06] Ben Dunphy: And our presenting sponsor is joining the stage with those folks. And so that presenting sponsor this year is a dream sponsor. It's Microsoft. It's the company really helping to lead the charge. And into this wonderful new era that we're all taking part in. So, yeah,[00:09:20] swyx: you know, a bit of context, like when we first started planning this thing, I was kind of brainstorming, like, who would we like to get as the ideal presenting sponsors, as ideal partners long term, just in terms of encouraging the AI engineering industry, and it was Microsoft.[00:09:33] Introducing Sam[00:09:33] swyx: So Sam, I'm very excited to welcome you onto the podcast. You are CVP and Deputy CTO of Microsoft. Welcome.[00:09:40] Sam Schillace: Nice to be here. I'm looking forward to, I was looking for, to Lessio saying my last name correctly this time. Oh[00:09:45] swyx: yeah. So I, I studiously avoided saying, saying your last name, but apparently it's an Italian last name.[00:09:50] swyx: Ski Lache. Ski[00:09:51] Alessio: Lache. Yeah. No, that, that's great, Sean. That's great as a musical person.[00:09:54] swyx: And it, it's also, yeah, I pay attention to like the, the, the lilt. So it's ski lache and the, the slow slowing of the law is, is what I focused[00:10:03] Sam Schillace: on. You say both Ls. There's no silent letters, you say[00:10:07] Alessio: both of those. And it's great to have you, Sam.[00:10:09] Alessio: You know, we've known each other now for a year and a half, two years, and our first conversation, well, it was at Lobby Conference, and then we had a really good one in the kind of parking lot of a Safeway, because we didn't want to go into Starbucks to meet, so we sat outside for about an hour, an hour and a half, and then you had to go to a Bluegrass concert, so it was great.[00:10:28] Alessio: Great meeting, and now, finally, we have you on Lanespace.[00:10:31] Sam Schillace: Cool, cool. Yeah, I'm happy to be here. It's funny, I was just saying to Swyx before you joined that, like, it's kind of an intimidating podcast. Like, when I listen to this podcast, it seems to be, like, one of the more intelligent ones, like, more, more, like, deep technical folks on it.[00:10:44] Sam Schillace: So, it's, like, it's kind of nice to be here. It's fun. Bring your A game. Hopefully I'll, I'll bring mine. I[00:10:49] swyx: mean, you've been programming for longer than some of our listeners have been alive, so I don't think your technical chops are in any doubt. So you were responsible for Rightly as one of your early wins in your career, which then became Google Docs, and obviously you were then responsible for a lot more G Suite.[00:11:07] swyx: But did you know that you covered in Acquired. fm episode 9, which is one of the podcasts that we model after.[00:11:13] Sam Schillace: Oh, cool. I didn't, I didn't realize that the most fun way to say this is that I still have to this day in my personal GDocs account, the very first Google doc, like I actually have it.[00:11:24] Sam Schillace: And I looked it up, like it occurred to me like six months ago that it was probably around and I went and looked and it's still there. So it's like, and it's kind of a funny thing. Cause it's like the backend has been rewritten at least twice that I know of the front end has been re rewritten at least twice that I know of.[00:11:38] Sam Schillace: So. I'm not sure what sense it's still the original one it's sort of more the idea of the original one, like the NFT of it would probably be more authentic. I[00:11:46] swyx: still have it. It's a ship athesia thing. Does it, does it say hello world or something more mundane?[00:11:52] Sam Schillace: It's, it's, it's me and Steve Newman trying to figure out if some collaboration stuff is working, and also a picture of Edna from the Incredibles that I probably pasted in later, because that's That's too early for that, I think.[00:12:05] swyx: People can look up your LinkedIn, and we're going to link it on the show notes, but you're also SVP of engineering for Box, and then you went back to Google to do Google, to lead Google Maps, and now you're deputy CTO.[00:12:17] AI in 2020s vs the Cloud in 2000s[00:12:17] swyx: I mean, there's so many places to start, but maybe one place I like to start off with is do you have a personal GPT 4 experience.[00:12:25] swyx: Obviously being at Microsoft, you have, you had early access and everyone talks about Bill Gates's[00:12:30] Sam Schillace: demo. Yeah, it's kind of, yeah, that's, it's kind of interesting. Like, yeah, we got access, I got access to it like in September of 2022, I guess, like before it was really released. And I it like almost instantly was just like mind blowing to me how good it was.[00:12:47] Sam Schillace: I would try experiments like very early on, like I play music. There's this thing called ABC notation. That's like an ASCII way to represent music. And like, I was like, I wonder if it can like compose a fiddle tune. And like it composed a fiddle tune. I'm like, I wonder if it can change key, change the key.[00:13:01] Sam Schillace: Like it's like really, it was like very astonishing. And I sort of, I'm very like abstract. My background is actually more math than CS. I'm a very abstract thinker and sort of categorical thinker. And the, the thing that occurred to me with, with GPT 4 the first time I saw it was. This is really like the beginning, it's the beginning of V2 of the computer industry completely.[00:13:23] Sam Schillace: I had the same feeling I had when, of like a category shifting that I had when the cloud stuff happened with the GDocs stuff, right? Where it's just like, all of a sudden this like huge vista opens up of capabilities. And I think the way I characterized it, which is a little bit nerdy, but I'm a nerd so lean into it is like everything until now has been about syntax.[00:13:46] Syntax vs Semantics[00:13:46] Sam Schillace: Like, we have to do mediation. We have to describe the real world in forms that the digital world can manage. And so we're the mediation, and we, like, do that via things like syntax and schema and programming languages. And all of a sudden, like, this opens the door to semantics, where, like, you can express intention and meaning and nuance and fuzziness.[00:14:04] Sam Schillace: And the machine itself is doing, the model itself is doing a bunch of the mediation for you. And like, that's obviously like complicated. We can talk about the limits and stuff, and it's getting better in some ways. And we're learning things and all kinds of stuff is going on around it, obviously.[00:14:18] Sam Schillace: But like, that was my immediate reaction to it was just like, Oh my God.[00:14:22] Bill Gates vs GPT-4[00:14:22] Sam Schillace: Like, and then I heard about the build demo where like Bill had been telling Kevin Scott this, This investment is a waste. It's never going to work. AI is blah, blah, blah. And come back when it can pass like an AP bio exam.[00:14:33] Sam Schillace: And they actually literally did that at one point, they brought in like the world champion of the, like the AP bio test or whatever the AP competition and like it and chat GPT or GPT 4 both did the AP bio and GPT 4 beat her. So that was the moment that convinced Bill that this was actually real.[00:14:53] Sam Schillace: Yeah, it's fun. I had a moment with him actually about three weeks after that when we had been, so I started like diving in on developer tools almost immediately and I built this thing with a small team that's called the Semantic Kernel which is one of the very early orchestrators just because I wanted to be able to put code and And inference together.[00:15:10] Sam Schillace: And that's probably something we should dig into more deeply. Cause I think there's some good insights in there, but I I had a bunch of stuff that we were building and then I was asked to go meet with Bill Gates about it and he's kind of famously skeptical and, and so I was a little bit nervous to meet him the first time.[00:15:25] Sam Schillace: And I started the conversation with, Hey, Bill, like three weeks ago, you would have called BS on everything I'm about to show you. And I would probably have agreed with you, but we've both seen this thing. And so we both know it's real. So let's skip that part and like, talk about what's possible.[00:15:39] Sam Schillace: And then we just had this kind of fun, open ended conversation and I showed him a bunch of stuff. So that was like a really nice, fun, fun moment as well. Well,[00:15:46] swyx: that's a nice way to meet Bill Gates and impress[00:15:48] Sam Schillace: him. A little funny. I mean, it's like, I wasn't sure what he would think of me, given what I've done and his.[00:15:54] Sam Schillace: Crown Jewel. But he was nice. I think he likes[00:15:59] swyx: GDocs. Crown Jewel as in Google Docs versus Microsoft Word? Office.[00:16:03] Sam Schillace: Yeah. Yeah, versus Office. Yeah, like, I think, I mean, I can imagine him not liking, I met Steven Snofsky once and he sort of respectfully, but sort of grimaced at me. You know, like, because of how much trauma I had caused him.[00:16:18] Sam Schillace: So Bill was very nice to[00:16:20] swyx: me. In general it's like friendly competition, right? They keep you, they keep you sharp, you keep each[00:16:24] Sam Schillace: other sharp. Yeah, no, I think that's, it's definitely respect, it's just kind of funny.[00:16:28] Semantic Kernel and Schillace's Laws of AI Engineering[00:16:28] Sam Schillace: Yeah,[00:16:28] swyx: So, speaking of semantic kernel, I had no idea that you were that deeply involved, that you actually had laws named after you.[00:16:35] swyx: This only came up after looking into you for a little bit. Skelatches laws, how did those, what's the, what's the origin[00:16:41] Sam Schillace: story? Hey! Yeah, that's kind of funny. I'm actually kind of a modest person and so I'm sure I feel about having my name attached to them. Although I do agree with all, I believe all of them because I wrote all of them.[00:16:49] Sam Schillace: This is like a designer, John Might, who works with me, decided to stick my name on them and put them out there. Seriously, but like, well, but like, so this was just I, I'm not, I don't build models. Like I'm not an AI engineer in the sense of, of like AI researcher that's like doing inference. Like I'm somebody who's like consuming the models.[00:17:09] Sam Schillace: Exactly. So it's kind of funny when you're talking about AI engineering, like it's a good way of putting it. Cause that's how like I think about myself. I'm like, I'm an app builder. I just want to build with this tool. Yep. And so we spent all of the fall and into the winter in that first year, like Just trying to build stuff and learn how this tool worked.[00:17:29] Orchestration: Break it into pieces[00:17:29] Sam Schillace: And I guess those are a little bit in the spirit of like Robert Bentley's programming pearls or something. I was just like, let's kind of distill some of these ideas down of like. How does this thing work? I saw something I still see today with people doing like inference is still kind of expensive.[00:17:46] Sam Schillace: GPUs are still kind of scarce. And so people try to get everything done in like one shot. And so there's all this like prompt tuning to get things working. And one of the first laws was like, break it into pieces. Like if it's hard for you, it's going to be hard for the model. But if it's you know, there's this kind of weird thing where like, it's.[00:18:02] Sam Schillace: It's absolutely not a human being, but starting to think about, like, how would I solve the problem is often a good way to figure out how to architect the program so that the model can solve the problem. So, like, that was one of the first laws. That came from me just trying to, like, replicate a test of a, like, a more complicated, There's like a reasoning process that you have to go through that, that Google was, was the react, the react thing, and I was trying to get GPT 4 to do it on its own.[00:18:32] Sam Schillace: And, and so I'd ask it the question that was in this paper, and the answer to the question is like the year 2000. It's like, what year did this particular author who wrote this book live in this country? And you've kind of got to carefully reason through it. And like, I could not get GPT 4 to Just to answer the question with the year 2000.[00:18:50] Sam Schillace: And if you're thinking about this as like the kernel is like a pipelined orchestrator, right? It's like very Unix y, where like you have a, some kind of command and you pipe stuff to the next parameters and output to the next thing. So I'm thinking about this as like one module in like a pipeline, and I just want it to give me the answer.[00:19:05] Sam Schillace: I don't want anything else. And I could not prompt engineer my way out of that. I just like, it was giving me a paragraph or reasoning. And so I sort of like anthropomorphized a little bit and I was like, well, the only way you can think about stuff is it can think out loud because there's nothing else that the model does.[00:19:19] Sam Schillace: It's just doing token generation. And so it's not going to be able to do this reasoning if it can't think out loud. And that's why it's always producing this. But if you take that paragraph of output, which did get to the right answer and you pipe it into a second prompt. That just says read this conversation and just extract the answer and report it back.[00:19:38] Sam Schillace: That's an easier task. That would be an easier task for you to do or me to do. It's easier reasoning. And so it's an easier thing for the model to do and it's much more accurate. And that's like 100 percent accurate. It always does that. So like that was one of those, those insights on the that led to the, the choice loss.[00:19:52] Prompt Engineering: Ask Smart to Get Smart[00:19:52] Sam Schillace: I think one of the other ones that's kind of interesting that I think people still don't fully appreciate is that GPT 4 is the rough equivalent of like a human being sitting down for centuries or millennia and reading all the books that they can find. It's this vast mind, right, and the embedding space, the latent space, is 100, 000 K, 100, 000 dimensional space, right?[00:20:14] Sam Schillace: Like it's this huge, high dimensional space, and we don't have good, um, Intuition about high dimensional spaces, like the topology works in really weird ways, connectivity works in weird ways. So a lot of what we're doing is like aiming the attention of a model into some part of this very weirdly connected space.[00:20:30] Sam Schillace: That's kind of what prompt engineering is. But that kind of, like, what we observed to begin with that led to one of those laws was You know, ask smart to get smart. And I think we've all, we all understand this now, right? Like this is the whole field of prompt engineering. But like, if you ask like a simple, a simplistic question of the model, you'll get kind of a simplistic answer.[00:20:50] Sam Schillace: Cause you're pointing it at a simplistic part of that high dimensional space. And if you ask it a more intelligent question, you get more intelligent stuff back out. And so I think that's part of like how you think about programming as well. It's like, how are you directing the attention of the model?[00:21:04] Sam Schillace: And I think we still don't have a good intuitive feel for that. To me,[00:21:08] Alessio: the most interesting thing is how do you tie the ask smart, get smart with the syntax and semantics piece. I gave a talk at GDC last week about the rise of full stack employees and how these models are like semantic representation of tasks that people do.[00:21:23] Alessio: But at the same time, we have code. Also become semantic representation of code. You know, I give you the example of like Python that sort it's like really a semantic function. It's not code, but it's actually code underneath. How do you think about tying the two together where you have code?[00:21:39] Alessio: To then extract the smart parts so that you don't have to like ask smart every time and like kind of wrap them in like higher level functions.[00:21:46] Sam Schillace: Yeah, this is, this is actually, we're skipping ahead to kind of later in the conversation, but I like to, I usually like to still stuff down in these little aphorisms that kind of help me remember them.[00:21:57] Think with the model, Plan with Code[00:21:57] Sam Schillace: You know, so we can dig into a bunch of them. One of them is pixels are free, one of them is bots are docs. But the one that's interesting here is Think with the model, plan with code. And so one of the things, so one of the things we've realized, we've been trying to do lots of these like longer running tasks.[00:22:13] Sam Schillace: Like we did this thing called the infinite chatbot, which was the successor to the semantic kernel, which is an internal project. It's a lot like GPTs. The open AI GPT is, but it's like a little bit more advanced in some ways, kind of deep exploration of a rag based bot system. And then we did multi agents from that, trying to do some autonomy stuff and we're, and we're kind of banging our head against this thing.[00:22:34] Sam Schillace: And you know, one of the things I started to realize, this is going to get nerdy for a second. I apologize, but let me dig in on it for just a second. No apology needed. Um, we realized is like, again, this is a little bit of an anthropomorphism and an illusion that we're having. So like when we look at these models, we think there's something continuous there.[00:22:51] Sam Schillace: We're having a conversation with chat GPT or whatever with Azure open air or like, like what's really happened. It's a little bit like watching claymation, right? Like when you watch claymation, you don't think that the model is actually the clay model is actually really alive. You know, that there's like a bunch of still disconnected slot screens that your mind is connecting into a continuous experience.[00:23:12] Metacognition vs Stochasticity[00:23:12] Sam Schillace: And that's kind of the same thing that's going on with these models. Like they're all the prompts are disconnected no matter what. Which means you're putting a lot of weight on memory, right? This is the thing we talked about. You're like, you're putting a lot of weight on precision and recall of your memory system.[00:23:27] Sam Schillace: And so like, and it turns out like, because the models are stochastic, they're kind of random. They'll make stuff up if things are missing. If you're naive about your, your memory system, you'll get lots of like accumulated similar memories that will kind of clog the system, things like that. So there's lots of ways in which like, Memory is hard to manage well, and, and, and that's okay.[00:23:47] Sam Schillace: But what happens is when you're doing plans and you're doing these longer running things that you're talking about, that second level, the metacognition is very vulnerable to that stochastic noise, which is like, I totally want to put this on a bumper sticker that like metacognition is susceptible to stochasticity would be like the great bumper sticker.[00:24:07] Sam Schillace: So what, these things are very vulnerable to feedback loops when they're trying to do autonomy, and they're very vulnerable to getting lost. So we've had these, like, multi agent Autonomous agent things get kind of stuck on like complimenting each other, or they'll get stuck on being quote unquote frustrated and they'll go on strike.[00:24:22] Sam Schillace: Like there's all kinds of weird like feedback loops you get into. So what we've learned to answer your question of how you put all this stuff together is You have to, the model's good at thinking, but it's not good at planning. So you do planning in code. So you have to describe the larger process of what you're doing in code somehow.[00:24:38] Sam Schillace: So semantic intent or whatever. And then you let the model kind of fill in the pieces.[00:24:43] Generating Synthetic Textbooks[00:24:43] Sam Schillace: I'll give a less abstract like example. It's a little bit of an old example. I did this like last year, but at one point I wanted to see if I could generate textbooks. And so I wrote this thing called the textbook factory.[00:24:53] Sam Schillace: And it's, it's tiny. It's like a Jupyter notebook with like. You know, 200 lines of Python and like six very short prompts, but what you basically give it a sentence. And it like pulls out the topic and the level of, of, from that sentence, so you, like, I would like fifth grade reading. I would like eighth grade English.[00:25:11] Sam Schillace: His English ninth grade, US history, whatever. That by the way, all, all by itself, like would've been an almost impossible job like three years ago. Isn't, it's like totally amazing like that by itself. Just parsing an arbitrary natural language sentence to get these two pieces of information out is like almost trivial now.[00:25:27] Sam Schillace: Which is amazing. So it takes that and it just like makes like a thousand calls to the API and it goes and builds a full year textbook, like decides what the curriculum is with one of the prompts. It breaks it into chapters. It writes all the lessons and lesson plans and like builds a teacher's guide with all the answers to all the questions.[00:25:42] Sam Schillace: It builds a table of contents, like all that stuff. It's super reliable. You always get a textbook. It's super brittle. You never get a cookbook or a novel like but like you could kind of define that domain pretty care, like I can describe. The metacognition, the high level plan for how do you write a textbook, right?