Keep it Simple

Hey everyone,

Welcome to your Sunday Space, where I distil the best ideas, resources and principles on the internet for you to digest.

If you find something thought-provoking, feel free to share it with a friend.

IDEAS
Keep it Simple

You’d be forgiven for thinking Alex Hormozi has some novel routine reserved for wealthy influencers and businessmen.

The exact opposite was true when I heard him talk about it recently.

His “productivity routine” consists of 7 frighteningly simple things:

• Sleep until he wakes up

• Caffeine & Nicotine

• AirPods

• A room with no windows

• No notifications

• Delaying his first meal as long as possible

• A clear idea of what he wants to achieve in the day

I love this notion of simplicity. But that wasn’t always the case. There was a time when I would’ve rejected the idea of a simple routine.

I assumed one needed “Miracle Morning” manifestations, visualisations, journaling, meditation and other filler activities.

This is the classic trap of doing other things to make you feel like doing the thing (you actually want to do) rather than just doing the thing.

The simple way is, more often than not, the right way.

Alex Hormozi keeps it simple. And so should we.

RESEARCH
A New Segment

Over the next six months, I’ve committed to materially upskilling myself in AI.

I’m fascinated by everything from the fundamentals of Deep Learning to tinkering with AI tools.

Combining my curiosity with the realisation that the world hasn’t seen such a transformative technology emerge since the dawn of the Internet has given me the extra push to catch the coming wave.

The stories of Elon inhaling books on rocket-building before he went on to build SpaceX inspired me to take on this challenge. I’m not trying to build rockets, but I’ll attempt to emulate his trance-like focus on learning one specific topic.

I also realise that consuming is only 50% of the learning process.

That’s why, each week, I’ll share key takeaways from my studies like:

• Experiences building with AI tools

• Insights from a paper

• And more

I’d love to hear if this segment interests you and what you want me to cover.
Let me know in the poll at the bottom of this email.

INSIGHTS
From around the web

Humane’s AI Pin horror reviews

This was a product release I genuinely had hope for when I watched the demo last November.

Seeing an ambitious company and founder push the boundaries of software and hardware while embracing disruptive technology is awesome.

But, as is the risk with demos, it’s night and day versus the launch reviews.

Some takeaways from the AI Pin’s flop:

• Smartphones are the most incredible computing invention ever and are unlikely to be replaced anytime soon.

• We haven’t scratched the surface of the best way to integrate AI with hardware natively.

• Humane has a long way to go from a software and UX perspective to be nearly as revolutionary as the iPhone. The next chapter (post the review-onslaught) will be make-or-break for the founders.

• Finally, bad reviews don’t kill companies. Bad products do. The greatest founders never spend time on anything other than building the best products for their users.

Meta launches Meta AI in WhatsApp & Instagram powered by Llama 3

Llama 3 is the undisputed champion of open-source models and is already ranked fifth in the LLM leaderboard.

Zuck’s bet seems to be paying off—it’s hard to see how other open-source model providers can compete, with Meta building a ~400B parameter version of Llama 3 that could reach GPT-4’s level of capability.

That sounds great, but I wanted to see how Llama 3 stacked up. My takeaways after giving the meta.ai assistant a whirl:

• The UI is clean and snappy, but answer generation was slow (this probably wasn’t helped by having to access it via VPN since it’s unavailable in the UK/EU).

• The image quality is nowhere near DALL-E or Midjourney. However, the real-time image generator is incredible.

• Within 5 minutes of using it, it hallucinated on a question about Oppenheimer—mixing up Lewis Strauss (his political nemesis) for Leo Strauss (a random philosopher)…

• No company is better placed to distribute its AI products to users than Meta, having 3.19B daily users across its suite of apps.

Meta to deploy custom-designed AI chips across its data centers

It’s either a coincidence that I always report on Meta back to back, or Zuck is truly the King of PR.

Not only are they building out their suite of Llama models and integrating them into their apps at scale, but they’re also building custom AI hardware.

Badass.

The move to build custom silicon comes primarily from a desire to take control of the entire AI model development cycle, shedding the reliance on Nvidia’s GPUs and saving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Interestingly, Meta plans to use the Artemis processor for inference and transition their stockpile of Nvidia H100s to training AI models.

As I’ve said, Meta can’t be written off yet. They’re the dark horse in the AI arms race, having found their niche in open-source models with the infrastructure and distribution capabilities to back up their efforts.

SCROLLING
On X

MUST-WATCH
On YouTube

TOOLS
Super.so

As you know, I’m a massive advocate for Notion. However, there’s one big drawback to publishing pages on the Internet.

• No custom domains.

• No SEO optimisation.

• Limited flexibility when it comes to custom code and design.

Super.so solves these problems and more with finesse.

Creating a website is as simple as:

1. Signing up

2. Connecting your Notion account

3. Connecting the page you want to share

And voila!

All my content lives on Notion, so within 30 minutes of signing up, I’d created a personal portfolio website and published it to a custom domain.

If simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Super is the website creation tool everyone should be using.

Try super today and bring your Notion content to life.

RESOURCES
The No-Code x AI Bootcamp

If you're a regular here, you’ll know I’ve been through the Bootcamp myself. I'm not big on courses, and I recommend even fewer.

That speaks volumes about this one. It was a game-changer.

I’ve always been 'almost there.’ Full of ideas, yet stuck at the starting line, watching others on Twitter launch their products and succeed.

Then, I joined the Bootcamp. It completely changed my perspective.

I discovered the true power of building with No-Code and launched my MVP in a weekend.

I’m no longer hampered by analysis paralysis and have a roadmap of ideas and products I plan to build.

If you’re feeling stuck like I was, this Bootcamp is the way to break free.

Sign up here for the May 2024 cohort and get $100 off.*

THOUGHTS
Quote I’m Pondering

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Water is the driving force of all nature.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

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Thanks for reading,

— Luca

P.S. Eat until you’re 80% full…