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Overheard in Palo Alto. CEO: "This copy sucks." CMO: "We fired all our content people and just use ChatGPT now." CEO: "Well, hire them back."

Dave: "So let me get this straight, Michael. You started Cursor three years ago." Michael: "Yes, Dave." Dave: "And you just raised $900 million." Michael: "Correct." Dave: "At a $9.9 billion valuation." Michael: "That's right." Dave: "You're doing over $500 million in ARR." Michael: "Yes." Dave: "Which means your revenue has been doubling every two months." Michael: "Pretty much." Dave: "And OpenAI tried to buy you." Michael: "They did." Dave: "But you said no." Michael: "We turned them down." Dave: "So they bought your competitor Windsurf for $3 billion instead." Michael: "That happened, yes." Dave: "The competitor doing $100 million ARR while you're at $500 million." Michael: "I'm aware of the math, Dave." Dave: "And you're still just a fork of VS Code." Michael: "Well, when you say it like that—" Dave: "So your entire $9.9 billion company depends on Microsoft not changing its API." Michael: "We prefer to call it 'strategic interdependence.'" Dave: "Okay. Thanks for calling in." THE VERY NEXT DAY: Dave: "Michael, you're calling back already?" Michael: "We just raised another round." Dave: "How much?" Michael: "$2.3 billion." Dave: "At what valuation?" Michael: "$29.3 billion." Dave: "You were at $9.9 billion yesterday." Michael: "Correct." Dave: "Did you stop being a fork of VS Code?" Michael: "No." Dave: "Did Microsoft give you permission to use their code?" Michael: "They haven't said no." Dave: "So you tripled your valuation in 24 hours and nothing fundamentally changed." Michael: "Our revenue is still doubling every two months." Dave: "You're still one API change away from bankruptcy." Michael: "Strategic interdependence, Dave." Dave: "We're done here, Michael. Stop calling."

Dave: "Masa Son, welcome to the show. What's going on?" Masa: "Dave, I sold my entire NVIDIA position." Dave: "How much?" Masa: "All 32.1 million shares. $5.8 billion." Dave: "And why did you do that?" Masa: "To go all-in on AI." Dave: "You sold your NVIDIA stock... to invest in AI." Masa: "Yes." Dave: "NVIDIA makes the chips that run AI." Masa: "Correct." Dave: "So you sold the shovels to buy lottery tickets." Masa: "I prefer to call them 'high-conviction bets.'" Dave: "Got it. And this is your second time selling NVIDIA completely." Masa: "That's right." Dave: "In 2019, you sold $4 billion worth." Masa: "Yes." Dave: "Which would be worth $150 billion today." Masa: "I'm aware." Dave: "So you already missed out on $146 billion from the first sale." Masa: "When you say it like that—" Dave: "And now you're doing it again. To put $30 billion into OpenAI." Masa: "And a $1 trillion AI manufacturing hub in Arizona." Dave: "Right. Because WeWork worked out so well." Masa: "That was a stain on my life, Dave." Dave: "Cost you $11.5 billion in equity losses. Plus another $2.2 billion in debt." Masa: "Adam and I fell in love." Dave: "You fell in love with a guy who wanted to trademark the word 'We.'" Masa: "He had vision." Dave: "And before that, you lost $70 billion in the dot-com crash. The largest personal loss in history." Masa: "But then I made it back with Alibaba." Dave: "After a six-minute meeting." Masa: "Jack Ma is very persuasive." Dave: "So your entire investment strategy is falling in love during short meetings and then losing generational wealth." Masa: "I believe in the singularity." Dave: "Right. So just to recap: you've lost $70 billion, missed out on another $146 billion, burned $13.7 billion on WeWork, and now you're selling NVIDIA at what might be the worst possible time to bet it all on Sam Altman." Masa: "Sometimes you have to push all your chips to the center of the table." Dave: "You've done that four times and lost three of them." Masa: "But that one Alibaba win though." Dave: "Okay. Thanks for calling in."

Dave: "So let me get this straight. You spent $40B on AI infrastructure last year." Caller: "Yes, Dave." Dave: "And the AI division generates how much revenue?" Caller: "Well... we don't break that out separately." Dave: "So basically zero." Caller: "We prefer to call it 'long-term strategic investment.'" Dave: "Right. But your stock is up 60% this year." Caller: "Correct." Dave: "Because you promised Wall Street that AI will eventually make money." Caller: "...Yes." Dave: "Okay. Thanks for calling in, Mark."

