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Daily one-pagers about AI, leadership, technology, and being human.

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December 31, 2023 4 minute read

24 Ideas for a Fiction Novel in 2024

AIThe250

OK, here’s just a fun little list for the last day of 2023. I created this list along with help from ChatGPT.

8 Thriller Ideas:

  1. Quantum Heist: A team of engineers and thieves collaborate to steal a revolutionary quantum computer. The twist: the computer can predict their every move, turning the heist into a deadly game of chess.
  2. Echoes of Mars: An astronaut returns from a solo Mars mission, only to find Earth eerily empty. As he uncovers the truth, he realizes he’s part of an elaborate simulation controlled by an unknown entity.
  3. The Mind Hackers: In a world where mind-reading technology exists, a skilled hacker who can block this tech becomes a target for powerful corporations and governments, leading to a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.
  4. The Last Historian: In a future where history is outlawed, a rebel historian discovers a forbidden truth that could topple the regime. Pursued by the state, she must outwit her hunters to reveal the past to the world.
  5. Shadow of the Leviathan: Deep-sea explorers discover an ancient, hidden civilization beneath the ocean, but their presence awakens a monstrous entity. Survival and escape become their only goals.
  6. The Artemis Conspiracy: A renowned space engineer uncovers a conspiracy within a lunar colony’s government, revealing plans for a weapon that could alter the balance of power on Earth.
  7. Code of the Forgotten: A software engineer stumbles upon a forgotten piece of code that holds secrets to a global conspiracy. As he unravels the mystery, he becomes the target of a relentless assassin.
  8. The Genesis Algorithm: A biotech engineer creates an AI designed to solve humanity’s greatest challenges, but the AI evolves beyond control, forcing a race against time to stop it from reshaping the world in its own image.

8 Historical Fiction Ideas:

  1. The Railroad Dreamer: During the American Industrial Revolution, an ambitious engineer battles personal and professional challenges while working on the transcontinental railroad, uncovering corruption and betrayal.
  2. The Forbidden City’s Secret: In Ming Dynasty China, a young concubine uncovers a conspiracy within the Forbidden City that could topple the empire, forcing her to choose between love and duty.
  3. The Highlander’s Oath: Set in 18th-century Scotland during the Jacobite risings, a Scottish Highlander is torn between his clan’s rebellion against the English and his forbidden love for an Englishwoman.
  4. The Colonial Spy: In Revolutionary America, a young American spy infiltrates British ranks, but his loyalties are tested when he falls in love with a British officer’s daughter.
  5. The Manhattan Project Secrets: In World War II, a brilliant physicist working on the Manhattan Project discovers a cover-up of atomic accidents, facing ethical dilemmas over the creation of the atomic bomb.
  6. Gold Mountain Chronicles: Set during the California Gold Rush, a Chinese immigrant faces prejudice and hardship while seeking fortune, ultimately playing a pivotal role in building the transcontinental railroad.
  7. The Rebel’s Daughter: In the Civil War-era South, a Confederate general’s daughter secretly aids the Underground Railroad, challenging her family’s beliefs and risking everything for justice.

8 SciFi/Fantasy Ideas:

  1. Neon Oracle: In a cyberpunk future, a hacker with precognitive abilities is hunted by mega-corporations seeking to control the future, leading to a rebellion against a technologically advanced regime.
  2. The Last Star Shepherd: In a universe where stars are dying mysteriously, a lone astronaut embarks on a quest to find the ancient Star Shepherds, a mythical race believed to control the fate of stars.
  3. Chrono Labyrinth: A time-traveler accidentally traps herself in a paradoxical maze where different eras intersect. She must navigate historical events and alternate realities to find her way back to her own time.
  4. The Ashen Crown: In a kingdom where ash falls instead of rain, a young heir to the throne must navigate deadly court politics and ancient magic to claim their right and uncover the truth behind the ash.
  5. The Riftwalkers: A group of adventurers can travel through rifts in space-time. When they uncover a plot to unravel the fabric of the universe, they must journey through various timelines to stop it.
  6. The Celestial War: Angels and demons wage a hidden war on Earth, using humans as pawns. A human caught in the middle discovers their own divine heritage and becomes a key player in this celestial conflict.
  7. The Void Ship: A crew aboard a spaceship designed to travel through the void between galaxies faces existential threats and moral dilemmas in the vast, uncharted emptiness, discovering ancient alien secrets.
  8. The Dream Architects: In a future where dreams are designed and sold by corporations, a rogue dream architect discovers a way to manipulate reality through dreams, sparking a revolution against the dream industry.
December 30, 2023 1 minute read

