quit my CEO job to build solo. first-time dad. techno-optimist.
Joined January 2015
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Feb 10
quit my CEO job.
first kid on the way.
building 3 products from vienna.
most exciting time of my life. building all of it in public.
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all of the content i see is ai and it takes the joy out of it.
i love ai and use it every day to build things i could never without but there is something seriously wrong if every post, every article, every video, every comment is non-human.
do you see this is happening?
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May 30
the funny thing about the rimowa discussion is that i learned this lesson with a suitcase that was not even a rimowa.
it was an amazing aluminum travelite cabin bag for around 300€. i loved that thing way too much. it was still completely pristine and at munich airport security i actually asked the security lady if i could put it in a basket instead of letting it get pushed over the xray rollers.
she looked at me with dead eyes and said completely unironically "well, then it should not have become a suitcase."
then she shoved it straight into the machine.
i laughed so hard because she was obviously right. imagine already acting like an idiot with a 300€ suitcase. now imagine paying 1k and doing the same thing.
a suitcase is a box with wheels. it gets scratched. it gets dented. people throw it around. that is the job.
don’t be dumb and fall for it.
Rimowa used to aluminum
Now it's a lot of plastic!
They still sell classic aluminum cases though but most of the new range that you see on the site is plastic
Plastic is cheap to produce so higher profit margins (LVMH likes that!)
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May 29
talked to an ai researcher with decades of experience and asked him:
"do you think humanity will survive emergence of superintelligent ai?"
"oh yes for sure. we will continue to live kind of like in a zoo. ai will keep us around like we keep squirrels around."
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May 29
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May 7
real wealth is when you can just say „fuck it“ and ghost everyone for 5 months.
this is healthy and i wish everyone to have this level of confidence.
nothing matters more than real life.
May 7
Hey Twitter. Been a while.
Thanks to everyone who's reached out to check in, I haven't died, promise
Just wanted to share where I've been the last 5 months.
It started in November. Some personal stuff came up that meant I couldn't share what I was working on anymore and honestly sharing was the whole reason I enjoyed Twitter. The building in public, the conversations, meeting people. Without that, it kind of took the fun out of it for me.
Then January came around, and the world kind of lost its mind. I was doomscrolling 5 hours a day, cranky and angry, short with the people around me. And what really got me was that even when I wasn't on the app, I was still scrolling, just in my head. My wife mentioned Id been off lately, "what are you even doing?", and that's when it hit me: this is a vicious circle. I needed to stop.
So I quit cold turkey. Decided it was basically an addiction, and it wasn't giving me anything back.
5 months in honestly it's been one of the best things I've done for myself in years.
Not spending 5 hours a day on the app feels amazing. In the mornings especially, Twitter used to dictate what I'd think about all day. Whatever was trending, that's where my head went. I didn't even realize it was happening.
Without it, you remember how much is actually going on in real life. You don't have to be scrolling. You can just be there, with your wife, your dog, your friends. Read a book. Read an actual news site. Sit with your own thoughts.
That last part has been the biggest one. When your mind has space again, you start *thinking*. About your life. About decisions you've been putting off. I've been head-down running the company for years, always managing, always growing, and suddenly I had room to ask: am I doing what I want to be doing? That alone made the whole thing worth it.
Some things that have changed:
- Made some dramatic work changes
- Working on side projects again
- Enjoying coding for fun
- Less stressed, way less reactive
- My relationships with everyone are better
- Been working out, eating healthier, and lost 7kg
- Got married
- Just happier
I've opened the app a few times since. Scrolled for a bit. And honestly, it just doesn't bring me joy anymore.
But I do miss things. I miss sharing what I'm building. I miss the people, the conversations, the small connections that come from posting and replying. That's the part I haven't found anywhere else.
I'll come back one day, in some form. Probably something custom, a way to share what I'm working on and interact with people without seeing the feed.
For now I'm just enjoying being off the grid. If you want to chat, send me an email or a message, Id love that. Thanks for checking in 🙏
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May 6
having a daughter is a very effective way to recalibrate your priorities.
i now catch myself not forcing replies.
not forcing posts.
not caring about the impression-number-chase anymore.
and honestly? it feels good.
i still want X to be a place where i meet smart, interesting people.
but i’m increasingly done performing for the counter.
May 6
Yes, shitposting all the time "works"
You get nice payouts, make lots of impressions
But is it worth it?
I don't think so. Your audience is completely random, scattered and unengaged
I'd rather post genuine, personal and interesting content 😊
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May 6
want to radicalise someone into prepping?
give them a marc elsberg book.
anyway, i’m off to buy 300 litres of water, lentils, iodine tablets and a hand-crank radio.
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May 2
imagine you’re 85.
you get one day to come back and live as your younger self.
one normal day.
your body works.
your parents are alive.
your kid is small.
your friends are around.
your future is still open.
that day is today.
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Apr 27
my daughter asleep on my chest while i build.
this is why i wanted control over my time.
not for status. for this.
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Apr 3
well great.
in addition to hal from 2001: space odyssey, we‘re also adding the replicators from stargate sg-1 into the storyline?
Apr 3
Kame is a compact, open-source, 3D-printable quadruped robot that mimics animal-like movement.
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Mar 21
screw MRR.
hit a far better KPI: my daughter is back to her birth weight after 11 days 🥳
our little koala is pushing 4kg again.
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Alexander Hoff ❍ retweeted
Mar 18
issues that can be solved with money are not problems.
they are inconveniences.
buy a new, migrate, sell old.
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Mar 11
taking the little squirrel 🐿️ home today.
parents: what did you wish someone told you at this point that seems clear in hindsight?
bonus: what did you wish you did/did not do at this stage?
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Mar 10
ok i get it now.
all other games are meaningless in comparison.
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Mar 7
i am feeling the first waves of what will possibly be the greatest motivational fire of my life.
maybe the trick to achieving great things is to tap into the craziness that is human basic instincts.
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Mar 6
so i guess we are witnessing the formation of the most powerful company ever…?
and we thought the east india trading company had power.
SpaceX owns Starlink and xAI acquired X and then SpaceX acquired xAI so they are all the same company now!
So it's not an undisclosed ad, it's an internal product link
They're all the same company!
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Mar 4
.@Apple has never competed on price. ever.
$499 macbook neo.
if cupertino is going budget, they see something coming that the rest of us don't.
Mar 4
NEWS: Apple has introduced the MacBook Neo, their most affordable laptop ever.
• Price: $599 ($499 for students)
• 16 hour battery life
• 13" display, 500 nits
• A18 Pro chip
• 256GB or 512GB of storage
• Four colors: silver, indigo, blush, and citrus
• Weight: 2.7 lbs
• Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 6 connectivity
• 8GB RAM
• 1080p front-facing camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and dual side-firing speakers with Spatial Audio.
• Lowest-carbon Mac. Features 60% recycled materials, more than any other Apple product.
• Available starting March 11
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Mar 4
daughter arriving any day now.
got hit by a truck on my vespa today. walked away fine. the vespa didn't.
sat back down and kept building.
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Mar 3
makes you think:
what or rather who‘s the product?
Mar 3
i can't believe chatgpt 5.2 pro is so cheap lmao
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