strangattractor

As kid in Virginia in the 60s Summer evenings were magical - Lightening Bug galore. Then mosquito spraying began. The mosquitos remained - Lightening Bugs not so much:(

Ultimately it shows how invested these guys are in the rest of us. It's like society gave them the ability to accumulate all this wealth - then they turn and and give society the finger when things look bad.

I love the bunker building. Where is Dario's bunker?

Altman already has a couple I think.

Thiel has gone to Argentina but has a backup in New Zealand (w/ Citizenship).

Zuckerberg just bought an Irish castle (a Medieval bunker of sorts) but probably has others.

Musk probably has plans for a Moon bunker complete with Pleasure-Dome. Investor funded of course. Not sure how cosmic rays affect sperm however.

Brin couild opt for Blimps - imagine floating above the reeks and the wrecks like a Meth from Altered Carbon.

Bezos - does he have a bunker?

You could say similar things about older BMWs. People leave notes on my 2004 Honda CR-V asking if I want to sell. A Honda civic I put on Craigslist took less than hour to sell. Repairability of any used car is becoming increasing problematic. Nursing an old automobile past its prime is becoming a lost art:)

No sane poor person would buy a used Mercedes. Parts and repair would cost more than the car. The only people that would think a $1000 Mercedes is worth it would be rich.

def self_improve_more():

     if self_improved():

          self_improve_more()

     else:

          see_tony_robins_and_buy_tapes()

Post WWII built SV - it has always been the case.

Sometimes I would ask stakeholders about some idea or nifty feature we were considering implementing. The answer was usually positive and enthusiastic. I'd then ask if they would use it and how it would help them. Silence....

Being untethered from reality is the natural state of humans;)

When I originally started in this business it was truly exciting. VC's where the only place to go to fund truly unique companies and products that were highly risky. Disruption was often a byproduct not a goal. The goal now - collect as big a war chest as you can - disrupt something that already exist and may even be working well - own it all because you have the biggest war chest and can.

There are so many VC's and so much money today the demand for "Founders" is high. One way to increase supply is to manufacture what you need - much like Korean K-Pop bands. Band members start in a Bootcamp. They learn to dance and get a vocal coach. As their fan base grows they start to disrupt and displace older bands that are aging out. The industry as a whole does well but individual band may or may not. Do they produce new and innovative music? - meh. Let's face it - a "Founder" with the right fan base can get valuations over a trillion:)

Use of Claude for coding increases the number of commits, merges and pushes. Add in difficulty in getting RAM, Disk Storage and Servers. A dash of high energy prices, data center angst and tariffs. A pinch of diverting resources to all things AI. You get legacy systems that cannot keep up with demand for expansion.

Data centers are the next Dark Fiber from 2000. After VCs and private Equity fund them there will not be sufficient demand because AI will inevitably not entirely live up to all the hype. The fire sale will eventually begin. Then Google, M$, Apple and Amazon will buy them at a discount just like Google snatched up the dark fiber after 2000.

Humans are a bunch of hairless monkeys that have evolved to scam each other rather than hunt and gather food from Nature.

Right on. This only works if you compare it to another extremely aggressively valued company.

If you replaced one CEO that was making 300 times the average salary of an employee - that is equivalent to firing 300 employees. You can have your AI and Reduction in Force without losing all those pesky people with institutional knowledge.