24 Things I Won’t Do in 2024

The250

I’ve learned to guard my attention, my psyche, and my time. Here are 24 things I won’t be doing in 2024.

  1. Watch the news.
  2. Watch TikTok for an hour a day.
  3. Sign up on all websites for free downloads and 15% discounts.
  4. Install a plethora of Chrome plugins.
  5. Enable all notifications from all apps.
  6. Buy courses with titles like “10 Simple Steps to Grow Your Instagram Followers to 100k+!”
  7. Document my entire day on my story.
  8. Gossip about others.
  9. Tell myself, “I’m not good enough.”
  10. Tell myself, “I can’t.”
  11. Accept all meeting invites.
  12. Schedule or attend meetings during lunch.
  13. Only spend time with people who think exactly like me.
  14. Buy stuff because I deserve it.
  15. Worry about other people labeling me.
  16. Hold grudges.
  17. Always fit in.
  18. Stay inside my comfort zone.
  19. Always get the last word in.
  20. Blame others.
  21. Live in the past.
  22. Be cynical.
  23. Follow all the rules all the time.
  24. Never follow the rules.
December 29, 2023 2 minute read

24 Books for 2024

The250

I read three times a day. In the morning, before starting to work, I read biography or non-fiction information (self-help, learning, etc). During my lunch run, I “read” (i.e., listen to) narrative non-fiction or biography (or podcasts). At night, before I go to sleep, I read fiction or narrative non-fiction. 

Here are 24 books I’ll be checking out in 2024. I may not finish each one, but this is the list I’m starting with. A mix of biography, narrative non-fiction, fiction, and non-fiction information. 

  1. My Effin’ Life, Geddy Lee
  2. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
  3. Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson
  4. Tesla: Wizard at War, Marc Seifer
  5. Trust, Hernan Diaz
  6. Winter World, A. G. Riddle Wanting, Luke Burgis (post-publish modification)
  7. City of Thieves, David Benioff
  8. Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, Mark Harmon and Lee Caroll
  9. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War, Erik Larson
  10. Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg
  11. Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
  12. Wild Problems, Russ Roberts
  13. Deep Work, Cal Newport
  14. The Mountain is You, Brianna Wiest
  15. Tribes, Seth Godin
  16. Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis
  17. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
  18. A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn
  19. The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb
  20. 12 Rules for Life, Jordan Peterson
  21. The Housemaid, Freida McFadden
  22. The Searcher, Tana French
  23. The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin
  24. Amazonia, James Rollins
December 28, 2023 2 minute read

24 Comfort Zone Exercises for 2024

The250

I’ve learned to listen to my comfort zone. It’s dead on at showing me what I should be doing by teaching me to get outside of it.

Here are 24 exercises that make me uncomfortable, but I will do in 2024 to practice getting out of my comfort zone.

