Weekend Briefing No. 596
Does Chat GPT Rot Your Brain? -- Peter Thiel's Stagnation Wars -- Boys Need More Men
Welcome to the weekend.
Here’s my July playlist. No country this time. Enjoy!
Prime Numbers
50 — The Goo Goo Dolls' 1998 hit "Iris" has climbed back onto the streaming charts at No. 50 with 7.8 million weekly streams, making it one of only a few non-holiday songs from the 1990s or earlier to achieve this feat on modern streaming platforms.
36 — A new survey reveals that 36% of Americans believe foreign military interventions worsen situations more often than they help, with only 17% thinking they improve situations.
32 — A Department of Energy report found that artificial intelligence data centers could drive a 32-gigawatt increase in electricity demand from 2024 to 2030 in the mid-Atlantic region, with 30 gigawatts of that increase coming specifically from data centers.
Does Chat GPT Rot Your Brain?
Your brain might actually get lazier when AI does all the heavy lifting, but this doesn't mean you should avoid these tools entirely. A recent MIT study found that people using ChatGPT showed weaker brain connectivity and couldn't remember a single sentence from essays they'd "written," while those working without AI maintained strong neural engagement and perfect recall. The key isn't abandoning AI but using it as a thinking partner rather than a replacement. Draft your own ideas first, then let AI help refine them. Stay actively involved in the core thinking process, and AI becomes a powerful collaborator instead of a cognitive crutch. Ness Labs (6 minutes)
Peter Thiel's Stagnation Wars
The billionaire PayPal founder believes we've been stuck in technological stagnation since the 1970s, and artificial intelligence might be our only shot at escaping — but it's probably not enough to save us. In a wide-ranging conversation with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, Thiel argues that despite digital progress, we've lost the ambition for radical breakthroughs like curing aging or reaching Mars, settling instead for safety regulations that have created a global "peace and safety" regime he likens to the Antichrist. While Thiel sees AI as roughly equivalent to the internet boom — helpful but not transformative enough — he fears the real danger isn't rogue artificial intelligence but a world government that uses fear of technology to impose permanent stagnation. The man who helped build surveillance company Palantir worries he might accidentally be providing tools for the very techno-authoritarian future he's trying to prevent, yet insists we must take radical risks to escape our current trajectory of decline. New York Times (60 minutes)
What’s Really Keeping 200 Execs Up at Night?
It’s not just AI. Or budgets. Or talent shortages. When Bridge Partners asked 200+ execs what’s shaping the next era of leadership, a different story emerged: one about trust gaps, outdated org models and a scramble to find leaders who can actually navigate complexity. The report breaks down 15 predictions that are already reshaping the C-suite. Read the report before your next board meeting. Bridge Partners (Sponsored)
Boys Need More Men
Boys today are drowning in a sea of female caregivers while desperately needing male role models to navigate modern masculinity. From teachers to pediatricians to daycare workers, nearly every adult in a child's daily life is now a woman, leaving boys — especially those without fathers — with few examples of healthy manhood. Research shows that face-to-face role models who share a child's gender have the most profound impact on educational performance, career decisions and personal development. The solution isn't removing women from these roles, but actively recruiting and training more men to work with children through formal initiatives, mentorship programs and community involvement. The Upshot (5 minutes)
NVIDIA’s AI Goldmine
NVIDIA survived a $500 billion market cap wipeout in 2022 only to become the world's most valuable company within 18 months, riding the generative AI wave that nobody saw coming. This week NVIDIA was the first company ever to hit $4T in market cap. The chip company's secret weapon wasn't just powerful GPUs — it was CUDA, a software platform launched in 2006 that now locks in 4 million developers who can't easily switch to competitors. When ChatGPT exploded in November 2022, NVIDIA was perfectly positioned with its H100 chips and data center infrastructure, generating $10.3 billion in data center revenue by 2023 — a segment that barely existed five years earlier. The company's moat runs deeper than hardware: competitors would need to replicate not just NVIDIA's chips but also its networking technology, manufacturing capacity at TSMC and, most importantly, its massive developer ecosystem that took over a decade to build. Acquired Briefing (8 minutes)
Hidden Fertility Hope
After 18 years of failed fertility treatments, one couple finally conceived when AI discovered three hidden sperm cells that human technicians had missed after days of searching. The revolutionary STAR system uses high-speed cameras to capture 8 million images in under an hour, identifying sperm in men with azoospermia — a condition where no measurable sperm are present in semen samples. This breakthrough technology can find literally two or three sperm cells among millions of debris fragments, making fertilization possible for couples who previously had no options except donor sperm or painful surgical procedures. While the method costs under $3,000 and shows promise for revolutionizing male infertility treatment, experts caution that validation studies are still needed before widespread adoption. CNN (7 minutes)
Pizza Hut's Second Lives
Abandoned corporate shells can become sanctuaries for communities that traditional institutions overlook. Former Pizza Huts across America are being transformed into LGBTQ+ churches, cannabis dispensaries and local gathering spaces that serve needs the original franchise never imagined. These conversions reveal how physical spaces retain an almost mystical power to bring people together, even after their corporate purpose dies. The red roofs and distinctive architecture that once symbolized family dining now house everything from spiritual worship to entrepreneurial dreams, proving that buildings have multiple lives waiting to be discovered. Check out the trailer for the documentary Slice of Life to see these transformations firsthand. Slice of Life (3 minutes)
Should We Work Together?
Hi! I’m Kyle. This newsletter is my passion project. When I’m not writing, I run a law firm that helps startups move fast without breaking things. Most founders want a trusted legal partner, but they hate surprise legal bills. At Westaway, we take care of your startup’s legal needs for a flat, monthly fee so you can control your costs and focus on scaling your business. If you’re interested, let’s jump on a call to see if you’re a good fit for the firm. Click here to schedule a one-on-one call with me.
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Weekend Wisdom
If you do something new, it will always look a little bit strange. -Peter Thiel