Writing
Threads, essays, and notes — rehosted here so the originals can rot in peace.
- Thread
AGI is an increasingly useless concept
AGI made sense when we were imagining intelligence that's roughly human-shaped. But machine intelligence is jagged in ways that human intelligence isn't, and that jaggedness breaks the definition.
AIPhilosophy5 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
What I learned building my own Claude Code plugin
For the last 3 months my main constraint with Claude has been me — writing down requirements, testing output, approving commands. Two weeks ago I redid my workflow and for the first time tokens became the bottleneck instead.
AIBuilding13 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
Why the Wait, But Why meme will yet again be misread
When Mythos drops we're going to see another round of METR results and with it another round of this meme. Regardless of what the results show, this is the wrong way to think about it.
AI12 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
Why Anthropic banned third-party tools — it's all about the KV cache
A lot of people think Anthropic banning subscription credits for 3rd party tools is about throttling competition, but the real answer is clear if you're paying attention. It all comes down to KV caching.
BuildingAIPhilosophy23 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
If you don't understand RLVR, you're two paradigm shifts behind
You can't understand the current moment in AI if you don't understand RLVR. If your mental model is still "really smart autocomplete," you're two major paradigm shifts behind the current generation of models.
AI17 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
Some things are hard, even with AI
There’s a whole lot of discussion about what’s easier with AI, but let’s talk about what’s still hard. Everything that’s easy will get commoditized.
AIPhilosophy10 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
VCs are Sheep and that's ok
AI is unlocking a new wave of builders and if you're one of them trying to get venture funding for the first time, you're about to bump into one of the more frustrating truths about venture capital. VCs are 🐑.
BuildingPhilosophy12 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
AI is speedrunning the evolution of modern startups
Context Engineering -> Agents -> Loops -> Orchestrators -> ?
BuildingAI28 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
The Opus 4.5 moment isn't just about a better model
Something changed in the water in December. Yes, it's a big deal that some of best engineers have flipped the way the code to agent first.
BuildingAI15 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
Why a DC fast charger can be cheaper than home charging
There's a DCFC near me that charges $0.21/kWh before 2pm — less than the $0.35 it costs to charge overnight at home. That might sound strange, but it's not a subsidy. It's a quirk of how commercial energy rates are structured.
EVBuilding7 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
If you think Nuclear is the answer, you're stuck in the past
"If only we'd build nuclear!" is one of those common tropes in techno-optimist circles that sounds right on the surface but is pretty clearly wrong. I'm not anti-nuclear in the long run, but if we want to decarbonize quickly, solar and wind are our best options.
BuildingEV20 postsOriginally on Threads
- Thread
How me manage money is about emotions more than facts
Those of us that work in fintech constantly underestimate how emotional these decisions are. I recently discovered my mother had a retirement account with ~40% of her life's savings THAT SHE HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT.
Philosophy5 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Thread
The techxodus is good for tech, America, and even SF
🌶 take: the techxodus is good for tech, good for America, and yes even good for SF (as tempting as the collapse narratives may be). 🧵
Building15 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Thread
Tech is an inequality engine, not an equalizer
Tech is a massive engine for inequality. It doesn't level the playing field, it tilts it further.
Philosophy12 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Thread
Recruiting mistakes early-stage founders keep making
Because of my work, I frequently find myself chatting with early stage founders about their recruiting challenges. I find most of them are overlooking some basics, here's some of the more common mistakes I see:
BuildingPhilosophy15 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Thread
"We're a meritocracy" is a red flag, not a virtue
🌶 Wednesday take: "we're a meritocracy" is akin to "I'm a communist" in that it comes from a well intentioned place but in practice reveals some deeply flawed underlying beliefs. Now that I've increased your blood pressure a tiny bit, let me explain what I mean...
Philosophy9 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Thread
The hidden trap of Insight Porn
Insight porn is one of the toughest product traps we don't talk enough about. It's a particularly pernicious local maxima for many products designed to help people improve (health, finances, organizations, etc.) that most products in those categories don't escape.
BuildingPhilosophy22 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Thread
ISAs aren't a lending innovation, they're an alignment tool
Thanks to @LambdaSchool's success, it seems like ISAs are having a moment. With that, it's being treated as a lending innovation, from my standpoint it isn't.
Philosophy11 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Thread
Hard work and privilege aren't opposites
I want to talk about privilege for a second because I keep seeing the same debate hashed out over and over again. On one side is "success requires hard work" on the other is "success requires privilege".
Philosophy12 postsOriginally on Twitter (archived)
- Essay
Stop incentivizing bad management
You’re the PM on a big new feature, everyone is excited about it and you know it’s going to be great. You’ve rallied the team and they’re pumped to be working on this cool new project.
BuildingPhilosophy7 min read - Essay
Don't waste your employee survey
It’s a pattern I see all too often. A leadership team decides to run an employee survey.
BuildingPhilosophy5 min read - Essay
It's time for employee obsession
Customer obsession is the law of the land these days. We’re awash in a sea of NPS surveys.
BuildingPhilosophy6 min readOriginally on Medium
- Essay
Beginning a new journey
In October, after 3.5 exciting years, I quit my job to chase a nagging hypothesis — that management is broken. That’s a provocative statement and yet, having experienced a better alternative, it seems pretty clear that old command-and-control habits of the industrial revolution aren’t effective in the digital age.
BuildingPhilosophy3 min readOriginally on Medium
- Essay
Personal User Manual
An introduction on how I work to make collaborating easier
BuildingPhilosophy10 min read