A running list of sources and media I have found useful, across essays, books, music, newsletters, and projects.

ESSAYS

1. Paul Graham's Essays
   • For those unfamiliar, Paul Graham is an entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Y Combinator. My personal favorites are "Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas" and "What the Bubble Got Right."
2. AI as Normal Technology
   • You probably also know this one, or, at the very least, are familiar with the people who wrote it. Very close to home (The Knight First Amendment Institute was founded at Columbia University).
3. Choose Good Quests
4. Beating China isn't Enough

BOOKS

1. Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude
   • My favorite book of all time. Full stop. I have read it in both English and Spanish — the Spanish is better, of course, but the English version is remarkably good for a translation. Not directly tech-related in the way that others on this list are, but Márquez's magical realism stretches the boundaries of reality far beyond what Sora has been able to do ;)
2. Bertrand Russell's The Impact of Science on Society
   • One of the most brilliant philosophers of the 20th century (but my personal favorite is Rawls!).
3. Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
   • I first read this in during my junior year of high school, when I undertook an overly ambitious thesis. Anyway, I was reminded of this book (but mostly the first chapter where the infamous "the medium is the message" statement lies) when I read a16z's "What is New Media?" blog post. While a16z takes a much more operational and opportunistic stance on the current state of media, the conceptual overlap around legitimacy/narrative/attention felt hard to ignore. I, curious as to whether they were influenced by the writings of McLuhan, Debord, or Baudrillard, reached out and asked (see below, anonymity preserved).

So, the answer is yes, and of course I asked to see what he wrote — here it is:

a16z, Laws of (New) Media — Andrew McLuhan

MUSIC

I adore music and feel so lucky to have been born in a century where I can listen on demand. For an overview of my taste (it's all over), please see below my most listened to songs of all time:

"I'm On Fire" is a far-ahead first. As for the others… a mix of classics, moody ambient/electronic, and idk…. R&B and rock?

As for albums I am enjoying currently:

1. open this wall by berlioz
   • His debut full-length release. So impressive. Personal favorite tracks are "ascension" and "free fall."
2. Random Access Memories by Daft Punk
   • The word I would choose to describe this album is "lush."

NEWSLETTERS + BLOGS

1. Collab Blog (from Collaborative Fund)
   • One of my favorite fund blogs.
2. Not Boring by Packy McCormick
   • The name rings true. Packy McCormick makes everything more interesting. A recent favorite of mine was his essay on World Models with General Intuition's Pim De Witte.
3. a16z's Charts of the Week
   • World data in context (not all about AI).
4. Michelle Volz's Substack
   • Brilliant. Her and Katherine Boyle have long been role models of mine.
5. NEA's Insights
   • Biased ;)
6. Farnam Street's Newsletter
7. CTVC Newsletter
8. Axios Pro Rata
   • Not much to say about this one. You probably know it.

PROJECTS

1. Common Voice
   • A crowdsourcing project started by Mozilla to create a free and open speech corpus. Now the most diverse open voice dataset in the world!
2. The Anthropic Institute
   • This is a helpful introduction, and out of their four focus areas, the one that interests me the most is AI systems in the wild, led by their societal impacts team.
3. Every Cure
   • A nonprofit using AI and large-scale data to identify new uses for existing FDA-approved drugs (drug-repurposing). Of great use for Whel.

ETC

1. SpaceX's Falcon 9 First Stage Landing – ORBCOMM-2 (Dec 21, 2015)
   • My father pulled our whole family to his laptop screen to watch it live, and even though I quite young, it cemented a life-long love for outlandish ideas.
2. Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
   • I grew up watching this while cooking with my father (first in NYC, then Colombia, and most recently, Boston). Bourdain is a masterful storyteller.
3. Hot Side
   • A creative, humorous, and clever collection of recipes by Max Baroni, former chef at The Four Horsemen (iykyk).
4. Opening notes, Founders Fund's Annual Meeting (2020)
   • I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float, like a mote of dust in the morning sky…
5. Lost
   • The best tv series of all time. I will die on this hill.