SWL Week in Review - Appeasement

From:

sam lessin <s@wlessin.com>

To:

Hidden Recipient <hidden@emailshot.io>

Date:

7/17/2026, 4:02 PM

MORE OR LESS: AI IS NOW A GAME OF OPEN SOURCE + POLITICS

Over the last two weeks on More or Less we discussed Altman’s cynical proposal for regulatory capture, GLM 5.2, and open source… what happens when spend on AI goes from ‘experimental budgets’ to actual deployment with ROI conversations… and the narrow path where the big labs can actually charge a premium on matrix multiplication vs. just turning what should be open business and competition into a government nexus of too big to fail + margin-through-value-destroying-regulatory-capture… when do the government relations people start getting poached with 10 figure comp packages… Last Week, and This week... I remember when the tech world discovered DC and was trying to figure it out / how the game worked... seems like in this era they are all in for the game.

HOT TAKES :

The Ten People I Actually Listen To — there is a running joke with friends that I am ‘impervious to feedback’ (you tell others that feedback is a gift, … for them). That said, the honest reality is that I do actually listen to SOME people (I just don’t care what the vast majority of people and certainly people on the internet think) — This last week I actually wrote out the list of 10 people I really do listen to (and care about their opinions)… and then another half dozen or ‘on deck’ — it is a good exercise to do / I recommend it to folks. Or, if you are one of those crazy people who actually take feedback from everyone, at least do the inverse and name the 10 people you know that you definitely don’t take feedback from.

Who is MAXXing it? — this was the best business concept of the week… courtesy of Jack in our Creator Fund Partner meeting…. We are always discussing what is a real cult / community vs. just content / media. Jack added this to our ‘memo’ concept… if someone isn’t maxxing it n 2026 (from retardmaxx to looksmaxx) then it probably isn’t really a cult…. Just think of Siddhartha Gautama. Or ‘who is the clavicular of philanthropy?’

Is It Possible Hollywood Didn’t Die… It Just Became Everything? We have a star system who can open movies / startups… we have a studio system where you have to align with and sell things to SpaceX, Anthropic, NVIDIA, Google, Apple, etc. things are valued by what a buyer will pay vs. cashflows… everything is story and multiple… did Hollywood die, or just become the entire economy?

Appeasement Never Works — we are in an era of ‘tech appeasement’… the labs / big platforms trying to appease the government… tech folks going all in on ‘we need normal Americans to be gifted equities’ etc… all this sucks… capitalism and open competition is great, with standard rules, that encourage people to compete aggressively and fairly and creatively to win — but as much as people love saying things like ‘if you don’t like the rules of the game change them’ … the reality is that changing rules is exactly what pisses everyone off and makes people give up the games (and makes the game seem arbitrary anyway, which destroys the right of winners to feel good about winning AND stops everyone from wanting to play)… we do need a ‘new deal in America’ — but it needs to be based on what we do, opportunity, trustworthy consistent rules, open playing field… and the RIGHT to win — not some ‘everyone gets to be a winner’ (which they don’t) socialist mercantilist bull-crap. … separation of church and state and property. — and the American Trifecta.

Peptides — A few years ago I got on trying Jennifer Anniston’s 'collagen peptides’ you mix in a drink.. and serious people said ‘they aren’t real peptides / can’t be because you don’t inject them… fine… I have no need for GLP-1s.. but I also am down to experiment, so I am trying KGLOW and 1295… why not? I will let you know how they go. Do I know what these things are… no not really, but claude thinks it is fine so whatever.

Chemical Pathways > Intellectual Ones & The Use-Case for Vox Americanus — My ‘prove you have a US driver’s license’ network — is interesting… thx to those that have signed up and tested… App is coming soon (I am using it)… I am still trying to figure out what / if any content can exist there that really can’t or doesn’t fit well on other networks. The payoff of good authentic conversations with real Americans and no spam / etc. real insight and reaction is a classic one where ‘theory makes sense’ but the dopamine pathways don’t get hit hard enough for anyone to make a chance (which is why things like porn and gambling work so well for ‘new’ paths / getting people to move to a new platform!)… Threads pulled it off with MASSIVE built in distribution and perfectly timed launch — but if you want to boot a social product outside and have it win, you need to feed a deep chemical pathway … and those are hard to find. It isn’t an intellectual thing / it is chemical.

Apple’s USB-C Cable Sale Strategy — I am a fan of USBC (probably the only good thing Europe has done this decade)… BUT there is this hilarious and annoying cable problem / some are power only, some are power and data but shitty speed, etc. They all look the same, it is impossible to know which cable is which and when things are broken vs. you just have the wrong wire… enter Apple’s intentional or unintentional strategy… the $80 cable…. Which I have now bought several of because it is guaranteed to work… not sure if on purpose or not, but by completely confusing the wire market, it allows them to sell the most expensive piece of wire per-inch in the world. Well done.

“Where is the Adidas section… in the Nike Store” — my OH tween quote of the week… this explains everything. I would still be long nike / the brand is just so amazing… but boy did they royally screw up.

Send Slow Your Fancy Boxes — in a shocking twist of fate I went to our NYC office and found that unlike normal firms who have fancy legos built on display in their office, our team decided to just buy the legos and display the boxes / skip the build — hilarious… makes me think there should be a market in premium item / signaling ‘boxes’ for things — get the fancy watch, just sell the box… also reminds me of probably the most mortifying event of my young life when I gave a girl at school l’secret Santa’ a huge Tiffany’s box I found in our basement… and inside was a $2 bouncy ball. Lol. She was not pleased.

Best,

Sam

P.S. this book about ‘zero’ is pretty good… and pretty interesting how the ‘west’ view of the world and progress has a problem with zero and infinity.

P.P.S welcome back presidential fitness program & this made me laugh

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