Latest posts

  • Why Build When Everything Keeps Breaking?

    Why Build When Everything Keeps Breaking?

    I was flying through traffic riding shotgun with one of my students. His father was a high-ranking officer in the Colombian military, which meant he drove an official military vehicle. It had lights, the kind that flash blue and tell everyone on the road to clear a path. They exist for emergencies. His emergency was getting us to lunch through rush hour traffic. So we ran the lights, weaving past everyone obeying the rules.

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  • The gentlest threat I ever received

    The gentlest threat I ever received

    A man I was about to go into business with pulled me aside to explain how he was going to cheat me. He said it calmly, without any visible discomfort, the way you’d explain a change to a dinner reservation.

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  • Russia

    Russia

    Part 1 of a series on building companies in low-trust environments.

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  • Connection Happens in the Kitchen

    Connection Happens in the Kitchen

    I spend a lot of time thinking about what holds its value as AI pervades everything. The list is short. Near the top are the people who’d pick up the phone if you called. This is a piece about how to stumble on those people, which turns out not to be the way you’d expect.

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  • Postcards from Brunei

    Postcards from Brunei

    I just got back from Brunei, where I spent a week running an AI-focused entrepreneurship program. This was my first time in Southeast Asia, so I was going in blind. What I got was a week of wonderfully spicy food, genuinely warm people, and a country full of surprises. If I get the chance to return (and […]

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  • The $100M Business Where No One Can Work

    The $100M Business Where No One Can Work

    My friend manages intellectual property for a British semiconductor company. He’s the “China guy”—handles the accounts there, flies out to Shenzhen three to four times a year. He’s been making the trip for the last three years. One day, he was visiting a customer and immediately sensed that something was off.

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