What I Learned This Month

Instead of my normal “what I learned this week” posts, I’m posting about what I learned this month. With ChatGPT now being a tool I use daily, it is difficult to summarize everything in once page. I’m learning new things every day.

Last month, I successfully passed the MHIC test so that will give my company the ability to do a wider range of work. The test was harder than expected and focused on hypothetical situations mainly around hiring people and laws.

My time continues to be split between working on the company and doing contracting work to ensure bills are paid. March was busier but, due to some colder than expected temperatures, I wasn’t able to get as much done as I had hoped. I have made a good bit of progress on some legal items and expect this weekend will be very productive.

I have a bit of an ear infection, likely from work I’ve been doing outside in some cold and wet conditions. So, after visiting Dr. Google, I’ve decided to stop caffeine, sugar and do some more cardio because the hearing in my left ear is a bit off. Hopefully it will return to normal or some kind of normal soon.

Now for the random knowledge.

1. A deck of cards contains 52 individual cards but the order of those cards has over 8 unvigintillion possible ways. How many is that? The number is even bigger than the number of atoms in the universe. If you think of the number of words, in different languages, that can be created with just the 26 letters in the alphabet, this seems a bit more believable but still difficult to believe.
2. ChatGPT was built to understand language by predicting the next word. ChatGPT uses a combination of semantic and syntactic grammar to generate text.
   “At a semantic level, ChatGPT also has an underlying understanding of the meaning of words and phrases, as well as the relationships between them. It is able to analyze the context of a sentence and generate text that is appropriate to the given context. For example, if asked to generate text about a specific topic, ChatGPT is able to use its understanding of semantics to generate relevant and coherent sentences.”
3. Dry shampoo. I had never heard of it before. “Dry shampoo is a type of hair product that can be used to clean hair without the use of water. It typically comes in a spray or powder form and is designed to absorb excess oil and sweat from the scalp and hair.
4. I thought about electric cars and was struck with the fact that even though there are more and more electric cars on the road, all-to-often coal is still used to generate the electricity. So, the environment is still impacted considerably.
5. I learned how to make ChatGPT write in my style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQi7LJTdIxo
6. Chinese Gift Exchange game, also known as the “White Elephant” or “Yankee Swap” is a popular game played during the holiday season or at parties where gifts are exchanged among participants. I never heard of it until someone from Starbucks mentioned doing it with his family.
7. While looking at funding options, one investor mentioned that the valuation cap on a convertible not should not be arbitrary but rather set by the demand from investors and the value each investor brings to the table. It makes sense. Why would one investor committing money receive the same valuation as an investor who might contribute daily time, expertise and other resources? The question is, how to write different term sheets for various investors without upsetting anyone.

That is all I have for this post.