been having some deep thinking, soul searching with my wife. all you really need in life: - doing something you’re passionate about, something that doesn’t need to make sense to anyone else and your NOT trying to monetize. - meaningful relationship(s) and a real sense of community. we’re not robots just yet. - keeping your brain stimulated, learning something new every day or every week, through a class, a routine, something intentional. - good sleep, 6–8 hours. easier to some, hard for a lot of folks. - nutrition dialed in and some kind of reset like a 36 hour weekly fast. - movement; gym, yoga, walks, whatever… this becomes non negotiable as you get older. poor or rich, we end up in the same place. it was never about the beginning or the ending, it’s always been the journey. i’ve met all kinds of people, and honestly? the ones living paycheck to paycheck but saving every scrap for that one trip or for their kid’s ___ expense… they’re often happier than the millionaire sitting alone with every material thing and no one to share it with. at some point you realize life isn’t about chasing more, it’s about choosing better. the real flex is waking up excited, going to bed proud, and spending the in-between with people who make your life feel full.

NYC is quietly becoming a serious AI hub. Why is this actually happening? I've talked to folks and no one has an answer.

Interesting pattern I keep noticing in interviews. Ask a senior candidate how they use AI: generic, vague, surface level Ask a new grad or early career engineer the same question: specific, detailed, actually doing things with it. Make of that what you will.

due to 99 of y'all reaching out within a few hours, I might not get to everyone 😅

Looking for an early career engineer, 0 to 3 years. Top of class, high slope, hungry. AI-pilled. SF, in-person, team under 10. They found PMF and are ready to scale. This is a resume builder. The kind of role you look back on. Sponsorship and relo available. Hit my DMs.

We are expanding our US investment team, looking for both early and growth stage investors, in NYC or willing to move. Looking to add both people with product/eng experience and those who have invested in fintech/SaaS/etc before. Come hang with myself, @tomhschmidt, and @TheOneandOmsy in Union Square if you want to spend all your time thinking about the future of finance. Growth Stage: jobs.gem.com/dragonfly-caree… Early Stage: jobs.gem.com/dragonfly-caree…

Dumb question: Every ___ period of time, there is a new leader in the model wars. Codex right now. Claude before that. Something else before that. For the average person just trying to keep up, is the delta actually meaningful enough to switch every time?

Hard choices now, easier life later.

Depends on the person wearing the shoes. If a VP/SVP secretly wants to be a founder, no amount of comp or title will make that role feel right. But a founder who has been beaten up enough times, missed payroll, failed launches, the lonely 2am moments... at some point the idea of a real salary, real resources, and some stability doesn't sound so bad. Neither is harder. It depends on where you are in the journey. Wrong fit is harder imo.

Almost every talent conversation I'm having right now circles back to the same thing: "opportunity cost" Staying too long at one place. The company pivoted internally too many times with nothing to show for it on my resume. Hit by layoffs twice, shit thrice for some. Hesitated on something with potential and seeing it takeoff from the sidelines. The space keeps moving and the window to make the right call feels shorter every cycle (cause of AI). Most people are not asking "what job should I take." They are asking "what move do I make to still be relevant in five years." Honestly, it’s a harder question. And more people are sitting with it than you'd think, yet somehow we all are doing it alone.

If your resume file is named something like: First Name__Last Name__date__of__resume__updated Delete that date before you hit send. Some hiring stakeholder(s) will catch it and the story they tell themselves isn't a good one. (I know the reaction to this) but just don't give them the reason. Small thing, real impact and call it nitpicky. Doesn't matter. As a job seeker it's your job to position yourself the best way possible.

Wait… google updated the docs logo and didn't say anything

Watch out global markets ⏳

Slowly then all at once. Every business with a finance function will eventually need a crypto and stablecoin strategy. We are still in the early innings of that. Been saying this to anyone looking for a way into the space, don't just look at crypto native companies. Look at the banks, fintechs, and payment companies spinning up digital asset teams right now. That is your path in.

You can't ignore SF if you're serious about finding great talent. Looking to build out my network out here a bit more: engineers, GTM, recruiters, operators. Whatever your background, if you're in SF and open to staying connected, DM me. Let's start a line.

2025 -- Alexandr Wang joins Meta 2026 -- Andrej Karpathy joins Anthropic Who is next?

every AI session starts from zero. doesn't matter if you've run the exact same system prompt 100 times new session, full recompute. within-session caching exists and works. cross-session doesn't. the labs know this. the infrastructure exists. so why isn't persistent cross-session KV caching the default? privacy? cost? or is it genuinely harder than it sounds?

One topic that keeps coming up on both sides: AI in interviews. I want to talk to as many employers and candidates as possible about this (regardless of industry). For employers: how are you assessing AI fluency? What are you looking for, what are your expectations? For candidates: what are you seeing out there? What are you actually using? DMs open. I'll aggregate and anonymize everything and share findings with the broader community.

Got asked today: "what's the best AI course for someone just starting out?" I went down this same rabbit hole not too long ago. Looked at everything Honest answer: none of them are worth your time Jump in and fail fast. When you get stuck, ask the AI, watch a 3 minute youtube video, google it. Then keep going. Get stuck again. Repeat. That loop will teach you more in a week than any course will in a month. Everything else is just procrastination dressed up as preparation.

A great FDE is basically: >> Startup CTO >> Business degree or acumen >> Sales instincts and strong people skills >> Deep AI knowledge All in one person. Embedded inside your customer's org. Owning outcomes from day one. Most people have two or three of those. The ones who have all four are nearly impossible to find. So here's what I'd do if I were trying to get ahead of this talent war: Stop waiting for the perfect hire. Find the best people who check 2 or 3 of those boxes and train them on the rest. Most hires don't check every box anyway, the best ones grow into the role. Even better? If you're one of the labs sitting on billions, build a real internal training program. Find great people, invest in them, and create the FDEs you can't find in the market. The companies that figure that out first won't just win the talent war. They will own the category.

cc went from carbon copy for email to just claude code different era