NYC @usv aweissman.com aweissman.xyz
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“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running - that’s the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea out there” - Jack Kerouac
fucking magnificent
"It is style that makes us believe in a thing" - Oscar Wilde
Last week at an event I got to hear Michael Dempsey from Compound talk about "in-distribution" (familiar) and "out-of distribution" (novel) ideas, and how AI plays into this. He wrote it up as an essay yesterday (with a great lede): "The human condition is romantic. We tightly guard and appreciate the idea that we are all unique, each with our own novelty running through our veins and shooting out of each electrical charge from our neurons firing. We as humans are connected because we have both thought what others have thought and only think what no others have ever thought. The concept of some form of heightened superintelligence threatens this. LLMs broadly take the collective thoughts of humanity and shine a mirror on those writing prompts, spitting out an answer that could lead to a given person learning that perhaps so many others have thought everything we have thought. And we will likely learn, that that's okay in some regards" https://mhdempsey.substack.com/p/in-distribution-vs-out-of-distribution
One of the ways that USV operates as a thesis driven firm is to consider (and publish) our investment approach (theses) as succinct statements that are sets of dynamic (as opposed to static) words, for example: edge large transform technological and societal pressures This way, not only do we get to have continual conversations about what those words mean ("What is edge anyway, Jared?") but more importantly (much much more importantly, in fact), the world gets to tell us whenever they want however they want - what they actually think those words mean. This is our process of continual dialogue - and continual learning. Never stop listening and learning.
fantastic
really interesting essay from Jerry Neumann suggesting that slower adoption markets are where startups thrive: "I would argue, in fact, that almost all of the conditions, aside from relative advantage, that cause very fast adoption of a new product work against startups. Slower adoption is caused by uncertainty, after all, and uncertainty is the place where entrepreneurs thrive. If a new product is compatible, not complex, trialable, etc., as well as being a good business proposition, established companies will be quick to bring it to market or be fast followers. This, unfortunately, means that the best strategic position may requires startups to endure slower adoption rates" https://reactionwheel.net/2024/10/the-illusion-of-acceleration.html