borski 🇺🇦 ✡️

We just got this Force Majeure letter today from AirGas, our helium supplier (for our food science lab, where we have multiple mass-spec instruments that use helium). The letter says that helium supplies are cut off, and if you're lucky, you might be allotted HALF the helium you need. Even then, you will be charged extra for any helium you get. A LOT extra. So basically, every mass spec lab in America is about to go offline. AirGas is expressly invoking FM and saying they cannot meet their contractual obligations. Not their fault. Trump did this by attacking Iran. My lab is fine, of course, because I saw this coming and I ordered my lab staff to buy a one-year supply weeks ago. We already have it in place. So we're still up and running with plenty of helium. But very few lab science people are paying attention to the Strait of Hormuz, so they are getting blindsided by this. Trump's war is shutting down science labs all across the country right now. Don't dare call this "winning." It's a loss for America. And the world.

Someone asked what advice founders ignore. That they: 1. Should change their name. 2. Should launch fast. 3. Shouldn't treat fundraising as success. 4. Shouldn't assume they can raise because it's time to. 5. Should fire bad people quickly. 6. Shouldn't talk to acquirers.

This is truly insane, and it should be front page news across America.  Denmark secretly deployed soldiers to Greenland prepared to blow up airport runways to stop a U.S. invasion. They brought blood supplies to treat the wounded. France, Germany, Norway, and Sweden quietly coordinated against us. This was not a drill. This was our closest allies preparing to fight Americans. Let that sink in. NATO allies. Countries whose soldiers have fought and died alongside ours for decades. They looked at this president and decided they had to prepare for the worst. Fewer allies does not make America great. It makes us more isolated, more vulnerable, and it hands Russia and China exactly what they have always wanted: an America abandoned by its friends. The American people deserve to know how badly this president has damaged our standing in the world.  bbc.com/news/articles/…

I have definitely never said this before. That’d be crazy. I’m so surprised.

Doing the reading is a superpower, and it's even better in a world where "no one" is doing the reading. (Inspired by a conversation I had with some college students.)

Try "I want to go somewhere with good hiking for a week this year, find the best flights to and from." :) Valuations built on the great work of @OneMileataTime @ThePointsGuy @UpgradedPoints and @viewfromthewing PRs and suggestions welcome! 2/2

I built an open source travel hacking toolkit for AI agents, using @AnthropicAI @claudeai. Props to @SeatsAero for the awesome API. Tell it where you want to go. It searches 25+ mileage programs, pulls your balances, and compares cash vs points. github.com/borski/travel-… 1/2

This morning I was able to be the first person outside of Lucid to see and sit inside the new @LucidMotors Cosmos! This is their new midsize electric SUV and no, I can’t show it to you yet. What I can say is that the design is sharp, super cool, and totally unique (especially in the rear end). A cab forward design enables a long tail for optimal aero efficiency but it still retains enough roof height for larger dogs. Lighting signatures are strong, bright, and sharp. The car I saw had a metallic red paint with a white interior, which honestly looked striking! Think younger, more modern, really cool looking small Gravity. It has an insanely large front truck, huge rear cargo space with massive underfloor storage (enabled partly by the new Atlas drive unit), and more than ample second row seating space. I’m 6’1 and my head didn’t touch the expansive glass roof that extends beyond the rear seats, it’s also super wide giving a great airy feeling. Rear floor felt slightly high but there’s still enough room to fit feet underneath the front seat to unlock your leg angle. I also spent considerable time in the front seat soaking in the view. Huge door opening with a low entry height and a ton of foot room to swing in. Materials looked beautiful in the light interior color with recycled fibers that almost felt like wool. Stitching is everywhere, glass center console cover, dark headliner… it was a high quality warm feeling environment. The A Pillar glass extends extremely far forward which enables incredible view of front blind spots. In addition there’s physical turn signal stalks & gear selector and the same / similar steering wheel out of the Gravity… which looks upside down but feels great in the hands. Oh, bottom hinged accelerator pedal!! 🙏 There’s a single pane wide screen floating above the dash that expands across the width of the car. It’s a unique view that doesn’t exist in the western world and I liked the simplicity and location. User interface should look similar to Gravity which is totally fine… if it works. No secondary screen, everything is done through that singular cross-car panel. Electrical architecture is nearly completely new with centralized compute, insanely cool central gateway mounting location on the firewall, all designed to reduce wiring length / cost / connections. ADAS will likely be using the NVIDIA system for point-to-point L2 capability and they need to get this enabled ASAP as FSD is such a huge selling point for Tesla. Also, huge targets for quick response to phone key / NFC etc… this car can’t have access control problems or major software bugs. Don’t know exact battery capacity or power output BUT I have some tidbits to share. ~800V system architecture, PM rear motor, induction front motor. Both are from insanely small Atlas drive unit family which I’ll have a full video coming on sometime in the future. Unsure how Lucid is doing 400V boosting, but they’ll be able to charge on Superchargers with no problem. NACS charge port in the rear driver corner. Charging sounds very fast which is badly needed in this segment. Body in white has some amazing trickery leveraging passageways for woofer / sub woofer air flow, crash structure designed to be easily replaceable in stages to lower insurance costs, and a mixed material compound to reduce cost. Suspension also is pretty advanced for this segment, adaptive damper, virtual ball axis on the lower control arm (fixed on upper), which should give great driver / steering feel compared to the many McPherson strut options others offer. Oh, there are some big castings on this thing but the front / rear aren’t just one giant casting. We’ll talk to Cory Steuben more about that in an upcoming podcast. Finally this should start at under $50k and feature everything EV drivers want: fast charging, pet mode, route planning, plug and charge, space, comfort, and 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.

