Kristen Wang

Coming back from @MITSloan and @SEM_Tsinghua Immersion Program this week, a window stopped me mid-step. ΘΔΧ fraternity house, facing the Charles: "The Singularity Is Now!" @PeterDiamandis (TDC '83), @DaveBlundin (TDC '88), and @elonmusk. I've followed Peter & Dave for a long time and just finished We Are as Gods. Fun fact: the Chinese edition《吾辈如神》carries a preface by Prof. YANG Bin, Vice Chairman of my school @Tsinghua_Uni Council. The book crossed the Pacific before I did. So of course I scanned the code. It opened the exact 3-hour Moonshots episode with Elon that I'd recommended to my cohort days earlier before I ever saw this poster. The singularity apparently spreads through the window.

@abhishekm1636 Summer in SF building AI for Fintech product. Interested! What is the topic of this event?

POV: you're in SF during a once-in-a-generation shift in technology. You just graduated, or you came out for the summer. AI billboards everywhere, models getting smarter every week, equal parts exciting and daunting. And somewhere this summer, you meet your future friends and cofounders. We're bringing them together for a night in SF with @sequoia. You'll be in the room with some of the founders defining this moment too. July 30th. Invite only. DM me for an invite.

@rohildev Nice work Rohil! Would love to try it!

We spent just $50 for this photoshoot. We didn’t have the money to spend on crazy product shoots and product videos. These are my friends from my hometown in Kerala. They are wedding photographers. We created this setup to take the photos and videos of Nimo.

I don't think "something funny that happened" is a new question for the AI era, AI's crazy pace just makes it stand out more. I like to look at this through a dual-system lens: the achievement system vs. the growth system. One is solving problems and hitting KPIs - flat and abstract. The other is everyday relationships, emotions, the things you love - rich, concrete. And honestly, learning to be happy is no easier than learning to build with AI. The anthropologist Xiang Biao calls it "the vanishing nearby" (消失的附近): we've stopped paying attention to the people and small things right around us. But that's exactly where funny things live. No real life nearby, no "funny that happened." AI is compressing the achievement system, which is why the growth system is quietly becoming the scarce one.

HUGE! Also, 4/7 of his former students graduated from Tsinghua Yao Class. So did current postdoc.🤔 Meanwhile, I just wear #Tsinghua t-shirt and label #Berkeley location. Shooooot, I need to work harder.

I want to try this! In SF recently! A friend of mine who works for one of the big EV brands says they have basically pushed smart, human-centered solutions to their absolute limits. Covered every feature you can possibly imagine, and are even developing functions you’d never think of.

@ASychov @XPENG_Global You guys are so far behind, it is ridiculous. Come to San Francisco; I'll give you a ride in my robot.

Wow, mind blown! 🤯 New update just arrived to my @XPENG_Global G9 and they have seriously upped the auto parking 🅿️ game 🔥😳 Not only it can auto park, but now it can un-park my car in any direction & it can park in ANY direction ANY angle I choose! What? 😱 Amazing 👏

@TTrimoreau No, product itself is branding, good or bad

If everyone can create products now does branding become more important than the product itself?

China's abundance is real and great (I miss the fast and convenient food delivery!) But for me, all that kind of variety can tip into overload. I've been living in many places: Beijing, Shanghai, SF, LA, Paris, Zurich, and each is a different way of living. SF is the one where I've found focus and flow.

China was behind in the PC internet days, then just skipped ahead: past PC into mobile, past credit cards into fintech (WeChat Pay, Alipay). A wave of crazy effort and crazy payoff. Or maybe it's not a pendulum swinging back, the drivers aren't the same. But if one thing that has impact on personal level, it's much about motivation and focus.

I got a feeling that US tech, especially AI, deep tech, defense, manufacturing is so speeding up. Can't tell if it's real or just me having been in SF surrounded by founders and hi-tech. But the building energy here is real.

@auren Engineering is new MBA

There are now only three MBA programs that are ROI positive