The hottest Substack posts right now

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Our Slovenly Willingness

The Absent-Minded Professor • 275 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Ethics Future Critique Innovation Devices
  1. Apple's Vision Pro is pushing for a future of computing that may erode our sense of community.
  2. The increasing closeness of technology to us poses a new layer of distraction and potential harm to individual and communal well-being.
  3. Critically examining our reliance on technology can help us preserve our connection to nature and community over a machine-driven lifestyle.

o3: The grand finale of AI in 2024

Democratizing Automation • 815 implied HN points • 20 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Software Development Research Trends AI Models Machine Learning Natural Language
  1. OpenAI's new model, o3, is a significant improvement in AI reasoning. It will be available to the public in early 2025, and many experts believe it could change how we use AI.
  2. The o3 model has shown it can solve complex tasks better than previous models. This includes performing well on math and coding benchmarks, marking a big step for AI.
  3. As the costs of using AI decrease, we can expect to see these models used more widely, impacting jobs and industries in ways we might not yet fully understand.

AI Agents With Human In The Loop

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 19 implied HN points • 15 Aug 24
🕹 Technology NLP Frameworks AI Automation Chatbots
  1. AI agents can now include human input at important points, which helps make their actions safer and more reliable. This way, humans can step in when needed without taking over the whole process.
  2. LangGraph is a new tool that helps organize and manage how these AI agents work. It uses a graph approach to show steps and allows for better oversight and control.
  3. By combining automation with human checks, we can create more efficient systems that still have the safety of human involvement. This lets us enjoy the benefits of AI while also addressing concerns about its autonomy.

What Does It Take To “Do Things That Don’t Scale” For Your Startup? | VC Remote Jobs & More

Venture Curator • 359 implied HN points • 28 Dec 23
💼 Business Innovation Market research Startups Venture Capital Entrepreneurship
  1. To succeed as a startup, focus on solving unique problems that others haven't addressed.
  2. Embrace doing tasks that may not scale initially, like manual sales calls, to validate your business model.
  3. Founders of successful startups often start small, handle unglamorous tasks, and focus on learning and building their product before seeking rapid growth.

Strategic Funds

Points And Figures • 692 implied HN points • 05 Feb 25
💰 Finance Cryptocurrency Taxation Economic Policy Investment Government spending
  1. The idea of a Strategic Wealth Fund (SWF) and a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (SBR) is seen as bad because they could go against individual freedoms and lead to misuse of taxpayer money.
  2. Government can't truly invest money; it can only spend what it collects from taxes or borrows. This means investments made by the government aren't genuine investments.
  3. Bitcoin is still mostly potential and hasn't proven its real-world value. Critics argue that despite years of development, it lacks practical uses in everyday life.
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DeepSeek's Edge

ChinaTalk • 741 implied HN points • 12 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Research Hardware Software AI Data
  1. DeepSeek has no business model, which allows its team to experiment freely without pressure to earn money. This gives them a unique advantage over most other AI labs that need to focus on revenue.
  2. DeepSeek runs its own data centers instead of relying on external cloud services. This means they have better control over their resources and can optimize their setup for efficiency.
  3. The company's success comes from their innovative software optimization techniques. By being smart about how they use their hardware, they've achieved high performance even with limited resources.

Dinners are the new trade shows. Here’s how to run them well

MKT1 Newsletter • 12 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
💼 Business Events Brand Operations Networking Strategy Sales Marketing
  1. Dinners and small hosted events are a high-leverage B2B channel because they let you control the guest list, create real human connection, and focus on active pipeline accounts instead of spraying money at trade shows.
  2. To make a dinner worth it, be strategic: pick target accounts, treat each dinner like a campaign with pre/during/post touchpoints, and nail the three Ps—people, place, and programming—so conversations actually move deals and surface insights.
  3. Make dinners repeatable and measurable by building systems: track campaign influence in your CRM, standardize invites and personalized 24–48 hour follow-up, and document a playbook so you can scale and prove ROI.

January 2024: What if ACH had attachments?

