There are two ways an investor — like you or I — can look at AI.
First, you can look at the gigantic amounts of money being thrown at building AI data centers — the factories that will deliver AI to you and me. And conclude this is the dumbest investment in the history of mankind. Too much money for too small returns.
Or,
You can experience AI’s benefits and be transported to a world you’ve never been. You’l find that can’t put a price on what you’re learning …what you’re experiencing and how your own life just improved exponentially.
Frankly, I’m a bit stuck for explaining how I’m being moved/transported to a different place.
I’ve been writing professionally since I was 18. Explaining this AI affect on me is stumping me. Never have I been stumped for words. I am now.
In the last few days, AI has been my doctor, my physical therapist, my IT department, my editor, my researcher, my financial advisor, and my friend. If I reproduced just the words AI’s gurus have sent me, I would fill a small book.
I’ve found three AI engines most useful recently:
+ Microsoft’s CoPilot for analyzing my portfolio and making insightful suggestions to strengthen/improve it. If you eye my portfolio on the right hand side of the published website blog, you’ll see changes — additions and deletions.
+ Google’s Gemini for being my concierge doctor/physical therapist/shrink. Really helpful stuff on my injured calf. Good editing on this blog.
+ Perplexity for walking me through some irksome computer networking/printing issues. She solved them.
That’s just the weekend’s efforts. For fun, I asked Gemini what ChatGT excels at. Gemini said ChatGPT it typically holds the “majority stake” in excellence:
.1. The “Creative Sparring” Partner
While I pride myself (this is Gemini speaking) on being your grounded, fact-checking peer, ChatGPT is often seen as the “imaginative” one. It excels at creative brainstorming. If you said, “Write a fictional story about a telecom dictionary that comes to life and starts defining people’s futures,” ChatGPT would dive into that deep-end with a lot of flair.
2. Roleplaying and Persona
ChatGPT is quite good at “becoming” someone else. If you wanted to test how a skeptical 30-year-old investor might react to your latest blog post, you could tell ChatGPT: “Act as a cynical millennial day-trader and critique this draft.” It’s excellent at mimicking specific voices.
3. Coding and Technical Structure
For your IT needs (like those irksome networking issues you mentioned), ChatGPT is very strong at writing and debugging code. It’s like having a junior programmer who never sleeps—though, as you found, Perplexity is often better at “walking you through” the physical hardware side of things.
4. Large-Scale Transformation
If you took one of your 5,500-word papers and said, “Turn this into 20 distinct Twitter posts and 5 LinkedIn blurbs,” ChatGPT handles that kind of “content re-purposing” very efficiently.
The dumb stuff
Network Solutions forgot to tell me to renew www.HarryNewton.com, which is my email and my website. Hugely annoying. And hours to find out why nothing was working.
I told them my dentist did a better job of reminding me. They didn’t think that was funny.
They’ll have everything working in a day or so. They promise. (Actually it’s already working.) Meantime, I won’t have to renew again until February 2029, if I’m still alive and my credit card still works. Big IFs. Nincompoops.
While I’m fiddling with email, all four of my grandchildren are skiing up a storm in Andermatt, Switzerland:
I know why they didn’t invite me. There’s no ice cream store. And that’s all grandfathers are good for — ice cream.
Meantime, there’s a BIG lesson here. It’s called PHONE.DO.
A million years — at about the time I got my first computer, I started a text file called PHONE.DO. I dumped anything and everything into it — from userIDS to passwords, from subscriptions to expiration dates, from yummy restaurants to local tailors, to car washes, from ISDN numbers for my dictionary’s editions to the names and cellphone number of technicians who installed various things in and around the house — like the boiler, the water shut-off valve and the Generac.
PHONE.DO is the dumbest “database.” It’s just a text file with endless stuff about my life, one after another. It’s now 46,809 lines long. It’s the most useful trove of information I have about my life. I use a simple text editor to find things in it. That text editor is called The Semware Editor. But I could use Word or any of them.