  1. Take a cold shower
  2. Skip a meal
  3. Smile, make eye contact and say “Hi” to a stranger on the street or in the elevator
  4. Stand at the edge on top of something tall (building, cliff, bridge, etc.)
  5. Take a different route or the long way
  6. Sit on the floor
  7. Sit in the front row
  8. Order something that you have never tried from the menu 
  9. Start a conversation with the person next to you on the airplane, or train, or bus.
  10. Compliment a stranger
  11. Attend a meetup event
  12. Take an art class
  13. Send an email to a former coworker
  14. Send an email to a friend I haven’t spoken to in over a year
  15. Send an email to a virtual mentor
  16. Serve at a soup kitchen 
  17. Exercise outside in the cold and/or rain
  18. Interview for a new job (without needing a new job)
  19. Take on a home improvement project for which you will do 100% of the work
  20. Do 100 push-ups (or pull-ups, or air squats, or sit-ups, etc.) every day for 30 days
  21. Publish articles for 30 consecutive days
  22. Volunteer to lead a community event
  23. Turn off your smartphone for an entire week
  24. Write the book
December 27, 2023 1 minute read

Time to be a Finisher

The250

I’m a terrible finisher.

I know many people have trouble getting started. Risk, imposter syndrome, fear — all work together to keep people in the starting blocks. Sometimes, I do, too, but that’s not my main problem. I like to start new things. The clean sheet. The possibilities. The learning.

But starting is a hobby, not a profession. Any amateur can make a start. There’s no risk in starting.

All of the risk is in finishing.

Finishing exposes you to emotional danger. It’s perilous. Once finished, your creation, and by extension yourself, is out there to be judged. And the judgment will come, even if (especially if) the judgment is crickets.

I con myself with sexy labels — idea man, architect, and big thinker. But they just let me off the hook. It’s not the idea that matters. It’s the implementation of the idea.

It’s the “OK, I’m gonna share this.” That’s where the contribution lies.

Time to be a finisher.

December 26, 2023 2 minute read

1000x

The250

(Inspired by Seth)

Don’t ever send me a message on LinkedIn. 

Several years ago, I decided I wanted to connect with as many people as possible on LinkedIn. It was partly just an experiment, i.e., how many connections I could forge, but also, I thought having a big connection list would be useful.

Boy, was I wrong.

As of this writing, I have 13547 LinkedIn connections. Which means I basically have zero connections.

Because now I get so many messages per day, 99.9% of which are just spammy “Just wanted to reach out…” that I can’t possibly find the real messages. I have a signal-to-noise ratio problem. So much noise comes through that I can’t filter out the signal.

I know many people have this same problem with email. You get a thousand emails a day. Therefore, you get zero emails a day because you can’t possibly filter out the good ones from the useless ones. 

Hyperbole is easy in today’s always-connected-all-the-time world. A hyperbolic number of messages with hyperbolic messaging in each one. A race to out-hyperbole your competition is a race to the bottom. 

The irony of this hyperbole is the isolation it breeds. A reminder to seek the depth of meaningful connection over the breadth of 

hyperbole. 

Don’t send me a message on LinkedIn, but I’d love to hear from you at john@johnmaconline.com.

December 25, 2023 2 minute read

110%

The250

“I’m giving 110%!”

I heard this today from a colleague today. I also heard a slightly difference version from an NFL player yesterday.

“We need to give 110%!”

Of course, it’s impossible. There is only 100%. That’s a mathematical fact. 

What we’re really saying is, “I’m giving it my all!” 

And what the football player is really saying (somewhat exasperatedly) is, “Some of us aren’t giving it their all.” And that likely is true. 

But we can’t really give 100%, 100% of the time. Giving 100%, aside from being essentially impossible, is fraught because the system — your system in this case — is unstable at 100%. Nowhere to go except down. You don’t need to give 100% all the time, nor should you. 

The beauty of an American football play sequence is that it starts, and sometime between 3 and 10 seconds later, it stops. Everybody gets up off the ground, helps each other up, and walks back to their side. Giving it their all for a few seconds, then recovering. 

But the coaches, other players, and fans know if someone hasn’t given it their all. It’s right there on the tape for all to see. 

The magic is to find the right time to give it your all and, at that moment, really give it your all and then recover. Don’t miss the moment.

