superblocks are the future
spending time in Europe, Elon/Twitter/SpaceX, and some cool VR AI art
I walked out of the school and turned to my wife with a giddy smile. This is the one. I thought it might be, but now I know for sure after talking with the director and seeing the campus. They have an amazing outlook on education, the campus has everything - including a pool, they’re in the heart of the city, and their default school hours are 9-5 with optional extracurriculars hosted at the school. This is a school that knows that these days both parents work.
As we walked around the corner to Senyor Vermut we talked about the pros and cons of all the schools we’ve met with.
Sitting at a sidewalk restaurant eating jamón ibérico, tomato toast, and grilled mussels with a glass of vermouth really cements the decision.
We’re gonna move to Spain.
Barcelona to be exact.
Years ago I lived in Madrid and it has the best that Spain can offer. Barcelona is different, not just because they speak Catalan and want to secede from Spain, but because there are people from all over Europe there. They’re the center of the tech scene in Barcelona and host many major tech conferences. That’s certainly helpful given the line of work I’m in.
But that’s not why I want to move there.
Barcelona is a city that was planned around urban life.
Senyor Vermut and the school we looked at for the kids sits in Eixample, a district of Barcelona that was planned for the future of urban life.
Barcelona is lightyears ahead of most cities in terms of urban planning and they're actively working on taking it to the next level with Superblocks:
The video above outlines the original plan, and though the more realistic plan is a bit watered down it stills calls for a network of pedestrian streets and plazas throughout Eixample.
Looking at the proposed map, the school and Senyor Vermut happen to both be on proposed green streets.
😘🤏 chef’s kiss
As there’s an increasing trend across society to move towards cities and urbanization, more and more cities are going to have to reimagine how people get around, eat, and play for a new style of living. Most cities could take a page from Barcelona’s book.
🤪 2 crazy things
🦅 Elon actually bought Twitter
A lot has been said on this topic, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near as dramatic as either side is making it out to be.
Our democracy should not be threatened by who owns Twitter
Also, it seems like people take Elon wayyyyyy to seriously. He’s a troll. He’s a rich, shitposting, autistic, tech entrepreneur who doesn’t take anything seriously except his actual businesses.
🚀 SpaceX is kicking ass
You know, say what you will about Elon, SpaceX is amazing. Every time I watch a relanding of their rockets it’s exciting.
This is space travel consistently getting better. This company and the entire space industry springing up right now will propel mankind into a new era.
The whole video is worth watching, but if you’re gonna only watch a part of it, watch starting here:
🥽 XR things
📉 Meta tanks, a rant
So Meta as a publicly listed company is not doing well right now. They are taking a beating. I don’t think the beating they’re taking though is fully justified.
To me, it highlights one of the key things I hate about Wall Street types, their time horizon.
Wall Street really struggles to look beyond the next quarter, maybe two. So when someone like Zuck bets the whole farm on a decades-long endeavor they just can’t see it. They’re tanking the share price because they’ve lost faith in the next quarter.
I don’t love Zuck, and he deserves criticism, but not anywhere near close to the amount of crap he’s currently receiving.
Tony, an industry influencer sums it up better than I could here:
skarredghost.com
🤔 Solid Quest Pro review
I really like Thrillseeker’s VR youtube coverage, he’s just so enthusiastically bought into VR as a concept, but not afraid to be critical of any one company. It’s refreshing. He’s critical enough, that despite his audience and numbers Meta didn’t send him a review unit, so he bought one and reviewed it for us.
Also, his production quality is high!
Enjoy
🎨 VR + AI art?
Created within a Quest Pro and then running through Stable Diffusion, just amazing what kind of nuts creativity will be unleashed in the near future
Do you fear American democracy is doomed because of Elon?
Personally, I am a bit nervous about American democracy and political polarization, I mean I wrote a whole article series on it last year @ danielsisson.com, but I don’t think Elon buying Twitter is a bad thing. More tech companies should probably be private companies - and stay away from Wall Street.
What do you think? Let me know, just leave a comment below, or if you’re reading the email hit reply.
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All the posts were of particular interest to me. Especially the one on Barcelona. What a coincidence - my daughter and her family are planning on moving there!
The Space X launch and recovery of the boosters was awesome. Amazing technology. Literally brings tears to my eyes.
However much I love that stuff and am grateful to Musk, it scares me that rich people are beginning to control more and more of the public space. Based on a cursory reading of history, the lure of so much power does very likely corrupt...
VR blurb - awesome - but scary. The last few pages of the book, METAVERSE by Rijmenam, warns of want could happen if well meaning do not get together and create a truly open Metaverse - and that prospect vs. determined and resource rich Corporations, Governments and Criminals does not look promising. Most lay people do not understand how the Metaverse works. A public information program needs to be unleashed.
That VR headset looked awesome - but that is balanced by the short YouTube video, HYPER REALITY by Matsudah.
Keep up the good work!