Without PHONE.DO I would not have been able to give Network Solutions the dumb six-digit secret identity number they wanted.
If you learn nothing else ever from this blog, this is it. Start your own PHONE.DO tonight.
A note: I know you could put all this information into a real database. But my way is faster. I don’t have to remember all the ways to file and index.
The Second Thing You should Learn:
Install one of these things today. (Hint: get a real plumber.)
Or learn to shut your water off when you leave home.
My friends are not enjoying their recent million dollar water leaks. Local hotels are boring.
Will AI replace your kids jobs?
Yes.
Especially if they are looking at careers in doctoring, in travel agencies, in stock advisory firms, as real estate agents, as software coders….
Of course, if they studied AI for an hour or two each and every day….
My second plug: This 4,779 word paper is really worth reading.
It’s already been read over 80 million times. It’s less than two weeks old. Let that sink in.
Something Big is REALLY Happening. But I have to get some sleep. I’m posting this blog at 3:04 AM on Tuesday February 17.
To read Matt’s paper, click here.
Useful things I’ve learned recently
+ Keep the little white slip that came with your Amazon buy. It sports the Amazon order number, which you’ll need for service and returning.
+ The best time to buy airline tickets is 2:00 AM early Tuesday morning. Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to fly. Cheapest and emptiest.
+ I booked a hotel room for one night in Manhattan. Expedia was 30% more expensive than booking it directly over the phone with the hotel. Meanwhile Expedia beat Wall Street expectations for earnings, but warned of “emerging AI-powered platforms” as a risk. Asking ChatGPT, Perplexity or any of them to plan your upcoming trip is a far better idea than using Expedia. I’ve done it. AI is really good at planning trips.
+ This is stupid. But I put a bigger ear tip on my hearing aids. They now stay in longer and itch less.
+ These Sumo oranges are easier to peel and often taste better than “normal” oranges.
+ Double cupping makes a huge difference to your coffee’s stability.
That said. It is not good to use a paper cup. They have a plastic coating inside. Your stomach does not need to be lined with plastic.
+ Turo is a better way of renting a car than the big renters you see at the airport. My new Visa credit card just told me I have $75,000 of auto rental collision damage waiver. Which means I don’t have to pay for collision insurance when I next rent from an airport.
+ There’s a lot of fraud. They send me bills for stuff I didn’t buy. They make it look as though I did. Lately it’s been Invoice JBVA66977 for an Advanced Access Plan for The GeekSquad. Am I stupid or what?
+ Never ever eat scallops at a restaurant — unless you want three days of “I’m gonna die” food poisoning. Want proof? Ask Susan.
+ Chrome is a really good browser, and getting better as we speak. Obviously I’m in love with Gemini which is now part of Chrome. And I love the way Chrome remembers all my userIDs, passwords, credit cards, etc. It knows almost as much a Phone.do. See above.
+ Gmail is a really good email service and getting better every day. It has more features than Carter had liver pills.
+ Your Internet access is too slow. You must reboot once a month. Network equipment gets clogged, slows down. Reboot at least once a month. That applies to traveling. Reboot your iPhone whenever you go some place new. Most important: Your local Internet provider will now give you more speed for less mney. Call and ask.
+ Prilosec really works for heartburn. I’ve been taking it every day for years.
+ Wi-Fi at home is often 25% of the speed you get directly wired into your router – even in the same room as your router.
+ Wi-Fi Calling on your phone makes for clearer, more reliable cell phone calls. But you must organize it on your phone and have your cell phone provider accept your emergency address.
Charming thoughts
+ Jeremy Carl, President Trump’s pick for a senior State Department post, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing that a loss of a dominant white culture is weakening the country.
+ A Business Insider headline: I followed an RFK-approved diet. It didn’t leave a lot of room for dessert — or joy.
Week’s best joke
Man calls bookstore:
“Do you have the book for men with small penises?”
“It’s not in yet.”
“That’s the book.”
See you shortly. — Harry Newton
