Sharmila and Nikita traveled to India by KLM. Which meant I got to add to my collection of KLM houses. I had even given them the list of house numbers that I have, so they will not pick up a duplicate. 🙂
They publish one new replica of some famous houses/buildings in Netherlands every year – I believe on their annual anniversary day of existence. I have long ways to go!!
Sharmila and Nikita are back from India. Looks like, together with my mother-in-law, they dug up my late father-in-law’s stuff and got one of his prized possessions – a Yashica-D camera. He was an avid photographer back then. This is from the late 50s – nearly three-quarters of a century old! I think it was one of the first twin-lens reflex cameras.
It has now been added to my small but growing collection of things that most folks today would not recognize, nor know how to operate!
I forget how I landed up with this book. I think I was reading an article in The Economist that mentioned this book.
It is a fascinating book to understand what causes some of the grave ills of social media. I used to see all the young kids constantly on their phones. But from The Economist article, I learnt that constant social media doomscrolling is affecting the older generation even worse.
The author does not delve very deep into certain aspects of psychiatric issues caused by social media, like loneliness, anxiety, and so on. Instead, he focuses much more on how social media causes mass hysteria around conspiracy theories and deep echo chambers, to the point that ordinary people are becoming unhinged from reality.
He has studied Facebook and YouTube in the greatest detail. Interestingly, not much analysis of TikTok was presented, but he suggests that its algorithms are doing exactly the same.
It stems from the social media company single-mindedly chasing screen time – or the user’s attention. This is clearly driven by profit motives (ad revenue is proportional to the time you spend on an app or site).
As a second step, the social media companies created algorithms to feed you more stuff that they deem will keep you on the screen. The algorithms have developed this magic by constantly studying the behavior of millions of human beings. In and of itself, it does not have any value judgment – but a very good idea – based on data, what will make you stay on the screen.
And the third part is the foible of us human beings. We are attracted to salacious news items. We discount data that goes against our beliefs and instead are likely to believe more data that supports our belief – even after we are told that the data source is spurious!! And if enough people say it, we take it as a cardinal truth.
All this, when done on a large scale – where no human being can truly understand the AI algorithm’s complexity anymore – leads to extreme behavior from human beings. To the point, people have killed people – and in extreme cases, genocides like that in Myanmar – purely based on believing something to be true since the algorithms kept feeding one kind of item only.
The author has a strong point of view: owners of social media need to bear significant responsibility for this and should be held accountable. The owners, on the other hand, claim that it would be a violation of free speech. They have sometimes taken action when faced with political or social pressure, but things regressed soon after.
I think the problem manifestation is clear (people are killing people, and human beings are suffering from deep psychological issues – this is undeniable). However, the solution is equally unclear. In fact, the author does not seem to offer any elegant solution beyond suggesting that we hold social media owners responsible for what their algorithms do.
I would recommend reading this book.
Keeping up with my tradition of starting the year by “wishing you enough”. A message worth repeating every year. As a person who arguably spends more time in airports than home and as somebody who spends time in hospices with folks who regularly say their “forever goodbyes”, the story and the moral of the story rings very true to me.
Even if you have read it last year, it is a great read again. Also acknowledging Larry Mason who had originally wished me enough…
“I wish you enough!”
By Bob Perks
———————–
I never really thought that I’d spend as much time in airports as I do. I don’t know why. I always wanted to be famous and that would mean lots of travel. But I’m not famous, yet I do see more than my share of airports.
I love them and I hate them. I love them because of the people I get to watch. But they are also the same reason why I hate airports. It all comes down to “hello” and “goodbye.”I must have mentioned this a few times while writing my stories for you.
I have great difficulties with saying goodbye. Even as I write this I am experiencing that pounding sensation in my heart. If I am watching such a scene in a movie I am affected so much that I need to sit up and take a few deep breaths. So when faced with a challenge in my life I have been known to go to our local airport and watch people say goodbye. I figure nothing that is happening to me at the time could be as bad as having to say goodbye.
Watching people cling to each other, crying, and holding each other in that last embrace makes me appreciate what I have even more. Seeing them finally pull apart, extending their arms until the tips of their fingers are the last to let go, is an image that stays forefront in my mind throughout the day.
On one of my recent business trips, when I arrived at the counter to check in, the woman said, “How are you today?” I replied, “I am missing my wife already and I haven’t even said goodbye.”
She then looked at my ticket and began to ask, “How long will you…Oh, my God. You will only be gone three days!” We all laughed. My problem was I still had to say goodbye.
But I learn from goodbye moments, too.
Recently I overheard a father and daughter in their last moments together. They had announced her departure and standing near the security gate, they hugged and he said, “I love you. I wish you enough.” She in turn said, “Daddy, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Daddy.”
They kissed and she left. He walked over toward the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say goodbye to someone knowing it would be forever?”
“Yes, I have,” I replied. Saying that brought back memories I had of expressing my love and appreciation for all my Dad had done for me. Recognizing that his days were limited, I took the time to tell him face to face how much he meant to me.
So I knew what this man was experiencing.
“Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever goodbye?” I asked.
“I am old and she lives much too far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is, the next trip back would be for my funeral,” he said.
“When you were saying goodbye I heard you say, “I wish you enough.” May I ask what that means?”
He began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.” He paused for a moment and looking up as if trying to remember it in detail, he smiled even more.” When we said ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them,” he continued and then turning toward me he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.
“I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough “Hello’s” to get you through the final “Goodbye.”
He then began to sob and walked away.
—
My friends, for 2026, I wish you enough!
By: Chris Miller
A few weeks back, when I was in Dallas, I got a chance to meet up with my friend from yesteryears – Rashmi Mathur. She has been an executive at Texas Instruments (TI) for over three decades. We were discussing the state of TI today and, in general, the state of chip manufacturing worldwide. I find her very engaging in conversation.
She encouraged me to read this book. This was a great read if any of you are interested in the science, manufacturing, or geopolitical realities of chip-making.
The ubiquitousness of the humble chip is not readily realised by us. Most everything we use today has some chips in it – from coffee maker to dishwasher to remote to some of the blinking Christmas lights I put on yesterday. Most cars have 1,000 to 3,500 chips in them. Every year, the world produces more than 1.2 trillion chips!! That is like 150 chips per man, woman, and child… every year!!
Some of the more fascinating things I learnt included the fact that TSMC has technology that can create those layers on the chips that are 2 atoms thick! Two atoms!! That is a fraction of what the coronavirus looked like.
The book takes the reader through the history of chip making and how concentrated chip manufacturers and the manufacturers of machinery (such as lithography) used by chip manufacturers are. Sometimes, there is only one or two such manufacturers.
The most absorbing part was understanding the race between China and the USA on the chip front. And how Taiwan is squarely in the middle of all this.
The only disappointing part for me is that the book, while explaining the stranglehold the USA has on certain parts of chip manufacturing (e.g. software for those machines), did not delve into how China has quietly built up a monopoly on the rare earth minerals (or rather the refineries for those minerals) that are required for chip making. And successfully used that recently to shake off some US tariff threats on the chip trading front.
Would certainly recommend this book.
