Hendre Coetzee

@Scobleizer Happy Birthday

Today is my 61st birthday. When I was born, there was no such thing as a personal computer. Today, we can talk to our development system that is building code on a phone, which is really a supercomputer in our hands. I have the blessing of interviewing the founders of @BlackBoxAI, which brings a remarkable new way to build software (and it'll call you when it's done). I learned decades ago, while working at a programming magazine, that you should always pay attention to the developers and the builders. They are the only way that humanity gets better, and I've been blessed to be able to bring so many of them to you before most other people. If I had one wish, it would be to have humans stop resisting the future so much, because the future brings us so many benefits: 1. Self-driving cars that won't kill as many people as humans do 2. AI that can find new drugs and new materials 3. New ways of living that can make us a far better humanity We have been gifted remarkable new tools like @BlackboxAI that can help us build wondrous new things very quickly, but so many are resisting learning. Luckily, I'm surrounded by people who care about learning and care about taking humanity further. But while my numbers here are fairly impressive with 500,000+ followers, it is hardly even a small drop of the 8 billion people alive today. If I had one birthday wish that could be granted, it would be to see humanity argue a lot less and build a lot more. I've had an extraordinary life in trying to bring everyone to a better world. And yes, I realize that technology always has two sides to the coin: 1. One that's hugely positive 2. One that is hugely negative That's why we all need to get together and make sure it moves in the positive direction. But the answer isn't to stop. Autonomous cars will save millions of lives. And yes, the same technology will put a lot of people out of work. We need to figure it out, because saving lives is more important than work. And here we have tools that can help us do wondrous things, and it'll call you when it's done. What a time to be alive. By the way, you might not have an hour and 11 minutes to watch this video. We also have amazing new technology that can watch the video for you. Ask @Grok: "Hey, please tell me what I would learn by watching this video." (Click the grok button first). We have no excuses anymore to not build new things to help either yourself, or other human beings. So I hope to see billions of new builders soon improving our lives. And that's my birthday wish. To live to see the day when every human is building.

A Final Message From Scott Adams

@Jason Ember Kitchen, The Guest House

Lazy web: anyone have a recommendation for a hip dinner spot tonight in Austin?

@d4tocchini Thanks for writing and sharing.. shadows creating light seems impossible.. and that is exactly what is so hard and profound. It doesn’t makes sense…it may never… but sense is predictable and can be had… saving… that is unpredictable…and cannot be contained..prayers for you.

1 year ago today, my son Aeon died when a 120ft redwood snapped 40ft in the air & free fell on our house crushing him just 5ft away from me. From the abyss of suffering, I return new born, having shed my skin. Aeon's death saved my life. This is my testimony. An evergreen 🧵

The Difference Between Urgent and Important Urgent tasks are time-sensitive and require attention. These tasks can be anything from responding to emails, returning phone calls, or even picking up groceries on the way home so you can eat dinner. Important tasks, on the other hand, move us forward with vision and meaning. They are the things we want to get done but also bring us meaning because they are aligned with our values and goals. They are deliberate and often require focused attention. We tend to feel stressed and overwhelmed when we focus on urgent but unimportant tasks. While these things are easy to check off our list, when left undone, there are little to no consequences. The key to productivity is doing more of what matters and less of what doesn't. The people who do this best are the ones who consistently understand what is urgent and important and eliminate the rest. By concentrating their mental and physical energy in the right place, they dramatically improve their impact. Reducing the surface area of your attention means asking yourself the difficult question of whether what you are doing really matters to the outcome you want. If you are ruthless, you can eliminate 20-40% of what you are doing today without impacting the most important things. All that time you save can then be invested in the most important things. The problem is that it's a difficult question to ask and answer honestly. Admitting you're doing something that doesn't matter means you've been wasting your time up to now. It's much easier to keep doing what we've been doing and tell ourselves that if we just had one more productivity hack, we'd make more progress. Being busy and being productive are not the same thing. It's easy to be busy. It's hard to be productive. The real "work" of productivity is less about improving efficiency and more about improving effectiveness. Being productive is not about doing more; it's about concentrating all your energy on the few things that matter.

I raised VC 5x and grew a 100+ employee, market leading company. And then I got fired from that company. If I were talking to myself 10 years ago, here's what I'd say, to spare me some hard ass lessons.