In the early days of the automobile industry, competition was driven by engineering. Faster engines, better suspensions, and more reliable cars won customers. But by the 1950s, something changed. America’s highway system had matured, and most cars were already fast enough for the roads people actually drove on. Competition shifted away from performance and toward … Continue reading
Latest Entries
How Susceptible Is Avram Miller to Flattery
AIs are great at using flattery to increase engagement. So it made sense that a friend commented “Does Chat GPT also measure to what extent you’re susceptible to flattery?” So I asked ChatGPT. Here is the response. Does Chat GPT also measure to what extent you’re susceptible to flattery? You appear less susceptible to flattery … Continue reading
What ChatGPT Figured Out About Me
I asked ChatGPT what it figured out about me on its own. This is what it said. The Hidden Profile: Inferences About Avram Miller Overview This document summarizes characteristics inferred from long-term patterns in questions, interests, decisions, and communication style. These are not facts that were explicitly stated, but conclusions that can reasonably be drawn … Continue reading
My memoir, The Flight of a Wild Duck, is now free on Substack — thanks to Claude Cowork.
https://avram.substack.com/p/the-flight-of-a-wild-duck-start-here It took me three years to write my memoir. The first year was spent doing research, the second writing, and the third editing. I enjoyed the process immensely. I had three audiences in mind while writing it. The first was people like me or parents of people like me who could not follow the … Continue reading
AI / Avram's Past / longevity
The Decline and Ascension of Avram Miller
My body is slowing down as my brain speeds up. It is quite a dilemma. It is understandable that my body would be slowing down. After all, I am 81 years old. But why is my brain speeding up? That is not to be expected. Now, I feel like I felt when I was an … Continue reading
Healthcare in Italy-My Positive Experence
We moved to Italy in February 2025, first living in Genoa and then moving to Lecce in October 2025. In Lecce we bought a palazzo built in 1731 in the historic center, which we are now renovating. The renovation will ultimately cost more than what we originally paid for the property and will take about … Continue reading
Watching a Black man beat a Jewish man while shouting “Gaza! Gaza!” made me incredibly sad
I saw a video on Facebook this week that I cannot get out of my head. A big, powerful Black man is attacking a middle-aged man on a street somewhere. The middle-aged man is wearing a Star of David. The bigger man kicks him again and again, shouting the word “Gaza” over and over, as … Continue reading
Rethinking how I use Facebook
I’ve been on Facebook since it opened to anyone in September 2006. Before that it was limited to certain universities. Incredibly. I’ve been on the platform for almost twenty years. Throughout that time I’ve averaged about a thousand “friends.” There’s been churn, of course: people drop off, new ones entered. I had one rule I … Continue reading
GLP-1 and Increased Health Span
As readers of this blog will know, I have been working in the area of longevity science for over ten years, including helping found the Longevity Center at Sheba Hospital/University of Tel Aviv. My primary interest has been and is still the relationship of sleep to health. I hope to have a lot more to … Continue reading
Ted Turner: One of the Last of the Big Characters
When I learned that Ted Turner had died, I felt unexpectedly sad. I met Ted several times during the 1990s, mostly around the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley. The first time may have been at a party or event where he was with his then wife, Jane Fonda. Like many people, I already … Continue reading
Two Thirds Done 