GitHub Copilot is a cloud-based artificial intelligence tool developed by GitHub and OpenAI to assist users of Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains integrated development environments (IDEs) by autocompleting code.[1] Currently available by subscription to individual developers, the tool was first announced by GitHub on 29 June 2021, and works best for users coding in Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub_Copilot Coding Assistant?

How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled. Industry documents from this time show that just a couple of years earlier, starting in 1989, oil and plastics executives began a quiet campaign to lobby almost 40 states to mandate that the symbol appear on all plastic — even if there was no way to economically recycle it. (recycling) (more)

A whopping 91% of plastic isn't recycled. The new study, published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, is the first global analysis of all plastics ever made—and their fate. Of the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter. (more)

Worrisome Eating-related thought Of The Day: you buy a slice of pizza, it's too hot to pick up, so you eat the first few bites with knife and fork. After a few bites, you realize your knife is no longer serrated. Since the pizzeria didn't go up in a mushroom cloud, the missing plastics bits were probably not converted to pure energy. Ah, well, probably better for you than pepperoni...

Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptability, plus a wide range of other properties, such as being lightweight, durable, flexible, and inexpensive to produce, has led to its widespread use. Plastics typically are made through human industrial systems. Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel-based chemicals like natural gas or petroleum; however, recent industrial methods use variants made from renewable materials, such as corn or cotton derivatives.[1] 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic are estimated to have been made between 1950 and 2017. More than half this plastic has been produced since 2004. In 2020, 400 million tonnes of plastic were produced.[2] If global trends on plastic demand continue, it is estimated that by 2050 annual global plastic production will reach over 1,100 million tonnes... The largest application for plastics is as packaging materials, but they are used in a wide range of other sectors, including: construction (pipes, gutters, door and windows), textiles (stretchable fabrics, fleece), consumer goods (toys, tableware, toothbrushes), transportation (headlights, bumpers, body panels, wing mirrors), electronics (phones, computers, televisions) and as machine parts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic (more)

Discussion site launched by Automatic Media. (For the material, see Plastics.) (more)

An Interview with Marc Andreessen by Elad Gil. Achieving product/market fit also marks the beginning of a challenging time for a lot of founders. You’ve poured your energy into getting here—now what? Few people have as much insight into this make-or-break moment as Marc Andreessen. (more)

Jason Cohen: Moats: Durable competitive advantage. Industries commoditize over time, delivering similar products at similar prices resulting in low profit. Moats are the antedote; your strategy must create some. (more)

Jason Cohen: When customers are "willing" to pay. This fresh take on “Willingness-to-Pay” analyzes three types of customer motivation, leading to superior strategies for growth that also better the world. (more)

U.N. parties are worlds apart on plastics treaty solutions. China and the United States are taking a far less aggressive position on implementation, recommending a voluntary national approach, while Pacific Island countries and the European Union want to see stricter rules for compliance and more focus on production limits. At this point, no one has any idea what the final treaty document will look like. (more)

The Empty Promise of Data Moats: we constantly hear about the combination of the two: “data network effects” (more)

Steve Yegge: Cody is Cheating. I will explain our moat: How exactly Cody is differentiated over all other coding assistants, including Copilot, and why we will always be the leader. (more)

Developing country voices will be excluded at UN plastic talks, say NGOs. Scientists and NGOs have accused the UN’s environment programme (Unep) of locking out those “most needing to be heard” from upcoming negotiations in Paris aimed at halting plastic waste. (more)

A Taxonomy of Moats. There are many different moats but they have at their root only a few different principles. This post is an attempt at categorizing the best-known moats by those principles in order to evaluate them systematically in the context of starting a company. (startup) (more)

Recycled plastic can be more toxic and is no fix for pollution, Greenpeace warns. Recycling plastic can make it more toxic and should not be considered a solution to the pollution crisis, Greenpeace has warned before the latest round of negotiations for an international plastics treaty. (more)

competitive advantage for your company that protects it from eroding margin via competition

Career concept: cf personal branding, So Good They Can't Ignore You, parallel to business strategic moat (more)

Google leaker: "We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI". The text below is a very recent leaked document, which was shared by an anonymous individual on a public Discord server who has granted permission for its republication. It originates from a researcher within Google. (more)

Teresa Torres explains her Opportunity Solution Tree: Why This Opportunity Solution Tree is Changing the Way Product Teams Work. I’ve been coaching product teams for three years on modern product discovery and this single change has had a bigger impact on how teams work than everything else I do with them combined. (more)

Simon Wardley on Wardley Mapping Our Way to a Common Language (shared language). ...being applied to complex issues ranging from distributed systems in the cloud to billions in cost savings to the climate emergency to each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. (more)