[00:25:59] Sam Schillace: You like decide the curriculum and then you write all the chapters and you write the teacher's guide and you write the table content, like you can, you can describe that out pretty well. And so having that like code exoskeleton wrapped around the model is really helpful, like it keeps the model from drifting off and then you don't have as many of these vulnerabilities around memory that you would normally have.[00:26:19] Sam Schillace: So like, that's kind of, I think where the syntax and semantics comes together right now.[00:26:24] Trade leverage for precision; use interaction to mitigate[00:26:24] Sam Schillace: And then I think the question for all of us is. How do you get more leverage out of that? Right? So one of the things that I don't love about virtually everything anyone's built for the last year and a half is people are holding the hands of the model on everything.[00:26:37] Sam Schillace: Like the leverage is very low, right? You can't turn. These things loose to do anything really interesting for very long. You can kind of, and the places where people are getting more work out per unit of work in are usually where somebody has done exactly what I just described. They've kind of figured out what the pattern of the problem is in enough of a way that they can write some code for it.[00:26:59] Sam Schillace: And then that that like, so I've seen like sales support stuff. I've seen like code base tuning stuff of like, there's lots of things that people are doing where like, you can get a lot of value in some relatively well defined domain using a little bit of the model's ability to think for you and a little, and a little bit of code.[00:27:18] Code is for syntax and process; models are for semantics and intent.[00:27:18] Sam Schillace: And then I think the next wave is like, okay, do we do stuff like domain specific languages to like make the planning capabilities better? Do we like start to build? More sophisticated primitives. We're starting to think about and talk about like power automate and a bunch of stuff inside of Microsoft that we're going to wrap in these like building blocks.[00:27:34] Sam Schillace: So the models have these chunks of reliable functionality that they can invoke as part of these plans, right? Because you don't want like, if you're going to ask the model to go do something and the output's going to be a hundred thousand lines of code, if it's got to generate that code every time, the randomness, the stochasticity is like going to make that basically not reliable.[00:27:54] Sam Schillace: You want it to generate it like a 10 or 20 line high level semantic plan for this thing that gets handed to some markup executor that runs it and that invokes that API, that 100, 000 lines of code behind it, API call. And like, that's a really nice robust system for now. And then as the models get smarter as new models emerge, then we get better plans, we get more sophistication.[00:28:17] Sam Schillace: In terms of what they can choose, things like that. Right. So I think like that feels like that's probably the path forward for a little while, at least, like there was, there was a lot there. I, sorry, like I've been thinking, you can tell I've been thinking about it a lot. Like this is kind of all I think about is like, how do you build.[00:28:31] Sam Schillace: Really high value stuff out of this. And where do we go? Yeah. The, the role where[00:28:35] swyx: we are. Yeah. The intermixing of code and, and LMS is, is a lot of the role of the AI engineer. And I, I, I think in a very real way, you were one of the first to, because obviously you had early access. Honestly, I'm surprised.[00:28:46] Hands on AI Leadership[00:28:46] swyx: How are you so hands on? How do you choose to, to dedicate your time? How do you advise other tech leaders? Right. You know, you, you are. You have people working for you, you could not be hands on, but you seem to be hands on. What's the allocation that people should have, especially if they're senior tech[00:29:03] Sam Schillace: leaders?[00:29:04] Sam Schillace: It's mostly just fun. Like, I'm a maker, and I like to build stuff. I'm a little bit idiosyncratic. I I've got ADHD, and so I won't build anything. I won't work on anything I'm bored with. So I have no discipline. If I'm not actually interested in the thing, I can't just, like, do it, force myself to do it.[00:29:17] Sam Schillace: But, I mean, if you're not interested in what's going on right now in the industry, like, go find a different industry, honestly. Like, I seriously, like, this is, I, well, it's funny, like, I don't mean to be snarky, but, like, I was at a dinner, like, a, I don't know, six months ago or something, And I was sitting next to a CTO of a large, I won't name the corporation because it would name the person, but I was sitting next to the CTO of a very large Japanese technical company, and he was like, like, nothing has been interesting since the internet, and this is interesting now, like, this is fun again.[00:29:46] Sam Schillace: And I'm like, yeah, totally, like this is like, the most interesting thing that's happened in 35 years of my career, like, we can play with semantics and natural language, and we can have these things that are like sort of active, can kind of be independent in certain ways and can do stuff for us and can like, reach all of these interesting problems.[00:30:02] Sam Schillace: So like that's part of it of it's just kind of fun to, to do stuff and to build stuff. I, I just can't, can't resist. I'm not crazy hands-on, like, I have an eng like my engineering team's listening right now. They're like probably laughing 'cause they, I never, I, I don't really touch code directly 'cause I'm so obsessive.[00:30:17] Sam Schillace: I told them like, if I start writing code, that's all I'm gonna do. And it's probably better if I stay a little bit high level and like, think about. I've got a really great couple of engineers, a bunch of engineers underneath me, a bunch of designers underneath me that are really good folks that we just bounce ideas off of back and forth and it's just really fun.[00:30:35] Sam Schillace: That's the role I came to Microsoft to do, really, was to just kind of bring some energy around innovation, some energy around consumer, We didn't know that this was coming when I joined. I joined like eight months before it hit us, but I think Kevin might've had an idea it was coming. And and then when it hit, I just kind of dove in with both feet cause it's just so much fun to do.[00:30:55] Sam Schillace: Just to tie it back a little bit to the, the Google Docs stuff. When we did rightly originally the world it's not like I built rightly in jQuery or anything. Like I built that thing on bare metal back before there were decent JavaScript VMs.[00:31:10] Sam Schillace: I was just telling somebody today, like you were rate limited. So like just computing the diff when you type something like doing the string diff, I had to write like a binary search on each end of the string diff because like you didn't have enough iterations of a for loop to search character by character.[00:31:24] Sam Schillace: I mean, like that's how rough it was none of the browsers implemented stuff directly, whatever. It's like, just really messy. And like, that's. Like, as somebody who's been doing this for a long time, like, that's the place where you want to engage, right? If things are easy, and it's easy to go do something, it's too late.[00:31:42] Sam Schillace: Even if it's not too late, it's going to be crowded, but like the right time to do something new and disruptive and technical is, first of all, still when it's controversial, but second of all, when you have this, like, you can see the future, you ask this, like, what if question, and you can see where it's going, But you have this, like, pit in your stomach as an engineer as to, like, how crappy this is going to be to do.[00:32:04] Sam Schillace: Like, that's really the right moment to engage with stuff. We're just like, this is going to suck, it's going to be messy, I don't know what the path is, I'm going to get sticks and thorns in my hair, like I, I, it's going to have false starts, and I don't really, I'm going to This is why those skeletchae laws are kind of funny, because, like, I, I, like You know, I wrote them down at one point because they were like my best guess, but I'm like half of these are probably wrong, and I think they've all held up pretty well, but I'm just like guessing along with everybody else, we're just trying to figure this thing out still, right, and like, and I think the only way to do that is to just engage with it.[00:32:34] Sam Schillace: You just have to like, build stuff. If you're, I can't tell you the number of execs I've talked to who have opinions about AI and have not sat down with anything for more than 10 minutes to like actually try to get anything done. You know, it's just like, it's incomprehensible to me that you can watch this stuff through the lens of like the press and forgive me, podcasts and feel like you actually know what you're talking about.[00:32:59] Sam Schillace: Like, you have to like build stuff. Like, break your nose on stuff and like figure out what doesn't work.[00:33:04] swyx: Yeah, I mean, I view us as a starting point, as a way for people to get exposure on what we're doing. They should be looking at, and they still have to do the work as do we. Yeah, I'll basically endorse, like, I think most of the laws.[00:33:18] Multimodality vs "Text is the universal wire protocol"[00:33:18] swyx: I think the one I question the most now is text is the universal wire protocol. There was a very popular article, a text that used a universal interface by Rune who now works at OpenAI. And I, actually, we just, we just dropped a podcast with David Luan, who's CEO of Adept now, but he was VP of Eng, and he pitched Kevin Scott for the original Microsoft investment in OpenAI.[00:33:40] swyx: Where he's basically pivoting to or just betting very hard on multimodality. I think that's something that we don't really position very well. I think this year, we're trying to all figure it out. I don't know if you have an updated perspective on multi modal models how that affects agents[00:33:54] Sam Schillace: or not.[00:33:55] Sam Schillace: Yeah, I mean, I think the multi I think multi modality is really important. And I, I think it's only going to get better from here. For sure. Yeah, the text is the universal wire protocol. You're probably right. Like, I don't know that I would defend that one entirely. Note that it doesn't say English, right?[00:34:09] Sam Schillace: Like it's, it's not, that's even natural language. Like there's stuff like Steve Luko, who's the guy who created TypeScript, created TypeChat, right? Which is this like way to get LLMs to be very precise and return syntax and correct JavaScript. So like, I, yeah, I think like multimodality, like, I think part of the challenge with it is like, it's a little harder to access.[00:34:30] Sam Schillace: Programatically still like I think you know and I do think like, You know like when when like dahly and stuff started to come Out I was like, oh photoshop's in trouble cuz like, you know I'm just gonna like describe images And you don't need photos of Photoshop anymore Which hasn't played out that way like they're actually like adding a bunch of tools who look like you want to be able to you know for multimodality be really like super super charged you need to be able to do stuff like Descriptively, like, okay, find the dog in this picture and mask around it.[00:34:58] Sam Schillace: Okay, now make it larger and whatever. You need to be able to interact with stuff textually, which we're starting to be able to do. Like, you can do some of that stuff. But there's probably a whole bunch of new capabilities that are going to come out that are going to make it more interesting.[00:35:11] Sam Schillace: So, I don't know, like, I suspect we're going to wind up looking kind of like Unix at the end of the day, where, like, there's pipes and, like, Stuff goes over pipes, and some of the pipes are byte character pipes, and some of them are byte digital or whatever like binary pipes, and that's going to be compatible with a lot of the systems we have out there, so like, that's probably still And I think there's a lot to be gotten from, from text as a language, but I suspect you're right.[00:35:37] Sam Schillace: Like that particular law is not going to hold up super well. But we didn't have multimodal going when I wrote it. I'll take one out as well.[00:35:46] Azure OpenAI vs Microsoft Research vs Microsoft AI Division[00:35:46] swyx: I know. Yeah, I mean, the innovations that keep coming out of Microsoft. You mentioned multi agent. I think you're talking about autogen.[00:35:52] swyx: But there's always research coming out of MSR. Yeah. PHY1, PHY2. Yeah, there's a bunch of[00:35:57] Sam Schillace: stuff. Yeah.[00:35:59] swyx: What should, how should the outsider or the AI engineer just as a sort of final word, like, How should they view the Microsoft portfolio things? I know you're not here to be a salesman, but What, how do you explain You know, Microsoft's AI[00:36:12] Sam Schillace: work to people.[00:36:13] Sam Schillace: There's a lot of stuff going on. Like, first of all, like, I should, I'll be a little tiny bit of a salesman for, like, two seconds and just point out that, like, one of the things we have is the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub. So, like, you can get, like, Azure credits and stuff from us. Like, up to, like, 150 grand, I think, over four years.[00:36:29] Sam Schillace: So, like, it's actually pretty easy to get. Credit you can start, I 500 bucks to start or something with very little other than just an idea. So like there's, that's pretty cool. Like, I like Microsoft is very much all in on AI at, at many levels. And so like that, you mentioned, you mentioned Autogen, like, So I sit in the office of the CTO, Microsoft Research sits under him, under the office of the CTO as well.[00:36:51] Sam Schillace: So the Autogen group came out of somebody in MSR, like in that group. So like there's sort of. The spectrum of very researchy things going on in research, where we're doing things like Phi, which is the small language model efficiency exploration that's really, really interesting. Lots of very technical folks there that are building different kinds of models.[00:37:10] Sam Schillace: And then there's like, groups like my group that are kind of a little bit in the middle that straddle product and, and, and research and kind of have a foot in both worlds and are trying to kind of be a bridge into the product world. And then there's like a whole bunch of stuff on the product side of things.[00:37:23] Sam Schillace: So there's. All the Azure OpenAI stuff, and then there's all the stuff that's in Office and Windows. And I, so I think, like, the way, I don't know, the way to think about Microsoft is we're just powering AI at every level we can, and making it as accessible as we can to both end users and developers.[00:37:42] Sam Schillace: There's this really nice research arm at one end of that spectrum that's really driving the cutting edge. The fee stuff is really amazing. It broke the chinchella curves. Right, like we didn't, that's the textbooks are all you need paper, and it's still kind of controversial, but like that was really a surprising result that came out of MSR.[00:37:58] Sam Schillace: And so like I think Microsoft is both being a thought leader on one end, on the other end with all the Azure OpenAI, all the Azure tooling that we have, like very much a developer centric, kind of the tinkerer's paradise that Microsoft always was. It's like a great place to come and consume all these things.[00:38:14] Sam Schillace: There's really amazing stuff ideas that we've had, like these very rich, long running, rag based chatbots that we didn't talk about that are like now possible to just go build with Azure AI Studio for yourself. You can build and deploy like a chatbot that's trained on your data specifically, like very easily and things like that.[00:38:31] Sam Schillace: So like there's that end of things. And then there's all this stuff that's in Office, where like, you could just like use the copilots both in Bing, but also just like daily your daily work. So like, it's just kind of everywhere at this point, like everyone in the company thinks about it all the time.[00:38:43] Sam Schillace: There's like no single answer to that question. That was way more salesy than I thought I was capable of, but like, that is actually the genuine truth. Like, it is all the time, it is all levels, it is all the way from really pragmatic, approachable stuff for somebody starting out who doesn't know things, all the way to like Absolutely cutting edge research, silicon, models, AI for science, like, we didn't talk about any of the AI for science stuff, I've seen magical stuff coming out of the research group on that topic, like just crazy cool stuff that's coming, so.[00:39:13] Sam Schillace: You've[00:39:14] swyx: called this since you joined Microsoft. I point listeners to the podcast that you did in 2022, pre ChatGBT with Kevin Scott. And yeah, you've been saying this from the beginning. So this is not a new line of Talk track for you, like you've, you, you've been a genuine believer for a long time.[00:39:28] swyx: And,[00:39:28] Sam Schillace: and just to be clear, like I haven't been at Microsoft that long. I've only been here for like two, a little over two years and you know, it's a little bit weird for me 'cause for a lot of my career they were the competitor and the enemy and you know, it's kind of funny to be here, but like it's really remarkable.[00:39:40] On Satya[00:39:40] Sam Schillace: It's going on. I really, really like Satya. I've met a, met and worked with a bunch of big tech CEOs and I think he's a genuinely awesome person and he's fun to work with and has a really great. vision. So like, and I obviously really like Kevin, we've been friends for a long time. So it's a cool place.[00:39:56] Sam Schillace: I think there's a lot of interesting stuff. We[00:39:57] swyx: have some awareness Satya is a listener. So obviously he's super welcome on the pod anytime. You can just drop in a good word for us.[00:40:05] Sam Schillace: He's fun to talk to. It's interesting because like CEOs can be lots of different personalities, but he is you were asking me about how I'm like, so hands on and engaged.[00:40:14] Sam Schillace: I'm amazed at how hands on and engaged he can be given the scale of his job. Like, he's super, super engaged with stuff, super in the details, understands a lot of the stuff that's going on. And the science side of things, as well as the product and the business side, I mean, it's really remarkable. I don't say that, like, because he's listening or because I'm trying to pump the company, like, I'm, like, genuinely really, really impressed with, like, how, what he's, like, I look at him, I'm like, I love this stuff, and I spend all my time thinking about it, and I could not do what he's doing.[00:40:42] Sam Schillace: Like, it's just incredible how much you can get[00:40:43] Ben Dunphy: into his head.[00:40:44] Sam at AI Leadership Track[00:40:44] Ben Dunphy: Sam, it's been an absolute pleasure to hear from you here, hear the war stories. So thank you so much for coming on. Quick question though you're here on the podcast as the presenting sponsor for the AI Engineer World's Fair, will you be taking the stage there, or are we going to defer that to Satya?[00:41:01] Ben Dunphy: And I'm happy[00:41:02] Sam Schillace: to talk to folks. I'm happy to be there. It's always fun to like I, I like talking to people more than talking at people. So I don't love giving keynotes. I love giving Q and A's and like engaging with engineers and like. I really am at heart just a builder and an engineer, and like, that's what I'm happiest doing, like being creative and like building things and figuring stuff out.[00:41:22] Sam Schillace: That would be really fun to do, and I'll probably go just to like, hang out with people and hear what they're working on and working about.[00:41:28] swyx: The AI leadership track is just AI leaders, and then it's closed doors, so you know, more sort of an unconference style where people just talk[00:41:34] Sam Schillace: about their issues.[00:41:35] Sam Schillace: Yeah, that would be, that's much more fun. That's really, because we are really all wrestling with this, trying to figure out what it means. Right. So I don't think anyone I, the reason I have the Scalache laws kind of give me the willies a little bit is like, I, I was joking that we should just call them the Scalache best guesses, because like, I don't want people to think that that's like some iron law.[00:41:52] Sam Schillace: We're all trying to figure this stuff out. Right. Like some of it's right. Some it's not right. It's going to be messy. We'll have false starts, but yeah, we're all working it out. So that's the fun conversation. All[00:42:02] Ben Dunphy: right. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks so much for coming on.[00:42:05] Final Plug for Tickets & CFP[00:42:05] Ben Dunphy: For those of you listening, interested in attending AI Engineer World's Fair, you can purchase your tickets today.[00:42:11] Ben Dunphy: Learn more about the event at ai. engineer. You can purchase even group discounts. If you purchase four more tickets, use the code GROUP, and one of those four tickets will be free. If you want to speak at the event CFP closes April 8th, so check out the link at ai. engineer, send us your proposals for talks, workshops, or discussion groups.[00:42:33] Ben Dunphy: So if you want to come to THE event of the year for AI engineers, the technical event of the year for AI engineers this is at June 25, 26, and 27 in San Francisco. That's it! Get full access to Latent Space at www.latent.space/subscribe

