Tippets #185
GPUs, Xi Jinping, ‘Vacationing’ with Kids, Modelo, and more. Enjoy!
A warm welcome to new readers getting this for the first time. Thank you for letting me be a small part of your week. As a reminder, Tippets are tidbits and snippets (aka. tippets!) from my reading around the web.
Tippets from Around the Web:
Nvidia H100 GPUs: Supply and Demand
One of 2023s monikers is certainly going to be the ‘Year of AI’. There rate and pace of development is exhilarating, and seems to be accelerating. Something’s got to give, right? At this moment it seems like the AI bottleneck will be the chips that power the compute.
One reason the AI boom is being underestimated is the GPU/TPU shortage. This shortage is causing all kinds of limits on product rollouts and model training but these are not visible. Instead all we see is Nvidia spiking in price. Things will accelerate once supply meets demand.
This piece is a good (very technical and detailed) primer on the supply and demand of GPUs and where to from here.
(22-minute read - GPU Utils)
The AI rules that US policymakers are considering, explained
Speaking of AI, Washington DC is very interested in the topic. There are a number of ideas circulating around The District regarding rules and regulations on AI, largely broke down in terms of rules, institutions, funding, and people. This piece in Vox does a nice job summarizing it all.
(16-minute read - Vox)
Xi Jinping Is Trying to Adapt to Failure
Xi has tough tasks ahead in his third term: balancing growth with security in economic policy, balancing ambition with restraint in foreign policy, and balancing competing sub-factions in elite politics. The base case outcome of this balancing act is that China will muddle through, continuing to build its national power while falling short of its full economic potential. But in the long term, slowing growth, less predictable governance, and an increasingly hostile external environment, if left unchanged, are making national stagnation more likely than national rejuvenation.
(7-minute read - Foreign Policy)
What Is ‘Vacation’ When You Have Young Kids?
Having spent the better part of the last ten days with my wife, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and four kids under 6 between us, this one gave me all the feels. To all my parents of kids under five, this one is a must read.
Because of course — of course! — there is no such thing as a “vacation” with little kids. There is no downtime because your usual support system and reliable routines are gone.
You’re merely parenting with scenery when you travel, and once I finally accepted that, I finally started enjoying myself.
And every aspect of parenting becomes a lot easier when I relinquish control, or at least give in to the idea that there is only so much I can control.
(4-minute read - The Cut)
How Modelo became America’s new favorite beer
There’s a new king of American beer, and it’s certainly not who I expected. A well-reported story on how Modelo is now America’s #1 beer brand.
(7-minute read - Vox)
The limits of our personal experience and the value of statistics
A great reminder of how limited our own experience of the world is, and the importance of using global data to create a more informed opinion.
(4-minute read - Our World in Data)
Quote I'm thinking about: “Now I become death, destroyer of worlds.” (Yes, I watched Oppenheimer this week)
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