@balajis's Threads
The one form of equality a journalist will always resist is the idea that everyone is now a journalist
The one type of corporation a journalist will always defend is a media corporation
1. Media companies are corporations
2. Their interests are not always aligned with yours
3. Act accordingly
2. Their interests are not always aligned with yours
3. Act accordingly
What if every slide in a talk had a QR code to interact with?
In theory scanning a QR code is just the same as typing a URL, but it can be faster (esp for long URLs) and is big in China.
Maybe we could develop new forms of coordinated audience interaction. Both in the auditorium and later online.
Maybe we could develop new forms of coordinated audience interaction. Both in the auditorium and later online.
Here's @conniechan on QR codes in China in 2017:
a16z.com/2017/08/11/qr-…
And @avesegal with the 2019 version:
a16z.com/2019/10/30/the…
Crypto may mainstream QR codes in the West.
a16z.com/2017/08/11/qr-…
And @avesegal with the 2019 version:
a16z.com/2019/10/30/the…
Crypto may mainstream QR codes in the West.
Tech is realizing that many reports of matters where they have first-hand knowledge are distorted or outright false, like the Bloomberg Big Hack story.
This is breaking Gell-Mann amnesia across the industry.
goodreads.com/quotes/65213-b…
This is breaking Gell-Mann amnesia across the industry.
goodreads.com/quotes/65213-b…
Cover story that was flatly refuted by Apple, Amazon, DHS, and the industry at large. No retraction.
Another egregious example was the fake news story on how Dorian Nakamoto was Satoshi. Rebutted at the time, never retracted.
Here for critique: genius.com/2900395
Here for stonewall: newsweek.com/newsweeks-stat…
"Newsweek stands strongly behind Ms. Goodman and her article."
Here for critique: genius.com/2900395
Here for stonewall: newsweek.com/newsweeks-stat…
"Newsweek stands strongly behind Ms. Goodman and her article."
Breaking a window in SF is not a crime. But operating a tech company in SF, that is the true crime! 
Sources
1) Quality of life: sfchronicle.com/local-politics…
2) Stop policing street crime, start going after corporations:
chesaboudin.com/corporate_crime
1) Quality of life: sfchronicle.com/local-politics…
2) Stop policing street crime, start going after corporations:
chesaboudin.com/corporate_crime
People think rule by BernieBro just means more feces, more broken windows, more crazies assaulting women on the street.
And they’re right, but it’s going to be so much more!
Every tech co in SF is going to learn what it means to have our own Hugo Chavez. thenation.com/article/chavez…
And they’re right, but it’s going to be so much more!
Every tech co in SF is going to learn what it means to have our own Hugo Chavez. thenation.com/article/chavez…
WeChat is to Tiananmen as Facebook is to Ciaramella.
How WeChat censors: qz.com/960948/what-ha…
How Facebook is censoring:
Idea: corporate esports league
One thing you might do is have corporate esports teams play each other for real money.
Google vs Facebook in Fortnite Team Rumble, streamed live on Twitch!
Each company puts up $20k and fields a team. Winner claims purse, gives to charity.
One thing you might do is have corporate esports teams play each other for real money.
Google vs Facebook in Fortnite Team Rumble, streamed live on Twitch!
Each company puts up $20k and fields a team. Winner claims purse, gives to charity.
Would also be fun for Twitter rivalries
Chapo vs Neoliberal
BTC vs BCH
Tech vs Journos
Carnivores vs Vegans
Twitter is already an async fighting game. Fortnite Team Rumble just makes it synchronous.
Chapo vs Neoliberal
BTC vs BCH
Tech vs Journos
Carnivores vs Vegans
Twitter is already an async fighting game. Fortnite Team Rumble just makes it synchronous.
Each side has a captain who recruits the 20 person team & collects the purse.
The platform organizes the players and ensures the money goes to charity (or perhaps to the players themselves)
Platform also organizes pre-game, in-game, and after game social media clips
The platform organizes the players and ensures the money goes to charity (or perhaps to the players themselves)
Platform also organizes pre-game, in-game, and after game social media clips
Really interesting. Has anyone studied what happened to Hacker News after they turned off public upvote counts several years ago?
My vague recollection is that I stopped checking Hacker News around that time. Maybe engagement stats show that?
Rank ordering of comments was preserved, but you had to spend a lot of time on HN to go more than a few comments deep.
Original:
Rank ordering of comments was preserved, but you had to spend a lot of time on HN to go more than a few comments deep.
Original:
My overall intuition is that we will need a totally new incentive-based approach to social networking now that we see failure modes at scale.
Hard to do Google till you’d seen several years of Yahoo.
Hard to do Google till you’d seen several years of Yahoo.
Financial decision makers will always care about truth. And crypto is turning the world into investors, just like the internet turned the world into publishers.
Crypto provides both the motivation (decentralized investment) and the means (decentralized consensus) to build a new gold standard of truth in an adversarial environment.
It’s already here, we just need to scale it.
It’s already here, we just need to scale it.
See also:
Maybe the v2 answer is just encouraging employees to play Fortnite together.
