A Digital Discourse
The NFL is a Fractured Product Mark my words: the 2025 NFL season will be remembered as the year the “product” finally started to crack under the weight of its own physical demands. While the league office continues to tout parity, ratings, and global expansion, I witnessed: a lack of talent depth, increasingly lopsided games, and a growing war of attrition where “any given Sunday” has given way…
We've all heard the warnings: "Don't click suspicious links!" "Be wary of unsolicited emails!" But what happens when the scam isn't a glaring red flag, but a carefully woven web of trust and delayed tactics? What happens when a seemingly innocuous catch-up call nearly compromises your digital life? That's precisely what happened to me recently, and it was a chilling reminder of how vulnerable we…
via stablediffusionweb.com The Water Scale A more meaningful way to describe life. How often do you get asked How’s it going? Or, how are you doing? 99% of the time the answer is “good” - a one-dimensional answer that’s so common, it’s almost meaningless. In fact, if you say “OK”, it’s often followed up by “Is something wrong?” So the expected response, “good”, is a formality to confirm the status…
Buying an electric vehicle today seems like a no brainer, it’s good for the environment and it will save you money on gas. And that last point seems like a given, gas is expensive, especially these days, and electricity costs cents on the dollar, essentially free - how can you argue with that?! But a few things are missing from that equation, the efficiency of an EV to yield mileage, for one, and…
I recently wrote about why web3 is the place to be . Now I want to share some reasons to join Protocol Labs to work on web3 with me :): The space . The mission . I’m a strong proponent of mission driven companies, and Protocol Labs has one of the most valuable missions I’ve been around - building the next generation of the internet . Open source work . It’s novel, progressive, and empowering to…
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-iigN2WjvY&ab_channel=ProtocolLabs There’s a lot of hype about web3 , so much so that the New York Times recently ran a profile on the many tech executives leaving their posts to join the space . The article focuses on the financial leverage that cryptocurrencies offer and less so on why web3 matters as the next wave of computing. As a software engineer,…
Almost two years into the COVID pandemic and with the Omicron variant on the rise, it seems as though we, as a society, should have learned a few important lessons by now. Most of these gaps seem obvious and addressable, but it’s frustrating how little, sometimes even backwards, progress there has been. I hope in pointing some of these gaps out, we can start to build a better society; one that is…
via Goodera Environment Theory - The theory that the environment constrains your behavior and significantly affects your psyche, and these effects generally outweigh your will power over time*. Where environment is defined broadly, as any input to your mind and body that is external from your own person. Let’s look at a few examples: People You are the average of the five closest people you…
https://xkcd.com/552/ Correlation is often confused for causation . You learn this in mathematics and statistics, and most people think it’s obvious, and then forget about it. Of course the color of my socks did not affect my grade on a math test. If it’s so obvious, can it apply to real life? Turns out, it does. And the weird thing is that oftentimes the correlation is in the exact opposite…
via Pixy YC has the slogan “ make something people want ,” a seemingly obvious statement that is as powerful as it is simple. Though it is insufficient to build generation defining products. Take a summer blockbuster movie, this is a product that most people will want, it is built to entertain the masses, and you will be entertained! But you will not come out a changed mind. Servant-style product…
Adapted from Flickr and transparentpng.com ( cc 4.0 license ) Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, an SF tech exodus emerged. There are many well documented reasons for the exodus, namely a high cost of living, unaffordable housing, and increased crime - all accelerated by the switch to remote-first work. But few have been more vocal than Keith Rabois , the paypal mafia venture capitalist,…
Via r/wallstreetbets Disclaimer: This is a guest post from a friend that works in finance. The views and opinions expressed in this post are of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company. The most miraculous aspect of last week’s wild swings in Gamestop share price, is not the fact that an orchestrated short squeeze leading…
