It reads: “0,75x speed”.

It’s a reminder of some advice I got from my friend Magnus. Talk slightly slower, take your time, and don’t get ahead of those who are listening.

“0,75x speed” serves well as a metaphor, far beyond our podcast.

As AI enables us to do more – and faster – the emphasis is leaning heavily on output and efficiency. I get caught up in this myself sometimes too. Feeling productive is somewhat addictive. Listening to sped-up podcasts, getting summaries of books, letting the AI build projects for you while you are sleeping.

But what is “productive” in this sense? If it didn’t need to be done from the beginning, does doing it anyway still count?

Another way of thinking about this newly found efficiency is going in the opposite direction. What can you do, that the AI can’t? How you can shape a point of view that a large language model never could?

I would argue that books are not for summarizing. Even skimming them will give you more than an AI-generated summary. And travelling to places will offer a perspective no LLM will give you, however fast and precise it may become.

As the world seems to speed up, a way to manage it could be doing the opposite. Doing what only you can do – in the way only you can do it.

/Björn

Three cultural gems

Flesh - David Szalay
A book that doesn’t describe anything of what almost every other book in the fiction genre covers. No inner monologue, no thoughts. Just flesh. A fascinating read. And a Booker prize winner, which should be enough to make you curious.

Oops - Momo Boyd
This new song flirts with 2000s R&B but still feels contemporary. The whole setting – new album + Colors video – feels the making of a new star.

Trainjazz.com
This is what the internet was made for. Real-time data from subway trains in New York is translated to a piece of jazz that changes depending on the movement. And if you’re close to certain trains, their notes grow louder. A work of art.

Three conversations about the books of Silicon Valley

Together with (my friend and) historian David Larsson Heidenblad, I did a series of conversations centered around the ideas, knowledge and history of Silicon Valley. Starting with a variety of influential books, we went through what can be learned from them, how these ideas have been used in practice, and how you can use them yourself – without having to run a startup.

Click the links above to listen to the conversations, if you’re curious – and a full book list is here.

For a few years now, I have taken a special interest in how new technology phenomena affects regular financial markets. For Svenska Dagbladet, I have written about everything from the short squeeze in Gamestop to prediction markets and bitcoin treasury companies.

Underpinning it all is a sense that something fundamental is changing. Why do so many choose to invest their money into these new things? What happened to saving money in a low-cost index fund?

I don’t know for sure, but I do have a theory that I would like to explore further.

A starting point is an article called “Casino Capitalism” that I’ve written. You can find it in English here and Swedish here.

I think there could be a book to be written on this subject too. Massive amounts of money are being allocated to assets that more resemble a lottery ticket than a financial security. The interesting question is both why this is happening – and what it might lead to.

If you think there might be something worth publishing here and would like to help me make this happen – please get in touch!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming of some recommendations:

Album: PinkPantheress – Fancy That
Full of samples and interpolations of British 2-step and dance music from 20 years ago – but revisited and made fresh again. Underworld, The Streets and Basement Jaxx are all here in the background.

Book: How we break – Vincent Deary
This British psychologist writes what is essentially a form of manual for life. The tone of the writing is like a soft embrace while whispering that you should take care of yourself.

Song: I don’t want you – Hailey Whitters feat. Charles Wesley
A classic country song from earlier this summer. This duet’s lyrics are a simple, yet beautiful take on misguided love.

Article: Growing up Murdoch – McKay Coppins, for The Atlantic
Must-read about the Succession-style drama taking place in the Murdoch family. Incredible sourcing and storytelling.

Bonus: And finally… here’s John Cena (yes, him) schooling you on what makes a great flat white.

Thank you for reading this far. I know you have a lot of options to choose from.

Leave a comment

This may be the least predictable newsletter imaginable. But unlike the rest of the stuff clogging up your inbox – this is not selling or asking anything of you. It’s just some good stuff that I’ve come across lately.

I’m still writing a lot for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. If that’s a language you’re comfortable reading, then here’s a listing of my latest work. If not – you’re out of luck, for the time being at least.

I hope you find something interesting among the recommendations below. And happy holidays.

/Björn

Three artists to spend time with

• Doechii – She just crossed over into the mainstream, but this is the most interesting rap I’ve heard for a long time. It’s versatile, clever, and artistic.
  Listen to: Nissan Altima.

