Bo Pedersen

Inverse Ferrari Luce (courtesy of Grok Imagine)

@SebJohnsonUK @dealroomco Aka: VC investment per capita in the UK is 5x of Germany, and 2x of France (and 26x of Italy 😱). More than anything this highlights the massive opportunity and room to grow for VC in the other large economies in Europe.

In Q1 UK startups raised more than France, Germany and the Netherlands combined. UK startups raised 41% of all European VC in Q1. NICE Source: @dealroomco

@levelsio @grok The eastern Roman Empire

@grok are there historical parallels of what we're experiencing today?

No it's not just you I think we're 100% in some kind of hyperinflationary state But the hyperinflation is hidden from prices and instead shows up in the extreme decrease in quality of almost every product and service We're in an asset boom where stock prices look like they're growing but they just show the underlying value or currencies is rapidly dropping That's why the same product or service you bought 2 years ago is now twice the price but more than half the quality, so essentially became 4x more expensive You can't measure this inflation easily because quality is subjectively perceived and not included in inflation data (how would you?) but it's happening for sure I have countless examples

Nice Nano Banana Pro prompt for weather app: CITY=Prague,Czechia Present a clear, 45° top-down isometric miniature 3D cartoon scene of [CITY], featuring its most iconic landmarks and architectural elements. Use soft, refined textures with realistic PBR materials and gentle, lifelike lighting and shadows. Integrate the current weather conditions directly into the city environment to create an immersive atmospheric mood. Use a clean, minimalistic composition with a soft, solid-colored background. At the top-center, place the title “[CITY]” in large bold text, a prominent weather icon beneath it, then the date (small text) and temperature (medium text). All text must be centered with consistent spacing, and may subtly overlap the tops of the buildings. Square 1080x1080 dimension.

Superb news!

Torsten, you know better than anyone this budget did nothing for growth. You spent £16bn on redistribution and increased headroom by ~£10bn. People are angry because you’ve made growth your central mission - then delivered a budget that undermines it. The redistribution isn’t even defensible. You originally scrapped Winter Fuel Allowance because it wasn’t means-tested and transferred wealth from young to old. You cut PIP because it’s the most abused part of the benefits system. That’s where the money went. It doesn’t support growth. It doesn’t redistribute effectively. It just looks bad. On scaleups… as a founder, I can tell you categorically these measures won’t move the needle. The EMI limit increase doesn’t even cover real scaleups. The three-year stamp duty exemption is still worse than the US, where there’s no stamp duty at all. You should have exempted all venture-backed companies listing on the LSE from stamp duty entirely. You backed away from the Tech ISA. You know it would have driven investment and growth. The one thing that could materially drive growth is pushing the BBB to anchor top-tier growth funds - but that was already a multi-year commitment. Lean into it. Push the BBB to anchor the best US and UK funds aggressively. But the real reason people are angry isn’t just policy. It’s the chaos you created in the run-up. The constant leaking… exit taxes, wealth taxes… your ideas. You were pushing them. They’ve caused real economic and reputational damage to Labour. You had exceptional goodwill from founders, business leaders, sensible centrists. You’re burning through it with poor communications and a reluctance to tackle hard problems. We need this country growing again. It’s the only route to better living standards. Stop trying to appease Labour backbenchers. Start making the hard choices that will actually get the UK moving.

I just signed the letter calling on the government to ACCEPT ALL of the Nuclear Regulatory Review's recommendations. Join me! lookingforgrowth.uk/nuclear-letter/

@OpenAI @aayushdotjain

Introducing IndQA — a new benchmark that evaluates how well AI systems understand Indian languages and everyday cultural context. openai.com/index/introduc…

The Bank of England's proposed stablecoin restrictions perfectly illustrate how the UK continues to approach a networked, digital world with the mindset of a 19th-century island nation. The internet economy naturally concentrates power and wealth among a small set of global winners. That's not a bug. It's the fundamental nature of network effects and zero marginal cost distribution. History shows us something clear. Small countries imposing restrictions don't stop technological tides. They merely ensure their citizens and businesses operate at a disadvantage while capital and talent flow elsewhere. The choice is stark. Embrace digital transformation and position yourself to compete in the new economy, or cling to the past and watch opportunity migrate to more forward-thinking jurisdictions. The UK seems determined to regulate its way into irrelevance. These proposals would create stricter rules than either the US or EU impose. This won't protect consumers. It will protect incumbents from inevitable change.

Over the last three years, housebuilding in London has collapsed. Molior recorded just 2,158 private starts in the first half of 2025, around 5% of London’s (low) targets, and still falling. What is going on? I have posed this question to numerous specialists, most of whom cannot comment publicly for professional reasons. This thread is a summary of what I have gleaned.

Oration is now doing a job of about 2,107 humans. We're handling over 3.8M phone calls every month. If you take 3 min avg call duration, 2 mins gap between call for call disposition and 5 productive hours per day per human agent - it translates to job of 2,107 humans.

@PressSec @AskPerplexity please provide context in this.

Trump's tariff revenues are hitting record-highs, generating $100 billion so far this year foxbusiness.com/politics/trump…

@nntaleb Protein bread coming up

2) Sometimes the protein thing can be too obvious to bust. These "protein chips" have a lower proportion of protein than... bread. If you consumed 3000 calories of just whole wheat bread, you'd get 120 g of protein.

The protein story is based on statistical BS, amateur data fudging. Bro Science is really for idiots. 1- Some do very well growing muscles on minimal protein ing., others poorly on large doses. 2- Remove the line, see the fraud. 3- One of the authors failed to reveal he was SHILLING for a protein supplement company. 4- For older people, ZERO evidence that supplementation work. 5- There is a variance among individuals but can be partially due to OTHER stuff they do, ingest, etc. (h/t @maxflowminclout). cc:@EricTopol

Growth hack: go to the apple store and open your business website on every device😀

@rorysutherland Instead of thinking so hard about what to tax and what not to tax, the government should simply tax gains on all assets equally on realisation. And if they could scrap stamp duty and reduce planning hurdles, that would be a nice bonus.

The solution to the economy is to tank the housing market by taxing wealth not income. This will of course lead to a significant loss of wealth. But since 50% of wealth exists simply to help buy your children a place to live, it won't matter. We can then all spend the money on booze and hot-tubs instead, and accept that Mandeville was right all along.

@Barney_H_Y @join_ef I’m a proud shareholder in EF. They’re doing great work.

@join_ef !

@whippletom Starlink works on planes… why not trains too?

Some of this stuff is so terrible it sounds like a parody - but it’s not only true, it’s a choice!

Sounds like there’s some low hanging fruit to be had here. @10DowningStreet