"It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so."
- Oppenheimer
1,927 karma · joined February 7, 2026
- Oppenheimer
> Four times a year, we put a hand-picked group of YC's enterprise-AI founders in a room with buyers who can actually run a pilot. Fall 2026 kicks off on October 22 in San Francisco.
Hi Claude!
I wonder how many of the companies understood this is what Tesla was doing, and recognized the risk inherent in their position.
And that's why you're not making $400,000+/month passively. Only a select few have the ambition and drive to be a part of this. That's OK.
You can already do this. And you can build pipelines where AI performs fact checks on what it writes, with citations a human can reference as well.
I think you vastly overestimate the "interest" a swipe represents. A significant number of people swipe out of boredom and a lot of swipes are mistakes.
Demand.
Old-school dating was like cocaine and the swiping-oriented apps are crack. It doesn't mean there would be no demand for an old-school OKC clone but it's a niche play and given Match Group's dominance, the capital you'd need to invest to compete would be significant.
Except that you can look at all of the firings the current administration has been behind and the pattern does not suggest that they are intended to remove people who were incompetent.
To the contrary, the large number of reductions (and forced retirements) suggests that the administration is trying to remove political opponents and people who are "disloyal" to it, and to generally weaken institutions that the administration doesn't like or feels threatened by.
This is especially visible in the military:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/military-leaders-fired-forced-o...
I think it's interesting that so many technologists today apparently hold a world view in which technology developments that could drive a "bleak" societal outlook can still be described as "positive".
In the final analysis, isn't technology supposed to benefit society? Isn't that the point?
It has absolutely nothing to do with being "strong" versus "weak".
Under your steel-man, someone who is anxious-avoidant could appear very independent and therefore "strong" even though they are struggling inside.
Do you think Americans have a taste for invading China?
> * the target (Iran) is situated next to US allies which also happen to be hugely important as oil producers/exporters
China itself is the factory of the world, the world's second largest economy and America's third largest trading partner. It doesn't even have to strike surrounding countries to take aim at the US economy. Yes, that would hurt China too, but China has been preparing for this and the COVID supply chain shock in the US was just a small taste of what life could be like for Americans who are used to being able to buy everything under the sun for cheap at Walmart or on Amazon.
> * the target can also threaten a hugely important global shipping channel - the Strait of Hormuz
About a fifth of maritime trade goes through the Taiwan Strait. It's also one of the world's most important global shipping channels.
> * the target has prepared for this action for years if not decades, and has good-enough drone technology to hand to threaten its neighbours and the Strait of Hormuz
China has been preparing for a Taiwan contingency in earnest for well over two decades, with a particular focus on the A2/AD capabilities needed to keep the US from establishing superiority in a relatively small area.
The US on the other hand, spent 20 years chasing goat herders and insurgents and is now trying to reorient itself back to preparation for major power conflict. Which is a huge challenge when China is, for example, has an estimated shipbuilding capacity that's 100+ times greater than America's.
Don't get me wrong. The US still obvious has a very powerful military, but it has been trying to be be all things for all conflicts in all places. China has been laser-focused on a military that can accomplish just a few things.
> Iran is/was far more a strategic blunder which could/should have been foreseen, than a sign of America's weakness.
You're treating an inability to strategize as a strategic blunder and not weakness. You should reconsider that. Because it's the very thing that has caused the US to fail at achieving its long-term strategic aims in basically all but one of the significant conflicts it has been involved in since the end of WW2.
> In particular, China does not have anything like the US Navy to project power in the way that the US still can.
In a Taiwan contingency, China doesn't have to. China is just ~100-150 miles away from its target. Again, it has spent more than 2 decades investing in A2/AD capabilities for that specific contingency.
1. In Iran alone, the US has depleted stocks of some of its most advanced and important weapons systems.
2. The US does not have the manufacturing capacity for an extended conflict (China does) and the US is in fact dependent on Chinese components and raw materials.
3. As it relates to a China contingency in the Taiwan Strait: the Strait is ~140 miles at its widest point, and the Chinese have spent 20+ years investing in A2/AD capabilities. Given the state of the US military right now, it's hard to see how the US could overcome China's geographic advantage.
4. Our most important allies don't trust us (and we're even threatening some of them) so don't expect them to help.
5. Some of the most experienced and competent military leaders have been pushed out by an unqualified alcoholic who is more interested in how many pushups the cannon fodder can do than he is in how many ships America can build.
Iran has exposed many limitations and weaknesses in America's defense capabilities, and it's a fraction of the threat China is.
We have 0 carrier strike groups in the Indo-Pacific right now.
The dangerous situation we are in is that the US is berating and betraying its closest historical allies, eroding its credibility and soft power, and weakening its leverage at a time when threats to the Western order that has existed since the end of WW2 are growing rapidly.
Incidentally, the orange man in charge loves to tout "deals" in which foreign countries agree to invest substantial sums in the US, so any actions that lead foreign countries to believe their investments might be nationalized banana republic-style won't help the administration's efforts to attract investment and onshoring.
This task might have been the sexiest work available at Meta, and there's nothing average about a guy that can single-handedly "process" 2,973 porn vids.
If Mark ever needs a right hand, this man is it.
So is this what Zuck's bunker in Hawaii is all about?
Maybe an ethically bankrupt company with a "move fast and break things" ethos looking for exactly the plausible deniability your comment hints at?
It depends what "nicer" means. Paying a web designer/developer to create a bespoke website doesn't guarantee that said website will have a better UI/UX and, most importantly, "convert" at a higher rate. Not every web designer/developer understands IA, content, performance optimization, etc.
The popular AI tools produce websites that are clearly AI-produced if you know the patterns, but that doesn't mean they can't be usable and quite effective at converting. And if you have a bit of skill with prompting, AI can be really good at working through performance bottlenecks, etc.
Price per square foot tends to go up the smaller the home and the types of homes older people prefer (single-level, near hospitals, newer/lower maintenance) are in higher demand so they're also harder to find and more expensive.
Transaction costs (agent commissions, closing costs, moving) can be 8-10% of a sale. The capital gains exclusion is only $250,00 for singles and $500,000 for couples, so if you're sitting on big gains, a sale can come with a significant tax bill. In places like California, where assessment caps like Prop 13 keep property taxes low, buying a new home means that you could end up paying more in property tax on a much cheaper home. If you move into a condo, you have to deal with HOA fees. And so on.
Renting isn't always easy either. Senior independent communities can be really expensive (under some models you even have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars up front) and even if you just rent a regular apartment, you need to compare the rents to drawdowns. $400,000 (the median net worth for 65–74 year-olds) provides $16,000/year at a 4% draw. The median rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in the US is somewhere between $1,200-$1,500.