Product Update

Two exciting new updates are coming to Playtext: Trending texts and AI summaries.

We are introducing a new trendings tab to your dashboard so you can discover upcoming texts.

Also, every text now has an AI summary so you can decide whether to read it further before opening.

I hope you enjoy these new improvements.

Happy Reading!
– Phelipe

Trending Texts

A roundup of the week's most popular articles and essays from Playtext.

1. The Addiction Economy (22 min)

A paper from UCLA and USC highlights the negative effects of legalized gambling on financial health, linking it to a broader trend of addictive consumer products like TikTok, diet apps, and sports betting. As competition intensifies, addiction becomes a competitive edge. The article discusses the need for awareness and resistance to these digital addictions. TikTok, for example, averages 95 minutes of daily usage per user, illustrating its pervasive impact.

2. Do Quests, Not Goals (10 min)

The text argues that instead of setting traditional goals, which often feel like burdens, individuals should focus on quests—personal aspirations that inspire and motivate. Quests should be integrated into daily life, as they help create a fulfilling and enriched existence, rather than waiting for a less busy time to pursue them.

3. Fill the Bathtub (11 min)

Ted Lamade discusses the challenge of finding truth in a world of information. He shares a lesson from his father about trust, likening it to filling a bathtub drop by drop, where trustworthy actions accumulate over time but can be lost with a single untrustworthy act. The piece emphasizes the importance of incentives in shaping outcomes.

4. The big stack game of LLM poker (6 min)

NVIDIA's projected $150B revenue run rate raises concerns about the $600B AI revenue needed for investment payback. Major players like META and MSFT must go all in to avoid losing market share. As LLMs evolve, their capability to handle complex tasks will unlock significant economic value, potentially transforming productivity.

5. Informing Ourselves to Death (12 min)

Neil Postman discusses the disadvantages of computer technology, emphasizing its dual nature as both beneficial and detrimental. He highlights the increased power of organizations due to computers and the unforeseen consequences technology brings. Through an experiment about misinformation, he illustrates how easily people accept dubious claims, reflecting a complex relationship with information in the digital age.

Notes

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