Jon Buck's Sermon on 1 John 5:1-3 from March 24, 2024.

Frank Luntz Rightly Predicts Trump Victory If This Happens | Mundo Clip 3-25-24See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we continue our journey through Africa's most popular verses, we come to Paul's famed words to the Roman church in Romans 12:2. Rightly interpreted, this verse shows us that true worship flows from a renewed mind.

The Christian church is composed of many different kinds of people with different gifts and different ministries.  Pastor Joe explains three key principles for to aid Christians in their use of any of the 7 spiritual gifts listed in Romans 12. 

Preaching from Deuteronomy 4:1-8, how does the Law function as the Christian's inheritance?

Last week the Irish people delivered a blow to the corrupt Irish government.  They voted an overwhelming No to a referendum that would have redefined family and women.  The proposed referenda altering the nation's constitution enjoyed the support of Ireland's elites, but the attempt to embed woke values in it has backfired. The Government asked voters to remove the word 'mother' from the Constitution and they answered with a resounding No.  They also rejected by a huge margin the attempt to foist the extremely nebulous term "durable relationships" on the Constitution. The government worked in conjunction with every political party and legacy media outlet to tell and coerce the people into accepting these changes. The people refused.  John Waters returns to Hearts of Oak to analyse why this referendum was proposed and what the rejection means, not only for the government but for the people of Ireland. John Waters is an Irish Thinker, Talker, and Writer. From the life of the spirit of society to the infinite reach of rock ‘n' roll; from the puzzle of the human ‘I' to the true nature of money; from the attempted murder of fatherhood to the slow death of the novel, he speaks and writes about the meaning of life in the modern world. He began part-time work as a journalist in 1981, with Hot Press, Ireland's leading rock ‘n' roll magazine and went full-time in 1984, when he moved from the Wild West to the capital, Dublin. As a journalist, magazine editor and columnist, he specialised from the start in raising unpopular issues of public importance, including the psychic cost of colonialism and the denial of rights to fathers under what is called family 'law'. He was a columnist with The Irish Times for 24 years when being Ireland's premier newspaper still meant something. He left in 2014 when this had come to mean diddly-squat, and drew the blinds fully on Irish journalism a year later. Since then, his articles have appeared in publications such as First Things, frontpagemag.com, The Spectator, and The Spectator USA. He has published ten books, the latest, Give Us Back the Bad Roads (2018), being a reflection on the cultural disintegration of Ireland since 1990, in the form of a letter to his late father. Connect with John... SUBSTACK              johnwaters.substack.com/ WEBSITE:                anti-corruptionireland.com/ Recorded 18.3.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/ *Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast. Check out his art https://theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com/ and follow him on X https://twitter.com/TheBoschFawstin?s=20  TRANSCRIPT (Hearts of Oak)   And it's wonderful to have John Waters join us once again from Ireland. John, thanks so much for your time today. (John Waters) Thank you, Peter.  Pleasure to be with you.  Great to have you on. It was ages ago, goodness, talking about immigration.  That was a good 18 months ago. Always good to have you on.  And people can follow you, on your Substack, johnwaters.substack.com. That's where they can get all your writings. You've got one of your latest ones, I think, Beware the Ides of March, part one.  Do you just want to mention that to give people a flavour of what they can find on  your Substack? Yeah, it's a short series.  I don't know.  I think it's going to be probably two, maybe three articles. I have several other things that are kind of related to it. It's really the story of what happened, what has been happening since four years ago really, as opposed to what they told us, what happened, what we've been talking about. It's essentially, this was not about your health.  It was about your wealth, and that's the message so I go through that in terms of its meanings. And in the first part which has just gone up last night; it's really about  the the way that the the predator class the richest of the rich in the world are  essentially. Coming to the end of their three-card trick which has been around now for 50 years. Which is the money systems that emerge after the untethering of currencies from the gold standard. And that's essentially been a balloon that's been expanding, expanding, expanding,  and it's about to blow.  They're trying to control that explosion. But essentially, their mission is to ensure that, not a drop of their wealth is spilt in  whatever happens, right? And that everybody else will lose everything, pretty much. They don't care about that.  In fact, that's part of their wish. And so it's that really what I'm kind of talking about and how that started. We now know that the beginnings of what is called COVID were nothing to do with a virus. There was a bulletin issued by Black Rock on the 15th of August 2019, Assumption  Day in the Christian calendar, which is the day that the body of our Blessed Virgin was assumed and received into heaven. But, the word assumption has lots of other meanings. I think there was a lot of that at play on that particular day when they were assuming the right to dictate to the world what its future should be. That was really the start of it. And then the COVID lockdowns and all of that flowed  inexorably. There's a lot of stuff we could go into, but we won't.  I don't think about vaccines and all the rest of it.  They're part of that story. But the central part was that this was completely fabricated and completely  engineered and it was a fundamental attack on human freedom in the west particularly. And has been largely successful so far but, now as I think we're going to talk about it, in Ireland there's beginning to be that little bit of a pushback. I'm hopeful now. Well, obviously I've really enjoyed your your writings on Substack. I don't have the patience for the writing, but you are a writer a journalist and that is  your bread and butter. People obviously can support you financially on Substack if they want to do that after reading your writings. Let's go into Ireland: we saw this referendum and it's interesting. We'll get into some of the comments on it, but really there were two parts of this  referendum and it was focusing on family and the woman's position or the mother's position. Do you want to just let us know how this referendum came about? OK, well, first of all, you've got to see it in its context, which is in a series of attacks  on the Irish Constitution going back. Going back, you could say 30 years.  It depends in the context of the European Union and the various referendums that we had about that, the Nice Treaty, the Lisbon Treaty, in which the Irish people were  basically told when they voted ‘no', that's the wrong answer. You're going to have to think again, and you're going to have to vote again. And they did, and it passed, because they were just bullied into doing it.  In the past decade or so, a dozen years, we've had three critical referendums  which attacked, the Irish Constitution which has a series of fundamental rights  articles right in the centre of it, articles 40 to 44. That's been informally called by judges over the years: the Irish Bill of Rights, which  is all the personal fundamental rights, all the rights that derive essentially from  natural law in the greater number of them. That, in other words, they're inalienable, imprescriptible, they are antecedent. They're not generated by the Constitution or indeed by the people. Certainly not by the government or anybody else. So, now there was an attack on Article 41 in 2012, which was purportedly to put in  children's rights into the Constitution. That was completely bogus because it was a successful attempt attempt to transfer  parental rights to the state. That's what it was when you look closely at it.  And I was fighting all these referendums. Then in 2015, we had the so-called gay marriage or the marriage referendum. Which essentially, people don't really get this; they talk about Ireland having legalised  gay marriage. No, no, we didn't. That's not what we did.  We actually destroyed marriage by putting gay marriage as an equivalent concept in  our constitution. And then there was the infamous Eighth Amendment referendum in 2018, which was  to take out an amendment which had been put in some 40 years before, 30 years before, in 1983, to guarantee, to, as it were, copper fasten the right to life of the  unborn child. And there's a very subtle point that needs to be made about this, not very subtle really, but legally it is, which is that this was an unlawful referendum because this was one of those inalienable, imprescriptible rights. Even though the article in which it was couched on was only introduced in 1983, and all it was, was a kind of a reminder, that these rights exist, because these rights already exist as unenumerated rights. And as a result of that the referendum was actually unlawful and should never have taken place, because the Irish people had no right to vote down the rights of a section of its own population. Which was the unborn children waiting to emerge into the world to live their lives in  peace and whatever would come their way in that life. But nevertheless, to have a law, to have essentially an illegal, unlawful law, quote unquote, created that prevented them from even entering this world. It seemed to me to be the greatest abomination that has ever happened in our country. So, this was a continuation of this.  There are different theories about what it was about. There were two amendments, as you said, Peter. The second one that you mentioned was the mother in the home. And this was a guarantee to women, to mothers, that they would be protected from  having to go out, if they wished, to go out into the workplace and work. And if they wanted to mind their children, then the state would take care of them. It's not specific, but nevertheless, it placed on the state a burden of responsibility to  give women this choice. Now, of course, the government and its allies, its proxies, try to say that it's really an  attack on women, that it says there are places in the home, this kind of caricaturing of  the wording and so on. In fact, it's nonsense because there's another article, Article 45, which explicitly  mentions the right of women to have occupations in the public domain and to go and work and earn a living for themselves. So, this was a complete caricature. And I think people understood that. The other one then was a redefinition of the family, which is Article 41. Again, all of this is 41, which defines the family, always has, as being based on  marriage. That has been the source of some dissension over the years, some controversy,  because more and more families were outside marriage, as it were. There were small F families, as it were, rather than a big F family, as arises in the  Constitution. And they claimed to be sorting this out.  But of course, they weren't sorting it out at all. When you actually catalogued the various categories of family who might theoretically benefit from such a change, none of them were benefiting at all. I went through this microscopically in the course of the campaign several times on videos and so on.  So, really what it was, was to leverage the progressive vote, I think. That was one object, to get people excited again. They were getting nostalgic for 2015 and 2018 because they were becoming more and more popular.  That was certainly one aspect. But, there were other aspects, which is that they were introducing into the  constitution, or supposedly, that along with marriage, that also would be included  something called durable relationships. And they refused or were unable to define what this meant. The result of it is that there were all kinds of proposals and suggestions that it might  well mean, for example, polygamy, that it might mean the word appear durable  appears in European law in the context of immigration. There was a very strong suspicion, which the government was unable to convincingly deny, that this was a measure that they needed to bring in in order to make way for  what they call family reunification, so that if one person gets into Ireland, they can  then apply to have their entire families brought in after them. That's already happening, by the way, without this. They say that something like an average of 20 people will follow anybody who gets in  and gets citizenship of Ireland. They bring something like an average of 20 people with them afterwards. So this was another aspect of it.  There were many, many theories posited about it. But one thing for sure was that the government was lying literally every day about it, trying to present this progressive veneer. And more and more, what was really I think staggering in the end in a certain sense,  was that the people not alone saw it in a marginal way, they saw it in an overwhelming way, this was the start, I mean I don't think a single person, myself included predicted that we would have a 70-30 or whatever it was roughly, 3-1 result. For now, I mean, that was really miraculous and I've said to people that it was actually a kind of loaves and fishes that it was greater than the sum of all its parts, greater than anything that we thought was possible. It was like a miracle that all of the votes just keep tumbling out, tumbling out, no, no, no, no, no. And I've been saying that that no actually represents much more than what it might  technically read as a response to the wording that was on the ballot paper, that it was  really, I think, the expression of something that we hadn't even suspected was there,  Because for four years now, the Irish people have labored under this tyranny of, you  know, really abuse of power by the government, by the police force, by the courts. And a real tyranny that is really, I think, looks like it's getting its feet under the table  for quite a long haul. And accompanied by that, there was what I call this concept, this climate of mutism,  whereby people weren't able any longer to discuss certain things in public for fear  that they would get into trouble, because this was very frequently happening. I mean, since the marriage referendum of 2015, Before that, for about a year, the LGBTgoons went on the streets and ensured that everybody got the message that we weren't allowed to talk about things that they had an interest in. And anybody who did was absolutely eviscerated, myself included, and was cancelled  or demonised or whatever. That has had a huge effect on Irish culture, a culture that used to be very  argumentative and garrulous, has now become almost paranoid, and kind of, you have this kind of culture of humming and hawing. If you get involved in a conversation with somebody and you say something that is  even maybe two or three steps removed from a controversial issue, they will immediately know it and clam up. This has been happening now in our culture right across the country. When you think about it, I've been saying in the last week that actually for all its  limitations, locations, the polling booth, that corner of the room in which the votes are being cast with the little table and the pencil and a little bit of a curtain in some  instances, but even not, there's a kind of a metaphorical curtain. And that became the one place in Ireland that you could overcome your mutism, that  you could put your mark on that paper and do it convincingly and in a firm hand. And I think that's really the meaning of it, that it was a no, no, no, no, no to just about everything that this government and its proxies have been trying to push over on  Ireland for the last few years, including the mass immigration, essential replacement  of the Irish population, including the vaccines, which really have killed now in Ireland something like 20,000 people over the past three years. I would say a conservative enough estimate not to mention the injuries of people; the many people who are ill now as a result of this and then of course we  have the utterly corrupt media refusing to discuss any of this and to put out all kinds  of misdirection concerning. John, can I just say, there's an interesting line in one of the articles on this. It said the scale of rejection spelled humiliation for the government, but also  opposition parties and advocacy groups who had united to support a yes, yes vote.  Tell us about that.  It's not just the government, well the government is made up obviously of the three  parties, the unholy alliance, of Fianna Fáil, Fianna Gael and, sorry, what was the  other? The Green Party.  Sorry, the Greens.  The Green Party are a fairly traditional element in Irish politics, not so much in the ideology, but in the idea of the small party, because they're They're the tail that wags the dog. They have all the ideological ideas.  The main parties have virtually no ideology whatsoever. Like they've been just catch-all parties for a century or whatever their  existence has been. But yes, that idea, you see, what we've noticed increasingly over the last, say, 10, 15  years, particularly I think since 2011, we had an election that year, which I think was a critical moment in Irish life, when in fact everything seemed to change. We didn't notice it at the time, but moving on from that, it became clear that  something radical had happened in the ruins of Irish culture, as it were, both  spellings actually. And so, as we moved out from that, it became clear that really there was no  opposition anymore. That all the parties were just different shades or different functions within a singular  Ideology. Like the so-called left parties were, it's not that they would be stating the thing. They would sort of, they would become almost like the military wing of the  mainstream parties, enforcing their diktats on the streets. If people went to protest about something outside the Houses of Parliament, the  Leinster House, these people would up and mount a counter protest against them  and call them all kinds of names. Like Nazis and white supremacists, all this nonsense, which has no place in Irish  culture whatsoever. It is a kind of a uni-party, as they say, is the recent term for it. But, my own belief is that actually this is a somewhat distraction in the sense that we  shouldn't anymore be looking at individual parties because, in fact, all of them are  captured from outside. And the World Economic Forum is basically dictating pretty much everything that  everybody thinks now. I mean, our so-called Taoiseach, God help us, I hate to call him that because it's  an honourable title. It's a sacred title to me.  And to have this appalling creep going swaggering around claiming that title for  himself, it seems it's one of the great obscenities of of modern Ireland. But he, Brad Kerr. He is a member of the World Economic Forum.  So is Martin, the leader of Fianna Fáil. They've been switching over the Taoiseach role for the last four years. Yeah, because that's quite strange. I mean, many of our viewers will not be from  Ireland and will be surprised at the confusion system you have where they just swap every so often, because the three of them are in cahoots. That's the completely new thing.  That's never happened before. But what it's about, you see, those two parties are the Civil War parties. Civil War back in 1922. Those parties grew out of it, and they became almost equivalent in popularity. They represented in some ways the divide of that Civil War. And for the best part of 100 years, they were like the main, they were the yin and yang. They were the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of the political system. And gradually, in the last 30, 40 years, the capacity of either of those parties to win  an overall majority has dwindled and basically disappeared, evaporated. So now they need smaller parties. And that's been true for about 30 years. And as I say, what actually happens then is that the smaller party, no matter how  small, if it's big enough to actually make the difference numerically, then it has the  power to take over certain areas of policy in which the big parties have no interest  whatsoever. And that's how you get things like migration, because they don't care about that. That's how you get social welfare policies, all that kind of stuff. This is kind of what's happened in the last, particularly since 2020, where there was a  complete unanimity. I could name, with the fingers of one hand, the people in the parliament, a total of over200 people in between the two houses, that who actually have stood up and actually in in any way acquitted themselves decently in the last four years. The rest have just been nodding donkeys and going along with this great tyranny against the Irish people and the contempt that Radcliffe and his cronies show for the Irish  people. Literally, almost like to the point of handing out straws and saying, suck it up, suck it  up, suck it up. And this is where we are now, that our democracy has been taken away, for sure. I mean, that last week was a really a bit of a boost but that was only  because they couldn't fix that. It was a referendum and they couldn't possibly predict what the turnout would be in  order to ready up the votes in advance but I have no doubt that they would be trying to rectify that they're giving votes now to in local elections which we have to every  immigrant who comes into Ireland so by the time that the Irish people get to the polls it'll all be over. These are people who don't even know how to spell the name of the country they're in many cases and this This is what's happening. The contempt these people have shown for our country is beyond belief. It is dizzying. It is nauseating. But the Irish people are told to shut up.  And of course, the media, without which none of this will be possible, by the way. I mean, if we had decent, honest media, they would be calling the government out  every day. But they're not. And so it remains to be seen now what effect this will have. I don't have any confidence that it's going to put any manners on this government  because they are beyond arrogant, beyond traitorous, beyond redemption in my view. But at the same time, there is a possibility that in the next elections, we have three  elections coming up now in the next year, in the next few months, actually, I would say,almost certainly. Well, we know for sure there's the European elections, European Parliament elections, and the local local elections are happening in June. Then there's a very strong probability that the general election will take place  sometime in the autumn because it has to happen before this time next year. And of course, the longer they leave it, the less flexibility and wiggle room they'll have in order because, events, dear boy, events can take over and they don't want to do, they don't like events, you know. I think what will be very interesting then is will something emerge in these elections, which would, if you like, will be a kind of an equivalent to that no box on toilet paper  in the form of independence, perhaps, or in the form of some form of new movement,  some actual spontaneous voice of the Irish people might well be something that could happen. I hope so. And I feel so as well. I think that this is the moment that it happened before, Peter, back in 2011, when  there was the really appalling events that happened in the wake of the economic  meltdown, when the troika of the IMF, the World Bank and the European  Commission, three entities, arrived as a kind of a coalition or a coalition. A kind of a joint policing visitation, shall we say, to basically take possession of Irish  economic sovereignty. And that was a great humiliation, a moment of extraordinary sorrow and grief and  rage in the Irish people. And that moment, I think, if you lit a match in Ireland at that time, the whole place  would have gone up. But, what happened then was a bogus movement started and pretended that it was  going to go and lead an alternative movement against these cretins, these cretinous  thugs and traitors who are the mainstream parties. And instead, then at the very last minute, they blocked the hallway, as Bob Dylan said, they stood in the doorway, they blocked up the hall, and nobody could go  through until the very last moment when they stepped aside. said they weren't going to run, and ushered in Mr. Enda Kenny, who became  possibly the greatest destroyer in Irish history since Oliver Cromwell. Yeah. When I grew up in the 80s with Gareth Fitzgerald and Charles Hawkey back  Fianna Gael, Fianna Fáil, there did seem to be a choice. And now it seems to be that there isn't really a choice for the voters and they've  come together. Is that a fair assessment of where Ireland are? Yes, 100%, Peter.  But, I think it's very important to, whereas we can go into the whole walk thing, as  these parties are now, fixated with woke, contaminated with it. They're saturated with this nonsense and really assiduously pushing it. But I always remind people that none of this is spontaneous, that woke is not a  spontaneous, naturalistic movement from the people or even any people. Of course, there are people pushing it, but they're just useful idiots. This has been, this is top-down, manipulation of an orchestration of our  democracies.  And it's happening everywhere now. These massive multibillionaires pumping money into this, into basically  destructive political elements, Antifa, the LGBT goons, and so on and so on. Terrorist groups, essentially. Let's not mess around. They're terrorist groups. And using these to batter down the democratic structures of Western countries. That's what's happening. And you see, the people that we are looking at who are the puppets. They're the quokka-wodgers, I call them. That's the name for them, actually, the quokka-wodgers, people who are simply like  wooden puppets of the puppet masters. They're filling space, placeholders. They're indistinguishable.  It doesn't matter.  I mean, rotating the role of Taoiseach is irrelevant because essentially, you  could just have a showroom dummy sitting on the chair for the full four years. It doesn't matter who it is, except the only difference it makes is that the quality of the dribble that emerges from the mouths of Martin and Varadkar is somewhat variegated  in the sense that, Varadkar is capable of saying the most disgusting things because  he has no knowledge of Ireland.  He's half Irish. He's an Irish mother and an Indian father. He has no love for Ireland whatsoever. He did a speech there the other day, apparently in America, where he was saying that  St. Patrick was a single male immigrant. Nobody, I think, at the meeting where he said it, had the temerity to point out to him  that actually St.Patrick was a victim of people traffickers. And that's exactly what's happening now.  He's their principal ally in the destruction of Ireland. Well, how does that fit? Because interesting comment about Varadkar's background,  his parents Indian.  We, of course, here in the UK and England, it's the same with Sunak. And then in Wales, you've just got the new first minister. I think was born in Zambia, I think, Africa. And then, of course, you've got in Scotland and in London, Pakistani heritage. You kind of look around.  And I think my issue is not necessarily that you've got that different background. My issue is the lack of integration and understanding of what it means to be this  culture and this community and a lack of understanding. I think that's where Varadkar seems to have torn up the rule book and what it means to be Irish and wants to rewrite it. Oh, well, they're actively saying now that really there's no such thing as Irish culture  and that, the people who live in Ireland, those people have been here for hundreds or maybe thousands of years. That they have no particular claim on this territory. Trade. This is something that the great Irish patriot, Wulff Tone, mourned about. He said, this country of ours is no sandbag. It's an ancient land honoured into antiquity by its valor, its piety, and its suffering. That's forgotten.  People like Varadkar don't know the first thing about this and care less. They're like Trudeau in Canada, a completely vacant space, empty-headed. Narcissists, egomaniacs psychopaths. They are. And they are and traitors like they are really doing things now. I did a stream last week; there was somebody in America in Utah, and I was saying  in the headline, I found myself saying this that what is happening cannot  possibly be happening. That's really the way all of us feel now that this is like just something surreal real, that is beyond comprehension, because it wasn't possible for us to forget, to predict. That a person could be elected into the office of Taoiseach, who would be  automatically a traitor, who would have no love for Ireland. It seemed to be axiomatic that in order to get there, you wanted to care, you had to  care and love Ireland. These people have no love for Ireland.  They are absolutely the enemies of Ireland now. You mentioned the two other referendums that happened or in effect on same-sex marriage and life or the lack of sanctity of life and those went through this this  hasn't. Does that mean there is a growing resentment with the government. Is it a growing opposition and desire for conservative values where kind of is that  coming from I know it's probably difficult to analyze it because this just happened a  week ago but what are your thoughts on that? It's difficult.  It's difficult because there are different explanations going around. I can only tell you what I believe, and it's based on just observation over a long time. I believe that it is. I've been saying,  for the last two years about Ireland in this context. That the Irishman, Paddy, as he's called, and we don't mind him being called that. You can imagine him sitting in the pub, in a beautiful sunny evening. The shadows of the setting sun coming across the bar. Oh, I'm dreaming that. I can have this picture in my mind, John. And he's got a dazzle, as we say, a dashing of beer, and he's sticking it away. And then there's a couple of young fellas there, and they start messing, pushing  around and maybe having a go at some of the women in the bar or whatever. And Paddy will sit there for a long time, and he'll sort of have a disapproving look  but he won't say anything, but there will be a moment and I call it: the kick the chair  moment. When he will just reef the chair from under him and he will get up and he'll get one of those guys and he'll have him slapped up against the wall and he will tell him the odds. That's the moment I think we've arrived at, that all of the contempt all of the hatred,  these people go on about introducing hate speech law there is nobody in Ireland that  is more hateful than the government towards its own people. 100 percent.  The most hateful government, I think, in the world at this point. They are abysmal.  They're appalling. So, this is the moment when I think people took that in. They took it in. They took it in.  We suck it up. OK. But then one day they said, no, no more. And that's what happened on Friday week, last Friday, Friday week. That's what happened because, you can push people so far. A lot of this has to do with Ireland's kind of inheritance of post-colonial self-hatred, whereby they can convince us that we're white supremacists, even though we  have no history of slavery or anything like that, except being slaves ourselves, our  ancestors being slaves. But there is, as Franz Fallon wrote about many years ago, back in the 50s, the  pathologies that infect a country that's been colonized are such as to weaken them in  a terrible way in the face of the possibility of independence, that they cannot stand  up for themselves. And you can see this now. I mean, all over Irish culture now on magazines, on hoardings, in television  advertisements, there's nothing but black faces. You would swear that Ireland was an African country. This is part of the gaslighting, that attack that has been mounted against the Irish  people. And people, Irish people, you see genuinely because they don't. They don't understand what's happening because the word racist is a kind of a spell  word, which is used, I call it like a, like it's like a cattle prod, and as soon as you say something, and a big space opens up around you because nobody wants to  be near somebody who's a racist. But in fact, we need to begin to understand that these are just words and sticks and  stones and so on. If we allow this to happen it means that we will lose our metaphysical home that our  children and our grandchildren will be homeless in the world that's what's going to  happen, because it's already clear from a lot of these people who are coming in that  they're shouting the odds and saying that basically Irish people just better get up and  leave their own country, because they're not welcome anymore. These are outsiders who've been here a wet weekend. They're being trained in this you asked me. I forgot to mention this thing Ireland has something like 35,000 NGOs 35,000  Wow  And and these people, in other words they're non-governmental organization. what's a non-government at mental organization? That's a government which works that's in organization which works for the government, but pretends not to. Ireland has been governed now to non-government mental organizations  and these people are bringing in these foreigners and they're training them. They're coaching them how to attack the Irish people, how to make a claim on Ireland. I read an article somebody sent me last week where some guy who came here from  Chechnya, and he was saying how great it was that you could come to Ireland and  become Irish within hours. Whereas, you could never become Japanese or Chinese, which, of course, is true. I mean, if I went to Japan, I think it would take about 10,000 years before a relation of mine might be Japanese. And rightly so. Rightly so.  There's nothing racist about that.  That's just the way things are. That's every country, including the African countries, want to uphold their own  ethnicity, integrity and nationhood. Why the hell can Ireland not do the same? It seems we can't.  And our own government telling us and our own media is telling us that we can't. Some background, there were 160 members in the Dáil of the Irish Parliament and  the government is 80. I was quite surprised at that, because you talk about a government wanting extra seats to get a bigger majority, but it seems though you look who's the opposition and you've got Sinn Féin and they are even more captured by the woke agenda than anyone. So you kind of look; it's kind of the government are rubbing it in people's  noses, because they don't actually need a majority or a big majority, because  everyone else seems to be fitting into this agenda. Yeah, that's a really important point, Peter.  It's really important because, you see, what happened in 2020 is really instructive. We had an election in 2020 in February.  I actually ran myself. The only time in my life I've ever run for an election because things were looking so  bad. I ran in the worst constituency in Ireland, actually, Dundee, which is the only  constituency which voted yes in this referendum. So, that'll just show you how demoralised I was, let's say. But, what happened then was that the government, outgoing government, was  basically hammered. Varadkar for government were hammered. There was a standoff for for several months when there was negotiations and then  something happened that was totally, not likely but each of the parties Fianna  Gael, and Fianna Fáil, in the previous election and for years, and decades,  before that has said that they would never ever ever coalesce with the other. Then they did. What we had then was from from from February through until late June of that year: we had Radcliffe running a kind of a caretaker government in the period when the  most draconian and radical and unprecedented laws were introduced into Irish  society. Nothing like them ever before, the COVID laws.  And then in July, Martin, they went into coalition then, and we had Martin, Fianna  Fáil and Fianna Gael in coalition doing the same thing, implementing the same  policies without question. And anybody who did question, as I did, and others, we got hammered and treated  like dirt in the courts, in the media, you name it. That's the thing; those parties, they know that no matter what happens, they can rig up the arithmetic. That there's nothing for further. There's nowhere as things stand unless you get a huge tranche of independents who  have the power to nullify whatever power these small parties will have. But you see, one of the factors involved here now, they don't have a this election for  the general election where they'll be able to get immigrants and Ukrainians and all these people to vote. But that's probably in a very short order, possibly by the next general election, they  will have organised that. And means that increasingly, just as in terms of the birth rate, Ireland is  already being overtaken. The population is already beginning to be, you know, you can see that the incoming  population is growing at a much faster rate than the Irish population, in the  indigenous population because we have European demographics. We had very briefly, some time ago. Surges after John Paul visited in 79 and so on. We had much higher birth rates than the rest of Europe, but not anymore. And so essentially what we're looking at right across Europe is a replacement  of population. Intimidation and the way you can really know this is that they've decided that  the word replacement is a hate word and and when they say that you're over the target because, whenever something becomes dead obvious they make  it quasi-illegal they make it into a crime. I've seen that. Can I ask it's it's weird because there's a positive and a negative I see. The negative is that there doesn't seem to be a vocal opposition to what is happening or a grouping that is standing for family, for the rights of women,  a pro-women party. And so there doesn't seem to be that on one side. But yet, on the other side, the people have rejected what they were told to vote  for, not only by the politicians, by every political party, but also by the media. Everything was telling them to do one thing and they've done something else  and yes, I mean that rebelliousness, I love, but I'm wondering in the  middle of that, there a group movement that can appear to begin to stand up,  because Ireland doesn't really have a populist movement; like we're seeing in  every European country. Except Britain and Ireland. We're left on the sidelines.  Yeah, yeah. Really there was never be this is ironic given that that Edmund Burke was an  Irishman. There's been no real conservative party. I mean, they've been called, Fine Gael and Fine Fáil were called conservative parties,  but they had no philosophy whatsoever. When Hardy came to Hardy, they switched to the woke side. There's no intellectual, interesting party that puts forward family-related policies, say like Viktor Orban does in Hungary or anything like that. It's purely a kind of reactive opposition. That's very, very dismaying because, we desperately need. One of the problems I think here, Peter, is ironically, that is a residual effect of the war against the Catholic Church, which has succeeded in, particularly the clerical abuse  scandals, have succeeded in making people very wary of speaking about, what you  might call Catholic issues, whether that's expressed in family or abortion or whatever. So, those issues tend to be leveraged by the leftist and liberal parties to actually agitate people so as they actually will go against whatever the church is recommending. That's been the pattern going right back in the last, certainly in the last decade or so,  that that was very strong in the referendums. You see that this is a real problem because, if you go on the media in Ireland, if you  would go on, if you would be let on, on the national broadcaster now, you would be  harangued and harassed if you were proposing. Nobody would say: “OK, well, what do you got to say?” And then: ”OK, well, I don't agree with that," but here's my position.” And that's gone. You're just harangued and you're sneered at, not necessarily just by the opposition  that's in the studio, but by the presenter, probably foremost among them. That's the way that these things have gone now. And you have all these newspapers campaigning, activists. They purport to be, I guess, in the referendum recently, they purported to be covering  it. But in fact, they were fighting for the yes side. And this has been the standard approach like that. They tell all these lies. I mean, like there's a very important lie that I want to just call out, which is the Tune  Babies Hooks lie, which happened about 10 years ago. Where there was allegations made that 800 babies had been killed by nuns in Tum and buried in a septic tank. There's been a commission of inquiry that has spent 10 years investigating this and  they have not found one skeleton, one bone of a child in a septic tank. Yet, the news has not gone around the world anything like to the extent that the first  story went round. And people still out there that I meet think it is absolutely gospel truth that nuns  killed 800 children and buried their bodies in a septic tank. That is a complete and utter lie. And they have failed after 10 years of trying.  And yet that issue was used, was leveraged in the 2018 referendum to defeat the voice of the church, to nullify what the church was saying on the abortion question, because the implication was, well, they don't care about children. This is what goes on in Ireland.  It is obscene.  It's utterly obscene. And one feels, distraught in the face of it. Grease stricken to see what has become possible in our beautiful country. Yeah, well the media or the virus and we've seen that time and time again. John I really do appreciate coming on. When I saw that result I was so happy, especially seeing the depression on Varadkar's  face that even brought more joy. I'd seen them pull back, and of course, they haven't given up, and they will come back I'm sure they will try and mix this type of thing part of their their manifesto  moving forward. But, it is a moment to celebrate, I think, in the pushback. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing it, John.  Thank you very much, Peter. Nice to talk to you

