Artificial Intelligence is really Artificial Time | Continue reading
The challenge of building large-scale complex systems often gets caught between purist visions that never get off the ground and seemingly pragmatic random-walk tinkering that slowly grinds to a halt via diminishing returns. If you're ambitious -- and I hope you are for the sake … | Continue reading
Listen now (26 min) | Welcome back. The Breaking Smart newsletter and podcast is starting up again after a very refreshing 6-week break. I want to kick off the post-break programming with a podcast on a big question: if we are headed at least partially towards a post-scarcity wor … | Continue reading
A few months ago I tweeted an offhand thought: 4d chess is boring. But I didn't really think about why I thought that until someone pointed out in a recent discussion somewhere (can't find it now) that an important insight from theoretical computer science suggests that 4d chess … | Continue reading
This is a longer-than-usual newsletter, with a 75-point tweetstorm, because I want to tackle a fairly complex topic today: lean thinking versus fat thinking. You've probably heard the term lean used in the context of both startups, as in "lean startups" and in the context of old- … | Continue reading
Listen now (32 min) | In today’s episode, in honor of Bastille Day next week, and Fourth of July last week, I want to talk about the ongoing evolution in elitism, and the problem of how the emerging new elites can be better than the old ones being toppled. 1/ Elites are a constan … | Continue reading
Listen now (23 min) | In today’s episode, I want to talk about a new phase in the pandemic, marked by a shift in the role of the pandemic itself from foreground story, to background setting of other stories. I also have a couple of interesting announcements at the end. 1/ So this … | Continue reading
Listen now (20 min) | 1/ Today I want to talk about an idea I’ve been developing, which is that the future of the business world, post-Covid, and post software eating the world, looks surprisingly like the High Middle Ages, between about 1000 to 1250 AD, rather than like any more … | Continue reading
Listen now (10 min) | Today I want to talk about time, which is a subject I’m researching quite a lot these days. In particular I want to talk about two of the most-quoted lines in technology conversations that are about time. The first one is Alan Kay’s, famous line: it is easie … | Continue reading
Listen now (21 min) | In this episode (21 minutes) I talk about the idea of technological charisma. What it is, how to create it, and the upsides and downsides of pursuing it. 1/ There are technologies that are like charismatic megafauna. We pay disproportionate attention to them … | Continue reading
Listen now (15 min) | This week’s Breaking Smart podcast (15 minutes) has to do with tapping into the things that make you ordinary. If that’s not enough, here’s me on the Village Global podcast with Erik Torenberg from last week, where I rambled like a grumpy old man for 2 hours … | Continue reading
Listen now (10 min) | Today’s topic is brands vs. memes. I made a transcript as well, using Descript, which you can find below. Apparently I spoke 1751 words in ~11 minutes. Wow, this is a high-leverage way to do “writing”. Also, I begin thoughts with “So…” a lot apparently. | Continue reading
Are ideas like objects, or are they like people? The world getting eaten by software means more and more people work with abstract ideas rather than concrete objects or people. Instead of making an object, you make a design that’s printed by a 3d printer. Instead of talking to a … | Continue reading
Listen now (12 min) | This week’s podcast (12 minutes) is on a crucial difference, between planning to start, and planning to finish. We talk a lot about the difference between more and less planning, on the spectrum between full waterfall and full agile, and like most of you, I … | Continue reading
I can’t recall when we all first began to collectively refer to the computing-powered high-technology sector, based primarily on the US West Coast, as simply “Tech” (I’ll drop the scare quotes but keep the capitalization for the rest of this essay). I think it was shortly after t … | Continue reading
Free-agency as a distinct, Internet-powered conceptual alternative to traditional employment is 20 years old at this point. Dan Pink wrote Free Agent Nation in 2001 when the phenomenon was already past its early-Internet infancy. Tim Ferriss wrote 4-Hour-Work Week | Continue reading