will o’brien

wrote about @Willob, cowboys, robot sharks, & the american frontier for broadsheet broadsheet.world/p/will-obrien

My first interview with @Brian_Armstrong, Co-Founder and CEO of @Coinbase. 0:25 Crafting narratives 2:28 Bias towards action 4:06 Biggest calls in Coinbase’s history 5:53 Developing intuition for making big bets 7:30 Getting truth out of people 10:04 Being anti-authority 12:30 The 3 levels of communication 14:39 Practicing to pitch w Paul Graham in 2012 16:55 Working w Fred Ehrsam 20:33 Hashing out bad decisions in the early days 22:23 Having a scarcity mentality around people 23:31 Action produces information 27:34 “If you wait for perfect clarity, you’re never going to get anything done” 31:45 Uber vs Lyft in crypto 34:23 Building trust 36:30 Advancing the mission of Coinbase 38:33 Skillsets: fundraising, storytelling, recruiting, sales 40:10 Prediction markets and AI generated content 43:58 How he operates differently than other big startup CEOs 45:18 Solving his greatest fear 48:09 Burnout and running at a marathon pace 51:20 Experiencing pain 54:32 Hiking and getting out in nature 56:54 It’s always wartime 58:58 Defining moments of crisis 1:05:35 Finding the next marching post 1:07:18 Installing ideas in people’s minds 1:10:25 The power of bringing people together over dinner 1:13:00 Action produces action 1:14:10 Backing founders outside of Coinbase 1:15:45 Scheduling 4 week long-long vacations a year 1:18:35 Finding people who raise your energy 1:20:18 Leaving a trail of proof of work 1:23:03 Touching people emotionally 1:25:19 Why we built the Iron Bank of Braavos 1:26:38 Playing an infinite game 1:31:47 Selling brownies on The Silk Road 1:35:36 My philosophy for Relentless 1:38:35 Business is like playing Civilization 1:44:59 Bonding w Fred Ehrsam over video games 1:45:47 Never leave a meeting without next steps 1:49:06 How Coinbase makes acquisitions 1:50:30 Why Coinbase’s best acquisitions were people 1:52:00 Bitcoin is the new gold standard

Ships are burning in the Strait of Hormuz. There are rumors that the Iranians are laying underwater mines. An American submarine has torpedoed an enemy warship for the first time since the Second World War. Oceans are now battlefields. But can America triumph in this arena? We’re not making enough ships—and the ones we have are out of date. Enter: the ocean-trepreneurs. “For these founders, it’s not just about making America battle ready; it’s about making the U.S. less vulnerable, in an increasingly unstable world,” writes Suzy Weiss from San Francisco, where the great Pacific Ocean meets the West’s best technicians. Read the full story here: bit.ly/4boejs3

Armada and @akerbpasa are making history by deploying an AI factory on an offshore rig on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Data from compute-intensive applications will be processed locally, even when connectivity to shore drops. Decisions made faster. One hardened architecture replacing fragmented stacks — strengthening cybersecurity and simplifying compliance by design. This begins with a single rig, but it establishes a validated blueprint that can be replicated across additional assets, advancing the path toward more remote and autonomous offshore operations. In 2025, we deployed a full-stack modular data center at sea with the U.S. Navy—a first. We’re now extending that capability to offshore energy with Aker BP. The edge is not a theoretical place. Together with Aker BP, we’re making it operational. armada.ai/blog/aker-bp-a…