Neural nets work.

Here is why I am afraid of AI. I understand how management, boards, investors think. They are all overextended, barely able to keep their head above the water. They've already outsourced their thinking to ChatGPT because they just can't keep up with the changing times. They do not understand why software development is so expensive. Their orgs are collapsing industry-wide as capital reallocates into the next thing, leaving virtually all companies exposed. Not just the VC backed, but cascading effects - layoffs are happening everywhere. Salaried managers are deeply motivated to continue to perform activities that generate their salary, and under this intense competitive pressure, it is all they can do "keep the music playing for one more quarter". And there is enough of a promise, from their perspective, a glimmer of hope, that AI will either help turn the ship around, or slow the fall, or even just fear that more agile competitors will use AI to defeat them. Even a clear-minded individual manager in an org must execute the plan handed down to them, regardless of their personal opinions -- they do not control the company strategy, and if they want to keep their tech salary, which is under attack from all directions, they bend the knee. 24% of US tech managers over age 50, once laid off, do not return to the workforce. Therefore, it doesn't matter what is real, it only matters what the majority believes, we are a democracy after all. The AI train has already left the station, it is accelerating, it is about to jump the tracks, and when it does, it will have far too high momentum to do anything about it, and we are all going to watch the slow-motion trainwreck take these managers out, and the entire tech sector with them, but a prerequisite to that happening is everything is going to break. The world is going to break. Climate change, financial crisis, inequality, cryptocurrency, energy, famine, war. And then the world will recover and be built anew, and the information age can finally begin. This is my 40 year prediction of what will happen in my remaining productive lifetime.

PSA: there’s a guy named Soham Parekh (in India) who works at 3-4 startups at the same time. He’s been preying on YC companies and more. Beware. I fired this guy in his first week and told him to stop lying / scamming people. He hasn’t stopped a year later. No more excuses.

Knowing which rules to bend or break is part of the founder journey It doesn’t justify all rule breaking

Knowing which rules to bend or break is part of the founder journey It doesn’t justify all rule breaking

YC asked “Please tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.” in their application for the longest time and you're all still surprised about the cluelies and sohams of the world

let me take this opportunity to point out again that the VB live debugger was the best ive ever used: you could drag the execution point up above a loop, rewrite it live & then step through the new code no compiling, no visible reloading, no build chain pure, unadulterated flow

Visual Basic made it possible for 14-year olds to create usable GUI apps with no training in 30 minutes. Web dev is a total failure

Well he is right

The gap between what AI can do vs what we're building with it is MASSIVE right now. That gap is your opportunity to build.⁣ ⁣ This might be the best time ever to start an AI company.

Here's your periodic reminder that political centrism is nonsense. There is no middle ground between democracy and oligarchy.

We must stop AI before it saves more lives! 🤖

At a party tonight with politically active San Franciscans and we were just thinking... wow, NYC is cooked.