Experiment — Generating News Letters in 2024
Executed By Rob Tyrie
One of my nicknames that transpired in the last couple of years occurred on a big account I was working on. This type of thing happens when you work with a bunch of people and you end up with a nickname.
In this case, it was “The Executioner”.
It happened with a big bank and we got a laugh out of it because what I was trying to explain to the Innovation team were the skills I brought to the table. I was trying to explain that if you drill into my background and experience in Fintech and Insurtechs, is best summarized as execution experience. I execute projects and programs to complete tangible, measurable outcomes. If I had an ax and the outcome was releasing your head from its neck, and that was the desired project, that’s what I did. Therefore, I’m an executioner. They got a big laugh out of this. But it’s true. I do execute projects programs and other interesting activities to measurable, executive outcomes.
In the think tank that some people and I co-founded, we do publications on a regular basis and some publications are successful and there’s some that kind of flounder. Looking at the difficulties of creating a structured, formatted information object, we developed methods and practices and a playbook. That helped me synchronize a bunch of people so that we could publish newsletters together. We did that together… for about a hundred editions across 2 years. Yep 100 times. It was called The GSG Wrap. The methods and practices were based on successes and failures in the think tank. We use tools but simple tools like medium.com and our brains. We used Slack for story idea submissions from people in the field. These are for the newsletters. Then the editors for the week would cut and paste them together and write an essay about them in the structure of a newsletter. That was where the brains came in. It was a fun project every week that we did it and it was exciting to write together as a team and produce something tangible at the end of it. You can find these on greyswanguild.medium.com. Some of them are very good, especially the ones by Sylvia Gallusser . There are other very good ones as well but, hers were some of the best structures that we used to improve the whole Wrap mechanism.
Well, this year we’re doing another publication called Grey Matters, which is basically The Wrap on steroids published once a quarter. The big difference between now and when we were doing the Wrap, is that generative AI has entered the picture.
We’ve been experimenting with all sorts of AI tools this year and I’ve especially drilled into Claude 3.0 and Perplexity.ai, a new kind of search engine. These are both wonderful tools that have blossomed in the last quarter. Perplexity is a front end search tool that assembles the question for you it goes out and searches Google and other places and then provides an answer for you. The leadership at Perplexity don’t call it a search engine. They call it an answer engine which is exactly what you want as a researcher, writer or reader. One just wants the bloody answer and not a lot of noise. Right now there are no ads in Perplexity searches or answers, which is delightful. After a couple of months of experimentation and then on the advent of having the best llms on the planet available to use with perplexity searches and answers I started getting more complex ideas. This is one of them.
Here’s the big idea.
I think with a structured prompt I can generate a basic newsletter that is daily that matches pretty much anyone’s daily news about paper that’s developed around a good consistent lens and a theme. I based this idea on the newsletters that we did across 100 editions and this is what I came up with. Here’s the prompt and what follows is what got generated along with the invitation. This matches the research work we would do before starting to write a rap. The research probably took 10 people 1 hour each so it replaces 10 hours of work. What’s interesting here is with a little bit more AI canoodling and what some people call Prompt engineering but what I call prompt crafting, that is possible to get 95% of the way to a newsletter. That just tells me that the core writers of things like newsletters and The Wrap have to level up their game and that’s what we will do.
The basic apparatus of the experiment is as followsv
All I’m using here is perplexity and my background experience and larger language models, the shape of newspapers and how to ask decent questions to design something useful for people. I suppose I’m using 30 years experience of design and information anxiety as inputs to the exercise but that’s a whole other story I suppose. Here are the results.
The Prompt: pretend that you’re a newspaper today that is one sheet.. that means you got room for a headline at the top and big letters. and five news stories.. along with the list of five other news stories that I just headlines and a sentence. play out the headline the five key new stories of the day that are impactful to all of humanity with blurbs. and then the list of other five headlines of interesting stories with one sentence. and then end with a quote for the day. this is the a newsletter from the Ironstone Advisory Corporation. I am Ironstone Advisory Corporation by the way.
Perplexity.AI — 🤖🧠
Ironstone Advisory Corporation Daily Brief
March 26, 2024
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**HEADLINE:**
**Catastrophic Bridge Collapse in Baltimore Disrupts City and Port Operations**
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**Top Stories:**
- **Baltimore Bridge Tragedy:** A container ship collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge has caused a significant portion to collapse, leading to a massive search and rescue operation and a long-term disruption of traffic and port activities[5][7][8][10].
- **West African Dance and Hip-Hop Revitalize Juilliard:** Juilliard School introduces a new track that integrates West African dance and hip-hop, reflecting the evolving landscape of performing arts education[1].
- **RFK Jr. Eyes White House:** Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to announce his vice-presidential running mate in an unexpected third-party bid for the White House[1].
- **Madonna's Grand Finale in Rio:** Madonna announces a free concert in Rio de Janeiro to conclude her 'Celebration' tour, marking a significant event for music fans worldwide[1].
