We abandoned training our own models at Defog in 2024 (despite 2M huggingface downloads) after o1 was released
Our reasoning at the time - frontier models would get better and cheaper. It was just easier to use them via an API, and see gains automatically, rather than painfully handcraft our own
Fully realizing the risks of that decision today. Going to spend at least a third of my time on fine-tuning frontier open-source models moving forward.
Can't build a business on shifting sands, gotta own your model weights.
I’m 31 years old
I’ve been working since I was 15. I have two commas in assets, live/spend regularly, semi retired, have a hairline and have friends and family I love dearly.
I will be an anesthesia provider, flight nurse, and father before I die for the love of the game ,God willing
5’11 btw
Elon also thank you for helping me indirectly
A Russian fighter pulled off the most confusing flying squirrel takedown on a French opponent and nobody in the building could explain it, the French guy was completely lost
These are the employees you hire
Make sure you find people who care about your mission
A lot of very intelligent scammers out there looking to burn it all down
They are your enemy don’t let them into your domain
Employers and entrepreneurs this is insightful
Believe them when they tell you who they are
They have no skin in the game and they extract value from your orgs
You need a partner who helps you get to the finish line and helps you win
Think long & hard about those you employ
swe role - $150-200k/yr
no hourly billing
no liability/lawsuits
do 2 hrs a week of work most places
reliably pay you every two weeks
contracting - $100/hr
constant hourly accounting
can't stack as easily
noone wants to hire you because they can't write it off
people screw you
people will hate your existence just because you breathe freely
most of those people live in a corporate cubicle and hate themselves
keep shipping theyre angry because they never win and have to answer to a corporate over lord
You ain't a GOAT
until you've lost it all, been doubted, betrayed, counted out, watched people switch sides when you needed them most, stood alone, and still found a way to win.
This guy created Linux and beat Microsoft to the best operating system
He doesn’t mind being ruthlessly honest snd doing the dirty work because nothing mild ever wins
Lesson in that for Opensource AI btw
It gets crazy when you realize the ultimate risk is getting raped in a Colombian prison after your startup goes bust.
Don’t fail bro. Dont get fucked. Easy.