Jesus told the Pharisees that he didn't judge anyone during his earthly ministry because he came to save. He will, however, judge the wicked when he returns. Following him, we are called to judge no one, but we are also told to rightly evaluate all people and circumstances. 

A new MP3 sermon from Chester ARP Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Evaluate Situations and People Rightly Subtitle: Devotional Podcast Speaker: Clint Davis Broadcaster: Chester ARP Church Event: Devotional Date: 3/18/2024 Bible: John 8:12-20 Length: 8 min.

Amos 9:1-15Rev. Joel St. Clair

Paul wanted his young disciple, Timothy, to remember the charge he had given him to guard the good deposit of the gospel. In 2 Timothy 1:6–7, he issues a twofold reminder as he reiterates this charge: 1.⁠ ⁠A reminder to attend to the gift he received (v. 6) 2.⁠ ⁠⁠A reminder to act on what he was called to do (v. 7)

Romans 12:1‐2 teaches that to experience the transformed life you must live and think like a Christian. Pastor shows how the passage focuses on how we think about ourselves and others.

Gospel of John - beloved disciple; John so far; Gospel of "the Kingdom"; John 8 State of the union (Judea) Kingdom of God on Earth; Take kingdom away from those in the seat of Moses and give to another group; Christ's group of 70?; Sanhedrin; Where is Kingdom of God today?; How to serve God; Sitting in darkness; John 9:1; Blind man; Accomplishment; Leaders; Individual responsibility; Working in the day; Light of the world; Hearing God in your heart; Tree of knowledge; Bible information; Punishment vs consequence; Receiving Spirit of God; Receiving sight; John 9:12; Siloam = "sent"; Sabbath? - keeping it holy; Why the clay?; Unmooring metaphors from precepts; v17; Parental witness; Christ = messiah = anointed; Jesus as the king; Synagogue?; "Corban"; Tithe vs Temple tax; Pilate riot; Graven images; Golden calf; Bondage of Egypt; Herod's temple; Making the word of God to none effect; Blind man cast out; Parents afraid to be cast out; v35 - Jesus heard; Julius Caesar's free bread; Legal charity; August Caesar's "hut"; Kingdom government differences; Baptism; Who is the Son of God?; No forcing your neighbor; Addiction to benefits; Repentance; Rightly dividing bread from house to house; Blindness to the Way of Christ; Relating gospel events; "Son of God"; Firing porters of Temple (moneychangers); Taking benefits at expense of your neighbor; Whoredom, fornication and idolatry; Mt 20:25; Mk 10:42; Lk 22:25; Exercising authority not allowed; Church as benefactor; Col 3:5; Modern church social welfare; Modern Israel anti-Moses; Eph 5:5; 1 Cor 5:10; National adultery; Going out of the world?; Finding truth, way and light; Ex 20:17; No coveting; Charity alone; Micah 2:2 oppression; Becoming whole again; Rom 7:7; Rom 13:9; 2 Tim 3:2; Militia; Be on the side of Christ!

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. A.W. TozerNo religion or spiritual experience, no faith or practice can rise above its idea of God. This means it is possible to wade through huge slices of the Christian life almost by rote.Today, we will look intently at what this means for the faith of all Christians and people for that matter in light of knowing God rightly! Check out the short but power online course "KNOWING GOD RIGHTLY" at www.EquippedAcademy.ComPlease SHARE-LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to our channel to help us spread the message of Christ to the world!

Ephesians 4

The Book of Romans Series: Romans 12:3-8

A new MP3 sermon from Covenant Presbyterian Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Boasting Rightly Subtitle: James Speaker: Rev. Andrew Wann Broadcaster: Covenant Presbyterian Church Event: Sunday - PM Date: 3/10/2024 Bible: James 1:9-11 Length: 34 min.

Amos 7:1-6Rev. Joel St. Clair

A new MP3 sermon from New Heights Baptist Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Money... Rightly Divided - A Panoramic View of Money & Wealth In The Bible Subtitle: Stewardship of Money Speaker: Pastor Adrian Dominguez Broadcaster: New Heights Baptist Church Event: Midweek Service Date: 3/6/2024 Length: 50 min.

Dan Clubbe was joined by Steve McManaman ahead of the return of the Europa League for Liverpool as the Reds face Sparta Prague in the last 16, exclusively live on TNT Sports. TNT Sports is the exclusive home of the UEFA Europa League. Watch Sparta Prague v Liverpool live on TNT Sports 1 from 5pm on Thursday 7th March. TNT Sports is available through its streaming destination discovery+ and across all major TV platforms. For more info visit: get.discoveryplus.com/gb/watch-tnt-sports-on-discoveryplusSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/redmentv. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's message, from Mark 8:1-21, is about how the disciples repeatedly failed to see reality as it really was, and why … sometimes … we do too.

In the case of suicide as we conventionally understand it, death is the goal. It is the both the means and the end, in and of itself. Aaron Bushnell's self-immolation was a means to a very different end: a free Palestine and the cessation of an ongoing genocide. Reading by Tim Foley.

Unanswered prayers may be God refusing to give you what is second best. Unanswered prayers may be God acting on what He knows and you don't.  Rightly responding to unanswered prayers requires one to believe in God's proven love, faithfulness, and character and to trust He will always do what is best for His children.

Dr. Randy White examines Mark 8:1-13, discussing Jesus's feeding of 4,000, the Pharisees seeking a sign, and Jesus's response.

What the Bible means by the word "sanctification" is difficult to understand in English because different streams of words were used simultaneously to translate these concepts.  It is faulty understanding and bad theology that equate holiness with morality or perfection; the meaning in the original languages was to be set apart by God for His purposes.  Rightly understood, it is not something we can do to ourselves but rather something done to us by the Holy Spirit. VF-2192 Watch, Listen and Learn 24x7 at PastorMelissaScott.com Pastor Melissa Scott teaches from Faith Center in Glendale. Call 1-800-338-3030 24x7 to leave a message for Pastor Scott. You may make reservations to attend a live service, leave a prayer request or make a commitment. Pastor Scott appreciates messages and reads them often during live broadcasts. Follow @Pastor_Scott on Twitter and visit her official Facebook page @Pastor.M.Scott. Download Pastor Scott's "Understand the Bible" app for iPhone, iPad and iPod at the Apple App Store and for Android devices in the Google Store. Pastor Scott can also be seen 24x7 on Roku and Amazon Fire on the "Understand the Bible?" channel. ©2024 Pastor Melissa Scott, Ph.D., All Rights Reserved

Because of the toxic effects of sin both for ourselves and those that we are in community with, we are called to ruthless self-examination. Rightly understood, the doctrine of Hell serves as a sobering reminder of the judgement to come and a reminder of the salvation that is available through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Our purpose in this life is to bear fruit, to be the salt of the earth, and to live at peace with one another.

When it comes to historical books like Joshua (and also to many of the prophetic books), there are at least three audiences to consider. As we consider these three audiences in Joshua 1:6–9, we find the exhortation to be strong and courageous three times. When this exhortation is considered in light of three audiences, the repetition helps us to see how we can embrace the principles of the text for us today. We find three principles at play: 1. Strong and Courageous to Believe God's Promises (v. 6) 2. Strong and Courageous to Obey God's Precepts (vv. 7–8) 3. Strong and Courageous to Enjoy God's Presence (v. 9)

Dr. Randy White conducts an in-depth Bible study session, starting from Mark 7:24, focusing on Jesus' interactions and miracles.

TIMESTAMPS: Intro (0:00) Israeli Outrage (6:06) US Blocks Ceasefire Again (44:09) Cowardly Refusal (54:45) Assange's Last Chance (1:06:47) Ending (1:20:52) - - - Watch full episodes on Rumble, streamed LIVE 7pm ET: https://rumble.com/c/GGreenwald Become part of our Locals community: https://greenwald.locals.com/ - - -  Follow Glenn: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ggreenwald Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glenn.11.greenwald/ Follow System Update:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/SystemUpdate_ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/systemupdate__/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@systemupdate__ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/systemupdate.tv/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/systemupdate/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

by Pat Froelich

Ash Wednesday, Year B: Joel 2:1-2,12-17; II Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 www.gofundme.com/f/ZionsStoneChurchRepairFund Intro & Outro music: Parallel by Hotel Pools & oDDling Image by Grzegorz Krupa from Pixabay

Like any industry, self storage has recently adopted the idea of "promotional pricing." Think "first month's rent" for housing or "device trade in credit" for buying the newest smartphone. At some point, it is just too good to be true. There's a fine line between "promotional" and "false advertising." Attracting the right customer base - and getting them in the door the RIGHT way - is what Conner and Jesse Harmon talk about in this episode of Self Storage Income. Jesse recently got back from the Tenant Inc. Innovation Conference, where there was a lot of discussion on customer acquisition, customer service, and the role of AI in revenue management. The overwhelming consensus in the industry (particularly the REITs), is to lower prices, get people renting, and then jack up prices. But that takes the choice away from the consumer (and as a consumer, you may feel swindled or ripped off. Rightly so!). Questionable ethics aside, is this really a sustainable long-term strategy? Is there any other way? Make self storage management easier than EVER with our podcast sponsor Tenant Inc. - https://www.tenantinc.com/ Check out Storelocal! https://www.storelocal.com/ Ready to buy storage? Have your deals personally evaluated by AJ and our team! https://www.selfstorageincome.com/feasibility Take advantage of today's market conditions and invest with us: https://cedar.cc/invest

Wouldn't it be nice to think that rent-to-build could break the cultural and psychological barrier it needs to so that you can have a large building of renters co-existing happily with the sort of pride and joy you get in neighbourhoods where the bulk of people own their homes?  The build-to-rent story and its desire for the Government to change some rules to make it more attractive, came on the same day we got some numbers that made real the hurdle the Reserve Bank is about to put in front of many of the same people when it comes to borrowing and buying with their debt-to-income measures.  At six times your income you need an income beyond what most people have and that's after the 20% you need to stump up for a deposit.  That dovetails into the survey that shows an increasing number of young people don't see owning a home as part of their future.  On that last part I have some current experience. Our eldest kids think that way, that the concept of ownership is currently beyond them. But what they don't know, because they are too young and inexperienced, is that their view will change. One of them worries about her student debt. It seems to her monumental, but it isn't, not given what she will earn.  But what has changed since I bought my first house is attitude.  I bought my first house with zero deposit. I borrowed every cent, and I borrowed it at 22%.  What's changed is the Reserve Bank is actively looking to keep people out of the market and that is a social crime.  What we know about housing in this country is the value roughly doubles every 10 years. Rightly or wrongly that's the figure. On an annual basis it can go down, as it has over Covid, but not by a lot and certainly not by more than what it goes up by.  Housing is what we do in this country for identity, for pride, for savings and for living. What the Reserve Bank is doing is increasingly ruinous for no good reason.  You don't need 20% deposit and you don't need an income ratio because that's what banks do anyway. They don't lend to people who can't pay.  Yes, first homes might need to be in poor areas or small towns. I bought in Port Chalmers when Port Chalmers was the boondocks and, although I liked it, a lot of people didn't. But it got me on the ladder.  People owning their own homes is important. Renting for life for some may be a solution but that solution should be a choice, not forced on you.  No, not everyone will own a home. But the Reserve Bank and its policies now make it way harder than it needs to sensibly be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we continue to zoom in on Africa's most loved (but, sadly, most abused) Scripture verses, and try, with God's help, to rightly divide the word of truth, we come to spend time in Jeremiah 29:11, a glorious promise for the people of God when we look at it with eyes of faith. In this study, we aim to clear away some unbiblical flotsam and glory in God's grace through Jesus Christ.

