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Week of August 1, 2023

Weirdo's Weekly Update — 28 Jul, 2023

The weekly update covers Sam Altman's Worldcoin launch, Binance layoffs amid regulatory pressure, Ethereum's EthCC highlights, the Fed's rate hike, Geoffrey Hinton's emotional AI theory, and ChatGPT's declining accuracy — plus digital nomad destination trends and summer work-life balance tips.

Crypto News

Sam Altman's OpenAI has launched Worldcoin, utilizing AI-powered eye-scanning for identity verification and distributing digital IDs alongside the $WLD cryptocurrency. The project has already attracted over 2 million users with a $3 billion valuation.

Binance has eliminated more than 1,000 positions amid regulatory scrutiny from U.S. and European authorities. The company struggles to secure necessary licenses while facing investigation by the Department of Justice.

The EthCC conference highlighted Ethereum's ecosystem advancement, particularly through the Dencun upgrade's scalability enhancements and DeFi protocol verticalization trends.

The Federal Reserve's FOMC unanimously approved a 25 basis-point interest rate increase, reaching the highest level in 22 years.

Market Changes

  • Bitcoin: $29,143 (-0.2%)
  • Ethereum: $1,859 (-0.1%)
  • Gold: $1,948

AI News

Emotional AI Debate

Researcher Geoffrey Hinton theorizes that AI systems could experience frustration and anger, though he hasn't publicly released this work due to concerns about AI safety warnings.

ChatGPT Performance Decline

Stanford researchers discovered notable accuracy drops: math problem-solving accuracy fell from 97.6% to 2.4%, and code generation accuracy plummeted from 52% to 10%.

Travel Tips

Flatio's digital nomad study surveyed approximately 1,200 respondents, revealing:

  • Portugal leads destination preferences at 27.1%, followed by Thailand, Spain, and Argentina
  • Accommodation costs drive decisions (46.6%), with sunshine as the secondary factor (15%)
  • Most nomads prefer spending under 800 euros monthly on housing
  • Respondents primarily originate from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, ranging from ages 18–49
  • IT, marketing, and technology sectors dominate employment, with freelancing remaining most popular

Currently Consuming

Podcast: Authority Hacker Podcast #315 – Ex-Forbes Employee Reveals EVERYTHING

Show: The Billion Dollar Code — a Berlin-based 1990s artist-hacker collaboration's patent lawsuit against Google

Tool of the Week

Crypto Portfolio, Amplified: Notion's Ultimate Trading Journal

Inspiring Quotes

"By the way, what have you done that's so great?" — Steve Jobs

"He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions." — Confucius

Summer Work-Life Balance Tips

Ten recommendations for balancing productivity and rest this summer:

  1. Prioritization
  2. Time management
  3. Flexibility
  4. Unplugging
  5. Nature breaks
  6. Boundary-setting
  7. Maintaining a positive mindset
  8. Mixing business with exploration
  9. Celebrating accomplishments
  10. Being intentional about rest