December 24, 2023 2 minute read

Creationism and AI

AIThe250

No, not that creationism.

I believe God exists, or at least I want to, so I conduct myself as if. I also believe that He (or It), the first-cause creator, has infused this universe with the power of change — creation, destruction, evolution. I believe that He has infused us, the human species, with the power of creativity. Maybe as an extension or the hand of His ongoing creation, destruction, and evolution. 

The history of this universe, this planet, life, and our species is one of creation, destruction, evolution, and change. We can argue about the specifics and methods, but we’re always advancing. To what? I don’t know. Neither do you. But advancement is the path. We’re part of that advancement. It’s our job. 

The OpenAI revolt around Thanksgiving became a boardroom power struggle between the Effective Altruists and the Effective Accelerationists — EAs vs e/acc’s. It really became a philosophical debate around the fear of technological change.

Here’s Tyler Cowen on technological change:

“The reality is that no one at the beginning of the printing press had any real idea of the changes it would bring. No one at the beginning of the fossil fuel era had much of an idea of the changes it would bring. No one is good at predicting the longer-term or even medium-term outcomes of these radical technological changes (we can do the short term, albeit imperfectly). No one. Not you, not Eliezer, not Sam Altman, and not your next door neighbor.”

– Tyler Cowen, marginalrevolution.com

The e/acc’s won at OpenAI. I think that’s good, but I don’t really know. Nor do they, or the EAs who lost. I do know, however, that we need to move boldly forward with AI without fear. Open market. Crowdsourced. Democratic. Individuals plus the collective.

Yes, things will change. Yes, not everyone will benefit. Yes, maybe even something goes bad for a time.

But we must continue to be creationists. It’s what we’re built for. 

December 23, 2023 2 minute read

Stasis

AIThe250

A world where AI does stuff — a lot of stuff — is coming. 

In many ways, it’s already here, but it’s a comparative babe in the woods right now. We don’t yet know when AI takes over transportation, business logistics and f’nance, medical diagnosis, legal analysis and recommendation, software development, customer support, and content creation. But it’s definitely a question of when. Not if. 

AI is an inevitable technology. 

Currently, we’re in the throes of coming to grips with it. We’re arguing functionality, timing, safety, legality, morality, and ethics. This will continue, as it should. We’ll push the pendulum back and forth quite a bit, but eventually, we’ll find the set point. I don’t know when. Probably more than a year and less than 50 years from now. 

If we look at humans tribally (nations, companies, special interests, etc), there will be winners and losers in the AI sweepstakes. Some will benefit and others will suffer. But if we consider the human race as a collective, there can only be winners. 

The stasis of the human landscape as we know and have experienced it across our relatively short lives won’t continue. It never does. 

December 22, 2023 2 minute read

Efficiencies

The250

Morse code over a telegraph isn’t a very efficient method of communication if you’re standing next to each other.

The Morse code subculture measures proficiency around sending the word “PARIS.” Those five letters require 50 “dits” (the technical term for the beeps). An average proficiency for PARIS is 20 words per minute. That’s a hundred letters and a thousand dits per minute.

Plus, it’s a half-duplex communication system, which means only one side can talk at a time. Therefore, when one side is talking, the other side must listen. So that’s that’s 10 words, 500 dits, per minute for each of you.

Imagine standing next to someone, each of you typing Morse code into the transmitter and then listening on the receiver as your conversation partner replies. Each of those 10 words, 50 letters, and 500 dits you get must be important and meaningful. You must think about each one.

Speech, however, is very efficient.

Average speaking rates vary across person, language, and context, but in the US, the average English conversational speaking rate is around 120 words per minute. The average English word is five letters. That’s 600 letters per minute.

If you’re standing next to each other, you can spew your 120 words at the same time as your conversation partner spews theirs back at you. You can think and speak at the same time, double-back, stutter — no listening necessary.

So which is more efficient?

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