There are many things regarding God's sovereign purpose that we don't understand and might never understand this side of eternity, but right here, in Romans 8:28, we have a revealed truth, a sure promise that we can hold on to. We will consider two broad things about this promise: 1. The Promise Declared 2. The Promise Qualified

A Christian counselor friend of ours once asked our small group that was gathered in his home: “If I told you to think about what you had for breakfast today, could you do it?” Of course, we all nodded. Then he asked, “What if I told you to feel happy on demand? Or sad, or angry? Could you do that?” Not surprisingly, we shook our heads and shrugged. He was making the point that we have greater control over our thought life than over our emotions. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can “set [our] minds on things above” (Col. 3:2). And when we do, our emotions— the fruit of the Spirit, joy and peace— often follow. But we can't just muster up joy on a moment's notice. Paul makes a similar point in today's passage. He exhorted the Philippians to several actions: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (v. 4). Be gentle or reasonable in the face of opposition (v. 5). Approach all situations with prayer and gratitude (v. 6). He also admonished them to think rightly. In a series of “whatever” statements, Paul listed different categories of thought for Christ followers to focus on. “Whatever is true, whatever is lovely, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable” (v. 8). All of these good things come from God. “The earth is the LORD'S, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Ps. 24:1). We love God with our mind when we think of these good things and, therefore, meditate on Him. Right actions and right thinking produce the same result: the peace of God. Tranquility. Freedom from anxiety (v. 6). This peace, which comes from God alone, surpasses our human understanding and protects our hearts and minds from fear (v. 7). It is evidence of His presence (v. 9).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Opinion: Workforce issue rightly in focus in Olympia. Elizabeth Hovde of the Washington Policy Center explains why lawmakers should take more opportunities to lessen state licensing restrictions that are harmful to workers and patients. http://tinyurl.com/bdh6frk4 #opinion #columns #commentary #ElizabethHovde #WashingtonPolicyCenter #lawmakers #statelicensingrestrictions #workers #patients #WashingtonStateLegislature #SenateBill5815 #licensurecompact #workforceissue #physicianassistants #Washingtonstate #VancouverWa #ClarkCountyWa #ClarkCountyNews #ClarkCountyToday

Jesus promised us that He would build His Church. But what is "church"? And how does our view of church affect the Christian life? Special guest, Pastor Adam Pohlman shares great insight that will set us up for success. Adam serves at Redemption City Church in Rochester, MN. For more information about Adam's family and ministry please visit https://www.redemptionrochester.com

Anxiety, worry, and fear are experienced by people of every age, gender, and background. It is no wonder that Philippians 4:6 made the YouVersion's top ten list of favourite Bible verses in Africa. Some might see this verse as a cure-all: a mantra that, when quoted, causes all worry to depart. Some might assume that to pray when tempted to worry guarantees that all worrisome situations will go away. Others might view this verse as proof that all anxiety is sinful and hence prayer is vital. Still others might view this verse as teaching us that, amid our anxiety, we should pray. That is, some may interpret it as an encouragement to what I want to call faithful anxiety. Let's learn and live this well-known text.

