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The thieves are upset about theft
AI labs trained on everyone's data without asking. Now they're furious that other AI labs are training on their outputs. The pattern is older than electricity.
Cyrus Radfar
I make a lot of mistakes so others don't have to.
Founding partner at V1 Worldwide. Founding engineer at AddThis (acq. Oracle), COO at Gigster, CPO at Rollbar. Georgia Tech CS. Lake Oswego, Oregon. More
Projects
Latest
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Zen Bloom
An exploration of how ideas form, find each other, and grow — rendered as a particle flow field.
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Configuring this Blog with a Delightful Example
A kitchen-sink post that exercises every typographic element — headings, blockquotes, images, code, lists, and more — so the design configurator has something real to chew on.
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Sandman
Zero-blue night filter for macOS, Linux, and Windows. Zeros out blue and green at the hardware gamma level. No CPU overhead. Screenshots stay full color.
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A single data center drinks five million gallons of water a day
America's energy and water infrastructure cannot sustain AI buildout without radical change.
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Productivity is up, but is your time worth more?
Coding productivity metrics are rising, but the real question is whether human judgment is becoming more valuable.
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Toggle your inner critic
High taste is a superpower in review, but a liability during creation—separating judgment from making is the skill creators need most.
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The GPU accumulation era is ending
Raw compute scaling is hitting limits; the next breakthroughs require hardware-software co-design and specialization.
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How do you understand code you didn't write?
Code generation speed isn't the bottleneck—understanding and verifying AI-generated code is, and current tools optimize the wrong 5% of development.
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Will it work out?
Uncertainty has shaped human decision-making for millennia—from ancient dice to modern language models—teaching us to work with randomness, not against it.
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I could've been an awesome Dungeon Master
Reflecting on D&D world-building skills and what generative world models mean for the future of storytelling and creative expression.
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Building for myself first
Using agentic development to prototype Swift apps that solve personal problems with privacy, ownership, and connection at their core.
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A fundamental shift on AI opportunities
The real opportunity in AI is disrupting incumbents and creating new products, not building more AI platforms.
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The cave you fear to enter
As AI handles optimization, human superpower shifts to ideation and the courage to create badly—making and learning without measuring.
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You didn't need to predict the App Store
Mobile blindsided many companies that moved slowly; AI will repeat this cycle—start small, measure, and upgrade every quarter.
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AI autonomy level framework
Framework for understanding AI autonomy levels outside self-driving, from copy-paste to full autonomous systems.
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What the heck is Cy up to?
Learning at speed to build AI-enabled products that return people to the real world, moving beyond screens.
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You down with A.P.P.?
A rap parody celebrating AI Paired Programming—the synergy between humans and AI in software development.
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Willpower is not unlimited
Willpower and resilience are finite resources that must be managed strategically, not glorified into burnout.
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AI won't magically replace companies
Economic pressure and frozen job markets will drive a new generation to build, sparking another wave of founder-led disruption.
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Hot take on the future of coding
Most individual contributor developers will need to re-skill within five years as AI agents take over execution work.
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No team votes itself out of existence
Conway's Law shows why organizations keep building what they did yesterday—and why Tesla's system reimagining beat a hundred years of optimization.
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Hot take on Sora
Sora's outputs remain largely unusable at current pricing; the model needs dramatic improvements in consistency to justify its value.
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Will there be 10 billion humanoid robots?
The raw material constraints for 10B humanoid robots by 2040 are severe—especially lithium and rare earth elements.
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Excuse the nostalgic rant
San Francisco's tech community gathering places have vanished, taking with them the energy that built the startup ecosystem.
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1-bit models and the future of on-device AI
Binary neural networks achieve comparable performance to 16-bit models while using 3x less memory, 4x less GPU resources, and 100x less energy.
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AI is a new entity
Understanding that AI agents represent a fundamental shift beyond smarter tools—a genuinely new form of intelligence with exponential capability.
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Google's sloppy Gemma launch
Google's open-source Gemma launch failed to account for community infrastructure, creating a poor first impression with key stakeholders.
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On a personal note
Reflecting on a transformative period of recovery, exploration, and the decision to build something new in the age of AI agents.
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Projections on OpenAI after Altman
When risk-averse leadership replaces visionary founders, the focus shifts from innovation to asset protection.
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Stop romanticizing entrepreneurship
People aren't inspired by a hero's journey of suffering—they're inspired by movement and momentum. Entrepreneurship is just another path.
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It's hard to admit this
My first company failed because I tried to solve everything at once, lacked product-market fit, and didn't listen to users.
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I shut down Spine
After co-founder disagreement, shutting down the project in an evening freed me to find a new direction within a week.
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I was alone on AI ethics for a long time
In 2010, I left a great role to build a product focused on fair algorithms. Years before the movement existed.
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The last thing I said to him
A tribute to Allen Romero—a fellow founder who persevered for ten years on a mission to bring people closer together IRL.
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Shakespeare didn't become Shakespeare by studying Shakespeare
Compete with yourself, not others. Define you and be the greatest possible version of that.
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Prioritize your questions like features
If you manage a work queue, you already know feature prioritization. Apply the same discipline to open questions.
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2 billion people already have your distribution channel
Countless companies try to kill the spreadsheet. There's more value in doing the hard work within the legacy ecosystem.
