Benjamin Franklin - one of 16 siblings - grew up an anon poster - at 25, entrusted to print currency - built and sold a media empire - internationally renown for his hot takes - flourished as a scientist starting in his 50s - helped establish the USA

"To the Vector Belong the Spoils." The Dot and the Line [1965]

w3schools search referral traffic down from 56m->24m over two years

In the late 1980s, Pepsi had the world’s 6th biggest navy - composed of 17 submarines, a frigate, cruiser and destroyer - after taking payment from the Soviet Union for delivery.

Carmack on AI’s impact on tooling

Henry J. Kaiser - started a street-paving business at 16 - built a cement plant to meet demand - landed megaprojects like the Hoover Dam - pivoted to shipbuilding in WWII - opened the first West Coast steel mill - broke into aluminum manufacturing monopolies - drove fast boats -

TIL almost half of US residential transformers are older than me. On average, U.S. residential transformers are past the end-of-life date. New large power transformer lead times stretch 80-120 weeks.

Casually had lunch talking about nuclear power, submarines, and robots. 60yo woman interrupts us to share she worked on patents for the trident missile system and offered to share the manuals she has at home. Only in S.F.

“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.” - Edison

SolveSF is an incredible app that every San Franciscan should have installed. Just photograph any 311 relevant issue, and the app automatically identifies the relevant submission category, drafts a request, and notifies you when resolved.

AI insurance is capitalism’s solution to AI safety risk. Put money behind the claims and incentivize a system to prevent runaway problems.

“Everything is systems, and all systems have bottlenecks. We can have AGI which gives us infinite intelligence, but that only moves the bottlenecks.“ - François Chollet

Tech culture has an age angst that assumes productive years are limited. I believe your prime years start in your 50s and run through your 70s. Everything prior is foundation building.

“Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson