Let's share book recommendations again!
This week's best links, plus a question for you: What book that changed your perspective on something important? (#444)
One of the best things about this newsletter is that so many clever, inspiring people from different backgrounds all over the world read it — yes, you. Once a year, I leverage this to everyone’s benefit. It's time for the 2023 edition of the Weekly Filet Book Club.
It's simple and great: You recommend one book, and get dozens of recommendations in return. This year's theme focuses on something books are exceptionally good at: helping you see things differently. Non-fiction, novel, poem, play, just published or centuries old, doesn't matter. That's all up to you — just tell us about a book that changed your perspective on something important.
I'm excited to see all your recommendations! I will compile everything and share it back to you in a few weeks (here's the 2022 edition, and here's every book recommended so far over the years).
In the meantime: My ordinary recommendations on what to read, watch and listen to this week. Enjoy!
1. How Rogue AIs may Arise
This week, some of the leading experts on artificial intelligence have released a statement, warning that AI poses an existential threat to humanity, asking that mitigating the risk should be a global priority. So, what exactly is the risk? How can lines of code become a threat to humanity? Yoshua Bengio, one of the signatories of the statement, has a good overview, both nuanced and easy to understand. One of the key insights: «Even if we knew how to build safe superintelligent AIs, it is not clear how to prevent potentially rogue AIs to also be built.»
More on AI in my collection: Making Sense of Artificial Intelligence
2. 5 Mistakes We Make When We’re Overwhelmed
Number 1: You think you don’t have time for actions that would help you.
Alice Boyes
3. Food and Drink mini-series: Tamar Adler on cooking leftovers
This podcast episode is a mere 15 minutes long. And yet I came away feeling inspired to be more creative with leftovers. Food writer Tamar Adler does a great job of reframing cooking leftovers, from an unrewarding necessity to the cooking equivalent of upcycling.
Lilah Raptopoulos