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Being Suez'd
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If your team is apologizing for doctor appointments
You have a cultural problem. Leaders who skip self-care send a signal that trickles down into burnout and risk aversion.
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I had a sleeping bag in my office
A decade of hustle culture experiments that made me no more successful—just less enjoyable to be around.
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On CEOs using company channels for politics
Thoughts on the Expensify email blast—I agree with the message but object to the channel. Apply the inverse test.
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We're not going back
Written March 2020—the remote work shift has already happened. Employers who think everyone's returning to offices will find a rude awakening.
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Bias in AI: A problem recognized but still unresolved
Algorithmic bias is a known problem. Two years after Tyrant in the Code, the debate rages on but the demographics haven't changed.
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How autonomous vehicles and hyperloop are scooting along
Two years ago, Lime was a great addition to guacamole, rather than a sidewalk.
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Will tech companies change the way we manage our health?
The top 10 tech companies spent $4.7 billion on healthcare acquisitions since 2012. What are they after?
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Amazon isn't to blame for the Postal Service's woes, but it will need to innovate to survive
Trump blames Amazon for the Postal Service losing billions. The real story is more complicated.
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Dear United: Autonomous cars will pull you out of your seat
Autonomous cars will eat short-haul air travel. Comfort, price, and flexibility all favor the ground.
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With autonomy, commercial real estate could go mobile
The next land rush might not involve land. Autonomous fleets could replace storefronts and reshape commercial real estate.
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Autonomous cars will bring a moveable feast of products and services
Would you be comfortable buying glasses sight-unseen?
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Transport's coming upheaval
Americans spend 29.6 billion hours a year commuting. Hyperloop and autonomous cars will reshape where we live, work, and settle.
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Is Whole Foods a healthy option for Amazon?
Amazon is buying Whole Foods for $14 billion. It's not about groceries -- it's about fulfillment locations, delivery fleets, and drone landing pads.
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Tyrant in the code
AI isn't biased because it's evil. It's biased because its creators are a sea of dudes building scissors for right-handed people.
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Dear President-Elect,
You’ve won. Congratulations!
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Apple lays the groundwork to kill online advertising
Apple's slow-squeeze strategy against Google's search revenue is becoming clear. Four moves to check the king.
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What Lies Behind the Wall
A: “What do you do?”
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Being comfortable with the unknowable
Understanding that reality is constantly changing and absolutes are rare; learning to accept uncertainty.
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6 Ways Startups Can Design for Accessibility
Accessibility is a huge problem in the tech world that we don’t talk enough about.
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Silicon Valley’s Biggest Investors Prefer Their Wrist to Apple Watch
Josh Elman, the famed investor and former professional Badminton player recently went to Twitter to share his painful story about the Apple…
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Will Google’s Fi make you say bye to Verizon and AT&T?
Google’s officially launching their mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) which was previously codenamed NOVA. We’ve spoken about this…
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The Rise of Community Media
The story of why Social Media couldn’t scale to provide us all a voice.
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Unsolved and Uncharted Territory in Online Video
However you look at, we still have a massive distribution problem. There is no TV guide or programming director for online media. The…
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Creating a Home for Intelligent Media
You’re too good for clickbait, so you should read this. Seriously. Because, Gigaom.
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AOL’s Original Mission.
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On criticizing Mayer
There isn't a pundit criticizing Mayer that has ever managed a turnaround at a large company. Turnarounds take time.
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Vanity metrics aren't the problem
More toxic than vanity metrics is the celebrity worship within the entrepreneurial community. We should challenge one another, not pander to celebs.
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You’re Not Ev Williams, Yet
When you read advice from folks like Evan Williams and others who have a well-known brand, it’s important to step back and realize that…
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The follow-up calendar invite
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Stop grabbing beers
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What does 'start-ups' mean as a skill?
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NASA and Bruce Willis
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LinkedIn let me in
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Which network would you drop?
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Executive punctuality is newsworthy
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The only product framework worth knowing
I'm not a fan of many models beyond: 1) talk to people, 2) build something, 3) try said something. But Nir Eyal's Hooked model is worth understanding.
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Almost There
The best is yet to come.
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Three Steps
I take a lot of steps every day.
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It’s their fault.
Us and them.
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The Greatest Social Network
wonderbabiesco.
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Being Grateful
Baby steps to happiness.
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Doors
And my perpetual search for the keys.
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A Life Through Glass
Google Press Photo After spending some time with Glass, I wanted to address questions I’ve received, provide tips for new Glass owners, and share some of the shortcomings of the alpha device.
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Dear Facebook, let me tag people I’m “thinking of”
Posts and photos require more subtle notification methods.
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Starting with Hello
Learning to start cold conversations.
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Exercising the Mind
The entrepreneurial muscle groups.
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Entrepreneurship is a Skill
AMOS NACHOUN Please, for the love of God or in spite of Her, stop reading and writing articles about the “Ten Best Ways to Launch a Company,” “Marketing Secrets of the Super Rich,” or the “Seven Biggest Failures You Never Knew About.
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How a fire-drill changed my outlook on life
via Flickr: thebutcherbaker 2am and there was a fire in my downtown San Francisco apartment complex.
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My Mother
I’m thankful for the fact that when I couldn’t speak, she understood me.
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What do you think I should do?
Photo By Cyrus Radfar We’ve all sat across from someone who’s in a bind and ends a story with, “What do you think I should do?