Rome
I was fortunate to spend a few days in Rome this March. I might write a longer post about it later. What was as expected: Many pizza places and ice cream shops. A lot, a lot of churches. They generally have domes rather than spires, unlike most churches we have in Germany. I probably expected to see more Roman Empire fanfare. In large contrast to Paris, Rome is not bike-friendly at all. At least not the parts we visited. And with its narrow streets, and up and down hills, I find it hard to imagine easy progress in this direction.
What made the biggest impression on me: Rome is a city built layer on layer, unlike any other big city I have seen. One building can have three different building styles integrated, from eras apart. Former temples that are now churches. Graveyards that were turned into fortresses. The city was also dirty. We went running along the river, and let's just say there was a lot of trash on the ground - at times right next to some beautiful building.
Apparently, the colosseum could be filled in just 15 minutes, with around 80 entrances for upwards of 50 000 people. Chat said this, and Claude confirmed it. Should I still google it, or now consider this a fact? Both were genuinely useful - like having a knowledgeable guide in your pocket. I just wish I wouldn't need to take out my phone each time to ask them something.
On March 15, we watched the reenactment of the Ides of March: Caesar's assassination. It is held each year at the original location of the event.
We stayed in Monti. The neighborhood has some cool vintage shops! Our host said that 70% of his guests are Americans, who visit only Rome and nothing else.
Other
In January, I started as a working student at EDTH. I attended their Amsterdam Hackathon last year, and watched Benjamin and his team scale at impressive speed since. The vision: create thousands of new defense startups and establish at least 10 new primes over the next decade.
Some things I have been working on:
- https://www.fitradar.de/ is a website to compare all offers from gyms in Germany, all information in one place, no hidden fees at the end of signup, and easy to compare offers. While the site is online, there are still a lot of things I have to improve, like data accuracy, ui and design. It is basically my first vibe-side-project, and I continue to learn through the struggles with it.
- https://gear.fitradar.de/ has the goal to gather all information about which gym has which equipment, so you know what you get, and whether you might have to wait for a machine. I figure this would be quite cool to have for people who don't want to guess what equipment a new gym has.
- I am also working on a startup database for europe, that is api-first, and much cheaper than anything else out there. This follows from my belief that agents should not only consume the existing information on the internet, but also reorder it. With semantic understanding now in place, that should be possible at very low cost. It is an experiment in tokenmaxxxing.
I have read different essays on the economics of AI, especially as in how the economy and jobs will be affected by it. I think a sort of landscape or reading list would be helpful, and plan on writing one.