A few people I admire and mentor were obsessed with the current news cycle––distracted + distraught with disbelief almost daily.
My advice was THIS: 👇👇👇
2/ Stop hitting refresh 🔘 on the news like an addicted caged rat looking for a hit of joy 😃or anger 😡
With so much to lose for so many in power––there is NO UNCERTAINTY.
You know this: there is total CERTAINTY that there will be total chaos daily for weeks to come...
3/
You know this:
that few maybe none of those events are in your control.
You know this:
you can control only what is in your control
1. voting (unless or until you can’t) 2. where you direct your attention + focus 3. how you choose to feel...
4/ Without investing intentional energy––the chaos will pull you down a drain on an endless journey without escape
Your friends and family will keep you in it as they commiserate and lament the chaos + distraction as their friends are doing the same
BUT––
5/ If you like them (or love them;)–– don’t let them.
Instead: lead + inspire them.
Avg + below avg people will be sucked down w/the masses.
You + yours are not average.
You + yours are better than that.
Whatever their job, joy, purpose, they mustnt’ let it get hijacked...
6/ Shake them from their head-shaking.
Remind them to fight the entropy + enmity in the world by doing good things. By doing really good things...
7/ Whether that is
-producing art
-serving others
-treating patients
-teaching students
-promoting justice
-accelerating tech progress
-advancing cures + treatments
-educating or entertaining people
-empowering + inspiring others, reducing human suffering
Fierce focus on that..
8/ Your (and their) time + attention are the scarcest resource
Willingly paying it to others in an unscripted circus show––as a passive spectator, a captive audience member gasping and cheering––is a squandering abdication of your own ambition and the good you must put out.
9/ Get up, get out, get at it––and get away from the vortex.
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-@anduriltech founder Palmer Luckey on @60Minutes
“The Future of Warfare”
-@eGenesisBio on @CNN with Sanjay Gupta
“Animal Pharm”
-new Lux Q1 2025 Quarterly Letter
2/ This is one of my favorite letters we’ve ever written
The theme is PARTNERSHIPS
-between man and machine
-between present and future selves, decision, companies
-between us and our founders of Lux companies
-between Lux partners ourselves
3/ word processor > spellcheck >grammar‑check > LLM “style‑check” if paragraph was birthed by human mind or statistical echo. We detect plagiarism but also something subtler—call it prompterism, prose coaxed from silicon’s
latent space rather than summoned from lived experience.
2/ The 🇨🇳CCP “2035 Science & Technology Vision” states unapologetically “original innovation is the sharpest blade.” coupling that declaration w/ vast subsidies, talent visas + procurement guarantees which have helped them take lead in 37 of 44 critical and emerging technologies!
3/ Upending American science seemed an impossible order.
Regularly copied and always envied, but never rivaled.
Constructed by visionaries like Vannevar Bush in the ashes of WWII + propelled by brilliant legislation like Bayh-Dole Act––we did the impossible: an open scientific enterprise that could simultaneously probe into the furthest frontiers while translating the most original insights uncovered into the most prosperous companies in the world.
1/ My take on Trump in exchange with one of my smartest market friends.
Bizarrely I’m more sanguine.
Either it’s the greatest policy mistake and blunder of a rollout ever. OR it ends up with some grand bargain for those that want to ensure certainty and stability by doing long term deals or otherwise face massive undulating volatility in his flip-flopping, fickle whims.
I think overall across all domains (tech cos, universities, law firms, countries) they got very confident and then cocky ... I think it started with the Silicon Valley and Elon flip over… And then Zuck shifting his board and taking a knee… And he saw powerful person after powerful person pledging fealty out of fear. I think that further emboldened them the "we’re fucking here We are in total control. We have all the leverage. You do what we say or you're fucked" from big tech to Zelensky to law firms to Columbia + Harvard and then the rest of the world
And Whether it’s the market fighting back or law firms, fighting back or universities fighting back… He’s gotta double down and not show weakness or concede. He was wrong… It’s very tough game theory.
The other view… Is they try a few experiments mindful that it could create chaos… And going into midterms they stabilized with more predictability market so and they have total political control
2/ post election when all Trump bros were “golden age of America” with 80s topgun hulk hogan f-yeah amurica hype videos…
We bought deep out of the money puts
Because the consensus and stability were the consensus view and the scarce contrarian view was: insane volatility ahead
3/ those puts paid off (pa) and now nearly 100% consensus is lower growth or recession AND inflation….SO….
China’s playbook isn’t war in the open—it’s war in the seams.
They target the gaps between state & federal, public & private, markets & security.
America must 'armor up' 🧵...
2/ The CCP’s strategy?
Hollow out U.S. strength from within.
Critical infrastructure? Infiltrated.
Universities? Compromised.
State pension funds? Financing China’s military tech.
3/ While America focused on the War on Terror, China waged a war on us—a silent siege of intellectual property theft, capital capture, and digital espionage.