A reminder for new readers. That Was The Week collects the best writing on critical issues in tech, startups, and venture capital. I selected the articles because they are of interest. The selections often include things I entirely disagree with. But they express common opinions, or they provoke me to think. The articles are only snippets. Click on the headline to go to the original. I express my point of view in the editorial and the weekly video below.This Week's Audio:Thanks To This Week's Contributors: @jeffbeckervc, @eshap, @stevesi, @gruber, @daringfireball, @SamuelStolton, @leah_nylen, @mattmday, @chrisheuer, @JoannaStern, @Om, @sarahpereztc, @GeorgeNHammond, @Tabby_Kinder, @NicholasMegaw, @PeterJ_Walker, @SteveAbbott415, @adamlashinskyContents* Editorial: * Essays of the Week* Changing the Customer of Venture Capital (Jeff Becker)* What A Drag It Is (Evan Shapiro)* Building Under Regulation (Steven Sinovsky)* Apple's Plans for the DMA in the European Union (John Gruber)* Amazon Drops iRobot Deal; Roomba Maker Cuts 31% of Staff (By Samuel Stolton, Leah Nylen, and Matt Day)* Envisioning the Future of Human Work in the Age of AI: The 2024 Forecast (Chris Heuer)* Video of the Week* Joanna Stern Wears a Vision Pro for 24 Hours* Product of the Week* The Vision Pro (Daring Fireball)* Apple's Vision Pro -The Meta-Review. (Om Malik)* My 4 magic moments with Vision Pro (Om Malik)* Apple Vision Pro Review: The Best Headset Yet Is Just a Glimpse of the Future (Joanna Stern)* News Of the Week* Spotify calls Apple's DMA compliance plan ‘extortion' and a ‘complete and total farce' (Sarah Perez)* Investors raise billions to buy discounted stakes in start-ups (George Hammond, Tabby Kinder, Nicholas Megaw)* Founders: getting to the next venture stage may take longer than you expect (Peter Walker)* The State of the SaaS Capital Markets: A Look Back at 2023 and Look Forward to 2024 (STEVE ABBOTT Partner, Capital Markets, KEVIN BURKE Partner, Strategy)* PayPal is laying off 2,500 employees (Pranav Dixit)* Startup of the Week* Zum Raises $140M At $1.3B Valuation To Help Kids Get to School Faster With AI (Chris Metinko)* X of the Week* For a moment, I almost felt sorry for Mark Zuckerberg. (Adam Lashinsky)EditorialYou didn't hear it here first but Apple's Vision Pro is a hit.Some wonderful essays in this week's newsletter. I lead with Jeff Becker's look at venture capital, focusing on who the customer is. The question “Who is the customer?” is crucial for any product. The answer is easy when the product is an asset class - the customer is the person investing money. Yet most of the venture world pretends that the customer is the entrepreneur. In reality, the entrepreneur is a supplier. She or He supplies opportunity, commitment, and execution; the goal is to grow value by investing customer cash into that supply.Now it is easy to understand why venture investors sometimes describe the recipient of funding as the customer. It is important that the company feels served by the VC. But serving an investee company is clearly a mission carried out for the VC fund investors, the real customer.Jeff is addressing a real problem - how to best invest in the supply. I will leave you to read his essay and ponder it, but he proposes a radical re-think of how to do early-stage investing, and for the most part, it argues for a more liberal spread of cash, in larger numbers, to far more founders. It's interesting, to say the least.Evan Shapiro focuses on the rapid aging of the US population. He makes a strong case:Since 2019, America's population has grown by 7.8 million. Yet, the US now has 2.7 million fewer kids under 15 than it did in 2019. Meanwhile, there are now 7.1 million more Americans 65-80 than five years ago. America now has half a million fewer people under 40 than it did in 2019 and almost 8.4 million more people over 40.At a time when politicians from both sides are falling over themselves to point a finger at immigration as a major problem, it is refreshing to see analysis demonstrating that the US needs more immigrants. And in a context where there is virtual full employment this needs to be across all skill levels and needs to trend young. The essay is great.Part of the anti-immigrant narrative has focused on DACA - Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Ron Conway is part of a group of over 50 businesses signing an amicus brief to support DACA. Bravo to him.Hostility to immigrants is never OK. It is even less OK when the economy is desperate for skilled and unskilled willing hands.Politically inspired propaganda dominated elsewhere this week. Amazon was prevented from closing the acquisition of iRobot due to EU objections based on competitive concerns. Well done, EU. Amazon dropped the deal, and iRobot may well be in trouble as a result. Thirty percent of staff were laid off. And more EU interference when Apple was ordered to allow alternative app stores on the iPhone. Steven Sinofsky's wonderful essay, “Building Under Regulation,” leverages his vast experience at Microsoft. It seems every day it becomes more obvious that the EU is against innovation, especially when it produces successful big companies.The Congress got in on the act too (see X of the Week), calling social media leaders to DC to be accused, show-trial-like, of being responsible for teen suicides. Sadly, the Meta CEO apologized as if admitting culpability.Teen suicide and causality is a non-trivial issue, but it is fair to say that Social Media does not cause it. Teens (I have one and another two recently in their post-teen phase). All have had growing up challenges. As I recall, I did also. The world can be harsh in the face of those challenges. But to see social media as the only factor, or even a major one, seems superficial and plain wrong. I wish one of the executives had the nerve to push back against the accusations. Adam Lashinsky's piece is interesting.Finally, Chris Heuer has a research piece on AI and the Future of Work. Well done, Chris, this is such an important issue. My PoV is that work, defined as paid labor, will inevitably decline and the average working day will decline. I believe this is a fundamental good for humanity. I also believe it poses enormous global questions about how the abundance made possible will be distributed to improve life for everybody. I do. not think this is the end of human effort. Just the beginning of the end of the need to do paid labor in order to live.Essays of the WeekChanging the Customer of Venture CapitalThe gift of technologyJEFF BECKERJAN 29, 2024TLDR: We need to change the customer of early-stage venture capital so that we can fund the future of technology and build global prosperity for decades to come.Recently, I hosted a group of students from Wharton at Antler's offices and we talked about the future of early-stage VC.I alluded to this a couple weeks ago when I said:…for $5B per year, you could seed the vast majority of meaningful tech companies for 8 years with the amount of money Elon Musk spent on Twitter. (Link here)The reality is, $5B per year just isn't that much money in the grand scheme of private equities—roughly .5-1% depending how you slice it.As a former salesperson, that fact often leaves me wondering, “what if you changed the customer of venture capital?”Could you attract more money, create more impact, and actually produce more returns?Classically, putting your name on building was a way to not only have a fairly durable legacy, but let's be honest, that gift is outdated.And it hardly does any good in the world.Instead, legacies and the world's most important problems alike would be better served by a consolidation of brilliant minds and capital, combined with the speed and leverage of startups.I think there are two interesting solutions, and both should be built.The first is something I'd call the 501-VC, and the second would be to fund all of venture capital for a decade or more through a new kind of Giving Pledge.I'm going to talk about the second one today.Famously,The Giving Pledge is a promise by the world's wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.The problem is, charitable foundations and organizations aren't historically the most efficient way to solve the world's problems. They exist for good reason, but most operate like old corporates rather than savvy startups.However, what if we thought of economic opportunity and global prosperity as a more ubiquitous problem to solve, and instead of funding mission-driven work, we fund the entirety of the tech sector?What if instead of the average high net worth individual trying to get a 3-5X return over 10 years, you focused on the ultra high net worth population, the economic development groups, and the sovereign funds who are both trying to achieve these returns and trying to improve the world?What if you focused on their shared goals and values as customers, like creating economic opportunity and building a durable legacy?What if you could do it in every corner of the planet through access to entrepreneurship?What if instead of one PayPal Mafia, you had thousands?What if you had an investor who could actually deploy $5B per year at the formation stage?That has simply never existed before, and yet it is a defining opportunity for the human race and our evolution as a society.Currently, high potential employees are stuck in their corporate jobs.Our brightest minds handcuffed to benefits and addicted to a salary, never realizing their true potential or having a real impact on the world.Many go get their MBA where they spend money to learn new skills and acquire a network, rather than receive money for becoming a more productive citizen of the world.Many job hop looking for a low-risk way to get on a rocket ship.Some try to build their own, but quickly run out of runway and mental fortitude.It's a broken system, and we need to rebuild it.First it requires a product.The product needs to be for two groups—the founders and the investors.It starts with the infrastructure required to reduce the risk of being a founder which in turn attracts more of the brightest minds to the job itself. At the same time, the product also has to be an investment vehicle that attracts a new type of customer to early-stage VC.… Lots MoreWhat A Drag It IsAmerica Feels OldEVAN SHAPIROJAN 29, 2024Since 2019, America's population has grown by 7.8 million. Yet, the US now has 2.7 million fewer kids under 15 than it did in 2019. Meanwhile, there are now 7.1 million more Americans 65-80 than five years ago. America now has half a million fewer people under 40 than it did in 2019 and almost 8.4 million more people over 40.Because of the sheer size of the Baby Boomer Generation and the fact that younger Americans have pulled out on having kids, in the last five years, America has gotten old - not just compared to itself, but also compared to the rest of the world.In 2019, 63% of the world's population was under 40. Now, 64% of the people of the planet are 39 or younger. In short:Over the last half-decade the world has gotten one percent younger and America has gotten one percent older.One percent may seem small. However, the consequences of this demographic shift are consequential. For countries like the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, with aging populations where the number of people over 60 is growing faster than the number of people under 15, the coming years will be filled with challenges brought on by their age: Workforce shortages, inverted dependency ratios where a diminishing tax-base struggles to fund a widening social safety net, health care infrastructures ill-equipped to deal with increased demand. As the world's wealthiest and most powerful nations continue to age faster than they reproduce, expect these issues to get increased and more urgent attention.After decades of aging down, the US population is now aging up quickly. In 2000, 58% of the US population was under 40 years old. Now just a slim majority of 51% is under 40. The impacts of this rapid maturation can be felt throughout our culture, but perhaps nowhere as dramatically as in America's Media and Tech industries.Over the last half century (but for some intermittent challenges from Japan and China), the US has led the world in entertainment and technology, setting the standard for the world's consumption of Media. While many TVs and phones are manufactured in other countries, most of the systems, software, and vision for these products has come from America - and the entertainment consumed on these devices has been, for many decades, the United States' most notable export.Now, America's Media Industrial Complex finds itself amidst a widely-reported bloodbath of its own making. Recently, this meltdown has been joined by America's leading Tech firms. Some of this is cyclical, driven by innovation cycles, advertising recessions, and even the aftermath of the worldwide pandemic. But muchof the current Media Apocalypse was as predictable as the upside-down aging ratio of our population.The first decade of the 21st Century was marked by an almost inconceivable level of innovation in American Media and Tech. The internet invaded all aspects of our lives. Broadband grew across the country like a high-speed weed, bringing the universe to our desktops, making all our worlds, at once, much bigger and infinitely smaller. By 2012, tiny supercomputers known as smartphones had reached a critical mass in the US and TV was streaming into our homes.Then, right around that time, America's Media C-Suite inhabitants seemingly started a shared mid-life crisis, through which we are all still living.Bob Iger took over Disney in 2005, when he was 53 years old. Through some of the most masterful deal-making in Media history, and (seemingly) a true vision of the future, Iger took a troubled company and turned it into the greatest proprietor of intellectual property the world has ever known. He bought Pixar in 2006, revitalizing Disney Animation. He bought Marvel in 2009, jump stating the most successful film and TV franchise in history. He bought Lucasfilm in 2012, completing what many see as bar-setting hat-trick of entertainment, bringing the most valuable collection of titles in entertainment all under one roof.… Lots MoreBuilding Under RegulationAn essay on the EU Digital Markets Act and Apple's "Update on apps distributed in the European Union" (and some personal history)STEVEN SINOFSKYJAN 27, 2024Readers note: This is a long post. There are enough hot takes on this super important issue. I welcome corrections as always.This week Apple detailed the software changes that will appear in an upcoming release of iOS to comply with the European Union Digital Markets Act (DMA).  As I read the over 60 pages of the DMA when it was passed (and in drafts before that, little of which changed in the process) my heart sank over the complexity of a regulation so poorly constructed yet so clearly aimed at specific (American) companies and products. As I read through many of the hundreds of pages of Apple documents detailing their compliance implementation my heart sank again. This time was because I so thoroughly could feel the pain and struggle product teams felt in clinging to at best or unwinding at worst the most substantial improvement in computing ever introduced—the promise behind the iPhone since its introduction. The reason the iPhone became so successful was not a fluke. Consumers and customers voted that the value proposition of the product was something they preferred, and they acted by purchasing iPhone and developers responded by building applications for iOS. The regulators have a different view of that promise, so here we are.To be clear, DMA covers a wide range of products and services all deemed to be critical infrastructure in the digital world. It is both an incredibly broad and sometimes oddly specific regulation. As written the regulation covers at least online intermediation services [commercial internet sites/markets], online search engines, web browsers, advertising services, social network services, video sharing platforms, number-independent interpersonal communications services [messaging], operating systems, virtual assistants, and cloud computing.If you're well-versed in online you can map each one of those to precisely who the target might be, or sometimes targets. It is all big tech, almost exclusively US-based companies. There are no EU companies that meet the criteria to be covered—hardcoded revenue of EUR 7.5 billion for three years, EUR 7.5 billion market cap, or 45 million MAU—with Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft, and Samsung acknowledging the criteria apply to various units in addition to the following other “very large online platforms”: Alibaba AliExpress, Booking.com, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, Wikipedia, Zalando [German fashion retailer]. Those thresholds seem strangely not round.I am going to focus on the Apple and primarily their App Store response because I think it is the most important and time critical and because iPhone is the most unique, innovative, and singular product in market. I can easily replace search, a browser, an ad network, a social network, a video site. Even cloud computing is not so sticky, and we all use multiple messaging services. What iPhone delivers is irreplaceable. At least for many of the subset of smartphone users that chose Apple.The thing is, as impressive as Apple has been it is not *that* successful by the measures that count for dominance. Worldwide Apple is clearly the number two smartphone to Google Android which has over 70% share. In the Europe (excluding Russia) Apple iPhone has about a 33% share (I won't debate exact numbers, units sold v in use, revenue v. profit v. units, etc. as all those do is attempt to tell a story that isn't obvious, which is Android is more popular). That's hardly a monopoly share by any standard. In some European countries Apple has a higher share, some data providers would say as high as 50% or nearly 60%, which by most legal standards is still not quite at a monopoly level especially in a dynamic market. Apple has not been fined, sued, or otherwise convicted of having a dominant share let alone abusing the market position it has. No consumer harm has been demonstrated. In Epic v. Applespecifically on the store, Apple prevailed in 9 of 10 claims of damages to Epic due to the store's costs. Of note, the same claims in Epic v. Google resulted in liability from Google and is being appealed. Many of most vocal competitors didn't even exist before the iPhone. They have become huge companies and don't appear to be struggling, and in fact benefit from being part of the iPhone ecosystem. Counter to the text of the DMA, innovation seems to be thriving as measured by the number of new companies and distinct new services.Yet, the EU DMA has declared that Apple is a “gatekeeper”—an ominous term applied to Apple among the others.… Lots MoreApple's Plans for the DMA in the European UnionFriday, 26 January 2024Apple yesterday announced a broad, wide-ranging, and complex set of new policies establishing their intended compliance with the European Union's Digital Markets Act, which comes into effect March 7. There is a lot to remark upon and numerous remaining questions, but my favorite take was from Sebastiaan de With on Twitter/X, the day before any of this was announced.After quipping “Oh god please no” to a screenshot of the phrase “Spotify also wants to roll out alternate app stores”, de With had this conversation:de With:The EU is once again solving absolutely no problems and making everything worse in tech. I gotta say, they are if anything highly consistent.“Anton”:Overly powerful, rent-seeking gatekeepers seem like a problem.de With:I love that I can't tell if you are talking about the EU or Apple in this case.My second-favorite take, from that same thread, was this from Max Rovensky:DMA is not pro-consumer.It's anti-big-business.Those tend to coincide sometimes, which makes it an easy sell for the general public, but do actually read the DMA, it's quite interesting.I'd go slightly further and describe the DMA as anti-U.S.-big-business, because as far as I can tell, nothing in the DMA adversely affects or even annoys any European tech companies. There are aspects of it that seem written specifically for Spotify, in fact.But Rovensky's framing captures the dichotomy. Anti-big-business regulation and pro-consumer results often do go hand-in-hand, but the DMA exposes the fissures. I do not think the DMA is going to change much, if anything at all, for the better for iOS users in the E.U. (Or for non-iOS users in the EU, for that matter.) And much like the GDPR's website cookie regulations, I think if it has any practical effect, it'll be to make things worse for users. Whether these options are better for developers seems less clear.I've often said that Apple's priorities are consistent: Apple's own needs first, users second, developers third. The European Commission's priorities put developers first, users second, and “gatekeepers” a distant third. The DMA prescribes not a win-win-win framework, but a win-win-lose one.Apple is proud, stubborn, arrogant, controlling, and convinced it has the best interests of its customers in mind.The European Commission is proud, stubborn, arrogant, controlling, and convinced it has the best interests of its citizens in mind.Ever since this collision over the DMA seemed inevitable, starting about two years ago, I've been trying to imagine how it would turn out. And each time, I start by asking: Which side is smarter? My money has been on Apple. Yesterday's announcements, I think, show why.APPLE'S PROPOSED CHANGESIt's really hard to summarize everything Apple announced yesterday, but I'll try. Start with the main Apple Newsroom press release, “Apple Announces Changes to iOS, Safari, and the App Store in the European Union”:“The changes we're announcing today comply with the Digital Markets Act's requirements in the European Union, while helping to protect EU users from the unavoidable increased privacy and security threats this regulation brings. Our priority remains creating the best, most secure possible experience for our users in the EU and around the world,” said Phil Schiller, Apple Fellow. “Developers can now learn about the new tools and terms available for alternative app distribution and alternative payment processing, new capabilities for alternative browser engines and contactless payments, and more. Importantly, developers can choose to remain on the same business terms in place today if they prefer.”Schiller is the only Apple executive quoted in the press release, and to my ear, his writing hand is all over the entire announcement. Apple was quite clear before the DMA was put into law that they considered mandatory sideloading on iOS a bad idea for users, and their announcement yesterday doesn't back down an inch from still declaring it a bad idea.Apple has also argued, consistently, that they seek to monetize third-party development for the iOS platform, and that being forced to change from their current system — (a) all apps must come from the App Store; (b) developers never pay anything for the distribution of free apps; (c) paid apps and in-app-purchases for digital content consumed in-app must go through Apple's In-App Payments system that automates Apple's 30/15 percent commissions — would greatly complicate how they monetize the platform. And now Apple has revealed a greatly complicated set of rules and policies for iPhone apps in the EU.MG Siegler has a great — and fun — post dissecting Apple's press release line-by-line. Siegler concludes:I'm honestly not sure I can recall a press release dripping with such disdain. Apple may even have a point in many of the points above, but the framing of it would just seem to ensure that Apple is going to continue to be at war with the EU over all of this and now undoubtedly more. Typically, if you're going to make some changes and consider the matter closed, you don't do so while emphatically shoving your middle fingers in the air.Some of these changes do seem good and useful, but most simply seem like convoluted changes to ensure the status quo actually doesn't change much, if at all. Just remember that, “importantly, developers can choose to remain on the same business terms in place today if they prefer.” What do you think Apple prefers?The puzzle Apple attempted to solve was creating a framework of new policies — and over 600 new developer APIs to enable those policies — to comply with the DMA, while keeping the path of least resistance and risk for developers the status quo: Apple's own App Store as it is.