Lenny Bogdonoff

Internalized urgency, intensity and speed - sustained over time - is a force to be reckoned with.

At 36, I'm thinking about my next career steps. Over the years I founded a company, helped scale ChatGPT, and spent time in venture. I'm grateful for all of it. I wrote about the path, and the idea I want to spend the next ten years working on.

@midjourney can you talk about the technical architecture of how you are/plan to process the magnitude of data per scan?

We're gonna do a Midjourney Medical AMA (ask me anything ) right here all afternoon. Post your questions below and we'll try to answer as many as we can! ❤️

@damengchen @0xferruccio Absolutely. Founders leave. History is made by those who keep building. Anyone who doesn’t leave their company from YC is doing it on their terms. Because they believe in themselves. YC fully supports founders to make the best choices for themselves.

@0xferruccio @rememberlenny my bad! genuine question though, can you leave freely right after a YC round? rarely see founders walk that soon. chatgpt shipped end of 2022 so looks like he left within a year

So if testimonial.to took the investment, it probably died too. Thanks for bootstrapping so it could stay alive for as long as possible.

@damengchen Undeserved shade. I respect your product. I founded Milk to turn webinars into marketing video clips. After Covid, customer interviews were our largest category. I was inspired by OpenAI and fortunately had the opportunity to join. Not VC or YC related. YC is incredible.

TIL California is the only state you can’t buy helium balloons without a weight attached, because law requires helium-filled balloons sold to be attached to a weight when sold.

This in age of AI powered builders

What if I told you this was made in 1965

“All things are made of atoms—little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another” -Feynman’s single statement to preserve our understanding of the world.

@harris This.

ironic that vcs are spending so much on ai tooling (sourcing, tracking, diligence) given that every interesting round seems to be driven by good old fashioned relationship building

Out of a Vernor Vinge universe. Inflation, AI regulation, and a front-page photo of humanoid robots.

@joannejang Albeit short, you were a wonderful colleague and I’m excited for all the physical monuments you plan to name after your husband.

i shared this note on slack:

Just make one good thing

@markcecchini “Nobody knows”

COMMANDER: We’re fighting for freedom. And part of that freedom… is the freedom to retire with dignity. So we’re going to start accounts called 401(k)s. SOLDIER 1: What’s a 401(k)? COMMANDER: It’s a retirement account. You put money in, it grows tax-free, you take it out when you’re old. SOLDIER 2: So I don’t pay taxes on it? COMMANDER: Well, you pay taxes later. When you withdraw. SOLDIER 2: So it’s not tax-free. COMMANDER: It’s…tax-deferred. SOLDIER 2: What’s the difference? COMMANDER: You pay taxes later instead of now. SOLDIER 1: What if I want to pay taxes now? COMMANDER: Then you do a Roth 401(k). SOLDIER 3: What’s a Roth? COMMANDER: You pay taxes now, and it grows tax-free. SOLDIER 2: That’s what I thought the first one was. COMMANDER: No, the first one you pay taxes later. SOLDIER 1: Which one’s better? COMMANDER: Depends on your tax bracket in retirement. SOLDIER 1: …How would I…know that? COMMANDER: You don’t. You just guess. ⸻ SOLDIER 4: What if I don’t have a 401(k) through my employer? COMMANDER: Then you open an IRA. SOLDIER 4: What’s the difference? COMMANDER: One’s through your job, one’s on your own. SOLDIER 4: Can I have both? COMMANDER: Yes. SOLDIER 4: Should I? COMMANDER: Maybe. SOLDIER 3: Can I do a Roth IRA? COMMANDER: Only if you make under a certain amount. SOLDIER 3: What’s the limit? COMMANDER: Changes every year. SOLDIER 2: What if I make too much? COMMANDER: Then you do a backdoor Roth by putting it in a Traditonal first. SOLDIER 2: …Is that legal? COMMANDER: Surprisingly, yes. SOLDIER 1: What’s a backdoor Roth? COMMANDER: You contribute to a traditional IRA, then convert it to a Roth…but watch out for “pro rata”. SOLDIER 1: Why wouldn’t I just contribute to the Roth directly? COMMANDER: Because you make too much money. SOLDIER 1: But this way I can? COMMANDER: Yes. SOLDIER 1: That feels like a loophole. COMMANDER: It is. But the IRS is cool with it. ⸻ SOLDIER 5: I just changed battalions. What do I do with my old 401(k)? COMMANDER: You roll it over. SOLDIER 5: Into what? COMMANDER: An IRA. Or your new 401(k). Depends. SOLDIER 5: On what? COMMANDER: The funds. The fees. Whether your new plan accepts rollovers. SOLDIER 5: What if I just take the money out? COMMANDER: You’ll pay taxes plus a 10% penalty. SOLDIER 5: What if I’m 59? COMMANDER: Penalty. SOLDIER 5: 59 and a half? COMMANDER: No penalty. SOLDIER 5: …The half matters? COMMANDER: The half matters. ⸻ SOLDIER 3: What’s a mega backdoor Roth? COMMANDER: Okay. So. Your 401(k) has a limit of how much you can contribute. SOLDIER 3: Right. COMMANDER: But the total limit including employer contributions is higher. SOLDIER 3: Okay… COMMANDER: So if your plan allows ~after-tax~ contributions, you can put in more, then convert that to Roth. SOLDIER 3: Does my plan allow that? COMMANDER: I don’t know. You have to ask Betsy. SOLDIER 3: Will Betsy know? COMMANDER: Probably not. ⸻ SOLDIER 2: Can I deduct my IRA contribution on my taxes? COMMANDER: Are you covered by a retirement plan at work? SOLDIER 2: Yes. COMMANDER: Then only if you make under a certain amount per year. SOLDIER 2: What’s the amount? COMMANDER: Depends if you’re married. SOLDIER 2: What if my wife has a plan but I don’t? COMMANDER: Different limit. SOLDIER 2: What if neither of us has a plan? COMMANDER: Full deduction. SOLDIER 2: So it’s better to not have a 401(k)? COMMANDER: No… ⸻ SOLDIER 1: Can I just keep my money in a sock? COMMANDER: You could. But inflation will slowly destroy it. SOLDIER 1: What’s inflation? COMMANDER: (sighs)…

“Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Everything is systems, and all systems have bottlenecks. We can have AGI which gives us infinite intelligence, but that only moves the bottlenecks.“ - @fchollet

‘Recently, one of my favorite questions to bug people with has been “What is it you do to train that is comparable to a pianist practicing scales?”  If you don’t know the answer to that one, maybe you are doing something wrong or not doing enough. Or maybe you are (optimally?) not very ambitious?‘ - @tylercowen

“We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.” - Edison

@ashleevance @zipline First glance on thumbnail, I thought this was a Sopranos commercial

Coming to Core Memory tomorrow - our piece on @zipline

Casually had lunch talking about nuclear power, submarines, and robots. 60yo woman interrupts us to share she worked on patents for the trident missile system and offered to share the manuals she has at home. Only in S.F.