Birthday Update

Leaving New York, Summer in San Fran, and Fall in Oxford

Recent Posts:

• How Silicon Valley is shaping the Iran War (I and II)

• The threat of LLMs on learning

---

I’m pleased to announce that around the New Year, I deleted LinkedIn and started this newsletter. Today I turn 26. Truly incredible accomplishments. Thank you.

Float the dam balloons.

To commemorate, we’re hijacking Grand Technologies to combine the worst of both. Welcome to an even longer self-aggrandizing LinkedIn post where the author gifts himself a birthday present by sharing what he’s done and doing amidst hiding all his failures and insecurities, and inevitably rambling without a word count.

There are moments in life where it’s healthy to step outside the box so you can think outside it. That’s been the last 6 months; this post reflects on that time. Since leaving the corporate rhythm of strategy consulting in Seattle, I’ve tolerated heaps of uncertainty to realign my ambition with how I want to spend the time I have left in the world.

I. Where I’ve Been

I have these coffee chats with old friends. Every single one eventually flows along some undercurrent of “where the hell have you been?” and “what the hell do you do?” The occasional vague Instagram post hasn’t helped either.

Since the fall, here’s some highlights:

Studied yoga— both postures and spiritual teachings—in Nosara, Costa Rica

Visited Israel - developing my own views with a historical & heritage trip

Hosted such motivating friends for skiing in Ketchum, Idaho

Moved to New York City thanks to the generous sublet of another friend.

All to say, none of my nomadic living would be possible without others. These experiences led to growth only possible from the help, insights, and pure generosity from others. Thank you.

For the past 5 months, the job on the main resume out of New York has been freelance. I sell myself as an economic analyst to write about the world of emerging technologies. That’s taken me to copywriting for creative agencies, publishing samples here, and supporting research for other scholars.

For the past 5 months, the work (the “what the hell do you do all day?”) has been to learn as much as possible. Amidst working for others, I maintain a daily schedule of reading, writing, and improving personal software projects.

Combining the focus of the reMarkable e-ink reader and Claude to make my own research assistant which helps after readings, not during.

New York has been good to me. It’s turned an ounce of ambition into a Marty-Supreme motion. Everyone’s so active. I won some hackathon for using marketing AI tools and collaborated in another to make open-source prison telecommunications software. I joined a dinner community of AI researchers and will be co-hosting an event at a16z tech week. I attend debate societies where my background in social sciences lends a fresh view.

Developing an alternative open source calling service for incarcerated Worth Rises Hackathon Our team was responsible for creating the VoIP calling. Believe it or not, I actually committed useful code here.

The list will go on, but not here. All this motion cannot just be for the sake of motion.

I’m leaving thanks to what its taught me. I do not want to live in a place where wellbeing is an afterthought. The urban density that powers its unique energy restricts the natural benefits of healthy life: quality sleep, deeper relationships, varied fitness, the outdoors, quiet, and the space to think. Social life revolves around drinking and eating, neither of which delight me enough to stay.

I will miss my friends.

II. Where I’m Going

The script over coffee continues. The inevitable “what’s next?” pours in:

This April, I’m a rowing coach in Texas.

And for this summer, I’m finalizing being a research fellow in San Fransisco. The accepted proposal below.

This fall, I am slated to begin graduate school in the UK, swinging for Oxford’s MPhil in International Relations.

St. Antony’s College, Oxford University

Do people change? I hope so. Still, our past guides the present. The student-athlete demons never left after college. I grapple with this daily compulsion to train the mind and body through reading, writing, and exercising in what really interests me. The daily work arises easily; the jobs that emerge into careers prove harder to find.

But we must create, not consume. If I were a betting man, I’d tell you I’ll shake out as some teacher by trade. Whether it’s formal— as a professor and coach— or informal—as a journalist or advisor—is what the next decade will answer.

If you’re reading this, you’re important to me. Thanks for being an early investor in Grand Technologies and a life unfolding.

Book Updates

I read about a book a week right now. Here’s what I can remember that’s laying around. Suggest anything. I struggle with podcasts.

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams

Great Founder Theory, Samo Burja

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Robin Sharma

The Courage to Be Disliked, Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga,

Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment, Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony & Cass R. Sunstein

The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies, Mehran Gul

The Genius Habit, Laura Garnett

Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare, Edward Fishman,

The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, Saifedean Ammous

Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, Karen Hao,

The Deep Keel (Joy Covey profile), Kevin Gee

The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, Alexander C. Karp & Nicholas W. Zamiska

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel with Blake Masters

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho