love this. same team

apparently they found a new connection between string theory and quantum field theory, under certain open superstring condition (beta = 1) and might lead to new ways of understanding the quantum theories because it goes back to the first particles (tho my understanding of string theory is mainly based on sheldon cooper and the big bang theory sitcom!)

were you following the new pi formula discovery through string theory a few days ago ?

awww they are having a wonderful morning ❤️

The recent release of the "founder mode" concept by Paul Graham has stirred quite a debate esp from the ‘manager mode’ groups.

It’s true that at scale-up, your standard VC advice would be to “hire good people and let them do the job” - most VCs believe that it is your WD 40 fix for scale-ups. But it’s also true that if left unchecked, the calibration and alignment between team members might drift, which affects the mission of the business.

There are some examples of how “founder mode” operates. In Steve Jobs' "Top 100" retreat, regardless of where they are in the company hierarchy, the top 100 performers were invited to a retreat with Jobs. And because it's a special thing, it fostered a startup-like hustle for employees to be among the top achievers.

Elon Musk’s approach to founder mode involves trimming and sharpening the team. He also gives them a sense of ownership with responsibility - to see what he sees - and reshape as quickly as needed.

Jack’s trend I believe is more agile as he switches between founder mode and manager mode, as and when needed. His philosophy from what I read, emphasizes not just finding great people, but those who are passionate about the mission and capable of working well together (non-toxic) in reaching the goals.

My personal view is that there is no cookie cutter fix or a one-size-fits-all solution between "manager mode" and "founder mode." Early-stage entrepreneurs building products will eventually shift to building businesses. Some will embrace this shift, others won’t. Some will be great in both roles, others may struggle.

At a scale up business, the dynamic changes and the momentum is different - which explains why Zuckerberg shifted from “move fast and break things” to a more measured approach - focus on speed but with caution.

At the same time, at the scale-up stage, companies want to preserve startup culture, so large corporations often advocate for "corporate startups," which are hybrids of traditional startups and corporate R&D. They have the rebellious spirit and agility of traditional startups but are funded by a parent company. Many has worked tremendously well such as Block’s Spiral, which developed LDK independently (without direction from parent company) and later benefited the company’s core business, Cash App. Some didn’t work as well, like Google’s EV car initiative.

I've worked as both a corporate engineering manager and a startup entrepreneur, and they both have very diff strategy, speed, focus and goals. Scale-up is like a combo but a million times harder as it comes with immense responsibility in growing the business and expanding the team efficiently, and managing shareholders, all while being innovative and strategic in business-building, just as you would be in building the product.

One part that fascinated me about the essay is the 3 phases the founders go through.

- At first you listen to the VC (because you are clueless at initial stages) .

- Then you go against them (because their advice is not working for you, something doesnt feel right)

- and finally, the VCs end up listening to you (because your strategy is successfully scaling up your business).

By the time you reach stage 3, you are likely wiser with all the experiences. But most founders will struggle to get past stage 1 and 2 for various reasons.

I’ve enjoyed all of Paul Graham’s essays. He explains both high-level concepts and low-level no-brainers with clarity (I need both). And rather timeless too, some essays from 18 years ago are still so relevant today.

This one has induced a big debate which is great because the VC rigid world needs a bit of a shake up now and then. Check it out - https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html

Good to look left and right, but best to look forward if that’s where we want to go ❤️ Grateful for Nostr. Thank you nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6

wow this was really good. i like nostr:npub1cn4t4cd78nm900qc2hhqte5aa8c9njm6qkfzw95tszufwcwtcnsq7g3vle 's analogy and perspective. I don't think I have seen one where nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m was the moderator and the questions were great, required a deeper thought process (for me at least) and definitely broadens perspective. I really liked the question on understanding why big companies are not adopting, signal is another example. Also on what attracts tech people to join in, and how to differentiate businesses on open source. Everyone had great input.

nice! which part of tropical world are you at this time?

