Hello from my home in Matinkylä! This is NordLetter #50. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web. And I have been doing that for 50 consecutive weeks. That is a good streak.

Previous editions can be found here. You can reach out to me by replying on this mail or adding a comment on this. I am also posting on Mastodon.

What matters to you?

I saw a reel on Instagram sometime this week, about the things they gained after travelling back to India. They had listed things like: healthcare, late night food, more variety in clothes, among others.

I thought of Prerna while I read that list. She often complains about missing these things.

That even if she wants to eat something, there’s nothing. (There is, not just what we want to eat.)

That the clothes are all bland. (Which is true.)

That we can not afford help here. (Which says something about the exploitation that is so damn prevalent in India.) This also comes to fore in the fact that there is no single day delivery here, in India, of course, we now have 5 min deliveries.

No places are all bad. No places are all good.

It is a privilege to be able to decide where you will live. Not many people get that option. In most cases, it’s decided by your birth, where you would live.

For those who can choose, it matters what matters to you. What do you choose to pick?

Blue skies, less pollution, bland food, slow deliveries, better work life balance.

Or,

Great food, great variety in everything: clothes, food, bad traffic, grey skies.

We make our choices, based on our priorities.

Watching this thing I worked so hard on, out in the world, in the hands of people all around the world, makes me so damn happy.

A year of mornings is now available via Pothi in India, distributed through both Amazon and Flipkart.

I am hardly making any money on the print versions, but as an object, as a thing you own, I am especially proud of it. Buy that.

/five things to share

1. Something in the air

It started with Tim cook posting on X about some upcoming announcements, which everyone knew what was coming at this point.
First, Apple updated the base iPad (which does not get Apple Intelligence), and the iPad Air (which does get Apple Intelligence.)
Then, Apple announced the updated Macbook Air, which now starts at 999USD (100USD lesser than previous years) with 16GB RAM/256GB SSD.
And finally, Apple announced new Mac Studio with M4 Max and M3 ultra chips. No one was expecting to be talking about an M3 chip now. But it is what it is.

Also, read this: Apple's new entry-level devices are the best possible trap

Is the solid performance of its cheapest products a problem for Apple? No, not really. And that’s a testament to how the company has built its business: as long as it can still get customers into the door, it’s happy to sell them any product.

2. The Volkswagen ID. EVERY1 is an affordable EV for the masses

It will cost 20000 euros in Europe when launched in 2027. Which will be great. The EV for the masses.
Let's hope it actually does come out.

3. Limiting screen time good for kids' mental health, long-term study finds

According to Eero Haapala, who is a docent in paediatric sport and exercise science at the University of Jyväskylä, several international experts have recommended that children and adolescents should limit their screen time to a maximum of two hours per day.
But Haapala said he thinks those guidelines are excessive, noting that two hours per day would amount to nearly an entire month of looking at screens every year.

4. LLMs Don’t Know What They Don’t Know—And That’s a Problem

All LLM-based tools that I have used seem to lack an understanding of their own limitations. If you ask them to undertake a task that is far beyond their capabilities, they will valiantly give it a try, and utterly fail!

5.The Dead Planet Theory

An added benefit to doing things, or being in the arena in general, is that by participating in the game you enable luck. If you never leave your apartment you can’t have a serendipitous run-in with your future spouse. By entering the ranks of the doers, things can happen to you as well. If you don’t apply to a job you don’t 100% meet the requirements for, they aren’t going to email you a “sorry we missed your application”, they’ll go on to someone else who isn’t a perfect match, but was willing to apply. Too many things in life reward action for you to live in a state of stupor.

/new posts

These are the posts I’ve written this week. Click the links to read them.

1. Seeing it for the first time - About what happens when you know everything that will be announced in an event.
2. Warming up to LLMs - My adventures using Copilot to code a page on this website.
3. About the Pareto principle - 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the effort
4. How I use Obsidian
5. We are all addicted to our phones

If you enjoyed reading this, and know someone else who might, please consider forwarding this to them. It would help this grow and make me happy. 😄

Until next week.