Walter Thompson

Decentralization of content is something I believe will substantially influence our civilization one way or another for the next couple of decades. Print allowed content to exist far longer than some digital content. A simple recipe (definitely not the best or exhaustive): write using simple formats (plain text, like Markdown, https://orgmode.org, etc), own and host your content as much as possible, and donate to https://archive.org

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INTERVIEWS OF 2024 SXSW PITCH WINNERS: Dhavel Patel of Lotus Every March in Austin, 50 of the world's most impactful startups showcase their talents at SXSW Pitch. Today we begin a series of short interviews with some of the category winners from the 2024 event. Founder and CEO Dhaval Patel has been growing Lotus for three years. At this year's SXSW Pitch, his San Jose based startup emerged as the winner of the "Smart Cities, Transportation & Sustainability" category. Patel's short answers to our questions are below. SXSW: What is Lotus?  Patel: A wearable ring that controls objects at home by pointing. See https://www.getlotus.com/ SXSW: What community does Lotus serve? Patel: Folks with limited mobility -- older adults, veteran soldiers, people with disabilities.  SXSW: Who is your all-time favorite entrepreneur? Patel: Warren Buffett. SXSW: Best startup-related advice you have received? Patel: Don't start building first, find the need first. SXSW: Current entrepreneurial trend that excites you the most? Patel: Desire for tech that is intuitive and simple. SXSW: Fail fast or perseverance? Patel: Persevere in failing fast repeatedly. SXSW: Favorite VC? Patel: Andreessen Horowitz. SXSW: Favorite gadget or device? Patel: Apple AirPods. SXSW: Government can best support startups by Patel: Moving faster. SXSW: Most over-hyped technology at present? Patel: AI. SXSW: Most under-hyped technology at present? Patel: Consumer hardware. SXSW: What did you enjoy most about your experience at SXSW? Patel: The people -- each person wanting to make the world a better place. SXSW: What is your best trait as an entrepreneur? Patel: Simplifying complex problems. SXSW: What is your best advice for other startups? Patel: Focus (say "no" to more). Learn more about Dhaval Patel of Lotus plus other 2024 SXSW Pitch winners by listening to the audio of their session at this year's event. See https://lnkd.in/gHtwQB8n Applications for SXSW Pitch 2025 will open in late summer. See https://lnkd.in/gE2hcVPK #sxsw, #sxsw2024, #startups, #founders, Chris Valentine, Dhaval Patel, SXSW, #venturecapital, #entrepreneur, #entrepreneurs, #startup, #founderstories, #sxswpitch, Lotus (Techstars'23), #techstars, #Austin, #ATX, #creativity, #innovation, #hardware, #consumerhardware, #pitch, #accessibility,

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"You're an oversharer, I can tell... you overshare because you want to explain and be helpful. Try not to do that, they don't necessarily like that." That was after 45 minutes of conversation with a VC I've been following for a half decade and finally warmed up to the idea of reaching out. Fair. In equal fairness, I was looking for advice, so felt like I needed to provide as much context as I could to get the most useful advice from them. I've been reflecting on that sentiment (along with other conversations I've had these past few weeks) for a while, and I've got three reflections that have crystallized during my ruminations: =========== 1. Oversharing--and being burned/humiliated by it--is a big reason why I cut back on my social media posting years ago. I still think we haven't figured out how to make social media technology that beneficially enhances our social capacity and satisfies our social needs. I could (and likely will) say more on this, after some deeper research. For now, I'm sticking with just trying to post in LinkedIn with stories that I think are helpful for others in my professional network and in other networks at large, with the hope and goal that it will reciprocate back to me in some way, shape, or form. Likely, I'll occasionally overshare 😅 =========== 2. Signal to noise ratio. What the VC was saying, without saying it directly, was that I was flooding them with noise and asking them to find the signal from it. A better approach likely would have been to provide a bit of signal, and let them do their thing that they seem to be very good at- pattern matching and curious question asking to arrive at the recommendations. I'll be trying to carry this advice with me in all sorts of contexts... mentor/coaching sessions, therapy, conversations with friends, sales and partnership conversations. Basically, I should pause the flood and let them breathe, and guide/ask. Will report back with findings 😂 =========== 3. Building relationships takes time. Part of my tendency to overshare is a bit of my natural inclination to just be vulnerable so that others feel like they can be vulnerable with me in return. I'm not here to say showing vulnerability is bad. But I think I can get carried away with it with the goal of trying to form a deeper relationship in a 30 minute (ish) window. Bad move. Alright, this was mostly a share for my own reflection and to come back to later. Anyone else an oversharer? What insights have you had, being so inflicted?

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Today is an important milestone for Punchbowl News — We are announcing The Portal with Enbloc AI. Since we launched in 2021, we've heard consistently that our community isn't happy with their data subscriptions that they pay thousands of dollars for but aren't actually that useful. That gave us the idea to create a platform that changes the way Washington works, made with Washington in mind. At the end of last year, we bought Electo Analytics, a congressional data startup. We then redesigned the entire platform, using our deep knowledge of what Capitol Hill and K Street need every single day. This became The Portal, which includes integrated news, congressional directories, legislative text, regulations, real-time alerts and much more. The Portal members will also receive a weekly Monday newsletter and a mid-week update to keep them ahead of the game when it comes to legislative news. Come January, subscribers will start to use Enbloc AI, a Punchbowl News-designed AI platform embedded in The Portal that brings together all of the databases that you use every day in Washington, overlaid with our news and proprietary Washington data. Enbloc AI's searches will also be embedded in Punchbowl News newsletters. Enbloc AI uses natural language searches to help you do your job more quickly and efficiently. This will save you time, money and make you smarter and sharper. This has truly been a full-team effort to take this from an idea to a market-ready product. Rachel Schindler has been integral in leading this massive project. Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan, Dave Clarke and the editorial team are at the center of Enbloc AI. And our tech and product team deserve huge kudos for the late nights, problem-solving and creative thinking that have brought this to life — Mary Tyler (MT) March, Soraya Bagheri, Elizabeth Turner, Anthony Garreffa, and Brandon Chiazza. Interested in learning more? Check it out: https://lnkd.in/edxtR8nR

