As much as it’s nice to believe this is as simple as “rich men like lower taxes”, to believe it’s purely this is ignorant of all the Democratic party’s failings.

I say this as a Democrat.

How about we first start with the obvious: SF homelessness and drug addiction.

1/x

https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1814615918145585526

SF folks, including elite, have had to directly live the reality where they pay $1.75m for a basic/needs-work house, all while there are tents, people yelling in the street (mentally ill), and feces scattered.

They have experienced all of this. Can’t ignore.

2/x

Somehow,

There is *rarely* actual utility in pessimism.

In business settings, pessimists will often claim they were correct when things go wrong.

So far in my 13 years in Silicon Valley, failure originates from pessimism itself more than actual miscalculation.

1/5 The core reason: pessimism is all-encompassing. It affects creative thought, analysis, teamwork, and execution.

It's important in startups to say "no", but only because it enables you to enthusiastically say "yes" somewhere else.

2/5

Embra was one of the first AI Agents startups. Today, we are renaming AI Agents to AI Commands, and narrowing our focus away from autonomous agents.

While autonomous agents took off in popularity, we found they were often unreliable for work, inefficient, and unsafe.

🧵 First off, a primer on autonomous agents:

- Give them a task
- Give them memory
- Give them access to tools
- They decide on-the-fly how to accomplish your task and remove you from this process because... it's autonomous
- Watch them attempt to do the work

Another big new release of Embra ✨! Here’s what’s new:

1) Dramatic speed & response quality improvements via ChatGPT API
2) Threads with speedy keyboard shortcuts
3) Web search previews
4) More browsers. Message voting. Skip-the-waitlist.

More info below…

1/5 We upgraded the AI Model from Davinci to the new ChatGPT API. This led to a 40% increase in output speed and improved the quality of long-form output. Whereas Embra was previously tuned for shorter, quick responses, we now have speedy multi-paragraph responses.

2/5

Introducing Embra, a fast ChatGPT-like assistant that lives on your Mac desktop & integrates into your apps! Starting with Chrome.

Use it to:
- Access ChatGPT-like conversations instantly
- Query documents or websites (even PDFs!)
- Write context-rich docs, code, and emails

1/3 Writing great emails requires context.

With Embra, fast replies are a single click - context automatically included. Or brainstorm first and then generate an in-depth email. Minutes -> seconds.

External info from other tabs can also be included with a simple @ mention.

2/5

We're entering a new golden age for technology.

Markets are down, but innovation is accelerating.

AI, in particular, leads the way. I think a "Great Pivot" is underway in startup ecosystem -- every founder & board room is now discussing AI strategy as existential.

1/7 For the last 10 years it has felt like AI was growing linearly. Now, most tech veterans I know believe it has become exponential.

It is unlikely to slow down and be a "spike". It is likely to speed up even further. Hold on to your hats.

2/7

After traveling for months, here are 10 things underrated about America.

A thread: 1) A racially mixed society at its core. Anyone can become an American.

Ethnic homogeneity is still the norm in most countries.

America is forging through the hard path over time. Bring together very different people and over time they'll figure out a better system.

I AM DEAD. Imagine the product manager at slack trying to brainstorm the ways chat messages will facilitate fraud.

Obvious to lock down the emojis for sure. 😂

TikTok is a national security threat. 🚨

80 million Americans now spend 20% of their free time scrolling through an algorithmic content experience owned by the Chinese Government.

This scandal has uncovered lie after lie over the past years.

Here is a quick timeline 👇

1/5 Oct 2019: TikTok promised lawmakers they’d follow data locality guidelines and keep US data local.


Dec 2019: They lied — instead they were caught sending mass data back to Chinese servers.
When caught, they admitted it and entered frivolous "negotiations" [0].

2/5

Want to hire one of those fabled "10x engineers"?

You're in luck! They do exist, and in the process of cultivating them, you'll amplify your other engineer's productivity 3-5x as well.

Here are 3 steps to snag a 10x engineer.👇

1/7

(numbers = estimates) Step 1) Hire talent w/ the right foundational characteristics

+30%: experienced senior/staff engineer
+20%: strong referals on teamwork & tech leadership
+15%: passionate about your tech, or ideas to improve
+15%: intensely curious about your biz/users

So far, you're at 2x

2/7

Sure, you may be surprised to hear that FTX is worth $30B with only 300 people. Or that WhatsApp only had 55 when sold for $19B.

But just give it another 5 years, and we will likely see the age of $30B market cap companies with ~25 employees.

Here's how 👇

1/12 In many pitches to investors, many startups say they're "democratizing" some business process.

What previously required deeper expertise is now easy and configurable for more people.

This has compunding value as more and more tools become powerful.

2/12

I keep hearing “hybrid work doesn’t work” where full remote or full office are pitched as the only options.

But no data or even analysis/anecdotes follow.

At Stripe for 1.5 years pre-COVID, my team was hybrid, and I think we managed it quite well. There were some obstacles. 👇 Our weekly all-hands meeting had a power imbalance. It was way easier to talk to people in the same room and ignore tiles on the screen.

We instead had everyone call into this one meeting as if they were remote. A little weird, but the meeting improved!

Although I’m not really the best at following it consistently, I really believe a lot of happiness is about:
- Clean mind
- Clean body
- Clean spirit

What does this mean? Relatively self explanatory, but a small thread. 👇 Clean mind.

- Don’t take on too many things to create hyperactive mind.
- Stay organized mentally with a todo list.
- Plan goals and align with todos.
- Journal and self reflect.
- Write down everything you want to remember. Reduce repetitive thoughts.
- Meditate. Slow down.

Some center-left people in the Bay Area are going to need to step up & enact change.

How is anyone supposed to live with:
- 1500sq ft house = $1.8mm
- $3k/month daycare
- 50% income tax, 35% cap gains, 8% sales tax
- Tax $ wasted
- Hatred of wealth
- Crumbling infra, no building In order to afford that $1.8mm house, you need to earn $500k per year (for 30 years) assuming you have one kid in daycare, 2 cars at $250/month, and a pretty small monthly spend of $2.5k/month for your family.

After 10 years of living in Silicon Valley / SF, it became clear that the #1 way to become successful is to be surrounded by 1) others who have done it before and 2) ambitious peers.

The environment shapes you towards the right actions and provides resources/network.

1/x While in that environment, early on, almost all the people on group #2 are poor.

Eventually many of them become successful. And you can see the patterns of how they did it.

The only common pattern: persistence & trying new things to see what sticks.

2/x

In light of this terrible product design going viral, I have a story to tell.

Back in 2010 I worked as an intern at GE Appliances & Lighting. That's the same org that produced this monstrosity.

1/?

https://twitter.com/jmspool/status/1141674468185714690

GE started our internship with an introductory PowerPoint presentation. In it, they emphasized we should memorize slide #7.

When we got to slide #7 it was a table of about 80 acronyms. They said knowing the lingo "was a key to GE's performance."

I became worried...

2/?