Hi everyone!
Last week I came across a video of Steven Bartlett talking about signal versus noise.
In that video, he defines “signal” as critical things you have to get done to move forward with your goals. While noise is anything that stops you from doing those things.
He points out that successful people focus on an 80% signal to 20% noise ratio, meaning they dedicate the vast majority of their time to just a handful of critical things. They focus on the signal, but most of us focus on the noise.
Inevitably, noise creeps into our lives everywhere. We have bills to pay, people reach out via email or WhatsApp, we get unexpected phone calls, etc. However, all these things derail your day and add more noise to drown out the signal.
The real insight for me was Bartlett’s idea to purposefully, in your todo app, track this signal-to-noise ratio. Tag each todo as “signal” or “noise” and focus first on the “signal” tasks and do the “noise” tasks if you have time left.
I’ve been using these tags in my todo list for the past few days, and they’ve made me realize just how many “noise” tasks I complete each day. My next step now is to work on eliminating some of these noise tasks so I can focus more on the signal.
What are your tips for focusing on the signal? To move forward with your goals? Hit reply, and let me know!
And as always, enjoy this edition!
Xavier
🤓 Cool Stuff I Found on the Internet
Bluey, the oldest dog
My kids and I are huge fans of the TV show Bluey. And now I found out that the Guinness World Record for oldest verified dog is held by an Australian Cattle Dog named Bluey! This Bluey lived for 29 years and 5 months.
From shimming a lock to a lawsuit
A lock company sued an influencer for picking its lock. It started when a lock company dared a popular lock-picker to break their “unbreakable” $130 trailer hitch lock. YouTuber McNally responded with a viral video where he opened the lock in seconds using a shim cut from an aluminium can. The judge wasn’t impressed, and the company dropped the lawsuit, but not before this became another example of the Streisand Effect: trying to silence your critics can have the opposite effect.
Nike's robotic shoes
Project Amplify is a robotic system designed to boost your running and walking speed while reducing the effort required. It certainly looks cool, and it’s undoubtedly a great piece of engineering. But who would want this?
Web Design History Museum
This "digital museum" contains screenshots of web design from the 1990s to the present. Super fun to see some old websites and pieces of software again!
Broken arrows
Here’s a scary thought: over the years, three hydrogen bombs and a number of nuclear torpedos went missing. These are called “broken arrow” events. Most of these weapons are on the bottom of the ocean, covered by sand, and unlikely to go off. Why don’t we just retrieve them? Because they are super hard to find. They don’t emit much radiation and they don’t have tracking devices (for obvious reasons).
⏳ On this day...
1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
1520 – The Strait of Magellan is first discovered and navigated by European explorer Ferdinand Magellan. This discovery provided a vital passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, drastically impacting global trade.
1952 – The United States successfully detonates Ivy Mike, the first thermonuclear device. A massive and consequential event in the history of energy and military technology.
👽 Space
Doom running on... a satellite!
"Will it run Doom?" is a classic meme amongst gamers, but one developer took it a step further. He got the classic game running on ESA's hackable OPS-SAT satellite. He modified Doom so it would use the satellite's camera to take a picture of Earth, and then use that picture to draw the sky in the game.
Growing plants without sunlight
A team of scientists was able to grow plants in total darkness! Their process uses electricity to convert carbon dioxide into acetate, a nutrient plants can consume directly and removes the need for sunlight. This could be super useful for long space flights!
⚡️ Energy & Environment
Surprising power of vertical solar panels
A YouTuber discovered that in certain situations, vertically mounted solar panels outperform regular mounting methods. Everyday Dave used bifacial solar panels and discovered they produce significantly more power during winter.
Wireless charging road
France has launched the world's first motorway featuring wireless charging. On a 1.5 km stretch of the A10, cars with special receivers can now recharge while driving. It's mainly aimed at heavy-duty trucks as wireless charging could cut emissions, allow for smaller batteries, and eliminate charging downtimes.
China's two-headed wind turbine
Chinese company Ming Yang has unveiled a wind turbine where two rotors share a single floating base. This setup allows for massive wind turbines that can output 50MW of energy while also being incredibly cheap. The company quotes $2,160 per kilowatt, about 5 times less that current European projects.
🧠🤖 Artificial intelligence
Dead Internet Theory
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman thinks that the “dead internet theory” might be real. This theory says that most online content and users are not real people, but AI-generated bots. Ironically, Sam’s company has also created the technologies needed to easily flood social media with content...
Neo Robot
Robotics company 1X is launching NEO, a humanoid robot that can do your chores. It costs $20,000 or $500 per month and can autonomously handle household chores or act as a companion. I find this scary but also amazing at the same time.
Nvidia, Nokia, and 6G
Nvidia is investing $1 billion in Nokia to put AI directly into mobile networks. Nokia will use Nvidia’s AI technology to boost network efficiency and to create an “edge cloud”. Practically, this would put Nvidia chips near cell towers so that AI workloads can be run closer to the mobile users.
Grokipedia
Elon Musk's xAI has launched Grokipedia, an online encyclopedia created by its Grok model. It aims to be the ultimate source of truth and rewrites Wikipedia articles, which according to him contain "woke bias".