@_adishj @paulg Same tbh

@paulg the way this started, I thought this was going to end as a 6-7 meme

Me: What time do you want me to make dinner? Seven? Eight? Jessica: Seven. Me: Ok. (Goes to office.) Later: From: Jessica Livingston To: Paul Graham Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2026 18:57:20 Subject: Time for dinner!

@MikeBotkin_ @paulg Calendar invitations, not normal conversation. Helps block the calendar from getting booked by others.

@paulg I don’t understand spouses that email each other normal conversational messages. Maybe I use email wrong.

@Tesla2Lucid Sup

As we get close to the end of the month, is there anybody that you would nominate for this award? You can self nominate as well. I am the judge👨‍⚖️, jury⚖️, and executioner☠️! Also, if you have already been nominated, but you have yet to claim your #LucidLove 🎁 you have until March 1, and then the love evaporates 😱

@ntwork @itskyleconner Hey, watch it, I better be on that list :)

@itskyleconner When we show them to outside folks, you will be among the first.

Spent time in our prototype build area today watching the first full Lucid midsize vehicles come together. Same Lucid DNA as Air and Gravity - space, efficiency, dynamics, and range - paired with dramatically improved manufacturability and cost structure. These are going to surprise people. More soon.

I remember being told I was being alarmist. That wasn’t so long ago. Read the tea leaves. They’re right there. It doesn’t take an Ivy League degree.

The international role of the US has already been eroding, simply because other countries are richer and more powerful than they were in 1945. But it's going to erode faster now that the US is becoming unreliable as well as inessential.

The reliability of the US government was the foundation of post-war international trade and diplomacy. What a strange thing it would be if this stopped being so because of the character of one man. Usually changes on that scale are due to deep historical forces.

Yup. This is horrific.

@NextElevenDev @garrytan Sure, but it’s okay to get excited about something you’re having fun doing.

Unpopular opinion: This "late-night coding thrill" is exactly what's wrong with tech culture. AI tools should enable work-life balance, not resurrect Red Bull-fueled burnout cycles glorified as "hustle." The goal should be: "I shipped in 4 hours what took 16, so I went hiking." Not: "I stayed up all night because AI made it FUN again." Progress ≠ more hours coding. It should mean fewer.

Claude Code this week has awakened my 25 year old self: the one that chugged red bulls and stayed up til dawn coding. WE ARE SO BACK

There's a 0% chance the person you haven't spoken to since high school who now works for Northwestern Mutual is reaching out just to "catch up."

@james_j_otis @GavinNewsom @JDVance That’s… not better.

@GavinNewsom @JDVance In the same house, not having sex. Virginia Giuffre was completely ignorant of Trump in her actual testimony and deposition. All it shows is Trump knew about the sex, not that he participated in it.

Color me shocked. Any comment, @JDVance?

@alextoussss Neat! Mind shooting me more info? Are you guys raising? :)

@borski Microdoppler signatures!

Update: moved to SF for YC. Opening pre-orders and working very hard on our mosquito grinding demo. It’s gonna be sick