Pete's August 2024 update
A Python knows my name.
Hello! And now to the headlines.
Melbourne!
Yeah, I buried the lede last time. We are officially Australian Residents for Tax Purposes again. In the past month I’ve picked up keys to a new car, keys to a new house, plus a shitload of allen keys from IKEA. Our shipment has docked, and is a few weeks away from clearing customs and being delivered. In the meantime: milk cartons?
Side note: the builder doing work on our apartment clock is called Bill Murray.
It’s great being back in a big city. We feel spoiled for choice with all the farmers’ markets and restaurants. And if the item I want isn’t in stock at the local Bunnings, I can choose another one in the same city! Though I’m surprised at the lack of EV charging infrastructure here; the public charging stations are fairly scarce, and many are in paywalled parking lots.
Nutmeg
Meggie is a little champion who is adapting very well to city life. Sometimes she misjudges the size of her head.
Work and Startups
Nine startups added to our Distiller Incubator at Startup Dunedin! We’re seeing increased demand for entrepreneurship support at all levels — more students starting side hustles, more folks turning their hobbies into small businesses, and even scale-up stage startups coming back for mentoring.
The size of the intake gives us an opportunity to try more cohort-y things like group coaching and occasional masterclasses. Fun times ahead!
Fiction
Achievement unlocked: audiobook narrator! The “horror lite” anthology Cursed and Creepy was published by writing group friend Angelique Fawns and features her stories and others. I was asked to narrate one and it turned out GREAT.
I’m on tenterhooks for the Mike Resnick Memorial Award, for which I am one of five Finalists, the outcome of which is announced on Monday morning my time. I am crossing ALL OF THE FINGERS, which is both uncomfortable and unhelpful. I had to write an acceptance speech, which (if I win) will be read out to a room full of people who have never heard of me, including author John Scalzi. It was a difficult speech to write, as a sort of debutant speech as a “best new author” in the genre, to a room full of best current authors in the genre, so do I make it a bland “thankyou list” they can ignore or do I try to make it a little more? My speech begins: “You don’t know me. I’ve had 2 stories published – 1323 words total – and I live at the bottom of the world.”
Update: I got Second Runner Up!! 🥳 And John Cleese was in the audience, so a Python has heard of me now. Also John Scalzi.
Read / Watch / Listen
[Read: 15 minutes] Long read on Generative AI, and why we shouldn’t think of using it as necessary a future skill for employability. Which is great, because I’m mostly staying away from generative AI which I am vaguely worried is a bad career move.
[Read: 5 minutes] “SaaS for Witches” solves a specific problem for a specific customer. Love it!
[Read: 10 minutes] plus a lot of links if you want to dive deeper. A refreshingly cynical take on AI and the Gartner Hype Cycle.
[Watch: 15 minutes] "The famous batteries and flashlight logic puzzle". The video shows a range of interesting ways to solve this puzzle.
For example, if you decide to leap a ravine, the moment just before take-off is a bad time to start reviewing alternative strategies. When you’re attacking a machine-gun post you should not make a particular effort to see the funny side of what you are doing.