- **UNICEF Reports from Gaza:** A UNICEF spokesman reports dire conditions in Northern Gaza's hospitals, highlighting the urgent need for international humanitarian assistance[1].
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**More Headlines:**
- **Storms Ravage Southern U.S.:** Southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle brace for another day of severe weather, with potential for significant damage and disruption[2].
- **Solar Eclipse Countdown:** With just 13 days left, anticipation builds for the total solar eclipse set to cross the U.S., as weather forecasts begin to predict viewing conditions[2].
- **Matt Schlapp Lawsuit Dropped:** A groping lawsuit against conservative figure Matt Schlapp has been withdrawn, with the accuser citing a misunderstanding[6].
- **Israel-U.S. Tensions Rise:** Relations between Israel and the U.S. sour as a cease-fire resolution gains support in the U.S., prompting Israel to cancel Washington talks[1].
- **Canada's Syrup Shortage:** Canada faces its lowest maple syrup reserve in 16 years, potentially impacting global markets and breakfast tables alike[1].
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**Quote of the Day:**
"Adversity is the diamond dust Heaven polishes its jewels with." - Thomas Carlyle
Citations:
[1] Morning Edition - Morning Edition https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/
[2] The Daily Weather Update from FOX Weather: Powerful storms continue to march across South https://www.foxweather.com/weather-news/daily-weather-update-march-26-2024
[3] Video. Latest news bulletin | March 26th – Midday https://www.euronews.com/video/2024/03/26/latest-news-bulletin-march-26th-midday
[4] Following Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, here's a look back at Bay Area's most impactful bridge disasters https://abc7news.com/baltimore-bridge-collapse-bay-area-cosco-busan-loma-prieta-earthquake/14573728/
[5] Baltimore bridge collapse sends vehicles tumbling into water https://www.reuters.com/world/us/16-mile-bridge-baltimore-collapses-after-ship-collision-fox-baltimore-reports-2024-03-26/
[6] G.O.P. Aide Drops Groping Lawsuit Against Matt Schlapp, a Powerful Conservative https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/26/us/politics/matt-schlapp-groping-lawsuit.html
[7] Baltimore's Weary Commuters Face Traffic Nightmare After Bridge Collapse https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-03-26/baltimores-weary-commuters-face-traffic-nightmare-after-bridge-collapse
[8] Bridge collapse likely to have widespread economic impact https://thedailyrecord.com/2024/03/26/bridge-collapse-likely-to-have-profound-impact-on-port-of-baltimore-operations/
[9] Yesterday's Top News/Talk Media Stories https://talkers.com/2024/03/26/yesterdays-top-news-talk-media-stories-6/
[10] What we know about Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse https://abcnews.go.com/US/marylands-francis-scott-key-bridge-closed-traffic-after/story?id=108338267
[11] WHAS11 Top Stories: Noon, March, 26 2024 - Louisville https://www.whas11.com/video/news/local/whas11-top-stories-noon-march-26-2024/417-21b4a53e-34e9-4da1-b559-acae04b6f611
[12] San Diego's top stories for Tuesday, March 26 | 6AM https://www.cbs8.com/video/news/local/san-diegos-top-stories-for-tuesday-march-26-6am/509-dda2e867-ee32-44c1-9de8-64eb446ab758
[13] Hawaii News Now Sunrise Weather Report - Tuesday, March 26, 2024 https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/video/2024/03/26/hawaii-news-now-sunrise-weather-report-tuesday-march-26-2024/
[14] Police Reports: March 26, 2024 | News | marshallnewsmessenger.com https://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/police-reports-march-26-2024/article_38c71d96-eae4-11ee-8077-af9983174783.html
[15] Magnolia Mornings: March 26, 2024 https://magnoliatribune.com/2024/03/26/magnolia-mornings-march-26-2024/
[16] Podcast - The Basic Elements of Direct Examination | Insights https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/media-entities/2024/03/podcast-the-basic-elements-of-direct-examination
[17] Arkansas's top news stories | March 26, 2024 | thv11.com https://www.thv11.com/video/features/producers-picks/arkansass-top-news-stories-march-26-2024/91-895d9441-37c6-47e2-b035-84ed35cf2134
[18] The Moth brings beautiful stories to life in Brooklyn Heights https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2024/03/26/the-moth-brings-beautiful-stories-to-life-in-brooklyn-heights/
[19] Top news stories in Connecticut for March 26, 2024 at 6 a.m. https://www.fox61.com/video/news/local/morning-show/top-news-stories-in-connecticut-for-march-26-2024-at-6-am/520-56dc6faf-07ce-4a23-9ddb-056e05e04642
[20] ARC Fertility Publishes Case Studies Unveiling Impactful Collaborations with Self-Insured Employers https://finance.yahoo.com/news/arc-fertility-publishes-case-studies-140000204.html