Kunle.app • 314 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Innovation Messaging Data Payments
  1. Payments innovation has focused on optimizing speed and cost over the past two decades.
  2. The messaging layers in payment systems have a bandwidth constraint that limits the communication of metadata and important contextual information.
  3. Increasing the bandwidth in the messaging layer of payments could allow for self-reconciling payments and eliminate the need for parallel systems for information exchange.

The Discipline of Seeing Clearly

Kathy PM • 21 implied HN points • 25 Jan 26
💼 Business Product Management Decision-making Leadership Teams Culture Strategy
  1. Good leadership means noticing and naming what isn’t working instead of smoothing it over; that clarity helps teams move faster and builds trust.
  2. Growth language gets misused when it excuses poor outcomes. True growth requires precise learning and concrete updates based on real results.
  3. Self-deception feels easier but makes leadership harder because people stop sharing real signals. Using your own tools and judgment honestly is a discipline that starts real improvement.

Origins Season 12 Preseason is LIVE!

The Lunacian • 736 implied HN points • 22 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Virtual reality Software Gaming Development Internet
  1. The Dream World Arcade Mode is now live, replacing the Haunted House tickets with Dream World tickets while keeping the same gameplay.
  2. Players can test new Runes and Charms for free before the official season starts, allowing them to prepare better for the competition.
  3. Delegatees will soon have the ability to morph their Axies using their own resources, and a new Axie Check-In feature will reward players based on their chosen Axie's tier.

Data Science Weekly - Issue 540

Data Science Weekly Newsletter • 179 implied HN points • 29 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Data science AI Machine Learning Data Engineering Automation
  1. SQL is seen as an easier way to write relational algebra, but it's not ideal for building new query tools. Understanding its limits can help in learning and using SQL better.
  2. Many successful companies have developed their own AI models, showing a trend in the tech industry. Knowing about these companies can give insights into future developments in AI.
  3. Binary vector search methods can save a lot of memory compared to traditional methods. However, it's important to balance memory savings with maintaining accuracy.

Can AIs provide psychedelic therapy? 5 Questions for chatbot ChatGPT

The Microdose • 550 implied HN points • 21 Feb 23
🕹 Technology Psychedelics Chatbots AI Therapy Ethics
  1. ChatGPT states it may not be able to provide psychedelic-assisted therapy like a human therapist due to the need for personal connection and emotional support.
  2. Ethical and legal considerations in using AI for therapy involve informed consent, data privacy, liability, regulation, and ensuring access for all patients.
  3. Mystical experiences on psychedelics are described as profound, ineffable, and life-changing, involving a sense of unity with the universe and a deep emotional impact.

Your Attention Please: A New Era of Games Showcases is Here

A16Z GAMES • 139 implied HN points • 23 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Innovation Marketing Gaming Communities
  1. Game developers need to find new ways to get their games discovered in the post-E3 era.
  2. Smaller, targeted digital showcases are emerging to help reach specific player audiences beyond traditional large events like The Game Awards and Nintendo Direct.
  3. Game developers face challenges like game saturation, rising user acquisition costs, and the need for strategic marketing strategies to ensure their games get noticed.

carry on consulting

Dan Davies - "Back of Mind" • 294 implied HN points • 26 Jan 24
💼 Business Analysis Consulting Professional Services
  1. The 1970s movie 'Carry On At Your Convenience' offers an interesting but awful look at British class politics and industrial relations.
  2. British industry problems in the film reflect real issues of sclerotic management, militant unions, lack of communication, and reliance on hard currency export markets.
  3. The British miscellaneous professional services sector may have stemmed from individual solutions to underlying institutional problems.

The Internet As a Giant Skinner Box

Novum Newsletter • 309 implied HN points • 03 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Artificial Intelligence Behavioral Science Social media Gaming
  1. The concept of the Skinner Box explains how people can become addicted to behaviors through random rewards, like what we see with endless scrolling on the internet.
  2. A hidden workforce called 'ghost workers' handles tasks for tech companies, often under stressful conditions with unpredictable pay, similar to gambling.
  3. Both internet users and these invisible workers are conditioned by the same reward systems, highlighting how ingrained and widespread this behavior has become.

