Things I'm Optimistic About in the Future
Keeping a list on trends + technologies I’m personally inspired by, optimistic about, and potentially want to work on in the future.
Tech + Startups
I grew up near the bay but wasn’t really exposed to tech and startups until college. I got obsessed with reading stuff on early Quora and figured it’d be more exciting to try building new things for the world instead of pushing numbers around aimlessly in finance.
- Patrick Collison’s repo on important things built fast
- Apple and Steve Jobs releases the first iPhone
- Jeff Bezos 1997 letter to shareholders on long-term value
- Opendoor: A Startup Worth Emulating by Ben Thompson
- Everyone’s favorite: Paul Graham’s essays
- Sriram Krishan’s repo on tech memos
- The Making of Amazon Prime
- Choosing Good Quests
- Facebook’s Little Red Book on Culture
AI, ML, and Data
My first gig out of college was at Amazon working on analytics and I’m not sure why but I fell deeply in love with pulling data with SQL, figuring out what’s going through analytics, and I have a lot of fun making predictions about things (for fun or in actual systems).
- OpenAI crushes OG at DotA2
- Google DeepMind beats Pros in SC2
- Wait But Why: The AI Revolution
- Opendoor’s secret sauce: AI
- TikTok and the Sorting Hat - Eugene Wei
- Target Figured Out A Teen Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did
- OpenAI trains GPT-3
- Dataclysm - OkCupid Dating Trends
- Algorithms to Live By: 37% Rule for the Optimal Stopping Problem
- Facebook CICERO learns Diplomacy
- Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny
- 81 year old tries a self-driving car for the first time
Crypto
Basically all of my time growing up was spent on internet forums like Niketalk, Superfuture, and Hypebeast reading about streetwear and sneakers, playing video games like DotA (Allstars*), managing fantasy basketball and football teams, or just shitposting on Tumblr. Speculation aside, crypto reminds me of my childhood on the internet. Collecting is fun. Open, transparent, and permissionless applications and data are good for the world.
- THE STREET DOES NOT REALLY EXIST and NFTS and the Next Internet
- Venezuela makes use of crypto as supplement for currency
- The slow death of the firm and potential for decentralized orgs
- Collect is the new like
- Humanness in the Age of AI
- Hayden Adams laid off, learns to program, and builds Uniswap
- Soulbound tokens as an alternative method for representating who you are
- Hal Finney on crypto trading cards in 1993
- Balajis on decentralized task creation
- FWB: Social Club Runs on Crypto Tokens and Vibes
- Paul Krugman gets blocked on Venmo
Health, Fitness, Longevity
Pushing the limits of the human body and living longer is good for the world. Eliud Kipchoge and Lebron James are major inspirations.
- Eliud Kipchoge breaks the 2-hour marathon barrier
- David Goggins on the 40% rule and pushing yourself further
- Moderna finalizes sequence for SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine in 3 days
- Bryan Johnson’s personal biohacking “Blueprint” on increasing longevity
- NBA uses Oura Ring biometrics for early onset signal for COVID
- The world is getting much, much better - Vox
Housing, Urbanism, and Cities
Living in dense cities and being closer to my friends makes me happy. Suburban sprawl is bad for climate. Owning a car feels like a waste of money.
- Paul Graham: Cities and Ambition
- The Housing Theory of Everything
- Culdesac building car-free neighborhoods
- Balajis on How to Start a New Country
Space
I’m a total newb here but I want to learn more about this in the coming years. Send me your reading lists for space!