Semper esurientem.
This is my 4-year investment update following buying the dip on pandemic stocks that declined (70%+) in 2022, then reallocating into AI stocks in 2023. I started sharing public updates once a year. Data in this update is as of June 2026. This will be a relatively short update since my thesis is relatively unchanged. [ ]
I finally hit 1,000 days of doing math daily! Early on in my journey I was a lot more aggressive with my XP targets, but settled into a low-volume rhythm as my goals evolved. I worked from MF1 (Math Foundations 1, lowest level) into MF3, then about halfway through MF3 I started M4ML (Mathematics for [ ]
Over the last few months I went deep burning ~$1,000/month on tokens building various agent-native products and trying new things. I finally realized what agent-native means through trial and error. I couldn t believe how simple it was. I ll explain the gist here to save you the hassle, and hopefully you ll use it to build something [ ]
HaaS will be the new SaaS but we ll still call it SaaS because it s all just software. I had this realization when I tried using GPT Codex and Gemini in Cursor with plan mode. Opus/Sonnet are insanely good with Cursor plan mode, but Codex/Gemini are pretty bad in that harness. What I learned is that the [ ]
The AI boom is exciting, there s so much opportunity and so much to build at the application layer. But the question is: what to build? Two theses I ve seen for AI application startups: On the first one, I don t consider luck a strategy. This could work, but as a founder I d have a hard time [ ]
Most of my experience with AI had been retrofitting: Incorporating AI into existing software and codebases. Yeah, what a mess. I imagine it s like it was trying to electrify existing factories. The habits, workflows, assumptions, etc. were just too different. Contrast that with starting a new project with AI so everything is AI-native and code [ ]
If AI isn’t writing 50%+ of your code by the end of the year, you’re moving too slow and you’ll get lapped by the next competitor who does. The bar will be 90%+ soon after (for me it s over 99%). Sonnet 4.5 changed the game There may have been an excuse before, but not since [ ]
TL;DR Time-based estimates don’t make sense when your pair programmer is an AI. So, I switched to ETM (estimated tokens to merge). It’s the agent’s token budget to design, implement, and polish a feature until it’s merge-ready. Doing that helped flip to more of an AI native, agent first mindset that s helping me embrace a [ ]
The biggest bet in tech right now isn t a deliberate decision, but rather the result of company cultures that were a benefit until they weren t. The result? Apple and Amazon will miss AI like Intel missed mobile. Tim Cook and Andy Jassy CEOs of Apple and Amazon both agree that AI is a paradigm shift, [ ]
This is my 3-year investment update following buying the dip on pandemic stocks that declined (70%+) in 2022. I started sharing public updates 1-2 times a year. Data in this update is as of June 2025. In early 2023 I built one of the first AI products at my company and my head exploded with [ ]
Heuristic ([H]) or bot ([B]) contests are a killer way to improve your programming, problem-solving, and prototyping skills. It s best to just dive in and focus on rapid improvement. Here are my notes from this tweet storm on the topic, credit to Psyho for the insights. Getting started & mindset Essential skills Touch typing Make [ ]
I was having trouble charging my phone (iPhone 12 Pro Max) yesterday and wondered how old it was. It s 5 years old 🤯 I was shocked, that s the longest I ve ever had a phone. Before this one I was on the Apple upgrade program for years, so I got a new phone every year. Then [ ]
I recently crossed 500 days of practicing math daily with Math Academy. I wrote about my experience after 100 days here. TL;DR: I am still very impressed by the Math Academy system and highly recommend it, but you get out of it what you put in. My consistency has been exceptional, but my volume has [ ]
I ve been consistently impressed with how fast new, AI-native companies are growing. Cursor is a great example: Cursor isn t alone here. I ve noticed a few things consistent between them that ll inform new products I build going forward. 3 keys to successful products Solving distribution (the hard part) The distribution angle resonates since I was listening [ ]
I bought the dip on several pandemic stocks that had significant declines (70%+) in 2022 and started sharing public updates 1-2 times a year. In Q3 2023 I began reallocating into AI-related stocks when I developed strong conviction. I m also working on a self-funded AI startup, which keeps me in the loop. Returns have been [ ]
Historically, startups had an innovation advantage because incumbents were slow to adopt new technologies. The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation. ~ Alex Rampell On the surface, AI seems different from past secular trends like mobile because incumbents are readily adopting it. [ ]
For context, I bought several pandemic stocks following the dip in 2022. Previous updates: TL;DR I planned on holding those stocks for a few years, but ended up parlaying into AI when I developed strong conviction. I m also working full-time on an AI startup now. The returns have given me the runway to work on [ ]
Update: We shutdown POPSMASH. Our idea was innovative, but we moved too slow since it was a side project and established competitors quickly copied our AI features. We could have doubled down, but with AI moving so fast, the premise of AI quizzes isn t viable long-term. My co-founder and I also had some personal events [ ]