RunLLM: The custom assistant for developer tools

The AI Frontier • 179 implied HN points • 28 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Tools Development AI Innovation Software
  1. RunLLM is a special AI assistant designed for developers, helping them with coding, answering questions, and fixing bugs. It uses specific training to understand a developer's tools and needs better than general assistants.
  2. The way RunLLM works allows it to provide accurate and relevant information quickly. It does this by fine-tuning its learning based on user feedback and the specific data it needs to use.
  3. Setting up RunLLM is easy and can be done through various platforms like Slack and Discord. Developers can quickly start using it to improve their workflow.

5 Habits Of Highly Effective Data Engineers To Master in 2025

SeattleDataGuy’s Newsletter • 800 implied HN points • 20 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Technical Skills Career growth Data Engineering Professional development Project management
  1. Being proactive means solving problems before they become bigger issues. If you see something that can be improved, go ahead and make that change instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
  2. Make sure your contributions are visible, so people recognize your work. Share your successes and updates with your team and leadership to build a stronger reputation.
  3. Become the go-to person for a specific area in your company. Focus on something valuable that can help others succeed, and make sure to share your knowledge and support with your team.

The Archive

A Letter a Day • 550 implied HN points • 13 Apr 23
💼 Business Founders Investors Public Markets Venture Capital Private Equity
  1. The project involves sharing letters from influential investors, founders, and operators.
  2. The bottom-up approach helps to understand industries and people by reading their published works and listening to their talks.
  3. The newsletter provides a diverse range of insights from various individuals across different sectors such as public markets, venture capital, private equity, founders, operators, and talent hubs.

While the West Hesitates China Marches Forward

The Algorithmic Bridge • 637 implied HN points • 21 Feb 25
🕹 Technology Data Globalization AI Innovation Government
  1. China is rapidly adopting AI technology, using systems like DeepSeek across government operations to improve efficiency and decision-making. This shows their proactive approach to embracing innovation.
  2. DeepSeek has emerged as a competitive AI model that rivals established Western technologies, highlighting China's growing capabilities in the tech sector. China is focused on getting results, not just discussing ideas.
  3. The cultural mindset in China emphasizes efficiency and action, contrasting with the West's tendency to debate and regulate rather than implement. This difference in attitude could impact global technological leadership.

Overthinking Elon Musk

Read Max • 2766 implied HN points • 06 Oct 23
🕹 Technology Tech Ethics Social media Business Strategies Digital Advertising
  1. Elon Musk may be making decisions for Twitter based on private-equity strategies to grow revenue and margins quickly.
  2. Product changes on Twitter, like removing headlines, may be aimed at increasing metrics to attract advertisers rather than harming journalism intentionally.
  3. Many negative changes on Twitter may be due to structural power dynamics and financial pressures rather than Elon Musk's personal ideology.

RAG Implementations Fail Due To Insufficient Focus On Question Intent

Cobus Greyling on LLMs, NLU, NLP, chatbots & voicebots • 39 implied HN points • 18 Jul 24
🕹 Technology NLP AI Machine Learning Data science Knowledge Graphs
  1. Large Language Models (LLMs) can create useful text but often struggle with specific knowledge-based questions. They need better ways to understand the question's intent.
  2. Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems try to solve this by using extra knowledge from sources like knowledge graphs, but they still make many mistakes.
  3. The Mindful-RAG approach focuses on understanding the question's intent more clearly and finding the right context in knowledge graphs to improve answers.

Authorization in microservice architecture, P3: The Policy Language

Hung's Notes • 39 implied HN points • 18 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Cybersecurity Microservices Programming Languages Data Management Software Development
  1. A Domain-Specific Language (DSL) helps create clear and precise authorization policies for microservices. It makes it easier for everyone involved, from developers to managers, to understand authorization rules.
  2. The new policy language is designed to overcome performance issues by allowing lazy loading and efficient management of large datasets. This means it doesn't grab unnecessary data upfront, speeding up processes.
  3. Using YAML instead of complex formats makes the policies more readable and easier for non-engineers to understand. This helps ensure that more people can participate in and review authorization rules effectively.

In Search of Safe Havens: The Trust Deficit and Risk-free Investments!