My take is that the rise of cult-like behavior is directly linked to secularization in the West. We just swapped the church with some other group and activity. Ultimately, we still live in a Christian society. All the underlying values are the same. The fanatical behavior is still there, along with the strong desire for myths and narratives to explain the unexplainable. All things that a church used to provide.

Dave: "So let me get this straight. You've been posting on LinkedIn for six months." Founder: "Yes, Dave." Dave: "Three posts in January, nothing in February, seven posts in March..." Founder: "Correct." Dave: "And they're all clearly written by ChatGPT." Founder: "That's right." Dave: "But you still end every post with 'What are YOUR thoughts on this?'" Founder: "It turns out nobody has thoughts on my AI-generated insights about digital transformation." Dave: "Got it. And this revelation only cost you six months of sporadic effort." Founder: "And whatever's left of my personal brand." Dave: "But hey, at least that one post got 3 likes." Founder: "Two were bots." Dave: "Okay. Thanks for calling in."

Dave: "Welcome to the show. What's going on?" Caller: "I signed a big contract and want to make sure I can afford it." Dave: "Okay, how much is the contract for?" Caller: "Three hundred billion dollars." Dave: "...I'm sorry, did you say billion with a B?" Caller: "Yes." Dave: "Over how long?" Caller: "Five years. Starting in 2027." Dave: "So you need to deliver $60 billion worth of services per year." Caller: "Correct." Dave: "What are you selling them?" Caller: "Computing power." Dave: "And how much computing power do you currently have?" Caller: "Not enough for this contract." Dave: "So you don't have the product yet." Caller: "We're building it." Dave: "How much will that cost?" Caller: "Between $50 and $100 billion." Dave: "And who's your customer?" Caller: "OpenAI." Dave: "Just one customer for $300 billion." Caller: "Yes." Dave: "What happens if they can't pay?" Caller: "My stock went up $100 billion when I announced the deal." Dave: "That's not revenue, Larry." Caller: "Wait, how did you know it was me?" Dave: "Lucky guess. Thanks for calling in."

Three levels of wealth: > No LinkedIn > LinkedIn > No LinkedIn

Please don't start your outreach with "Yo."

Ok, I am going to call it, AI-generated images are officially super lame. I now see client campaigns running that use them get lots of negative comments, accusing them of being too cheap to get a real image. The backlash has begun.

Why hasn't AI replaced all the writers yet?

Dave: "You left OpenAI nine months ago to start an AI company." Caller: "Yes." Dave: "How much revenue?" Caller: "We're raising at a $50 billion valuation." Dave: "That's not what I asked. Thanks for calling, Mira."

Dave: "Welcome to the show. What's going on?" Caller: "I'm worried my board might replace me." Dave: "Why would they do that?" Caller: "I run six different companies." Dave: "And they want you to focus on one?" Caller: "Exactly." Dave: "So what's your solution?" Caller: "I asked for a $1 trillion pay package." Dave: "I'm sorry, what?" Caller: "$1 trillion. To stay." Dave: "And they said yes?" Caller: "Seventy-five percent of shareholders voted for it." Dave: "What do you have to do to earn it?" Caller: "Grow the company six times. Sell one million robots and robotaxis." Dave: "Do these products exist yet?" Caller: "They're in development." Dave: "So you need a trillion dollars in stock to stay focused on building things that don't exist yet." Caller: "It's really about voting control, not the money." Dave: "Right. How's the company doing now?" Caller: "Sales are down this year." Dave: "But you think it's going to be worth $8.5 trillion." Caller: "We're shifting to AI and robotics." Dave: "While running five other companies." Caller: "I'm building the future, Dave." Dave: "You're building an AI-powered robot army on shareholder hope." Caller: "The robots handed out candy at our shareholder meeting." Dave: "That's worth a trillion dollars right there." Caller: "It's not like I'm going to spend the money." Dave: "Okay, Elon. Thanks for calling in."

Them: We don’t have the tools to do innovative design ideation. Me: Your don’t have paper?

Why hasn't AI replaced all the writers yet?

Please don't start your outreach with "Yo."

