A post with a theme because I am a day away from going on holiday to a place that honours beauty. Through one of my post-covid side quests, I met Sara Berkai the founder of Ambessa Play, who create lovely DIY software/hardware kits to help kids learn to code in low-internet environments. Sara's excellent on how uneven education + access to inspiration are the world over; this week she released THE WORLD IS YOURS to explore these topics and raise money to get Ambessa kits - the first one is a flashlight - in more hands. Proud to be one of the interviewees alongside some brilliant people, from founder/thinker Reggie James to proper experts on learning, on how to build new schools + balance the collective ("these classkids are citizens") and individual ("here are tools to find your own path") in education. All kids are born with big dreams. Wish more got to chase them. Beautiful things recently: did a fireside chat with Chris Pedregal of Granola on product excellence; a topic I think is missing in many AI-native company narratives. My favourite section was on the importance of knowing what timeframe you're building for in AI; ie building for user behaviours today means you miss the boat. Granola is loved by early adopters, of course, but feels like they got their timelines right given how many non-tech friends are starting to use it. the future of media is a bank; still skeptical about micropayments even if enabled by agents who map your taste (how to operationally run media teams with such unstable capital flows?) BUT I really care about new business models for media, clearly subscriptions/ads ain't it and enjoyed this manifesto by Daisy Alioto. A magazine is a container for a set of positions and opinions just like a website or the start of search can be; the container gives you context. intense pattern of people in my life starting holding companies and venture studios to try many things at once - is this a life stage thing? the neurodiverse folks I tend to run with? a recognition that everything's an experiment in such an age of uncertainty? not sure yet but into it. related: DangerTesting are playing with "disposable software" idea and doing app "drops" like merch. Fun. Also related: Gizmo + tiny apps collaging up social profiles - software as culture. And finally: An online post office where you can type and send little post to your friends. Like a post office, it's only open Monday to Saturday 9am-8pm. More timebound websites, please. I played with so many good silly microproducts this month. software is a cultural export, pass it on. Liked this by Elena (who also left me a beautiful long series of voicenotes over the weekend about Daisy's media piece - I encourage you to make internet friends and debate stuff with them) on the meme that developers are done. I don't believe this for a minute and not just because of my struggles wrangling Softr. It's a golden time for quality builders BUT there's still a narrative lag from the ~bootcamps for everyone~ era and a surplus of people coming into tech who quite reasonably want jobs/mentorship at a time when both are evolving fast. Sharmadean Reid on how every young person should run a club night once. Yes! I don't have the impulse to be in "the club" the way I used to; I do like to live in a city where I know somewhere out there the generations beneath me are having a dance and not just at home on their phones. a beautiful conversation on venture capital? Bear with me. This is a long chat with Compound's Mike Dempsey who I always enjoy listening to; in such frothy times, this reiterated for the thousandth time funds that work are those that know their edge, lean into their edge and have comfort in their singularity even or especially when it's uncomfortable. and the outfit of the summer: jorts + big headphones + bigger sleeves
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Happy end of summer, ✌️ |