To be clear, I think all of those ideas are good ideas and clearly Gitlab has done well as a company.
But maybe informal socialization for remote teams means video games and social networks?
But maybe informal socialization for remote teams means video games and social networks?
Just like you usually don’t want to code your own SaaS, perhaps you don’t want to build your own tools for fun remote socialization.
At-scale tools for cross border socialization already exist in the form of social networks and multiplayer video games. Maybe that’s the answer?
At-scale tools for cross border socialization already exist in the form of social networks and multiplayer video games. Maybe that’s the answer?
Catholicism was centralized and led by the pope and Church.
Protestantism was decentralized and preached disintermediation (via “a personal relationship with god”).
Protestantism was decentralized and preached disintermediation (via “a personal relationship with god”).
Over time, Protestantism built up its own institutions, but it’s easier for a new pastor to found a new denomination than to fork the Catholic Church.
That’s part of why Protestantism was initially attractive: it offered a path to power outside the Church hierarchy.
That’s part of why Protestantism was initially attractive: it offered a path to power outside the Church hierarchy.
The theological arguments that justified the disintermediation of the Catholic Church in favor of a “personal relationship with god” led to the Counter-Reformation, the 30 years war, and a huge power struggle.
If you ran a script over your media diet, you could figure out what concepts you are reinforcing through repetition. augmentingcognition.com/ltm.html
That script could print out nutritional facts on your media diet, much like you get on food.
Just a list of the top 1000 keywords on your screen would show you what you were loading into your brain.
It might not necessarily be the concepts you want to learn.
Just a list of the top 1000 keywords on your screen would show you what you were loading into your brain.
It might not necessarily be the concepts you want to learn.
See also the concept of effective frequency. Maybe you can retarget yourself to improve learning?
Bitcoin at $100B is an industry
Bitcoin at $1T is a world power
Bitcoin at $10T would be the global government that so many have predicted, just in very different form en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_gov…
Bitcoin at $1T is a world power
Bitcoin at $10T would be the global government that so many have predicted, just in very different form en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_gov…
If Bitcoin can truly make it to $10T and stay there, it would constrain all the nations of the world.
That is by no means a simple path. En route to that level, wholly new attack vectors start coming online. Buckle up.
That is by no means a simple path. En route to that level, wholly new attack vectors start coming online. Buckle up.
A company can issue new shares to promote corporate growth, but if it issues too many investors hold cash instead.
A nation can print more cash to promote economic growth, but if it prints too much investors hold Bitcoin instead.
A nation can print more cash to promote economic growth, but if it prints too much investors hold Bitcoin instead.
Thesis: the new business model for local journalism is the activist subscriber.
Like the single issue voter, they care about driving change on one local issue like YIMBY or SF crime.
But in addition to voting with their ballot, they vote with their wallet by subscribing.
Like the single issue voter, they care about driving change on one local issue like YIMBY or SF crime.
But in addition to voting with their ballot, they vote with their wallet by subscribing.
The activist subscriber would demand:
- relentless focus on one topic
- a way to signal boost stories
- a way to vote for next story
- minimal partisanship
In the ideal case this unbundles the parties. Instead of buying an R/D bundle, get granular change on specific issues.
- relentless focus on one topic
- a way to signal boost stories
- a way to vote for next story
- minimal partisanship
In the ideal case this unbundles the parties. Instead of buying an R/D bundle, get granular change on specific issues.
The activist subscriber and the journalists they fund will make local government more responsive.
Rather than voting on an R/D bundle every few years, a new pop-up publication can be set up & tested in hours to start driving immediate change on a single issue.
Rather than voting on an R/D bundle every few years, a new pop-up publication can be set up & tested in hours to start driving immediate change on a single issue.
The solution may be to set up a local news outlet with 10 investigative journalists in the model of @hknightsf focused full time on holding Bay Area politicians accountable.
Why this would work:
1) Building a media startup is within our capabilities
2) Local journalism is upstream of local politics
3) There is a vacuum in local journalism
4) There is demand for local journalism with laser focus on local problems
See also:
1) Building a media startup is within our capabilities
2) Local journalism is upstream of local politics
3) There is a vacuum in local journalism
4) There is demand for local journalism with laser focus on local problems
See also:
The way to test this would be to set up a substack focused on just this. Free to start, and then with upsells to get it sustainable.
The difference between a religious and secular society is that the latter is ostensibly predicated on scientific fact.
The similarity is that most people in both societies rely on authorities rather than personally discovering scientific facts.
The similarity is that most people in both societies rely on authorities rather than personally discovering scientific facts.
Most people do social diligence, only a few do technical diligence.
This also suggests that open science will be a bigger deal in the long run than people think.
Peer-to-peer discovery and communication of facts without intermediating authorities.
Peer-to-peer discovery and communication of facts without intermediating authorities.
I didn’t really understand religion till crypto. False messiahs, denominational splits, arcane disputes, holy wars...it’s all there.
I also didn’t really understand banking till crypto. Actually seeing new monetary policies in action will do that for you. Sympathy for Bernanke.
Bitcoin, Christianity, Unix.