Musings on Markets • 599 implied HN points • 15 Aug 23
💰 Finance Corporate Finance Economic Indicators Risk management Market Trends Investments
  1. Risk-free investments aren't always truly safe, especially during financial crises. Events like the 2008 crisis showed that even government bonds can carry risk.
  2. Inflation and real interest rates play a big role in determining risk-free rates, meaning they can change based on economic conditions. A higher expected inflation usually leads to higher risk-free rates.
  3. The trust in governments to honor their debt has declined over time, leading to uncertainty about using government bonds as risk-free investments. This loss of trust makes it essential to reassess what we consider safe investments.

Outcome-Based Positioning

Good Better Best • 4 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26
💼 Business AI Pricing Product Strategy Marketing SaaS
  1. Agentic AI creates a new value ladder where customers pay more for outcomes — i.e., work actually done for them — rather than just features, volume, or support.
  2. Companies can adopt outcome-based positioning in two ways: conservatively by reframing plans around service levels (do it yourself → done with you → done for you), or aggressively by directly comparing AI costs to a human worker to show value.
  3. If you’re still selling inputs like seats or usage, start shifting your messaging toward completed work today; even small moves toward outcome-focused copy or pricing will make your product feel more valuable.

Doom and boom?

Off to Lunch • 294 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
💼 Business Economics Investment Government Industry Technology
  1. The next UK government will face tough economic choices post-election, with challenges in public finance and investment.
  2. Private sector growth and business breakthroughs are crucial for economic development in the UK.
  3. Birmingham is experiencing challenges due to lack of public transport investment, emphasizing the importance of private sector investment for job creation.

Momentum Cyber's Almanac

The Security Industry • 31 implied HN points • 08 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Venture Capital M&A Cybersecurity Startups Industry Trends SaaS Cloud
  1. Cybersecurity M&A hit record levels in 2025 with $96B deployed across 400 transactions, a 270% rise in deal value, and a $32B landmark acquisition.
  2. Funding also rebounded strongly with $20.7B invested—the best year since 2021—and cloud-native/SaaS deals made up 59% of deal volume and 97% of M&A capital deployed.
  3. Strategic buyers dominated disclosed deal value (92%) and the industry’s vendor taxonomy was overhauled, highlighted by a new Cyberscape and a 1,000‑logo infographic.

Netflix Co-founder's 'The Canada Rule' For Building Successful Startups 🧐 | Pre-Money Valuation Growing 💹| VC Remote Jobs

Venture Curator • 239 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
💼 Business Market Trends Funding Valuations Venture Capital Startups
  1. The 'Canada Rule' advises startups to focus on one or two important things rather than chasing every opportunity.
  2. Pre-money valuations in Europe are showing growth across different stages, indicating market resilience.
  3. VCs are using 'Dry Powder' in convertible bridge rounds, showcasing creative financing strategies by founders.

Advanced Prompting Guide for AI Engineering

Engineering Enablement • 13 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Software Engineering Developer Tools Prompt engineering Governance Risk management Operational Efficiency Artificial Intelligence
  1. Structured prompting is required for complex, high‑risk engineering work; techniques like graph‑based prompts help reveal hidden dependencies, prioritize rules, and manage changing state.
  2. Use controlled validation loops and dual‑implementation strategies to improve governance and reduce risk, and apply diff‑only refactoring to make large code changes less invasive and more token‑efficient.
  3. The guide is vendor‑agnostic and practical, with Do/Don't scenarios and full prompt/code examples, and it’s useful to engineers and non‑engineers working with coding assistants, agents, or spec‑driven workflows.

Can We Escape from Ourselves?

Fake Noûs • 212 implied HN points • 16 Aug 25
📖 Philosophy Existentialism Human condition Change Self-reflection
  1. Sometimes, no matter where we go or what we change in our lives, we still end up facing the same issues within ourselves. It’s tough to escape from our own minds and thoughts.
  2. We can find temporary relief from our problems through engaging activities or distractions, but these are often short-lived. Eventually, we have to confront our feelings again.
  3. Accepting the parts of ourselves we don't like might not bring happiness, but it can be a first step toward understanding that everyone struggles with similar issues. We might not change completely, but we can learn to manage our feelings better.