This was a good book and a quick read - The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

1. Be impeccable with your word

Words are powerful tools. Use them to share love, uplift others. Avoid gossip, it is poison. Be impeccable with words to yourself too

2. Do not take anything personally

Taking things personally is a form of selfishness, as it assumes everything is about "me." People's opinions are shaped by their own experiences and perspectives. If someone doesn’t treat you with respect, it’s a gift to part ways. Your heart will heal, and you will find that you don’t need to trust others as much as you need to trust yourself to make the right choices.

3. Do not make assumptions

Assumptions lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary drama. We make assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions. Love is accepting other people the way they are without trying to change them.

4. Always do your best

Under any circumstances, do your best - no more, no less. True fulfillment comes from action, not the expectation of rewards. You can have many great ideas in your head, but what makes the difference is the action.

Mastery comes through repetition, practice makes perfect. If you fall, stand up and keep going and each time it will become easier.

Let go of the past and live fully in the moment.

Other good reminders at the end of the book :

- True freedom is the ability to use our mind and body to live our lives instead of conforming to a belief system imposed upon us.

- A warrior rebels against the invasion of the mind's parasite. To be free, face fears, stop feeding them, and live life to its fullest.

- At the very least, have the dignity of rebellion, and not be a helpless victim of our own whimsical emotions or the poisonous emotions of others.

- We are often addicted to our own patterns - anger, jealousy, self-pity - and the limiting beliefs that tell us we are not good enough. We need to let it go and embrace new form of repetition fueled with self-love and self-respect.

- The big difference between a warrior and a victim is that the victim represses, and the warrior refrains. Victims repress because they are afraid to show their emotions, afraid to say what they want to say. To refrain is not the same thing as repression. To refrain is to hold the emotions and to express them in the right moment, not before, not later. That is why warriors are impeccable. They have complete control over their own emotions and therefore over their own behavior.

- Happiness is a choice

reduce noise, increase signal

applicable in all aspects of life

nostr:note166z06acque3d2tnr3za9dndys6cc30vzxlddly53c3ttsadf6qdqhm49w2

The best innovations happen at the intersection of humanity, technology, and creativity. Franklin, Einstein, Leonardo, Jobs, and even yourself - all excelled in not just your respective fields but in understanding the broader human context.

Steve Jobs once said “Our goal is to make the best devices, not to be the biggest.” and another time he said “innovation is saying no to a thousand things”. His mantra was always that “simple is harder than complex” because it takes a lot of hard work to achieve simple elegant solutions.

But I think the Rashomon effect can sometimes confuse people to superficially reduce complexity instead of deeply understanding the essence of a product or idea and distilling it to its purest, most effective form.

This note is a good reminder to stay grounded to what really matters to the people.

patience and build. keep moving forward. Now is a good time to test out private relays that's country-focused - news, culture, private conversations, food, hangout joints etc. Now is also a great time to get as many feedback. We may not hit it big, but we are going to get tremendously better if we can maximize every opportunity we can get right here and now - and keep moving forward.

Sometimes I write thoughts down at the end of a long day based on experience or observation. It serves as a self reminder. These are some from the last few months :

You can’t control others, but you can control yourself.

Saying no sets boundaries. Saying yes opens doors. Finding the balance makes all the difference.

Those who do exceedingly well are laser focused on reaching end-goals. Those who don’t, are often focused on everyone else’s problems.

Only help people who are willing to help themselves

Personal attacks happen when one lacks constructive or substantial input in a discussion i.e they don’t know enough

I deeply appreciate people who don’t make every conversation about themselves, especially when they have a lot going on but choose to put others first.

If you are bitching about someone you love, either publicly or to your friends, you take away their dignity, because of your lack of emotional control.

If you need to feel loved by making someone jealous, then you are in a toxic relationship (and you might be the toxic one)

Distancing yourself from environments, people or triggers that fuel insecurity allows for better self-reflection and emotional growth

Knowledge boosts confidence.

Men harass women. Women harass men too. The fault is not men. The fault is harassment

Unsolicited advice often falls on deaf ears, especially if the person is not in a mindset to embrace change. If you are ready for change, you will be after people you look up to for advises, tips and tricks.

