hanging out on the edges of the internet @hiddencap co-host @gamecraftpod prev. @benchmark @ludlowventures
- Tweets 3,735
- Following 2,248
- Followers 68,484
- Likes 54,023
the highest amount of “wisdom per word” in a book, and i’m not sure it’s even close.
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Francois Bourgeois (the trainspotter on TikTok) is the face of the Gucci x North Face collab
200iq move
highsnobiety.com/p/gucci-tnf…
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There is a mobile developer doing $30m+/year in revenue by building the same app in 10+ different niches.
A camera identifier app for rocks, mushrooms, insects, coins, birds, fish, etc.
“Rock Identifier” did $700k last month…
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outside of em dashes, “this is not X, it’s Y” might be the clearest sign of LLM writing.
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I am excited to share that I am joining @Benchmark as a Principal alongside @sarahtavel, @peterfenton, @milesgrimshaw, @ericvishria, @chetanp, and the rest of the Benchmark team.
blake.substack.com/p/joining…
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I recently created a new YouTube account where I only watch educational content.
It's amazing how great the YouTube homepage can be when you have clean inputs and signals.
It's a fascinating example of how you can leverage algorithms for 'good.'
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this is still the craziest ad I've ever seen.
there is a fake hair on the image to get you to swipe up
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OpenAI is operating on a different level.
The amount they have shipped in the past few weeks (and months!) is incredible.
Feels like we are witnessing a generational run.
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Treadmill Championship Racing
I'll admit it, I watched the whole thing...
credit: @TreadmillRacers
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Time Billionaires
"When I see 20-year-olds – the thought I had was they probably have two billion seconds left. But they aren’t relating to themselves as time billionaires."
- @GrahamDuncanNYC on @tferriss (Ep. 362)
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Luis von Ahn on how Duolingo manages the conflict between building for engagement vs. education.
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pretty wild that no one in tech is talking about this:
every VC in Dream Games (Royal Match) just fully exited at a ~$5B valuation.
[Index, Balderton, Makers Fund, IVP, etc.]
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I think people still underestimate the power of the internet. Twitter, specifically, has changed my life in so many ways.
I’ve met some of my closest friends, mentors, etc. all through Twitter.
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In 2011, a fan asked Frank Ocean on Tumblr to explain his current situation to himself from 5 years ago
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Screenshots are one of the most underutilized primitives on our phones.
Bookmarking. Memory. Intent.
Feels like now is finally the right time to build something around them.
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There is a really interesting opportunity to create short video essays around startups and venture capital.
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After you spend a lot of time analyzing the gaming and creator ecosystems, crypto feels inevitable.
It’s the natural evolution of these industries.
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Last week, Fortnite launched a new camera system for UEFN.
This enables creators to finally make games that look NOTHING like a Battle Royale 3rd person shooter.
You can now design top-down games, sidescrollers, etc.
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Pitching and negotiating with @Ssumday to join @100Thieves’ first LCS roster will always be a career highlight for me.
I am so happy that he got to lift the trophy yesterday.
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For most queries, Google Search is pretty underwhelming these days. The top results are filled with ads and low-quality results.
Appending queries with specific terms like: 'reddit,' 'wiki,' 'substack,' etc. dramatically increases the quality of search results.
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we have all become way too numb to the fact that the best operators and investors in the world casually share their playbooks on podcasts.
15 years ago, you had to fight to get in the right room… now it’s all on YouTube.
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Reddit has always been the best search engine—just held back by its UX.
Reddit launching 'Answers' changes everything.
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The success of @levelsio’s flight simulator game is really a story about effective distribution (leveraging his massive audience), not just AI game development
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Sharing a list of some of my favorite YouTube channels. I haven't updated in a bit.
As far as I can tell, YouTube's algorithm rewards videos that retain viewers until the end. That's why it's so rare to see longer videos on the recommended pane.
blakeir.com/blog/smart-youtu…
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Valve is the most interesting private company in the world, and I'm not sure it's even close.
- Steam, Counter-Strike, Dota, TF2, etc.
- 140,000+ games on Steam with a 30% take rate
- Less than 500 employees (all employees listed on their site)
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Even in a piece about himself, @JoshuaKushner shines the spotlight on everyone else.
As you scroll Twitter today, it's clear: everyone who knows Josh is better for it. I'm among those.
Grateful to call Josh a friend and mentor. The epitome of playing the infinite game.
This is the category-defining profile of one of the most important figures and institutions in American business, investing, and technology.
Joshua Kushner and Thrive Capital.
Kushner and his partners speak, as do Sam Altman, Jony Ive, Demis Hassabis, and John Collison.
It’s a story of the American dream. One that travels from the Holocaust in Eastern Europe through postwar Budapest, a refugee camp in Rome, Cold War New York and New Jersey, post-9/11 America, the recent history of venture capital, the AI revolution, wartime Israel, and Rick Rubin’s backyard.
It tells, with fresh eyes and ears, what happened during the 2023 OpenAI coup attempt. It takes you inside critical moments at Stripe and GitHub. And it shows how Kushner’s team of émigré and provincial castaways built Thrive into a rampart for the American experiment.
The ending will give you goosebumps.
By @jeremysternla. Only in Colossus.
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the most surprising part of the Cluely discourse is thinking people who grew up watching Adin Ross and Logan Paul weren’t going to attempt to build startups that look like this.
none of this is new. if anything, it was inevitable. attention *is* scarce.
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📢/ I’m extremely excited to share that @mitchlasky and I are launching a limited series podcast: Gamecraft (@gamecraftpod), where we break down the history of the modern video game business.