Olivia Moore recently posted a thread on Twitter about retention in AI consumer products: It got my wheels turning, forcing me to flesh out my intuitions and assumptions about retention with consumer AI products. Retention differs by era 📈 Consumer retention differs by era but always ties to what that era uniquely enabled. For example, [ ]
TL;DR Today, consumers are overwhelmed by choice. Aggregators help curate this choice and own demand by doing so better than anyone else. But AI is intelligence, and intelligence creates things. Products, services, songs, movies, experiences, you name it. There will be orders of magnitude more choices than there are today. So what s a human to [ ]
In the past, disruption was about whether or not incumbents adopt new technologies. It went something like this: Degree, not adoption But with AI, it s not about adoption. Adopting AI is table stakes. The danger for incumbents is the degree of AI adoption. It s easy to superficially integrate AI to claim you have an AI strategy. However, [ ]
AI is a great marketing term to describe your product, but setting out to build AI products often leads to poor results. Why build AI products? AI gives us all a generational opportunity to reinvent every industry—especially in industries where incumbents are predicated on pre-AI assumptions and can t adapt without destroying their current business. There s [ ]
Update: See my daily math streak progress here 👈 I recently passed 100 days of practicing math every single day 💯 I ve wanted to beef up my math chops for a while, but I needed a good reason that would justify the time investment. Plus, it s always easier to learn when you have a clear [ ]
I used WordPress for over 15 years — it s a solid tool if you need everything it offers. But what if you want to switch to a lower-cost, lower-maintenance, more secure setup? Here s how to do it. The motivation Until recently, I built WordPress-related software, so I maintained a dozen WordPress sites to ensure I used [ ]
This is a list of questions I ve collected over the years that resonate with my business and product philosophies. Most are not original and were collected from or inspired by various books, articles or talks. These primarily apply to tech businesses, but every business must become a tech business to some extent to thrive these days. The [ ]
I am sharing this since this may not be common knowledge for some: Due to the current high-interest rates, you ll earn much more on your savings in a money market account compared to a standard savings account. Examples Current Bank of America savings yield is ~0.01%, while for Vanguard s money market fund (VMFXX) it s 5.29%. [ ]
I was only planning on giving annual updates but opted to give this 18-month update, given the changes I made a couple of months ago to rebalance my portfolio. As a recap, I bought several pandemic stocks following the dip in 2022. I gave a 1-year update in mid-2023 here. I planned on holding all of [ ]
This post was prompted by Li Jin s piece stating that the barrier to crypto s mainstream adoption is product-market fit: I believe that the more significant and urgent barrier to adoption is building things that people want. Web3 has a product-market fit problem, not a UX problem. Li Jin, The Barrier to Mainstream Crypto Adoption Isn’t UX — [ ]
Remember the .mobi domain? It distinguished the mobile internet from the regular internet. But now it s all just the internet. It s the norm. The same thing is happening with AI. AI was already everywhere, including in things we use daily, like autocomplete. However, technological improvements enabled an explosion in capabilities that became accessible to consumers [ ]
Last year there was a post asking what folks were doing to profit from the current/upcoming recession on Hacker News. I replied that I purchased some pandemic stocks, which I started doing in April 2022. Most of my purchasing was through summer 2022, but I ve bought others more recently, like Carvana on the dip in [ ]
There s a question on Hacker News about what people were doing to profit from the current/upcoming recession in 2022. I responded about the investments I made earlier in the year. Below is the response in full, plus answers to a couple of follow-up questions I received. During the last recession (GFC), I did well with [ ]
On Hacker News I came across a thread with some good insight into app developer experience at Shopify: The interesting thing about app ecosystems is that, in a way, they’re similar to social networks from a creator perspective: App developers and creators are trying to build a following/customer base on a new platform. For example, [ ]
A recent article on Stratechery connected a few dots for me on digital transformations and how tech evolves. I’m a fan of Notion. Lately, I’ve been playing with the Bulletproof Workspace template. I now better understand why people are building on Notion. The interesting thing about Notion and Airtable is they are part of another [ ]
WordPress is the largest CMS in the world, powering ~1/3 of all websites. The WordPress editing experience hasn t changed much in over a decade and Gutenberg now aims to completely reinvent it. That s a big deal. It won t be easy, but here s 1) why it s worth it and 2) what it means for page builders. [ ]
I didn’t start working in tech until my late 20’s. I’ve always been interested in it, doing everything from building websites to building computers to get the edge in computer games as a kid in the 90’s. But my tech career didn’t start until late into my military career after college. College My college experience [ ]