Hi,

Welcome to the Procrastilearning Newsletter, where your time is well spent even though you should probably be doing something else.

3 things worth procrastilearning over

1. You can chat to books instead of reading them

Imagine being able to just talk to a book. Okay, maybe not Bridget Jones - you’ve already watched the films, so who needs the book - but how about The Wealth of Nations, which you found too long to tackle due to its serious need for an editor? A chat with Adam Smith via a text interface would be much more fun, wouldn’t it?

Well, chatting with books is slowly becoming a thing, mostly thanks to NotebookLM, Google’s free research tool that can digest lots of text files and make them palatable for you. For example, here is Eric Topol’s Secrets of the Super Agers in chatbot form.

Some predict that creating GPT books like this will be the preferred option when it comes to non-fiction in the future. But it obviously won’t be for everybody. There’s also the issue that since you don’t necessarily know what you don’t know, when you do start chatting with a book, you might not know what’s worth asking.

But if you would like to try chatting to a book of your choosing, you need a text file or PDF version first (unless you want to spend hours scanning every page of that paperback). Once you chuck it into NotebookLM, that's pretty much it. If you don't know what to ask it, you can just ask NotebookLM to make a short discussion podcast for you covering what the book's about. (Or make it tell you about poo and pee as mentioned in an earlier newsletter.)

Since it's relatively straightforward to create, people are making these "chat books" and offering them to people if they sign up to their mailing list. It's a smart move. For example, here is one from productivity expert Tiago Forte.

2. Sniffing rosemary is great for your memory

Studies have found that that herb your gran put on those Sunday roasts may be why you remember those lunches so fondly. Well, not exactly, but rosemary does indeed help boost your memory.

Other confirmed things that help your memory are magnesium L-threonate and omega-3, but I don't think they smell as nice. (In case you're wondering, I chatted with the Eric Topol book mentioned earlier to see if he recommends any good smells, but he just listed things in the air you want your nose to avoid.)

3. China has invented a new kind of nuclear reactor

Well, technically the Americans came up with it in the 1960s but they abandoned the project. The files were rediscovered in the 2010s, and a Chinese team decided to try make it work.

The difference is that this nuclear reactor uses thorium instead of uranium, and it's safer and cleaner to run and, most importantly, more efficient. A small test reactor was launched last year and last week it finally managed to convert the fuel as intended.

Due to its success, a bigger reactor is going to be built, likely to service a large remote part of China that has very poor access to energy resources.

The story of the Chinese taking an American idea and running with it has appeared several times over the last few decades (and not just when it comes to cheap counterfeit goods). I listened to a couple of interviews with Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, who argues that China's lack of lawyer culture means they are good at executing big industrial projects, which end up getting stymied elsewhere due to legal wrangles.

A good example he offers is that of Apple, which in 2014 said it was going to make an electric car. After years of development, it finally abandoned the project last year. Meanwhile, the Chinese tech company Xiaomi, which also mostly makes mobile phones, announced it would make its own car in March 2021. It was on the road by March 2024.

Personally, I’m not sure all the authoritarianism is worth the efficiency, but each to their own.

2 quotes to keep in mind

1 simple tip to help you relax

Breathe out for longer.

Studies have shown that extending your exhale for a few breaths will lower your heart rate and help you relax. It’s advice given to people with anxiety and those who suffer from panic attacks, so it should help you when you’re feeling a bit tetchy about the weather too.

That's all for today. Many thanks for reading.

Adam

Adam Zulawski
Procrastilearning on Beehiiv / More stuff

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