+7 🐰

I wanna be a better founder, so i decided to work on the hottest AI company. I wanna be a better designer, so i decided to work on the hottest AI company. I wanna be a better creator, so i decided to work on the hottest AI company. Nah, you just wanna be a fame chaser.

Low ego. Always day1. Stay foolish, stay hungry.

2026 is a super interesting year when we look back.

I do believe everyone is unique. Think and build uniquely.

Patrick Collison tells people in their 20s to not move to San Francisco. William largely agrees with him. He thinks SF has a consensus problem and has removed the risk from becoming a founder: "I'm a product of Silicon Valley. I started Plaid back in 2012. I've been there since I was 21, and it's very easy to stay in Silicon Valley. But you can start to get isolated and get very consensus focused. San Francisco is probably the most consensus place I've ever been to. That is both a huge crutch for us, but it's also probably the most valuable asset. As a founder, if you're building in something that SF believes is very consensus, but the world does not believe yet, that's actually a great operating environment. That's why Silicon Valley and SF are so dynamic and we're so in front of the curve. But we also have completely lost touch with how the rest of the world operates. Even how the everyday American operates. So I think it's very important to go to places that don't have that same bias. If you think about emerging markets specifically – the founders who build there, they're the everyday people, they live in this constrained society. They're constrained in a way that San Francisco and New York isn't. And that breeds a different type of creativity, it breeds a different type of innovation that you really can't get anywhere else. If you go to talk to people in London or Vienna or San Francisco, people are living in a world of abundance. And that causes a very specific creation cycle. SF and Silicon Valley are probably more akin to Wall Street in the 1990s than they are like a research lab in Cambridge in like the 1950s. Maybe that was Silicon Valley in the 90s, but it's not anymore. You talk to a 23-year-old and assuming you're like moderately competent and went to the right high school and college, you're going to get a $3 million seed round. And worst case scenario, you can go work at like a great company as an engineer and you'll have "founder" on your resume. There is no risk in that proposition. If you go back to pre-2008, you're on the edge of the knife, and I think that creates just so much intensity in creativity and fear that is such a critical part of the founder journey. Starting companies is just too f**king safe, and it's caused a lot of companies to be super safe companies -- like we're going to pivot to AI and wrap OpenAI/Anthropic. That's not bold, that's not ambitious. And it's because we are attracting founders that actually want to be employees. They don't think and say "if I don't pull this off, I'm going to become bankrupt. My life is over." I think that's pretty healthy. That's when you bring out the rawness of humanity. And I don't see that very much anymore."

Don’t ask ARR, how much money u made from this. Ask how much fun u have u building this.

Exploring yourself is really fun. Everyone has a universe inside. The talented artists who r good at expressing themselves are like rocket ship scientists for exploring the outside universe.

Use stories and culture to shape the world.

@aliszu Love designing for fun instead of just pure efficiency.

Last year I worked on Abode. I can't remember the last time working on something brought me this much joy. This much fulfillment. This much happiness from knowing that what I'm designing is genuinely pleasant for people to use. It was the first project that felt fully aligned with who I am. Where building great user experiences actually mattered more than chasing big money. It taught me a lot. About who I am, what brings me joy, and more less what I want to do next. The acquisition and watching Abode get sunset was somehow hard for me. was harder. But the thing is 100% of the leads coming to after.design have Abode saved in their inspiration folders. That tells me it all meant something. And maybe even though Abode is history now, it's still quietly shaping the startups being built today ✨

@jasonkan 嗯嗯 信念绝对是有吸引力的

@0xplus7 每个人都有某种信念，只是少数人对自己的信念很清晰，大部分人还不清晰。 即使找到了有信念感的人，但如果和自己的信念不一样，也很难做到将他们的信念感产品化带给更多人。 还是得遵循自己的信念做事，然后自然会吸引到很多有相似信念的人。

当How to do it被AI逐渐工业化，物质世界逐渐富足后，信念感变得更加重要。尤其是普通人需要信念感才能想着去改变/革命。然后就出现来售卖“信念感”的生意。动漫周边是在售卖动漫故事里的信念感。运动装备是在售卖球员的信念感。早期startup是在向VC售卖能把事情做成的信念感。Popmart是在售卖艺术家们信念感。比特币是在售卖独立于政府的信念感。MEMECOIN是在售卖带你暴富的信念感。找到有信念感的人，将他们的信念感产品化带给更多普通人，是一个很有意义的事和一个很大的市场。

@WhiteHouse wow

UNDEFEATED.

@luoser Buy, it's good game

Pokopia makes me want to buy a switch again

Easiest decision is always a trap.

@yonfrula A new minting experience

what do we need for a new NFT season to happen? there's a huge opportunity to make minting experiences feel less transactional, and more unique and intentional. now more than ever before, so what's stopping it?

It doesn't matter if it takes years. What the fuck else are you going to do? You aren't going to learn, create, experiment, grow, and everything that makes life enjoyable because you have something better to be doing? Your mind is playing tricks on you.

Graduated in robotics major 6 years ago, it's so hard to even find a job. And my first job is an intern at @UnitreeRobotics to write API docs. Now seeing VC is calling it new frontier. Respect to the founder having the conviction 10 years ago. Believe in the power of belief.

@gakonst @paradigm @notawizard Happy to see this as an early employee from unitree

i know @paradigm might be late to the party but oh my god time to plug this in our internal ai bot and freak people out cc @notawizard

🐸🐻🦇🐑🦀🐛 🦎🦎🦎🦎