SWL Week in Review - who is single?... and steven pinker
More or Less / OF & Rising Temp of Security Issues Online (and offline)
A fun conversation about how great the OF business model is (and why it isn’t likely to be disrupted by AI .. followed by a scary conversion about the very practically rising temp of online and offline security issues stemming from AI… Identity is the only answer, but to restate the debates of the last 20 years of science fiction / who controls it?… and who do you trust with that much power — the Otto von Bismarck question on steroids. & lion NAILS Sneaky Sasquatch apple acquisition!
Hot Takes:
- Single? Let me help! I have several highly eligible 30 and 40 year olds who have shockingly asked if I ‘know anyone’ they should date… so if you are on the market and want my help? Drop me an email to looking@wless.in with relevant details and I will try to match you (insert broader point about niche dating via curated communities in the age of AI) — what do I need to know to set you up? who you are, who you are looking for, as well as key lifestyle questions (where you live mostly, how many hours you work per week really, views on pickleball, did you go to harvard, Stanford, or other, desired age range, how many hours a week do you work out, do you believe in checking luggage, your IG, etc.) — I actually have an AI pipeline setup for matching and will double opt in folks
- The Harvard Crimson on 1636 — nice article/ agree with 95% of the categorization / story — the definitive picture of what we are doing at Harvard evolving out of my overseers campaign. I strongly believe that supportive but fundamentally independent alumni organizations is the best way to actually support universities in 2025 / the modern era…
- Alan Garber, President of Harvard and Influencer.… Harvard’s WILD moment continues ... insights of the week are (a) it is good to see a lot more emails directly from Alan Garber in my inbox — I have been telling leadership there for the last 2 years that an individual MUST step up and run a direct leadership strategy here… and you know I believe in email (b) my caution again for anyone who cares and is listening… DO NOT let pushing back on over-reach from the Trump side open Harvard to being used as a political pawn by the left — I continue to hear and see worrisome signs that some are trying to run that playbook and it must be deeply deeply rejected. The only way forward is to get out of the politics business and back to prioritizing academic excellence…
- Pinker on State of Harvard … I hosted a great fireside with Steven Pinker on the state of Harvard, academic freedom, etc. to his great credit he was YEARS ahead on this and has done as much as anyone to practically do something about it with his efforts around CAF— will share the video next week
- The “Universal Desire for Respect” — someone I really respect sent me a long note about this / reminding me of this (with a lot of concrete examples) — in trying to understand the motivations of individuals / how they respond to incentives inside organizations, etc. so much is talked about money and power — but REALLY for most people the desire for respect is the root of things. I think this framework is helpful in understanding a lot of what is going on at the moment — too many people feel starved for respect (likely not helped by our globalized / transparent world and collapse of local communities) — and too many people are doing wild things knowingly or not to try to build a sense of respect from others.
- Jeremy Liew on VC … sounding off re: what we all know… founders matter, VCs don’t…. Jeremy is great / I think investors have even less of a real impact than he does… especially once the financing market gets efficient / with consensus ideas where you aren’t the difference between funding and not funding, but directionally we are aligned :) … have I mentioned I hate boards :)
- Threats to physical security is the next digital AI warfare frontier — Just like the iron dome / rockets / Yemen — it is just math and economics. AIs making physical threats require resources to figure out if they are real / you can’t just write them off as ‘probably bots’ and that gets cognitively and practically expensive — it is draining in a way that online ‘yelling’ destroying the commons of who you can trust is not (though that is bad as well) - I guess serves us right in some form given that the best way to get AI to do anything for you is to threaten it.
Fondly,
Sam
PS. Is this just my algorithm or is everyone now getting stuff like this… world is getting weird… in kinda an amazing way / but still weird!
P.P.S. Congrats to mr. non-zero inbox bobby g. for launching sunflower & the ego.tech guys for yet another wild crypto launch platform launch.
sam lessin | @lessin | want to talk | podcast | stop | to get added to the mailing list email sl@wless.in
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