Interesting. Official NYPD police association strongly implying that NY’s crime statistics are faked.
Taken with the LA Times story on LAHSA’s faked homeless stats, indicates that official sources may need more corroboration.
A third example of this is the flagrant fakery around cash vs accrual accounting — far from a technicality, despite the headline. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Fitbit is and was a great company. Exceptionally hard to do what they did, at the scale they did, as cash efficiently as they did.
Consumer hardware is the one area where I agree it’s truly hard to take on the tech giants as a startup.
The cash requirements are tremendous. Best outcome is usually to sell, like Oculus, Nest, Ring, or Fitbit.
But without that M&A there wouldn’t be VC funding for innovation.
The cash requirements are tremendous. Best outcome is usually to sell, like Oculus, Nest, Ring, or Fitbit.
But without that M&A there wouldn’t be VC funding for innovation.
That said, those are multibillion dollar exits. And there is Xiaomi, SpaceX, Tesla, as well as all the hardware unicorns (see HAX’s list from 2017).
Still, hardware is hard. Easier to do pure software, especially if it’s your first time. venturebeat.com/2017/08/26/har…
Still, hardware is hard. Easier to do pure software, especially if it’s your first time. venturebeat.com/2017/08/26/har…
Five whys
Why high crime? Because no policing
Why no policing? Because chief of police said no
Why did chief say no? Because of mayor
Why did mayor say no? Because enforcement gets bad press
Why bad press? Because we haven’t funded good press
Solution: fund more @hknightsf
Why high crime? Because no policing
Why no policing? Because chief of police said no
Why did chief say no? Because of mayor
Why did mayor say no? Because enforcement gets bad press
Why bad press? Because we haven’t funded good press
Solution: fund more @hknightsf
In more detail, the local press is upstream of the local state.
It determines the priorities of local government and can hold politicians accountable on behalf of citizens.
There hasn’t been much funding for local journalism. But that can be changed.
It determines the priorities of local government and can hold politicians accountable on behalf of citizens.
There hasn’t been much funding for local journalism. But that can be changed.
Heather Knight at the SF Chronicle (@hknightsf) is one of the few writing about the epidemic of mental illness, drug addiction, and crime in San Francisco.
With 10 investigative reporters like her we would see change. By far the cheapest way to fix SF. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe…
With 10 investigative reporters like her we would see change. By far the cheapest way to fix SF. sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe…
Satellite internet, balloon internet, drone internet, and above all encryption.
The network versus the state is the story of this century and that story has just begun.
The network versus the state is the story of this century and that story has just begun.
Satellite internet
“SpaceX, the private spaceflight company known for reusable rockets and a giant, shiny Starship, will begin offering its own satellite internet service in 2020.”
space.com/spacex-starlin…
“SpaceX, the private spaceflight company known for reusable rockets and a giant, shiny Starship, will begin offering its own satellite internet service in 2020.”
space.com/spacex-starlin…
Balloon internet
“Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, delivering connectivity to people in unserved and underserved communities around the world.” loon.com
“Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, delivering connectivity to people in unserved and underserved communities around the world.” loon.com
Jason, you can’t expect grown adults in the wealthiest country in the world to have the resources of some kid with a laptop in India.
“Notably, InstaDApp’s Jain is 21 years old; fellow co-founder Samyak Jain is 19. Nevertheless, they have pivoted their lives to crypto...”
coindesk.com/instadapp-defi…
coindesk.com/instadapp-defi…
Learn to code, does a country good! techcrunch.com/2019/10/23/ind…
Classical communist is the new classical liberal!
“[Communistic] societies...succeeded in accumulating considerable wealth” books.google.com/books/about/TH…
“[Communistic] societies...succeeded in accumulating considerable wealth” books.google.com/books/about/TH…
This is from 1875, when the meaning of “communist” was still in flux. It referred both to people living in communes (opt-in societies) and to the Marxists / trade unionists who ultimately took over the label.
But “commune” still retains its meaning today.
But “commune” still retains its meaning today.
The pro-business classical communist still exists today, in the form of Israelis who built multinationals like Netafim out of their kibbutzes. calcalistech.com/ctech/articles…
How deconstruction works
- General truth
- Enumeration of exceptions
- Show that general truth is not, in fact, always true
- Further assert that general truth is, in fact, false
- Thus prove truth to be false
- General truth
- Enumeration of exceptions
- Show that general truth is not, in fact, always true
- Further assert that general truth is, in fact, false
- Thus prove truth to be false
How to deconstruct deconstruction: use a graph. Statistical truths are best argued with numbers, not words.
Most people don’t realize when they are applying deconstructive techniques.
It’s monkey see, monkey do — but there are original monkeys.
It’s monkey see, monkey do — but there are original monkeys.
You can summon the CEO of Facebook to Congress.
You can’t summon the CEO of email to Congress.
There is no CEO.
That’s where this is all going.
You can’t summon the CEO of email to Congress.
There is no CEO.
That’s where this is all going.
It might take 10-20 years, but as blockchains scale every centralized service can become a monetizable decentralized protocol.
Good summary of various blockchain scaling techniques. Many of these stack upon each other.
