Starting this month, we’ll post a handful of items that the Merus team found interesting and that we think you will too. Let us know if you have any comments or if you’ve come across similar things that may interest us. (Note: you can receive this via email, along with our monthly newsletter. Subscribe here.)
1) Why Animals Don’t Get Lost - This article describes a fascinating collection of mind-boggling feats of navigation by the animal kingdom. - Salman
2) Latest Neural Nets Solve World’s Hardest Equations Faster Than Ever Before - Neural nets are now showing promise in solving complex problems (i.e., partial differential equations) that current solvers struggle with. - David
3) Public to Private Equity in the United States: A Long-Term Look - This is a highly informative report by Michael Mauboussin at Morgan Stanley on the shifts in public and private companies, including VC-backed startups, over the last several decades. - Sean
4) The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science - This book gives a new perspective on what makes science so powerful. In short, to quote the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli: "In God we trust. Everyone else bring data". - Salman
5) How to Change One’s Mind - This video is an interesting and useful rundown of good tactics for communicating and arguing effectively. It does so in the context of the 1957 movie 12 Angry Men, which is itself worth watching—it touches on topics that are more relevant than ever, including courtroom justice, prejudice and being intellectually rigorous. - David
6) A Brief History of Artificial Intelligence: What It Is, Where We Are, and Where We Are Going - This is a superb overview of all things AI, written by Professor Michael Wooldridge of Oxford University, an expert in the field and an advisor to Merus. - Salman