….Lots MoreAmazon Drops iRobot Deal; Roomba Maker Cuts 31% of Staff* IRobot CEO steps down and company cuts workforce by 31%* Tech giant to pay $94 million to iRobot over deal terminationBy Samuel Stolton, Leah Nylen, and Matt DayJanuary 29, 2024 at 5:33 AM PSTAmazon.com Inc. has abandoned its planned $1.4 billion acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot Corp. after clashing with European Union regulators who had threatened to block the deal.The fallout came quickly. IRobot, which has been struggling recently, said Chief Executive Officer Colin Angle has stepped downas the company embarks on a restructuring plan that will result in about 350 job cuts, or 31% of the workforce. The vacuum maker's shares tumbled 19% in New York to $13.80, their lowest level since 2009. Amazon's shares were up less than 1% at $160.07.The decision is a sign of the intense pressure Amazon is facing to prove its actions don't harm competition as its influence grows in retail, cloud-computing and entertainment. Antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have been keen to ensure that the biggest US tech companies don't snap up innovative startups before they have a chance to become formidable competitors on their own.Amazon met with the FTC's senior antitrust staff last week, who informed the company they were recommending a suit over the deal, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Executives and lawyers from the tech giant were scheduled to meet with the FTC's three commissioners this week to make a final push for the acquisition, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing the confidential probe.… Lots MoreEnvisioning the Future of Human Work in the Age of AI: The 2024 ForecastResearch Fellowship ProgramIntroductionAs technological change and the adoption of new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) accelerate, the future of human work will be characterized by disruption, uncertainty, and opportunity. As 2024 approached, the Team Flow Institute Research Fellows gathered for a roundtable to discuss their visions for the future of human-focused work in the age of AI. As described by the institute's co-founder and Managing Director, Chris Heuer, “The Team Flow Institute is an organization dedicated to shaping a human-centric future of work as we face the choice of augmentation or automation in every industry and every function. This transformational decision will reshape what we call work and society itself, requiring us to abandon business as usual and finally design business as possible.” The Team Flow Institute Research Fellows' roundtable discussion delved into the potential opportunities and challenges of this technology revolution driven by the institute's “mission to gather like-minded individuals and organizations to steer our collective destiny toward a more sustainable future, where the essence of humanity and human work is valued and preserved as we increasingly adopt AI tools and technologies, explained Jennifer McClure, Senior Research Fellow, and Advisory Board member. This article analyzes key insights from the discussion, offering a glimpse into the work landscape of 2024 and beyond. As the Team Flow Institute embarks on its inaugural fellowship program, this analysis holds particular significance as it seeks to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in the evolving landscape of AI-enabled work. Through this program, the Team Flow Institute aims to foster a community of leaders who can guide organizations and individuals toward a future where humans and technology collaborate to create a more sustainable and fulfilling work environment.Part I: AI Progress and PromiseNo longer relegated to science fiction, AI has infiltrated our lives, transforming industries with its vast potential. From automating tedious tasks to streamlining complex decision-making processes, its applications are far-reaching. In the realm of design, AI-powered software is revolutionizing industries like architecture and fashion, enabling rapid prototyping and personalized creations. Team Flow Institute co-founder Jaime Schwarz says, “Imagine being able to prototype a new building or clothing line in minutes instead of weeks. This remarkable advancement accelerates design cycles and fosters increased customization, ultimately leading to more innovative and personalized consumer products.”The creative landscape is also poised for disruption with the emergence of generative AI. Team Flow Institute Research Fellow Shel Holtz describes its transformative potential: “Generative AI is blurring the lines between human and machine creativity. We're seeing machines create realistic text, images, and even music that is nearly indistinguishable from human-generated work.” This democratization of creativity opens doors for individuals with diverse backgrounds and abilities to express themselves in new and exciting ways. But it also opens up philosophical questions and debates about the nature of art and creativity, adds Jen McClure. Amidst these exciting advancements, Chris Heuer reminds us that “AI is not just a science fiction concept anymore; it's here, and it's changing the way we do everything.” This necessitates a thoughtful approach to the future of work, a need to ensure the value of human skills and their role in work, proactive workforce development initiatives to ensure that individuals are equipped with the necessary skills to thrive in the evolving job market, and an elevation of the need for constant communications within organizations, reminds Team Flow Institute Research Fellow Sharon McIntosh.As AI continues to permeate our lives, it is crucial to acknowledge its remarkable potential and challenges. By navigating this dynamic landscape with careful consideration and proactive planning, we can ensure that AI serves as a force for progress, innovation, and a brighter future for all. As Team Flow Institute Research Fellow Gina Debogovich reminds us, it will undoubtedly unlock economic growth. “The 20th century began with a global GDP of $3 trillion and, largely due to technological advancement, ended with a GDP of $33.8 trillion. AI is poised to boost the economy to unseen heights.”AI will be a catalyst for creating new jobs, just as the web did in the mid-1990s. Businesses must integrate these jobs and activities into existing workflows and business models and develop new ones. Indeed, innovative organizations are already experimenting with, if not embracing, the role of prompt engineers. The Team Flow Institute advocates for a Team Flow Facilitator to serve as a coach, a collaboration facilitator, and an AI pilot to support high-performing teams.Part II: The Risks and DownsidesWhile AI offers many benefits, possibilities, and opportunities, its advancements are not without potential pitfalls. AI and automation technologies bring both promise and peril to the workforce. While they offer the potential to augment human capabilities and business efficiencies significantly, understandable concerns persist surrounding job losses and the general impact on workers. Organizations must chart a thoughtful course that fully harnesses technical capabilities without losing sight of the humans at the heart of work.… Lots MoreVideo of the WeekProduct of the WeekThe Vision ProTuesday, 30 January 2024For the last six days, I've been simultaneously testing three entirely new products from Apple. The first is a VR/AR headset with eye-tracking controls. The second is a revolutionary spatial computing productivity platform. The third is a breakthrough personal entertainment device.A headset, a spatial productivity platform, and a personal entertainment device.I'm sure you're already getting it. These are not three separate devices. They're one: Apple Vision Pro. But if you'll pardon the shameless homage to Steve Jobs's famous iPhone introduction, I think these three perspectives are the best way to consider it.THE HARDWAREVision Pro comes in a surprisingly big box. I was expecting a package roughly the dimensions of a HomePod box; instead, a Vision Pro retail box is quite a bit larger than two HomePod boxes stacked atop each other. (I own more HomePods than most people.)There's a lot inside. The top half of the package contains the Vision Pro headset itself, with the light seal, a light seal cushion, and the default Solo Knit Band already attached. The lower half contains the battery, the charger (30W), the cables, the Dual Loop Band, the Getting Started book (which is beautifully printed in full color, on excellent paper — it feels like a keepsake), the polishing cloth1, and an extra light seal cushion.To turn Vision Pro on, you connect the external battery pack's power cable to the Vision Pro's power connector, and rotate it a quarter turn to lock it into place. There are small dots on the headset's dime-sized power socket showing how to align the cable connector's small LED. The LED pulses when Vision Pro turns on. (I miss Apple's glowing power indicator LEDs — this is a really delightful touch.) When Vision Pro has finished booting and is ready to use, it makes a pleasant welcoming sound.Then you put Vision Pro on. If you're using the Solo Knit Band, you tighten and loosen it using a dial on the band behind your right ear. VisionOS directs you to raise or lower the headset appropriately to position it at just the right height on your face relative to your eyes. If Vision Pro thinks your eyes are too close to the displays, it will suggest you switch to the “+” size light seal cushion. You get two light seal cushions, but they're not the same: mine are labeled “W” and “W+”. The “+” is the same width, to match your light seal, but adds a wee bit more space between your eyes and the displays inside Vision Pro. For me the default (non-“+”) one fits fine.The software then guides you through a series of screens to calibrate the eye tracking. It's all very obvious, and kind of fun. It's almost like a simple game: you stare at a series of dots in a circle, and pinch your index finger and thumb as you stare at each one. You go through this three times, in three different artificial lighting conditions: dark, medium, and bright. Near the end of the first-run experience, you're prompted to bring your iPhone or iPad nearby, just like when setting up a new iPhone or iPad. This allows your Vision Pro to get your Apple ID credentials and Wi-Fi password without entering any of that manually. It's a very smooth onboarding process. And then that's it, you're in and using Vision Pro.There's no getting around some fundamental problems with the Vision Pro hardware.First is the fact that it uses an external battery pack connected via a power cable. The battery itself is about the width and height of an iPhone 15/15 Pro, but thicker. And the battery is heavy: about 325g, compared to 187g for an iPhone 15 Pro, and 221g for a 15 Pro Max. It's closer in thickness and weight to two iPhone 15's than it is to one. And the tethered power cable can be an annoyance. Vision Pro has no built-in reserve battery — disconnect the power cable from the headset and it immediately shuts off. It clicks firmly into place, so there's no risk of accidentally disconnecting it. But if you buy an extra Vision Pro Battery for $200, you can't hot-swap them — you need to shut down first.… Lots MoreApple's Vision Pro -The Meta-Review.Apple Vision Pro reviews have started to roll in — and depending on who you read, the consensus vacillates between amazing and work in progress. In most cases, they reflect some version of reality. If one is looking for faults with Apple's face computer, then one will find them. And if you are looking at what it represents, you are going to be excited. I am in the ‘camp' of the amazed, though I am not blinded by the challenges that await Vision Pro in the real world.The Verge's Nilay Patel sums up the challenge of Vision Pro, writing:The technology to build a true optical AR display that works well enough to replace an everyday computer just isn't there yet. The Magic Leap 2 is an optical AR headset that's cheaper and smaller than the Vision Pro, but it's plagued by compromises in field of view and image quality that most people would never accept. So Apple's settled for building a headset with real-time video passthrough — it is the defining tradeoff of the Vision Pro. It is a VR headset masquerading as an AR headset. And let me tell you: the video passthrough on the Vision Pro is really good. It works! It's convincing. You put the headset on, the display comes on, and you're right back where you were, only with a bunch of visionOS windows floating around.Let's get on with the cons: The Verge points out problems like ‘motion blur,' ‘blurriness,' ‘color fringing,' ‘limited field of view,' and ‘vignetting.' I have not personally experienced any of these because, well, I don't have the device.The device is sometimes laggy. It's heavy, and the wired battery is limited to just over 2 hours. You can plug it into a ‘wall charger' with a USB-C cable, or daisy-chain it to another USB-C battery pack. And it does get a tad warm. You need to use the ‘dorky' headband to use the device without feeling the weight (or in some cases, a headache).None of this surprises me! Vision Pro is, after all, a full-blown computer. It's made from magnesium, carbon fiber, and aluminum. It has two high-resolution front-facing cameras (video pass-through), two cameras that face down to track your hands and gestures, a LiDAR, TrueDepth cameras, and some kind of infrared lights. The device has two tiny MicroOLED displays packed with a total of 23 million pixels. (As I noted in an earlier piece, these displays are the magic and the primary reason why Vision Pro is so expensive.)All these sensors, cameras, and displays are powered by an M2 chip and an R1 spatial coprocessor, and fans. Apple has packed this in an enclosure that is about three times the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and is still lighter than the iPad 12.9. Paint me impressed purely from a technological standpoint.…. Lots MoreMy 4 magic moments with Vision ProNo, not again! Not another Vision Pro Review! I feel you — after all the reviews yesterday, I am pretty sure you don't want to read another review. Here's the good news — it's not a review. Instead, I will share my quick impressions from a deep dive at Apple Park, and my four magic moments with the Vision Pro.Unlike the reviewers who published their reviews, my access to the device has come in dribs and drabs. It has been a carefully managed experience — an early demo, exposure to the photos app, and the spatial video capabilities. A few days ago, I got to use the device for less than two hours.This was a highly curated experience — so this doesn't and won't qualify as a review. I am skipping all the stuff that has been covered by the deep dive that professional reviewers have already published. WSJ's Joanna Stern's review is amazing — especially the video version. It is best to consider these as my considered impressions.First, can I wax eloquent about the technological achievement of Vision Pro? As a chip and hardware nerd, I think Vision Pro is a witches' brew of the latest of all types of technologies. Let me quote my post from yesterday:Vision Pro is, after all, a full-blown computer. It's made from magnesium, carbon fiber, and aluminum. It has two high-resolution front-facing cameras (video pass-through), two cameras that face down to track your hands and gestures, a LiDAR, TrueDepth cameras, and some kind of infrared lights. The device has two tiny MicroOLED displays packed with a total of 23 million pixels. (As I noted in an earlier piece, these displays are the magic and the primary reason why Vision Pro is so expensive.)All these sensors, cameras, and displays are powered by an M2 chip and an R1 spatial coprocessor, and fans. Apple has packed this in an enclosure that is about three times the weight of the iPhone 15 Pro Max and is still lighter than the iPad 12.9. Paint me impressed purely from a technological standpoint.What's even more impressive is the sound — Apple is using beamforming to direct the sound into your ears. And unless you are really blasting it out loud — you could get away with wearing it in a public place — though people in Business Class will notice the slight din from the seat next to them. Apple is hoping you will splurge on AirPods Pro.No matter how you see the device — love it or hate it, you can't deny that it is yet another amazing computer built by a company that knows how to build great consumer computers.… Lots MoreApple Vision Pro Review: The Best Headset Yet Is Just a Glimpse of the FutureWorking, cooking, skiing, kicking back—our columnist wore Apple's new mixed-reality headset for a week to see what it's forBy Joanna Stern at the WSJJan. 30, 2024 at 9:00 am ETA few things surprised me after wearing the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset for nearly 24 hours straight:* I didn't puke. * I got a lot of work done.  * I cooked a delicious meal.Also, my Persona—the headset's animated video-call avatar—will haunt your dreams.For the last week, I have been testing Apple's boldest bet yet on the post-smartphone future. Strap on the 1.4-pound goggles and you see apps floating right in your living room. Living room a stress-inducing mess? Go full virtual reality and watch a 3-D movie on a giant screen perched on the mouth of a Hawaiian volcano.Let's get this out of the way: You're probably not going to buy the $3,500 Apple Vision Pro. Unless you're an app developer or an Apple die-hard, you're more likely to spend that kind of money on an actual trip to a Hawaiian volcano.And that's OK. Reviewing the Vision Pro, I wanted to understand the potential of the device, and the technical constraints that keep it from being a must-have, at least for now. Most importantly, I wanted to answer one question: In a world full of screens, what's the benefit of strapping one to your eyes?… Lots MoreNews Of the WeekSpotify calls Apple's DMA compliance plan ‘extortion' and a ‘complete and total farce'Sarah Perez @sarahpereztc / 2:41 PM PST•January 26, 2024Image Credits: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto (opens in a new window)/ Getty ImagesCount Spotify among those not thrilled with how Apple has chosen to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets the stage for sideloading apps, alternative app stores, browser choice, and more. On Friday, the streaming music company issued its response to Apple's new DMA rules, calling the new fees imposed on developers “extortion” and Apple's compliance plan “a complete and total farce,” that demonstrated the tech giant believes that the rules don't apply to them.Apple earlier this week announced a host of changes that comply with the letter of the EU law, if not the spirit. The company said that app developers in the EU will receive reduced commissions, but it also introduced a new “core technology fee” that requires developers to pay €0.50 for each first annual install per year over a 1 million threshold, regardless of their distribution channel. It will also charge a 3% payment processing fee when developers use Apple's in-app payments instead of their own.Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company sued Apple over antitrust concerns, already condemned Apple's plan, saying it was a case of “malicious compliance” and full of “junk fees,” and now Spotify is essentially saying the same.…. Lots MoreInvestors raise billions to buy discounted stakes in start-upsBuyers return after secondary market for private shares was hit by higher interest ratesGeorge Hammond and Tabby Kinder in San Francisco and Nicholas Megaw in New YorkJANUARY 16 2024Investment firms are raising billions of dollars to buy stakes in venture capital-backed technology start-ups, as a long drought in acquisitions and initial public offerings forces early investors to offload their stock at discounts. The start-up secondary market, where investors and employees buy and sell tens of billions of dollars' worth of shares in privately held companies, is becoming an increasingly important trading venue, in the absence of traditional ways of cashing out and given a slowdown in start-up funding. Venture secondaries buyers are primed for a busy year as start-up employees look for a way to sell their stock and investors look to return capital to their own backers or reallocate it elsewhere. Secondary market specialist Lexington Partners last week announced a new $23bn fund to buy up stakes from “large-scale investors”. Lexington had originally aimed to raise $15bn, but upped its target on the back of high demand, and said it was “in the early stages of a generational secondary buying opportunity” that could last years.The fund will predominantly buy shares from private equity funds but also expects to invest as much as $5bn into venture capital secondaries, said a spokesperson.“We are seeing crazy amounts of [limited partner investors] that are distressed and need to lighten their venture load,” said the head of a $2bn venture capital firm. The latest Lexington fund “speaks to the sheer demand” from LPs that feel “over-allocated” to private capital including to start-ups, they said. Other specialist firms such as Pinegrove Capital Partners, a joint vehicle created by Brookfield Asset Management and Sequoia Heritage, and StepStone have also been raising multibillion-dollar funds to target venture secondaries.…. Lots MoreFounders: getting to the next venture stage may take longer than you expectPeter WalkerHead of Insights @ Carta | Data StorytellerThe median number of days between a priced seed and Series A round hit 679 in 2023, a new peak.Median for Series A to B was 744 days (over 2 years). Very similar for Series B to C (739 days, also over 2 years).Fascinating to watch the 25th percentile (green) and the 75th percentile (blue) trends as well. It looks as though the 25th pct has pulled closer to the median for the middle venture rounds - suggesting there are very few companies speed-running through venture fundraising right now. Some of that could be company choice, as founders have cut spend and become more capital-efficient over the prior 12 months. However, I'm certain a lot of the increase in time is due to VCs being far more choosy about where to invest.So what are founders doing if primary rounds are not on the menu? Getting creative.Founders are raising bridge rounds at record rates, usually from insiders already on the cap table. They are turning to SAFEs and Convertible Notes, even between named venture stages. Some are turning to non-dilutive financing and loans.And many are trying to make customer revenue their primary fundraising channel. But switching from growth at all costs to profitability in a short period of time is no easy track change. My bet is that the time between rounds plateaus in 2024 (or maybe even declines just a touch). Maybe that's wishful thinking

