SWL Week in Review - Slop

From:

sam lessin <s@wlessin.com>

To:

Hidden Recipient <hidden@emailshot.io>

Date:

10/10/2025, 7:18 PM(4 hours ago)

More or Less The 7% GDP Growth Problem

Maybe if they keep the GOVT shut down long enough it only needs to be 6%... but IMHO this is the real only story behind the story. Without AI narrative we can't get even close to GDP growth needed to deal with our debt (it is our Chinese housing for computers since we have fewer people..., or higher-minded less violent Ukraine strategy because we don't want to solve the problem by lowering the population?) so if everyone is kinda colluding believing the story, so be it… maybe collective belief is a strategy? . That doesn’t mean AI workloads are going to go up (they obviously will) - but the infra spend isn’t necessarily good business… Also, is there really a ‘SF tech week’? Wut.. a city where every week is tech week (host not-tech-week if you really must). what hotel marketing association genius came up with that…

Hot Takes:

Pot Meet Kettle -- Manual Slop Creators Should Be Worried about AI Slop — this really caused a stir on the internet. Probably my most viral post (by like count, if not distribution in modern twitter — I am convinced I am shadow banned btw)… Megan wrote a great riff on the tweet in the slow creator NL.

But what is ‘Slop’ Anyway? let’s be precise… it is content that has no cognitive neuronal value - it is sugar with no substance… it is cardboard in your intellectual gruel. It is ‘candy bars’ that - in best case just robs your time & doesn’t emotionally or intellectually fill you up.. but in the worst case erodes your mental and physical health. It isn’t new ‘manual slop’ creators have been using cheap parlor tricks to keep you clicking and watching for years as a science… but IA slop is just hading nuclear grenades to everyone… and of course manual slop creators are pissed and scared! This is just the Kardashians anti-tiktok-algorithmic-everyone all over again. It won’t make a bit of difference in history.. but it is a cultural moment and beware if your slop is more expensive to produce than everyone else. And this was the best retort.

Casey’s On The Topic… if you are here you probably know I think he is really one of the great social commentators of our time / has it right. His stuff is the opposite of slop — his video essays consistently make me smarter and better.

Elon is Right, People Don’t Change Their Mind They Just Die — the case against longevity well said by Elon. You know my real frustration with him… half of what he does and stands for I hate … but he is spot on in some key ways.

Though on the Flip Side - I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon… — this is a place Elon is wrong — and a friend reminded me of this great sesame street song — legitimately brought me back watching it to childhood — I probably saw this countless times / know every word and haven’t thought about it in probably 35+ years. There were serious benefits to broadcast media.

Cashing in The Student ‘Rebellion’ I am going to say Ayn Rand and you are almost certainly going to retort oh please you middle schooler… or ‘John Galt’s speech is too long’ — but I have been reading her essay on the Student rebellion in the 1960s and it is amazing … could have been written yesterday about what we are seeing && honestly if I worked for some very bad people looking to undermine the USA it is an incredible explanation of what was really going on then (and is now)

AGM Season Reflections for us is this week — always nice that it comes right after jewish holidays. First we reflect morally on the year and the year ahead, and then we reflect professionally… what matters? Knowing the difference between great founders at their right moment and ‘good’, and ‘important problems’… anarchist platforms, voyght-kamp / ways to stay sane in the AI era, keeping the digital world in sync with reality, purpose and place. The rest is just commentary.

Merit First Stepping Out — and of course morals and business do intersect glad to see merit first announcing their funding (slow and 8vc) to open up the talent funnel and focus on excellence that can come from anywhere, especially these days.

The Tennis Robot Plays With You, So Your Friends Can Work — the high minded thing people like ‘robots do the work so we can play with our friends’ — but then people start making the tennis robot so you can play without friends. I get it, but in terms of loneliness this is far worse than doom scrolling IMHO… the robots play with us so we can do the work.

Good job Princeton bringing back the SAT — what a COVID misadventure that was… NYT on Harvard’s issue on academic rigor went viral this week (on this one trust the NYT, I know it is mostly a cooking and gaming business now but this is right) — and here is 1636 on what to do.

Best,
Sam

P.S. Congrats to Yoni on his promotion at slow… and well played on how he got it done. — if you want to climb ladders in venture you gotta be pretty scrappy TBH. Pls make money thx.

P.P.S hat tip to Trump for the middle east. Maybe this nixon madman thing works?

P.P.P.S and of course to Bari as well... pls do good... and glad so many people hate it -- if you have no haters you probably aren't trying hard enough

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