1/x
Compute resellers vanish first. GPUs and TPUs. They buy time/instances from someone else’s data center. Then resell it. They zero moat and make money from markups. Their whole business model: buy compute at bulk, chop it into smaller units, resell at a premium.
2/x Resellers don’t control the hardware, they don’t have long-term contracts, and they don’t offer a moat. When the AI market slows down, they’re the first to disappear. There’s nothing holding customers to them.
Diplomatic protocol tactics are underrated. In reality, it's a skill that's valuable in any diplomatic setting.
They fall under three main types:
- bridging
- persuading
- balancing
Here’s what they are. And how they're used.
🧵[Thread]
1/x Bridging is the first one. You establish a connection with your counterpart(s) across the room. You remove tension by summit activities, room aesthetics, etc.
It’s the humanizing: creating a personal connection so leaders can relate, relax, and have a two-way dialogue.
2/x
Good example:
Making Xi and Putin making blini together in aprons. Sharing culinary traditions taps into the emotions, piercing the veil of the culture in a way that policy conversations can’t.
It breaks the stiffness of state formality and encourages familiarity.
Why Alaska is used again for negations? It's not just Trump and Putin meeting. There's diplomatic reasons:
- Meeting in the middle
- Distance from flashpoints
- Staging for graduated engagement
- Controlled access
A venue is a stage and a battlefield. Her's why.
🧵(Thread)
1/x
This isn't the first time Alaska has been used. Nixon for Japan. And Regan for the Pope. Most recently it was used during the tense 2021 China US summit during the Biden administration.
2/x Both in China and Russia's case? Alaska gets chosen to emphasize neither side was summoning the other to their capital. Which can be inappropriate for early talks.
Meeting on roughly middle ground equalizes the venue. A diplomatic concession to emphasize equal footing.
"Do not debate! Is one of my inventions"
Is a much lesser known quote from Deng Xiaoping.
Here's what it really means:
- Power must precede consensus
- Output over debate and signaling
- Strategic ambiguity allows reform and compromise
There's a bit to go into this
🧵
1/x After the Cultural Revolution, the PRC was institutionally shell-shocked. Factions of the CPC had torn into each other, paralyzing ministries and state capacity. A culture of fear replaced bureaucratic discipline. Signaling and slogans prevailed.
Deng inherited disorder.
3/x Deng realized that the PRC could not survive by staying ideologically loyal to Mao. But also could not survive by disowning him. Legitimacy of the state rested on it.
The Party was unified on paper but internally fragmented. With shared knowledge that open confrontation could tear the system apart again.