Vexatious Galoot

This 70-minute Yale lecture by John Geanakoplos teaches you more about hedge funds than actually working at one ever would Bookmark this & watch, no matter what It's the most productive start you can give your week, then read the article below

🚨 Sam Altman literally gave a 43-minute masterclass on turning ideas into billion-dollar companies. Most people will never watch it. And instead of hype, he broke down what actually makes startups work. No fluff. Just reality. He explained that ideas don’t matter nearly as much as execution. The difference between something small and something massive isn’t the idea it’s how relentlessly it’s built and improved over time. He also emphasized that the best founders don’t chase everything. They focus on one thing that truly matters and push it forward with extreme clarity. Distraction kills more startups than competition ever will. And then there’s scale. Truly big companies aren’t built for a niche they solve problems that millions of people care about. If the market isn’t large enough, the outcome won’t be either. His biggest insight? Startups don’t win because they’re smarter they win because they stay in the game longer and iterate faster. That’s why this masterclass stands out. Because while most people are waiting for the perfect idea… The best ones are already building.

This 1-hour MIT lecture by Jim Simons is like getting a masterclass from Kasparov - except the board is financial market. Quant King reveals more about quant trading than most Wall Street players pick up in an entire career. Bookmark it. Watch it. Then read the article below.

This 1 hour lecture from the "Father of Modern Marketing" will teach you more about consumer psychology than 2 years working at a Fortune 500. Bookmark this & give it 1 hour today, no matter what. It’s the most productive start you can give your week.

@shipwreckedcrew My theory is that Hillary Clinton offered Obama her full support if he made Biden his VP, so he did.

Obama picked him as VP because he was ZERO threat to Obama, and his initials were not HRC. He was about to fade into oblivion when Obama picked him. No one ever imagined he would actually run for POTUS after 8 years. Then the primary field in 2020 was so bad for Democrats they had no choice but to settle on him to prevent Bernie Sanders from taking the Dem Party -- that he didn't even belong to -- into full commie mode.

@ArtemisConsort Liberals in the civil rights era never predicted that non-white people in the post era would continue to see race as a cornerstone of identity. With huge ramifications, inadequately explored.

And probably a lot of the Whites saying their race is important are progressives who mean it in a bad way (“I have to check my privilege” etc).

@ThatchEffendi It's remarkable how German culture is now almost irrelevant in the wider world, but at Harvard you needed to study German to graduate in the early 20c, and I bet that didn't change until WW2. @grok when did this change?

@ThatchEffendi I bet they did. German immigration in 1940 has a similar cultural status to Italian immigration in the 1970s. The big wave was over, but it had been huge. And so the broad culture was aware of foods, songs, etc. First popular Andrew Sisters song was Bei Mir Bist Du Shein.

Something that I've always found interesting about this scene is that it seems to suggest an educated American in 1942 had some kind of passing familiarity with Die Wacht am Rhein? Perhaps it's just a generic German patriotic song for the film, but still odd.

@idobadtakes It might be different if these schools were relentlessly meritocratic. But they're not, and everyone knows this.

I agree in theory But how exactly are Harvard and Yale supposed to continue to produce all the American elites if they are 70% Asian? That’s not going to fly with a public that’s 7% Asian, and the universities know it

@Empty_America It didn't used to be this way, but over twenty years the system was recalibrated to allow the large number of special admits (DEI, athletes, connections) to pass their courses.

@Empty_America What does it take to graduate in good standing? Honestly, 1100 and you can finish with a 3.0 if you apply yourself.

So what SAT is required to actually do the work at an Ivy? I would say about 1400, but it could be lower. Above this threshold, they can pick anyone they want. It might not even serve their goals to have everyone at 1550+, as would happen with pure test admissions.

@samhaselby @BostonSatire For the record, I'm against evil.

Last week, in three separate articles, three different Princeton professors announced they are devoted to opposing "white supremacy." For non US followers, when Princeton professors say they are against white supremacy they mean poor white people, not the rich ones who pay them.

@silenceresting @Sus_Richards @mrianleslie @helenlewis I think you're mostly right about this. There are a few creators who have written themselves into the story, so to speak. Because they are famous, have created beloved work, etc. But that's a tiny fraction. Less than 1%.

@Sus_Richards @Distant_Mirror_ @mrianleslie @helenlewis The process doesn't matter at all, how people react to what's produced does. "Creatives" don't like to hear that, but it's true.

Here @helenlewis precisely articulates my own feelings about using AI to write (apart from the bit about enjoying writing which I assume is a lie) open.substack.com/pub/helenlewis…

@marcportermagee The way to understand grade inflation at ivies, btw. It's basically pass fail. The average grade at Harvard is an A. It used to be that over 90% graduated w/ some sort of honors. This was tightened, but it's still a majority. A mid student in high school can graduate, definitely.

@marcportermagee No ivy does this. It's now basically one-third smartish students with connections, one-third DEI, and one-third academic stars. It's been this way for 20 years. Also why grade inflation is rampant. A competitive system would demoralize students.

My take on this is that the Ivies should stop selecting classes 100% full of 4.0 students. Throw some bright students who got a bunch of B’s in the mix, the ones who don’t mind taking chances and failing short and aren’t just trying to maximize their GPA all the time.

@mrianleslie @helenlewis Screenwriting is often collaborative. And imitative. Those who think AI can't do this well, I bet, are mistaken. So bad news for human writers. But why should the audience care? Most readers usually aren't invested in the identity of writers of all sorts.

@mrianleslie @helenlewis Many nonfiction essayists do seem to enjoy the process of writing. But what about screenwriters? They are creating an intermediate form, a blueprint to create a different product. If they co-wrote a script with AI why would it matter?

@butleriano I think you're wrong about the United States. A typical college grad would not know Kipling, except as a name. Definitely wouldn't know Tagore. Might know of Rushdie but wouldn't have read him, and even that is iffy.

India is more of a core Anglophone society than Australia tbh. Average university educated Briton or North American could not tell you the name of a single Australian writer but they could tell you about Kipling, Rushdie and maybe Tagore.

@whyvert He has a weekly podcast and it's quite good. Great guests, 2 hours. I agree he's not relevant in the old sense. But serious question, is there anyone on Twitter/X who is relevant on the strength of tweets? Because I don't think so. Even substack, I dunno.

Used to hear a lot about Andrew Sullivan. But he hasn't tweeted in 3 years and his Subbstack is completely pay-walled. How to drop out of the discourse.

@jbarro I find it hysterical that people treat Newsome as if he is a viable candidate for president. He's a cartoon. Taking him down will be like playing patty cake.

Democrats desperately need more straight men working in communications, especially for politicians who are themselves straight men, because it’s weird how so many Dem offices try to speak in some form of “caustic gay wit” nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/…