Issue #20

Hey friends 👋🏽,

Welcome back to Thought Caffeine, a weekly newsletter where I share my favourite discoveries during the week.

I got my Covid-19 vaccine shot (Sinovac) this week, and I'm happy to report the general absence of undesirable side effects, save for mild nausea. My aunt, who's a cardiologist in the US, before my vaccination asked me some very basic questions about Sinovac that I was embarrassed not to know the answers to. To save you from similar embarrassment, I've attached a simplified table comparing several Covid-19 vaccines courtesy of BBC 😉.

💉 Comparing Covid-19 vaccines

I couldn't find a chart that includes China's Sinovac vaccine, but I'll summarise its key points with respect to the categories on the above chart.

1. Type: Inactivated virus. This is considered the "traditional way" to make vaccines, and history shows it can be very effective (the injectable polio vaccine is composed of inactivated virus, and polio is on the brink of eradication). Traditional vaccines are cheaper to mass-produce.
2. Doses: x2. Just like the rest of them. JAMA says that when the vaccines were first tested, a relatively weak immune reaction was found within a few weeks after people received the first dose of vaccine, followed by a strong reaction when a second dose was given.
3. How effective: Results vary, but clinical trials performed in different countries show an effectivity range of around 50-65%.
4. Storage: Regular fridge temperature (2-8°), just like UK's Oxford Uni-AstraZeneca and Russia's Gamaleya. RNA vaccines require lower temperatures because of their delicate nature. Relatively hardier storage requirements make inactivated vaccines more manageable for developing countries.

Further reading:

1. BBC: What do we know about China's coronavirus vaccines?
2. NY Times: How the Sinovac Vaccine Works

🚗 Captcha helps improve self driving cars

It turns out that whenever you enter a Captcha entry, you are assisting self driving cars improve through complex machine learning. Modern self driving cars are not only able to identify activity in their surroundings to avoid collision and assist lane keeping & changing, but they are also learning to recognise stop signs & traffic lights, thanks to your Captcha entries.

Notice how each time you're asked to prove you're human, the entry always asks you to identify images that relate to street activity: motorcycles, stop signs, trucks, cross walks, etc. This helps car AI learn to think less like robots and more like human beings.

Further reading:

1. CAPTCHA If You Can
2. Video: Figuring Out Why This Tesla Hit That Truck

🙂 Other things I've been enjoying

1. Article: Intellectual Phase Transitions in Perell’s blog. It's the idea that interesting creations come from our own digestion of other people's thinking. As Ali Abdaal preaches, there are no unique messages, only unique messengers.
2. Show: Netflix’s Explained series. Heavy topics broken down and packaged in a crafty, funky, and succinct way. I didn't think I would like it, but Netflix really hit the sweet spot with this one.
3. Article: Codie Sanchez breaks down Shaan Puri’s $3.5M startup fund which he started from a tweet and collected after less than 3 weeks. I joined Codie’s newsletter to get a taste for what the finance industry is like and boy did I get a treat.
4. Film: Richie Rich. A classic family-friendly, holiday movie that I notice is starting to disappear from modern cinema.

📸 Photo of the Week

My girlfriend sent me her home-baked brownies & they taste amazing. I used to avoid sweets as if my life depended on them, but Resch & Tribole's thesis on Intuitive Eating changed the game for me. I'm now starting to re-incorporate them into my meals & not feel guilty about it 🍪.

📖 Quote of the Week

"Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you've got. There's no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative."

From Rework by Jason Fried. Resurfaced via Readwise.

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Hope you have a great week! 🎾

John