The Weekend Wind-Down #54 - March 9, 2025
It's been a cool and rainy weekend in Singapore, perfect for settling down and getting ready for the week ahead!
Series I'm binging this weekend
I'm behind the times, but I finally started watching Yellowstone, and I got hooked immediately. I've seen some critics saying that it is just another soap opera with a cowboy veneer, but to me there's nothing wrong with that. Even though I'm from the suburbs, I grew up loving country music and watching NASCAR every Sunday. I'm not sure if I was drawn to it because it made me feel more American, or the culture just resonates with me. I did end up living in a very small town in an area full of farmers and ranchers for my last year of high school, and although it wasn't a great time in my life, I'm glad I got to experience it. I got blisters from a part-time job putting up fences with a post driver and went to school with kids who got up to feed the animals before class. The series does a great job of demonstrating what I feel the cornerstone of American identity is, independence. Of course it is over the top with gratuitous violence and sex, but it's TV. Plus you can never go wrong with Kevin Costner in boots and a hat.
AI news this weekend
On Thursday another Chinese company took headlines by storm when they released a new autonomous AI agent called Manus. This agent goes a step beyond ChatGPT and other LLMs because you can give it instructions and it will execute tasks on its own, without waiting for prompting from the human user. Some examples that have been shared are picking the top candidates from a pile of resumes, conducting an analysis of a stock trend, and planning a long holiday. Like DeepSeek, Manus shows its thought process and the steps it is taking and they go a step further by allowing you to watch replays of tasks other users have had Manus execute (fantastic marketing BTW). For example, for the trip planning it came back with a full HTML guidebook with all aspects of the trip linked and options for many areas. Manus is also utilizing the FOMO aspect as people can currently only get access with an invite code, which are already being sold second-hand in many markets. It looks like a great step forward and I look forward to using it, or something like it soon. The real usefulness leap will happen when AI agents are able to connect to the tools we are already using, but I think it will take some time for that to happen.
Inspiring posts this weekend
I was super inspired by all of the International Women's Day posts and activities that happened last week and this weekend. In an ideal world, we wouldn't need a special day just to promote equality, but until we get there it is important to have and support. I honestly don't understand how misogyny and patriarchalism has lasted so long when a large percentage of men in the world have had daughters. Even if you somehow grow up with a mother and sisters and don't see how capable they are, after having a daughter everyone should want what is best for them and for them to have an equal chance at pursuing their dreams. I'm very grateful my daughter has an amazing mother to look up to and more and more examples of women role-models who are doing everything men can do, and more.
Have a great one!