⚖️ Meta Lawsuit, ₿ Crypto AI, & 💫 How to Reach Flow State

Your Tech World Pocketbook: News, Lingo, Learning

1. Facebook (Meta) snooped on users’ data on Snapchat, YouTube and Amazon, in secret initiative called “Project Ghostbusters”

Facebook (now Meta) secretly analyzed user behavior on rival platforms like Snapchat, Amazon, and YouTube through "Project Ghostbusters," (a reference to Snapchat's cartoonish ghost logo), as revealed in a California federal court's documents. In 2016, Facebook initiated "Project Ghostbusters," secretly intercepting user traffic to analyze behavior and gain a competitive edge. Facebook utilized Onavo, a VPN-like service it acquired, to perform a "man-in-the-middle" attack, allowing them to read encrypted traffic. Court documents state that Meta’s engineering executives at the time allegedly saw this as a legal, technical and security nightmare. Meta refutes the claims as baseless, and arguing the issue is not new. The lawsuit alleges anticompetitive behavior and deceptive data acquisition practices. Meta may have violated the US Wiretap Act.
LINK: Mashable (5 min); Cybernews (7 min)

2. Three blockchain-based AI companies are in talks to merge their tokens to form a decentralised AI alliance

Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol are reportedly merging their AI tokens to form the ASI token, aiming to create a decentralized AI alliance. This move seeks to offer a decentralized alternative to Big Tech-controlled AI projects, with the merged tokens resulting in a total supply of 2.63 billion ASI tokens, starting at $2.82 each. The alliance aims to develop an open decentralized AI infrastructure, contrasting with current systems often hidden from public view. This initiative comes amidst growing mainstream interest in AI, challenging the dominance of major companies in the space​. The price of these three tokens spiked upwards in response, and these 3 companies are now ranked within the Top 10 AI crypto companies/projects by market cap.
LINK: Coindesk (3 min); Cryptoslate (5 min)

3. Most unicorn founders are “underdogs” with a “chip on the shoulder” and the investing landscape remains fragmented

In the "Unicorn Founder DNA Report" by Defiance Capital, over 845 unicorns and 2,018 founders were analysed to reveal key insights. Notably, 70% are considered "underdogs," such as immigrants, women, and people of color. Additionally, around 17% of unicorn founders in 2023 were women. The report also pinpoints three critical traits in a unicorn founder's makeup: no fallback plan, a motivating "chip on the shoulder" attitude, and unwavering self-belief. These characteristics suggest that the drive and mindset of unicorn founders are as crucial as their backgrounds and the inclusivity of their companies. Founders often hail from top global universities, with a strong emphasis on STEM degrees. Interestingly, the investment landscape at the seed stage is highly fragmented for unicorn startups (only 30 funds have greater than 1% share of current unicorns, with Sequioa Capital topping at 2.8%), suggesting ripe opportunities for outlier funds.
LINK: Techcrunch (7 min)

4. Intel, Google, Qualcomm and others have created The Unified Acceleration Foundation (UXL) to counter NVIDIA’s dominance

Major tech companies, including Intel, Google, Arm, Qualcomm, and Samsung, are collaborating through The Unified Acceleration Foundation (UXL) to create an open-source software suite. This initiative aims to break AI developers' reliance on Nvidia's proprietary technology by enabling their code to run on any hardware with any chip, countering Nvidia's market dominance. Nvidia, recognized for its AI-focused hardware like the H100 and H200 GPUs and valued at a $2 trillion market cap, may face challenges from this open standard approach, which seeks to democratize AI development across various architectures.
LINK: The Verge (5 min)

<And More>
5. Microsoft is reportedly working on an Xbox handheld gaming device
LINK: Eurogamer (3 min) 

6. Claude 3 (by Anthropic) beats GPT-4 on Aider’s code editing benchmark (though it is seen to be slightly slower and costlier than GPT-4)
LINK: Aider (5 min)

7. India (ISRO) successfully completes its second test of a reusable autonomous spacecraft, in its bid to make space travel more affordable
LINK: Space (5 min)

8. Elon Musk announces that Grok AI (chatbot by xAI) will be made available to all X premium subscribers
LINK: X (1 min); Reuters (3 min)

Regulatory Capture
Regulatory capture is a scenario where regulatory agencies, established to oversee and regulate industries for the public good, end up making decisions that favor industry interests over public interest. This occurs when the industry's influence - through lobbying, personal connections, or other means - sways the agency decision-makers. It is a form of imbalance in governance.

“During a panel, a notable example discussed was when a regulatory agency's policies increasingly aligned with industry interests at the expense of consumer safety. This shift often begins subtly, with regulators growing sympathetic to industry viewpoints, potentially compromising public welfare. The situation emphasized the crucial need for greater transparency and oversight within regulatory frameworks.”

Reversion To The Mean
Reversion to the mean refers to the statistical principle that over time, extreme performances or outcomes in any field tend to return towards the average. It's an important concept in finance, sports, and business, suggesting that unusually high or low results are not sustainable in the long run. This helps in tempering expectations and planning for the future, recognizing that periods of exceptional success or failure are often followed by a return to more typical levels.

“"Our spectacular growth rates over the past few quarters have been outstanding, but we're mindful of the principle of reversion to the mean. It reminds us that periods of above-average success often lead to a normalization of performance metrics. Understanding this helps us in strategic planning, ensuring that we're prepared for when our growth rates inevitably stabilize closer to industry averages.”

How To Reach “The Flow State”

 “I felt like I was in the zone”
“It was like a state of flow and time just passed by”

Sound familiar? The Flow State is a state of mind where you feel energised / great and are also productive enough to deliver quality output. This is separate to relaxation or happiness. The diagram below summarises Mihaly’s thoughts (author of “Flow State”) i.e. flow = focused + happy, where one is completely immersed in a challenging task.

This however requires deliberate effort - here are a few triggers / mental models to set you up:

• Remove distractions: turn off notifications, aim to reduce mental clutter, clear your calendar and mitigate environmental distractions

• Balance challenge with skill: the task should not be so hard that it leads to frustration, and not so easy that it fails to stimulate the mind

• Maintain clear goals and specific sub-tasks: define objectives and mitigate task-switching

• Align to your “Biological Peak Time” (BPT): work when your energy and focus are at or near the highest (for most, this is post-breakfast)

• Gamify your work: set up mental cues, “games” with rewards, or utilise other approaches to make the work fun and engaging

It should be noted that the mind can remain in the flow state for around 2 hours, and it is possible to be in the flow state multiple times within the day. In addition to locking in productivity gains, being in the flow state also leads to higher satisfaction (via dopamine release) and improved emotional regulation.
LINK: Jari Roomer; BetterUp

P.S. The Pomodoro Technique may interfere with your ability to reach the flow state (given the structured interruptions)!