Builder's Hierarchy Pyramid Note: Every additional layer has a higher degree of difficulty The Builder’s Hierarchy of Fulfillment ...or how to fully actualize a thing. Think You consume information. You read and learn to formulate a hypothesis for a novel idea. It may be nothing, a flash in the pan, or something bigger, a spark of genius. Everyone always has ideas running through their head, but…
Crowd waiting in line outside of White House for New Year reception. Most people hear the word, patience, and think of a boring personality trait, a social virtue that demonstrates calm, rational thinking. A desirable self-control mechanism: the ability to forego short-term pain (or gain) for larger, longer-term gains. But it comes with the cliche, “patience is a virtue”, so much so, that the…
Election 2020 Finale Having freshly watched the 2020 election unfold, with the build up, the stress and drama, a lengthy vote count, a sore loser, and ultimately the result, I couldn’t help but reflect how strange of an event it is to experience. It’s like you’re at a movie premiere, but someone is interrupting you every five minutes to tell you their opinion and how the movie is going to end. Can…
Proper Food Pouring After living with the pandemic for 8 months, I’ve compiled a list of learnings and activities that have helped me cope*. Maybe they can help you too. Have a token to remind you that things are not normal, like growing out your hair. This is especially good for remembering to wash your hands. Chores are the new commute. I would always listen to a podcast to and from work, but…
TV (by which I mean the Film and Television medium) is the great modern meditation. Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. It’s one of the easiest ways to shut your brain off, escape, and transport yourself to another world. It’s powerful because it hooks into human imagination. How else can we so easily relate to characters with drastically different lives than ourselves, be it a lawyer, cop,…
Most government programs, non-profits, and for-profit corporations are tackling income inequality through a bottom-up approach: creating social services to help those most in need, whether it’s UBI or Medicaid and donating to reputable charities and organizations like food banks or the ACLU. While important, these programs work to ensure a bare-minimum quality of life in a developed country, while…
Image by Sang Hyun Cho Here’s an idea to improve the legal system, introduce a litigious, consumption tax. More specifically, a punitive tax for litigious behavior that results in unsuccessful lawsuits. How it would work. Every person, or legal entity, would have win/loss records as a plaintiff and a defendant in the justice system. A decision in your favor (be it a settlement or verdict) counts…
Credit: Ninaras You can’t force something to be something it is not. During this pandemic, people are learning this the hard way ( wear a mask! ). Counterintuitive as it may seem, the sooner we embrace the reality we are in, the sooner we can get back to “normal” and perhaps enjoy the journey a bit more. Take sports for instance. There are all these plans to “restart” professional sports, none…
Proud to co-distribute Michael Moore's documentary Planet of the Humans . You can watch it at https://vimeo.com/408435877 or click play below. PLANET OF THE HUMANS -- FULL VERSION from Jeff Gibbs on Vimeo .
SpaceX Demo-2 Launch by NASA/Joel Kowsky The Curious Case of Elon Musk . Both brilliant and audacious, but equally stubborn and irritable. The idol . Elon has greatly impacted our way of life, from PayPal to Tesla and SpaceX. I’m writing this literally the weekend of the first NASA SpaceX human space flight in 9 years ! An incredible feat that few people thought possible a few years ago. The same…
via Flickr For: Individuals and Society Prescription for COVID-19 (3 Refill s): Science is important, math is important, and nature is real. Continue to learn, think for yourself, and innovate. Critical thinking will help you take better precautions, prepare adequately, reduce panic, and help gauge risk more effectively. Build better safety nets. COVID-19 is the textbook definition of an exogenous…
How did COVID-19 get this bad? People underestimate exponential growth . Taleb and Graham have touted this for a long time for risk taking and startup growth respectively. The data is there, but it is not in our nature to extrapolate nonlinear growth, so it’s hard to believe and we don’t want it to be true. But the truth is that COVID-19 is an incredibly infectious and lethal virus . A related…
People underestimate privacy; so much so, that the value of privacy has become hidden, non-obvious. Why? The public is disillusioned and disinterested, with people holding these typical views: a lack of awareness (or disbelief) of the level of surveillance, they have “nothing to hide,” they assume nothing is private anymore, so what’s the point of being reminded of it? (the futility of privacy),…