Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp

Venkatesh Rao ☀️

@vgr

494 Following
129160 Followers
Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
This year is happening faster than I am able to prepare for it. I've filled 1/3 of an XL Moleskine since December (a burst of notebook-ing after a long time) but it still feels like events are unfolding faster. Speaking of, I find I really think better at 7"x9" than on 5.25"x8.5"
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Ethereum really is a dark forest huh
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
“Most cities forbid modular construction, precisely as it avoids the use of union construction workers. “ https://open.substack.com/pub/johnhcochrane/p/40-bad-ideas-and-a-few-good-ones
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Something very on-the-nose about investing 500b to build AI infrastructure and calling it “Stargate” A bit like Reagan “Star Wars” or Japan’s “5th gen computing” Great tech enters history obliquely. Cul de sacs start in on-the-nose ways, even if they achieve great heights. Eg internet as arpanet was oblique, space program that stagnated with Apollo was on-the-nose. Crypto was oblique, “private blockchains,” CBDCs and e-ID schemes are on-the-nose. The Alexnet genesis event and transformers were oblique, “alignment” tech is on the nose. Landing reusable boosters was oblique. SLS is on-the-nose. On-the-nose history-making goals are for politicians. Tech is most interesting when oblique. In the last decade SV tech in particular has lost its obliquity. Ironically, it now seems to start with ever-more ideological manifestos the way weak “alt” tech visions used to. Big money is always insecure so goes on-the-nose. The small money p,aging on the margins otoh is worth keeping an eye on.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Food for thought https://github.com/matthiasn/talk-transcripts/blob/master/Hickey_Rich/HammockDrivenDev.md
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Fuckit I’m going to go full waterfall and sit and think for a while. This agile do-to-think iteration-learning bullshit isn’t working. Analysis paralysis beats thrashing around in falsestartopia.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Caesar: “Let me have men about me who are fat Sleek-headed men such as sleep o’ nights Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look Such men are dangerous” — Julius Caesar Which kind are you? I’m getting fat, haven’t been sleeping well, have been thinking too much but not getting more dangerous Is this aging 🦋?
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Why does it feel like everything is in KTLO mode
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
“Mystery balls” are “fatbergs” ‘The first batch of debris in October were at first mistakenly called "tar balls" but were later found to contain everything from cooking oil and soap scum molecules, to blood pressure medication, pesticides, hair, methamphetamine and veterinary drugs. Scientists said they resembled fat, oil and grease blobs - often called "fatbergs" - which are commonly formed in sewage systems.’ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpql7wdz5vyo
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I suppose there’s no way to stop the flood of stuff like this? après nous le flot de nous
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Nooo… “land” is keypairs not domains served by substack https://open.substack.com/pub/on/p/now-is-the-time-for-creators-to-build?r=1cjha&utm_medium=ios
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Uber is pitching me “top trending groceries” Netflix’s Home Screen now looks like Temu with garish red flags for “new episode” and “coming soon” Trump is shilling shitcoins We’re building up to some sort of enshittification crescendo
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Pet peeve: Shows that give the main protagonist very specific music tastes and then have a lot of slow mood music scenes to establish and develop character. Just give the character a funky hat and catchphrase. Don’t put me to sleep.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
If some one ever tells you: “I taught you everything you know, but not everything I know,” the correct comeback is “I learned everything you taught, but it wasn’t everything I learned.”
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Watching Cross. A bit grimdark and too real. A bit like a black version of Bosch but darker. Bosch was lightened by its stylish noir vibes.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I had a random 1-page static site on netlify on a subdomain I own, and deleted it a few weeks ago, but forgot to delete the DNS record pointing to Netlify. Today I got an alert from Google saying the site had been "hacked." When I went to it, it was a framed version of ESPN India. My domain name account seems secure... I deleted the subdomain record. But can someone explain what happened? For a couple of weeks I guess the subdomain record was pointing to Netlify but Netlify wasn't serving it. SO.... someone hijacked it somehow?
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Patting myself on the back for predicting the robotics boom 4 years ago and actually for once placing a non-trivial bet by instigating the @yak rover project along with @ic @anurajenp @rhettg and @cluckie (with ongoing cameos by others). Given how slow we are as a part-time/hobby scale group, without the long head start we wouldn’t even be in the game otherwise. That said, the sheer size and speed of the boom, with the number of players (startups, big companies, flush academic labs) and amount of money being poured in, it’s really hard for a non-profit group of hobbyists (esp older, later-career types without as much free time) to stay meaningfully in the game. And solo makers are also roaring along with very ambitious and time-intensive personal projects that might as well be full-time startups. There’s a part of me that wants to just take a year sabbatical off from everything else I’m involved in to just do robotics.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The loneliness epidemic is getting out of hand https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjv4lz7g57o
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
In the Bronze Age they used Bitcoin. Hammurabi was a bitcoin maxi.
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