A letter from Om #02/2024

It has been a while since I was in touch. This is the second newsletter of 2024. Why such a gap? Well, I have some great excuses. I was busy with work. I have been obsessed with “AI” and have been spending every spare minute trying to educate myself, as well as trying to figure out what a media entity looks like in the age of “generative AI.” I went to visit my parents in India. The real reason, though, has been that I have been trying to streamline processes around writing and publishing.

One of the changes is that I have rearranged my website’s home page into three sections — the front of the book (blog posts), the feature well (essays, long analysis & interviews), and the back of the book (my podcast, obsessions, travels, recommendations & photography). If you want to investigate the why of this change, read on. I think it is worth your time, but I also understand if you don’t give two hoots about it.

The big reason for a more streamlined home page is that I am writing on my blog more frequently. Sometimes the pieces are short-and-sweet, and at other times they are lengthy interviews and essays. The most important change is that I have made my writings available as a newsletter, making it easier for you to stay current. Every time I have something new published on the website, it gets automatically sent to your inbox. If you are interested, sign up by entering your email address.

As a subscriber of A Letter from Om, you will continue to get the occasional newsletter, and nothing changes. I will share a selection of my recent work and also some of the better articles I have read. It will also include my recommendations and photography updates. This is and will remain a low-frequency newsletter, respecting your time and attention.

Here are some of my recent writings:

1. The Tyranny of Content Algorithms
2. Why do corporations fail to protect our data?
3. Microsoft’s brazen AI inflection
4. AI is changing writing
5. 5G is eating cable’s lunch
6. Travel (tech) notes, Delhi Edition
7. What does Vision Pro have in common with a T1 connection?

Worth reading:

• Last year, I asked the question: is AI the snake that eats itself? More and more AI companies are turning to synthetic data, and not good. It will lead to the pollution of the Internet to a point where it becomes unusable, Erik Hoel writes.
• Roger Federer was a great tennis player. And he is turning out to be an even better-retired tennis player. No, seriously.
• Aging with the front-facing camera is a new societal phenomenon, as this article explains. It is my must-read for this newsletter.

My recommendations:

The Red Queen is a new thriller on Amazon Prime and it is fantastic. It is an adaptation of a book by the same name by Juan Gómez-Jurado, a Spanish writer. I read the book and became obsessed with his writing. The television series is not as amazing as the book, but it comes pretty close. Antonia Scott is the new “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

My Photography:

I am currently playing with the new Leica SL3 camera. Here are my “First impressions.”

PS: Visit the blog, where I occasionally post short posts with links and nuggets of goodness about tech, science, and life in general. You can find my essays, interviews, and photos on Om.co.

April 14, 2024. San Francisco