• Caroline Polachek – Hardly a new artist, this former singer from Chairlift is now on a solo ride. I discovered her this year, so it’s new to me. The music is unusually original and goes way beyond the average pop song.
  Listen to: Sunset + Watch: Dang (live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert)

• Remi Wolf – Her single “Cinderella” was one of my most played songs in the car this summer. It’s poppy and fun, with a souly voice.
  Listen to: Cinderella

Two books for your holiday break

• Gambling Man - The wild ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son, by Lionel Barber

  There’s hardly a major internet company that hasn’t been touched – in some way – by Softbank and their founder, Masayoshi Son. How did it happen? This former FT editor does a fantastic job of describing both the background and context for Masa’s trajectory, as well as a lot of juicy anecdotes from behind the scenes. A delightful read.
  

• Send Nudes, by Saba Sams

  Short stories written in a light, bouncy manner. Little moments of youth get caught and dissected from the inside. This is fiction that reminds you of what it is like to be young – with everything good (and bad) that comes along with that.

One documentary to cherish

• Wise Guy – David Chase and The Sopranos (MAX) - This is so much more than a walk down memory lane for Sopranos fans (which would have been fine by me). It adds personal depth to what I consider to be the finest tv-series ever made.

Three bonus things worth a look & a listen

• The Rip Current – My friend Jake Ward (previously of NBC News and Popular Science fame) has a new Substack about technology that you should check out. He has a good eye for the space.

• The Reith Lectures; Is Violence Normal? – The BBC series invites the forensic psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead to answer the seemingly simple question “is violence normal?”. The answer is more nuanced and interesting than it sounds.

• If Books Could Kill: Who Moved My Cheese? – A podcast which is always a laugh, but this episode was especially good. A brutal teardown of a management literature staple.

I have been writing so much lately. But since I haven’t sent you a newsletter since… August 2021(!?), I can’t blame you for not knowing that. It has also been almost exclusively in Swedish (sorry).

I have also been reading a lot more books and listening to a lot of music. Which brings me to what this newsletter once was intended for and named after – my recommendations.

With that in mind – below are some things that I’d like to recommend!

/Björn

Three books that stayed with me after I finished them

When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut
One of the best and most fascinating books I have ever read. It moves seamlessly between fact and fiction to create something quite unique. A book I will read again.

The Guest by Emma Cline
A novel which follows a young woman through a series of serendipitous encounters. It has a stressful feeling throughout the whole book – a bit like watching The Bear. Stressful, but in a good way. Hard to put down.

Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy by James B Stewart and Rachel Abrams
If you like Succession, this is the book for you (and if you don’t, why are you reading this?) Logan Roy and Sandy Furness are both partially based on Sumner Redstone, the patriarch behind CBS and Paramount, and this book captures his escapades. The real story is incredibly juicy.

Three movies that made me think

The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer
Perhaps no one has missed this one, but just in case you have: see it. The setting is a Nazi commandant that lives next to Auschwitz with his family. Life goes on, and on the other side of the adjacent wall – it ends. Also, I’ve never watched a movie with sound design like this.

Aftersun by Charlotte Wells
A father and daughter go on vacation together, seemingly to create the illusion of normality. But real life simmers in the background. A beautiful and somewhat tragic illustration of the juxtaposition between being a parent and an adult.

Past Lives by Celine Song
A sort of modern day “Sliding Doors”, without the clichés. About a potential life that gets lost and then makes a new appearance. The one that got away? Or perhaps the one that could never have been?

Three songs that I’ve been playing over and over

Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 58 by Young Miko
The Argentinian producer Bizarrap has a series where he invites artists to collaborate. The best one I’ve seen is with the Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko who has an incredible flow on this one.

Bye by Ariana Grande
The best track from Ariana’s new album that just dropped. Classic pop, but so well-produced.

Deeper Well by Kacey Musgraves
Likely the artist I’ve listened the most to over the last few years. The dark post-divorce album Star-Crossed was a favourite of mine, but she seems to have turned a corner now. A simple, but beautiful melody.

One prediction I have made

Embarrassing AI mistakes could knock out top executive (in Swedish here)

After a series of embarrassing mishaps, I think Sundar Pichai – the CEO of Google – will step down before the end of the year. Being late to the AI game is okay. But being bad at it – even in its infancy – is not.