Alright, diving straight in. Tigers have been in news lately. I got hold of a government report on the status of tigers, and then asked an AI tool to read the PDF and summarize for me, not just things to be proud of but also everything concerning about the state of tigers in India.
You can read up my short summary here. Net net, there are is a lot to be worried about too, which of course the regular media in India chose to conveniently ignore. You can ignore too. Or not.
I will answer the AI+booze thing in a bit but before that, let me be in the animal world just a tad bit longer if you don’t mind?
I came to learn that in the US, Labrador had been the most popular dog-breed for over 30 years but got recently overtaken by another breed. Which breed is that - make a guess?
Some more on dogs - the below video of a crazy number of dogs on wheelchairs, having a blast at a beach will make you happy. Very very happy.
Talking about happiness, guess which country is the least happy in whole of East Asia?
On this topic, I came across a cool 2X2 happiness-matrix recently - see the short video below and tell me if you relate to this particular way of looking at happiness?
Since we are talking about 2X2 grids, how about one more? If you run a company like me or are in a leadership position and building a team, below is an interesting way to look at the kind of employees you want to hire.
I drew this intelligent-diligent grid from the framework shared in this blog, in case you want to read up more.
Intelligent / diligent or not, when employees don’t get to take leaves when they want to, it’s unlikely they are going to be very happy about it. But guess what, I read in a Bloomberg article that..
Less than 50% of Americans exhaust their paid leaves.
The article mentions many reasons but whatever the reasons be, this just makes me sad.
There is something else about Americans that I read, and it reminded me of Goa (where I live). NYT wrote a long-form essay on Americans moving to Europe because it’s more affordable for many of them. But that in turn is making Europe less affordable for the Europeans. And that reminds me of Goa.
I have been in Goa for over ten years now, but a strong influx of a LOT of folks from Delhi took off around Covid. And as a result, the real-estate / rental values have gone up in certain pockets by 2X to 4X. I am not bitching at all. Just sharing that the American-European movement felt very similar to the Delhites-Goa movement.
What do you do a lot when you move to Goa? You drink. 😀 Yes, booze is still cheap.
And that brings me to the AI+booze thing that I opened this newsletter with.
Beck’s beer seems to have used AI to not only create a new flavour of beer but to also create the entire packaging and marketing / promotion around it (source). Sounds mostly like a gimmick to me, but hey it caught my eye - what can I say!
Something else that caught my eye was a brewery in Eastern Germany that seems to have developed an “alcohol-free” beer powder. Keep it away from me please.
While beer is clearly not a luxury commodity, lot of expensive wines are. And I will end this newsletter on the note of luxury and slow-motion.
Does slow-motion video effect make a product look luxurious and if it does, then why?
That’s it for today. Have a great Sunday. Drink some beer. And go plan your next leave please. And if you are in Delhi, please don’t move to Goa, lol. Or move. Do whatever makes you happy. 😀
See you when I see you.