Archive
2021
- The Poverty of Compromise
- Innovation Requires Decentralization and a Frontier
- Don’t Rely on Credibility Stamps
- One Einstein Is Worth A Legion Of PhD Drones
- Ideas Are the New Oil
- Aliens Would Visit for Knowledge, Not Resources
- Aliens Might Just Be Too Far Away
- If You Can’t Program It, You Haven't Understood It
- The Probability of Human Existence Is Infinitesimally Small
- Intelligent Species Have Risen Only Once on Planet Earth
- Where Are the Aliens?
- It’s Mind Blowing That Our Minds Can’t Be Blown
- More Compute Power Doesn’t Produce AGI
- We Are Qualitatively Different From Other Species
- Humans Are Exceptional
- Genetic Evolution Was a Prelude to Memetic Evolution
- There Can Be No Final Theory of Gravity
- No Truth Can Be Justified
- With a Good Theory of Knowledge, You Can Decide What Else Is True
- The Beginning of Infinity
- Rational Optimism Is the Way Out
- Pessimism Seems Like an Intellectually Serious Position
- It’s Easy to Extrapolate How Things Will Get Worse
- We’re All Equal in Our Infinite Ignorance
- It’s Rare to Have Competing, Viable, Scientific Theories
- Science Advances One Funeral at a Time
- Make Bold Guesses and Weed Out the Failures
- Theories Are Explanations, Not Predictions
- Science Is an Error-Correcting Mechanism
- Science Expands Our Vision of Reality
- We Explain the Seen in Terms of the Unseen
- The Multiverse
- Is Light a Particle or a Wave?
- Probability Is Subjective
- We Can’t Prove Most Theorems with Known Physics
- Every Theory Is Held Inside a Physical Substrate
- Is the Universe Discrete or Continuous?
- All Knowledge Is Conjectural
- The Methods of Mathematics Are Fallible
- There Is No Settled Mathematics
- There Is No End of Science
- Good Explanations Are Hard to Vary
- Good Explanations Are Acts of Creativity
- Humans Are Unique in Our Ability to Understand Things
- It’s Impossible to Predict the Growth of Knowledge
- People Are a Force of Nature
- We’re at the Beginning of an Infinity of Knowledge
- Happiness
- Read the Best 100 Books Over and Over Again
- Explanations That Reach the Entire Universe
- Nullius in Verba
- The Beginning of Infinity
- Science Is the Engine That Pulls Humanity Forward
2020
- The Box
- Matt Ridley: How Innovation Works, Part 2
- Matt Ridley: How Innovation Works, Part 1
- How to Angel Invest, Part 2
- Kapil Gupta: Conquering the Mind
- The Path to Peace Is Truth
- Groups Search for Consensus, Individuals Search for Truth
- The Closer You Are to the Truth, the More Silent You Become Inside
- Happiness Is Peace in Motion
- Finding Peace from Mind
- Breaking Addiction Is Socially Unacceptable
- The Modern Struggle Is Fighting Weaponized Addiction
- Work the Least for It
- Being Unhappy Is Extremely Inefficient
- If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?
- Desire Is a Contract You Make to Be Unhappy
- Happiness Is a Skill You Can Develop
- Happiness Is Not Science or Math
- Happiness Without Material Comfort Is Playing on Hard Mode
- Live Long Enough and You’ll Become a Philosopher
- Finding Time to Invest in Yourself
2019
- How to Get Rich
- How to Angel Invest, Part 1
- Externalities: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Products
- Net Present Value: What Future Income Is Worth Today
- Consumer Surplus: Getting More Than You Paid For
- Price Discrimination: Charge Some People More
- Compounding Relationships Make Life Easier
- Turn Short-Term Games Into Long-Term Games
- Schelling Point: Cooperating Without Communicating
- Kelly Criterion: Avoid Ruin
- Principal-Agent Problem: Act Like an Owner
- Envy Can Be Useful, or It Can Eat You Alive
- Being Ethical Is Long-Term Greedy
- We Should All Be Working for Ourselves
- Accountability Means Letting People Criticize You
- Productize Yourself
- There Are No Get Rich Quick Schemes
- A Calm Mind, a Fit Body, a House Full of Love
- Reject Most Advice
- Eventually You Will Get What You Deserve
- Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes
- Escape Competition Through Authenticity
- Keep Redefining What You Do
- Be Too Busy to ‘Do Coffee’
- Work As Hard As You Can
- Set an Aspirational Hourly Rate
- Judgment Is the Decisive Skill
- Example: From Laborer to Entrepreneur
- Pick a Business Model With Leverage
- Product Leverage is Egalitarian
- Product and Media are New Leverage
- Labor and Capital Are Old Leverage
- Take Accountability to Earn Equity
- Embrace Accountability to Get Leverage
- There's No Actual Skill Called “Business”
- The Foundations Are Math and Logic
- Read What You Love Until You Love to Read
- Learn to Sell, Learn to Build
- Specific Knowledge Is Highly Creative or Technical
- Arm Yourself With Specific Knowledge
- Partner With Rational Optimists
- Pick Partners With Intelligence, Energy and Integrity
- Play Long-term Games With Long-term People
- The Internet Has Massively Broadened Career Possibilities
- Give Society What It Doesn't Know How to Get
- Live Below Your Means for Freedom
- You Won't Get Rich Renting Out Your Time
- Make Luck Your Destiny
- Making Money Isn't About Luck
- Free Markets Are Intrinsic to Humans
- Make Abundance for the World
- Seek Wealth, Not Money or Status
- The Need for Indifference
- A Founder's Anxiety
- On Humility
- On Meditation
2013
2010
- There is No Angel Bubble. There are Many Angel Bubbles.
- The Unbundling of the Venture Capital Industry
- Funding Markets Develop in Reverse
- Privacy Violations
- Interview on Entrepreneurship up at GigaOm TV
- Why (Private) Investors are Herd Animals
- Who has time for meetings?
- Venture Hacks Meetup and Panel at SXSW
- Docverse and Mixer Labs exit stage right
- Self-Promotion
- The iPad is imPortant
- Y Combinator vs. Graduate School
- Why You Need to be in Silicon Valley
- Live Appearance
2009
2008
- Users bring you traffic
- Charlie Munger on Getting Ahead
- Warren Buffett on Effort and Value
- Samuel Adams on Freedom
- Keynes on the Currency
- Tumblr customer service blows me away
- Yahoo!'s Search Brand is Done
- New year, new blog
- Perpetual Stimulation Machine
- A User Model for Social Software
- Churchill on Persistence
- Life Formulas I
2007
2006
- Be Chaotic Neutral
- Why We May Think
- Bill Burnham on the future of Google Base
- Vast.com launches Credit Card Search!
- Web 2.0 Meme Wars Begin
- Mobbin'
- Something Vast This Way Comes
- Web 2.0 + Web 2.0 = Web 3.0
- Craigslist is Worth More than EBay
- Dare Microsoft Kill Google? (updated)
- Job Opening at my New Company
- Craigslist takes on Sand Hill Road