Lord's Day Service | Pastor-Candidate Genaro Hurtado

It's telethon month! We have raised about $8,500 of our $25,000 goal! We only have a week left in the month of January and need your help to reach our goal before the month is over! Sponsor a show or purchase a product - all monthly subscription charges will be multiplied by 10 and then applied to our telethon goal. * What was Wrong with Garments of Mixed Fabrics? The teaching in today's program also appears in Bob's life's work, The Plot, which notes that God forbade the Israelites from wearing clothes with mixed fabrics: "You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together." Deut. 22:11 Like many of the purely symbolic ordinances in Scripture, this symbol illustrated Man's need for God to cover his spiritual nakedness. Thus every Israelite had to wear pure garments, made from only one material. Not realizing that Bible writers used the concept of clothing symbolically (e.g., Ps. 104:2; 109:17?19; 132:9, 16, 18), someone might conclude that mixing two fabrics together is inherently immoral. A misguided believer today might go to great lengths to keep all fabrics separated just as Kosher Jews have taken unnecessary and extreme measures separating meat and dairy products. Man does not help God by expanding upon His commands (Gen. 2:17; 3:3; Col. 2:23). God said, "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk" (Ex. 34:26) so men invent a food system wherein they cannot store cheese in the same refrigerator as beef nor use the same utensils to handle both. The greater harm with such mistakes lies not in the wasted effort, but in that such contrived laws become a distraction from God and from His priorities. For as the Apostle Paul wrote, obeying such "self-imposed" religious rules provides, "no value against the indulgence of the flesh." For: These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Col. 2:23 Ultimately, Jesus Christ is our "covering", so to point to His innocence, sinlessness, and purity, the entire nation of Israel was to cloth itself only in pure garments. * What was Wrong with Muzzling the Ox? "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Deut. 25:4 Like pure garments, this is also a symbolic command. God wants men to treat animals kindly (Prov. 12:10). Allowing an ox to feed while it works, however, is not the primary purpose of this law. This is another symbolic law, and as such, it is written primarily for man's benefit and not for the animal's benefit: For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt… 1 Cor. 9:9-10 So the law against muzzling a working beast of burden is not about the ox. But as Paul is instructing believers to financially support ministers, this symbol shows that those, "who labor in the word and doctrine," are "worthy" of "wages" (1 Tim. 5:17?18; cp. Lev. 19:13). If you would, please consider this when deciding whether Bob Enyart Live is worthy of your financial support. Please Note: Because Bob Enyart Live has no government grant, no foundation, nor a mega-church budget that supports our broadcast, please consider whether this radio outreach is worthy of your support! For without your financial support, it is very possibly that BEL may not continue. So please consider donating to BEL or, if you need a tax deduction, then please donate to Denver Bible Church! The Jews were also not allowed to "plow with an ox and a donkey together," (Deut. 22:10). Plowing with two different types of animals is akin to putting two different size propellers on an airplane. Going in circles would be the least of one's problems. This prohibition symbolically teaches believers not to join themselves to unbelievers: Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 2 Cor. 6:14-15 Hence, neither of these commands is about the ethical treatment of animals. These laws are symbolic. It is not oxen God is concerned about but men (1 Cor. 9:9-10). Just as with Bob's book, The Plot, Today's radio program continues this teaching regarding the dietary law, and other, far deeper spiritual matters! Today's Resources -- Sermons & The Plot: Bob Enyart's life's work is based on this observation: Grasping the overview of the Bible is the KEY to its DETAILS. It's available in a soft-cover book titled The Plot, and in a downloadable pdf version or both, and it's also available in an audio recording of Bob's Plot seminars! And have your kids or grand kids heard the The Plot Boys yet? In this homeschool friendly audio series for young people, Bob and two young boys, Stephen and Josh, teach through an overview of the Bible. This teaching is presented in a way that kids (and adults) can really understand, so it's a valuable foundation for a serious understanding of the story of the Bible. Also, consider ordering the entire Enyart Library! This invaluable resource will benefit your entire family or church and help support the ministry of Bob Enyart Live.

It's telethon month! We have raised about $8,500 of our $25,000 goal! We only have a week left in the month of January and need your help to reach our goal before the month is over! Sponsor a show or purchase a product - all monthly subscription charges will be multiplied by 10 and then applied to our telethon goal. * What was Wrong with Garments of Mixed Fabrics? The teaching in today's program also appears in Bob's life's work, The Plot, which notes that God forbade the Israelites from wearing clothes with mixed fabrics: "You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together." Deut. 22:11 Like many of the purely symbolic ordinances in Scripture, this symbol illustrated Man's need for God to cover his spiritual nakedness. Thus every Israelite had to wear pure garments, made from only one material. Not realizing that Bible writers used the concept of clothing symbolically (e.g., Ps. 104:2; 109:17?19; 132:9, 16, 18), someone might conclude that mixing two fabrics together is inherently immoral. A misguided believer today might go to great lengths to keep all fabrics separated just as Kosher Jews have taken unnecessary and extreme measures separating meat and dairy products. Man does not help God by expanding upon His commands (Gen. 2:17; 3:3; Col. 2:23). God said, "You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk" (Ex. 34:26) so men invent a food system wherein they cannot store cheese in the same refrigerator as beef nor use the same utensils to handle both. The greater harm with such mistakes lies not in the wasted effort, but in that such contrived laws become a distraction from God and from His priorities. For as the Apostle Paul wrote, obeying such "self-imposed" religious rules provides, "no value against the indulgence of the flesh." For: These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Col. 2:23 Ultimately, Jesus Christ is our "covering", so to point to His innocence, sinlessness, and purity, the entire nation of Israel was to cloth itself only in pure garments. * What was Wrong with Muzzling the Ox? "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Deut. 25:4 Like pure garments, this is also a symbolic command. God wants men to treat animals kindly (Prov. 12:10). Allowing an ox to feed while it works, however, is not the primary purpose of this law. This is another symbolic law, and as such, it is written primarily for man's benefit and not for the animal's benefit: For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt… 1 Cor. 9:9-10 So the law against muzzling a working beast of burden is not about the ox. But as Paul is instructing believers to financially support ministers, this symbol shows that those, "who labor in the word and doctrine," are "worthy" of "wages" (1 Tim. 5:17?18; cp. Lev. 19:13). If you would, please consider this when deciding whether Bob Enyart Live is worthy of your financial support. Please Note: Because Bob Enyart Live has no government grant, no foundation, nor a mega-church budget that supports our broadcast, please consider whether this radio outreach is worthy of your support! For without your financial support, it is very possibly that BEL may not continue. So please consider donating to BEL or, if you need a tax deduction, then please donate to Denver Bible Church! The Jews were also not allowed to "plow with an ox and a donkey together," (Deut. 22:10). Plowing with two different types of animals is akin to putting two different size propellers on an airplane. Going in circles would be the least of one's problems. This prohibition symbolically teaches believers not to join themselves to unbelievers: Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? 2 Cor. 6:14-15 Hence, neither of these commands is about the ethical treatment of animals. These laws are symbolic. It is not oxen God is concerned about but men (1 Cor. 9:9-10). Just as with Bob's book, The Plot, Today's radio program continues this teaching regarding the dietary law, and other, far deeper spiritual matters! Today's Resources -- Sermons & The Plot: Bob Enyart's life's work is based on this observation: Grasping the overview of the Bible is the KEY to its DETAILS. It's available in a soft-cover book titled The Plot, and in a downloadable pdf version or both, and it's also available in an audio recording of Bob's Plot seminars! And have your kids or grand kids heard the The Plot Boys yet? In this homeschool friendly audio series for young people, Bob and two young boys, Stephen and Josh, teach through an overview of the Bible. This teaching is presented in a way that kids (and adults) can really understand, so it's a valuable foundation for a serious understanding of the story of the Bible. Also, consider ordering the entire Enyart Library! This invaluable resource will benefit your entire family or church and help support the ministry of Bob Enyart Live.

2024 - 0121 - A Journey of Loving Rightly

Interested in the biblical counseling ministry of The Nehemiah Project?  Visit us at our websiteYou can participate in this ministry by make a recurring tax-deductible donation to our Scholarship Fund.  Our Scholarship Fund provides direct financial assistance to those who cannot afford the cost of counseling.  $100 a month will provide one month's worth of individual counseling. $300 a month will provide for one month in our Addiction Recovery Program.By making a regular donation, you are making an eternal impact in the lives of those we counsel!