Surround yourself with people who find ways to make their lives better - be it health, thoughts, financially, growth and more.

Be with people who bring out the best out of you, not the worst out of you. Likewise, be someone who brings out the best out of someone else.

You are who you chose to engage in conversations with.

Remember to relax the brain.

Laughter is the best medicine.

Never settle for a checklist.

Happiness is the goal.

If you love, just love.

Peace of mind is the most precious thing in the world.

Sometimes, if you need to walk away, best to walk away quietly.

Love this pic from LadybugArt

interesting. So the alternative option is to remain manual and prevent digitalisation ?

Nanotech is so schroedinger - simple but complex. To create a tiny tiny piece of nanoscale sheet (1x10^-9 in width, length and height), you need cross-disciplinary knowledge in physics, bio and chemistry.

They say if you want to be real good, your basics must be solid. In nanotech, your basics go down to atom levels.

And if you think quantum is already small, nanotech gives you quantum dot. And they even call it zero dimension.

And if you want to be real bad, you can manipulate nanomaterials to change their colors. Of course industry patented blue light but no reason why you can’t recreate red light therapy with it.

Nanotech is so small, one can even inject tiny robots (nanobots) into you to combat cellular-level diseases. Just make sure it’s out.

And if you use sunscreen, you have nano materials absorbing into your skin through zinc oxide nanoparticles. It’s supposedly large enough not to penetrate all the way in, and remains in your outer layer - but oh boy.

One of the most surprising learnings is using cultured bacteria and virus to create organic nanotech materials. But the more common ones are the ones made out of carbon and metal structures like graphene.

At nanoscale, materials often have a higher surface to volume ratio, which means the atoms hangs out on the surface - which is why it can be really thin and super conductive. This led to the ultra-tiny super electronic circuits, some even smaller than a fingernail.

And much like decentralization, nanomaterials has unique electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties individually - as opposed to being lumped up together in bulk counterparts.

My take is that nanotech is like a remix of basic electronics and electromagnetic theory. You def need the fundamentals, but the applications are an entirely different ballgame

But I am amazed at how something so small can be so powerful. There’s so much potentials in mastering miniaturisation.

its one of their use cases in explaining the standardization - i presume its to take back state-controlled DMVs. Existing digital options are centralized and interconnected with everything

i don't understand your question - mobile drivers license as in digital version of traditional driving license? web5 is on architecture level, you have your data wallet and you log in to any commerce site while keeping your info with you - similar to having your identity and being able to log in to various clients on nostr.

I doubt that is their challenge. I think they lack creativity in engaging users to adopt - and this is very common for tech developers - they tend to be excited about building something and then wonder why nobody shows up. Nostr has this problem too.

Institutionalized standards are one way to gain mass traction. (Another way is through use cases and that’s what I am passionate about). There’s pros and cons to institutionalized standards and debating this is a good thing.

I get why standards are a huge put off in terms of forceful adoption. I think it will remain largely optional but it will gain mass global awareness. Here's where it becomes very important to remain strong to the ethos of educating people on data ownership instead of focusing on centralizing any standards. But that level of global consciousness in taking back your identity is a plus factor

Seems like a plus factor - web5 (dApps, SSI like to your DIDs, IPFS, and data walllet) would encourage users on the current internet to take back their identity. I believe TBD’s biggest challenge and their most important role will be, not so much in creating this, but in educating people globally to take back their identity from gov’ts and commerce.

Nostr operates at the application layer, meaning it can sit on top of TCP/IP. It re-imagines and liberates the web interactions from your existing caged situations. TCP/IP itself is a decentralised architecture. The early days that nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m mentioned in this talks - Usenet, Telnet, Gopher - were all decentralised protocols on application layers. While HTTP and SMTP were also decentralized, they inadvertently allowed a few large players to gain massive control, which in turn enabled gov'ts to exert influence over these entities to control large populations of people

Re-imagining a new app layer like Nostr is a lengthy process. Rebuilding architecture like web5 using OSI is also lengthy process. While they are different, both serve the same goal of liberating users in taking back the ownership of their identities