Today, we are releasing three episodes (an intro, and two full episodes).
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Counter-Strike is one of the best examples of a 'forever game.'
Last week, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive surpassed its all-time record player count (1.32m concurrents) – over 10.5 years after its initial release!!!
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I still love that @VitalikButerin was inspired to spend more time in crypto after Blizzard removed a damage component from WoW.
"I cried myself to sleep, and on that day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring."
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The simplest and most effective marketing is letting someone passionate about their craft share what they love.
Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther and Creed, breaks down each film format and the many ways you can see Sinners on the big screen. Sinners, shot on KODAK 65mm film is only in theaters April 18. #SinnersMovie
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Always be on Do Not Disturb with emergency bypass on. Nothing is that urgent.
99% of notifications should be default off anyways.
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Trying this thing where if someone crosses my mind, I just message them and say that.
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⚡️@backbone x @Xbox Game Pass ⚡️
"[The] Backbone + iPhone combo is the closest thing we’ve ever seen to a portable Xbox" - @panzer
techcrunch.com/2021/06/28/hi…
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A spatial audio app, but specifically for talking to other cars when you are in traffic.
Imagine if you could chat with the car next to you or have someone be the DJ.
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It still shocks me how many people don’t send cold emails.
Truly uncapped upside with little to no downside.
I still send dozens of cold emails every week…
Easiest business arbitrage: the risk/reward of a well-written cold email is so wildly favorable, and yet so few people will actually send one
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Random thoughts:
A vast majority of the consumer AI products we see today require the users to prompt them.
This seems backwards…
A quiet superpower of AI is the ability to get the user to talk. Preemptively ask us questions around the context provided.
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Every couple of months, I get obsessed with a specific area or thesis.
Over the past few years, I've tried to document my thoughts around: gaming, esports, media, creators, etc.
However, I'm always looking for new rabbit holes. That's one of my favorite things about VC.
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It has always surprised me that there isn't a de facto platform for reviewing and recommending apps, games, software, etc.
I download thousands of apps and games a year, and I thought it might be fun to share my own mini-reviews.
First up: Duolingo Chess
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Over the past 2.5 years, Sakurai (creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros.) has uploaded 273 videos sharing his lessons and insights on game development.
Today, he concluded the series.
It's hard to believe all this content is free and easily accessible.
What a gift.
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I'm not sure the West realizes how addicted they are to gambling.
- Sports Betting
- Stocks
- Crypto
- Card packs
- Gacha games (Genshin, etc.)
- Blind boxes (Sonny Angel)
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The major game developers understand social better than the major social companies understand gaming.
Agree or disagree?
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Random thoughts:
saw someone on here mention 'login with chatgpt' the other day, and i can't stop thinking about it.
feels inevitable
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Random thoughts:
High agency unlocks action.
Genuine curiosity sparks discovery.
Infinite games provide longevity.
Compounding makes it all exponential.
The recipe for success.
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Reflecting on my career, it’s hard to imagine where I’d be without early bets from others. I try to pay it forward, but I want to be more intentional about it.
All my 'mentors' have been informal, and I’d love to explore how to offer that kind of support to others.
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Reading List from July 2021:
Interesting articles and blog posts that I enjoyed this past month. I starred (⭐️) some of my favorites.
blakeir.com/Reading-List-929…
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I'm really excited to launch my video essay channel: @twopurple
Ep. 1: "Full Time Fan"
The intersection of the creator economy and crypto has always piqued my interest.
This video essay is an exploration of how fandom might evolve in Web3
WATCH: piped.video/9i2mFAYgW9E
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there really is a subreddit for everything...
/r/DesirePaths
"Desire paths can be paths created as a consequence of erosion caused by humans, animals, or traffic. The paths usually represent the shortest or most easily navigated routes between origins and destinations."
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The 200IQ move for Twitter is to give ‘Twitter Blue ‘subscribers a free “Super Follow” every month (e.g. Twitch Prime) and share the money back with creators
Play the long-game and build out the most important product: creator subscriptions/monetization
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Counter-Strike 2 weapon skins now have a $5 billion market cap* on Steam.
That’s not a typo.
(Yes, just the weapon skins.)
*aggregate value of all CS2 weapon skins listed for sale
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curious if there is interest, but thinking about setting up a Discord server for founders, angels, VCs, etc. who game.
[DMs open]
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The Shopping Cart Theory:
"The shopping cart is the ultimate litmus test for whether a person is capable of self-governing."
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In 2019, I reached out to Alex Warren after discovering his YouTube channel.
It was painfully obvious he was special.
Yesterday, he won Best New Artist at the VMAs.
i literally thank @blakeir for everything i’ve been able to accomplish. You guys and Blake literally allow me this amazing platform and i’m so thankful to all of you guys.
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probably an unpopular opinion, but Twitter would be better without threads.
go back to the constraints of 140 characters.
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out of all the insane changes that this platform has made, removing the navbar once you scroll is the worst…
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Over the past year, I’ve become obsessed with the intersection of crypto, creators, and communities.
@FEhrsam, @jessewldn, and I got the chance to discuss where things might be heading
There are some real gems in here, Fred and Jesse are truly brilliant
fehrsam.xyz/blog/creators-co…
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There are seven threads and themes that I continue to embrace daily:
- Cautiously Optimistic (yes, before no)
- Endless Curiosity
- Give, give, give, give, give, get
- Engineering Serendipity
- Learning in Public
- Close The Loop
- Connect The Dots
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