Dave: "Masa Son, welcome to the show. What's going on?" Masa: "Dave, I sold my entire NVIDIA position." Dave: "How much?" Masa: "All 32.1 million shares. $5.8 billion." Dave: "And why did you do that?" Masa: "To go all-in on AI." Dave: "You sold your NVIDIA stock... to invest in AI." Masa: "Yes." Dave: "NVIDIA makes the chips that run AI." Masa: "Correct." Dave: "So you sold the shovels to buy lottery tickets." Masa: "I prefer to call them 'high-conviction bets.'" Dave: "Got it. And this is your second time selling NVIDIA completely." Masa: "That's right." Dave: "In 2019, you sold $4 billion worth." Masa: "Yes." Dave: "Which would be worth $150 billion today." Masa: "I'm aware." Dave: "So you already missed out on $146 billion from the first sale." Masa: "When you say it like that—" Dave: "And now you're doing it again. To put $30 billion into OpenAI." Masa: "And a $1 trillion AI manufacturing hub in Arizona." Dave: "Right. Because WeWork worked out so well." Masa: "That was a stain on my life, Dave." Dave: "Cost you $11.5 billion in equity losses. Plus another $2.2 billion in debt." Masa: "Adam and I fell in love." Dave: "You fell in love with a guy who wanted to trademark the word 'We.'" Masa: "He had vision." Dave: "And before that, you lost $70 billion in the dot-com crash. The largest personal loss in history." Masa: "But then I made it back with Alibaba." Dave: "After a six-minute meeting." Masa: "Jack Ma is very persuasive." Dave: "So your entire investment strategy is falling in love during short meetings and then losing generational wealth." Masa: "I believe in the singularity." Dave: "Right. So just to recap: you've lost $70 billion, missed out on another $146 billion, burned $13.7 billion on WeWork, and now you're selling NVIDIA at what might be the worst possible time to bet it all on Sam Altman." Masa: "Sometimes you have to push all your chips to the center of the table." Dave: "You've done that four times and lost three of them." Masa: "But that one Alibaba win though." Dave: "Okay. Thanks for calling in."

My take is that the rise of cult-like behavior is directly linked to secularization in the West. We just swapped the church with some other group and activity. Ultimately, we still live in a Christian society. All the underlying values are the same. The fanatical behavior is still there, along with the strong desire for myths and narratives to explain the unexplainable. All things that a church used to provide.

Overheard in Palo Alto. CEO: "This copy sucks." CMO: "We fired all our content people and just use ChatGPT now." CEO: "Well, hire them back."

Dave: "So let me get this straight, Michael. You started Cursor three years ago." Michael: "Yes, Dave." Dave: "And you just raised $900 million." Michael: "Correct." Dave: "At a $9.9 billion valuation." Michael: "That's right." Dave: "You're doing over $500 million in ARR." Michael: "Yes." Dave: "Which means your revenue has been doubling every two months." Michael: "Pretty much." Dave: "And OpenAI tried to buy you." Michael: "They did." Dave: "But you said no." Michael: "We turned them down." Dave: "So they bought your competitor Windsurf for $3 billion instead." Michael: "That happened, yes." Dave: "The competitor doing $100 million ARR while you're at $500 million." Michael: "I'm aware of the math, Dave." Dave: "And you're still just a fork of VS Code." Michael: "Well, when you say it like that—" Dave: "So your entire $9.9 billion company depends on Microsoft not changing its API." Michael: "We prefer to call it 'strategic interdependence.'" Dave: "Okay. Thanks for calling in." THE VERY NEXT DAY: Dave: "Michael, you're calling back already?" Michael: "We just raised another round." Dave: "How much?" Michael: "$2.3 billion." Dave: "At what valuation?" Michael: "$29.3 billion." Dave: "You were at $9.9 billion yesterday." Michael: "Correct." Dave: "Did you stop being a fork of VS Code?" Michael: "No." Dave: "Did Microsoft give you permission to use their code?" Michael: "They haven't said no." Dave: "So you tripled your valuation in 24 hours and nothing fundamentally changed." Michael: "Our revenue is still doubling every two months." Dave: "You're still one API change away from bankruptcy." Michael: "Strategic interdependence, Dave." Dave: "We're done here, Michael. Stop calling."

Budweiser ad fail... Never mind, this is just an isolated incident. Apple ad fail... We didn't know people felt like that. Bumble ad fail... Ok, sorry, we're just bad at humor. Forgive us. Q: Why are brands so out of touch with their customers these days?

Why hasn't AI replaced all the writers yet?

What's your best networking advice?

Ok, I am going to call it, AI-generated images are officially super lame. I now see client campaigns running that use them get lots of negative comments, accusing them of being too cheap to get a real image. The backlash has begun.

Stop the engagement farming!

Three levels of wealth: > No LinkedIn > LinkedIn > No LinkedIn

I guess this means that the benefit of WFH is more valuable than the potential benefits of being promoted.