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As basic and mid-range tech skills become increasingly commoditized, this is going to keep happening. At least I think it will. There are huge benefits to keeping your staff in close time zones, but it's by no means necessary. Plus, there are cheaper geographies within our own country. So you can hire cheaper in the same time zone or one only one or two away. But, there are also advantages to having staff in time zones around the globe, providing closer to 24/7 support, for example. "Udemy, a San Francisco company that sells online educational courses and training, is laying off about 280 workers — but plans to replace some in what it’s calling 'lower cost geographies.'" https://lnkd.in/gqCXYanf

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In the 2000s, anti-copyright activists were punching up by taking on the record and film industries. But now they’ve thrown their lot in with major tech companies (and the MPA) to try to stop artists from using copyright law to rein in generative AI. #techindustry #generativeai #ai #artificialintelligence #copyright

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Graph RAG is been talked about on twitter threads, linkedin posts, youtube tutorials and even theinformation. We had to put this out there. We have been working with the Tars team to put together an actual show and tell. No random slides with claims. A Real Show and Tell. Finally an event where you get to - See head on comparison of bots built on GraphRAG vs Vector RAG - See how CogniSwitch works vs Vector RAG. - Figure out how your engineering/ product team can start using this without having to break the bank or spends months researching the perfect GenAI stack Me and Febin John James debated a bunch on the timing of this. Monday 6 PM IST? The arguement was simple - that's how important this is. Gen AI developers have been dealing with a stack that puts reliability on the line. This is your chance. If your team is tinkering with GenAI, trying to build applications - this is what you need to forward to them. See you at 6 PM on monday. Link >> https://lnkd.in/g_MAbyad

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I just posted the following on Twitter/X. LinkedIn will remain my primary platform. Twitter/X remains useful as an outlet to promote other content, but not for producing unique content (at least for me). "I'm posting again on Twitter/X. But I won't be posting THREADS. This is for three reasons: access, engagement/relevance, & Elon Musk. "1) Access: I started posting threads on this platform because it was a useful way to create accessible (open and free) content for my undergraduate international relations courses (and I know others put my threads on their syllabi as well). Students could read the threads even if they didn't have account. That's no longer the case. Related, if I'm going to ask students to subscribe to an outlet to learn about international politics, I would rather direct them to outlets like War on the Rocks, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, or World Politics Review, where their money is better spent. "2) Engagement/Relevance: the engagement with my threads gradually decreased over the past few years as people left the platform after Musk took over (see #3 below). Additionally, once this platform allowed LONG single posts (like this one), creating threads became less relevant. I might as well write long form content, which I already do each week for World Politics Review. "3) Musk: I have no problem at all with Musk supporting any particular politician or cause. But I do have a problem with him using this platform to continually express that support and, related, spread disinformation (how many times has he been "community noted"). My view is this: as the owner of a major social-media platform, you have a responsibility to ensure that the platform serves as a forum for debate and critics, but not that the platform itself is involved in those debates and is a critic. Call it the "Chicago Principle" (support, but not engaged in speech) or the "Spider-man Principle" (great power comes great responsibility) applied to social media ownership. Moreover, as the owner of the platform, you are one-and-the-same as the platform itself. Elon violates that every day (related, this is why I think it's a good thing that newspapers do not endorse political candidates). "Going forward, I will use this Twitter/X the same as other platforms: post and promote international relations related content I and others produce. But I won't be using it to produce platform-unique content.

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Will you opt out from Meta using your post data to train its AI models? Notifications are due to go out this week, with scraping starting in October. A few more details below:

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Anne Helen Petersen's latest story for her Substack, Culture Study, (subscribe! It's great) on the transformation of People Magazine and the broader implications for media, especially indie publishers. From its glory days to its struggle to remain relevant in a digital-first world, Petersen examines the real effects of SEO and content aggregation. (Bonus: learning what happened to About.com) Petersen linked to another article about how recommendations are usually reverse engineered by "experts" paid to churn content and boost a website's ranking: https://lnkd.in/egUKJU53 As a publisher myself, I found this a sobering read--it feels like the independent publishers out there simply don't have a chance unless we turn into aggregate SEO farms. 📚✨ #MediaEvolution #IndiePublishing #SEO #DigitalTransformation Read Petersen's full story here: https://lnkd.in/emgHqiKE

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💫 EVERYONE💫 is pitching reporters on AI topics right now. I feel like I’m re-living the 2018 era of companies thinking that being “cloud native” was exciting enough on its own to earn media coverage. Having AI in your product is relatively expected now. It's not news. Here’s what’s working when it comes to landing AI-related media coverage: ➡ REAL EXAMPLES: How are businesses (or people!) actually using AI? If you don’t have customers you can name drop or connect to reporters, you can still talk about this anecdotally. Or, why not be customer zero? How is your own company using your AI-powered technology to improve XYZ? ➡ RESULTS: So you have those examples of how people are using AI… what was the outcome? Did they reduce customer acquisition costs by X%? Did they reduce the time needed to create assets by X%? And most enticing… did they grow revenue or become more profitable?  ➡ EXCITING DATA: If you can come up with an interesting survey topic on AI that hasn't already been done, do it! For example, my favorite daily news podcast Morning Brew Daily recently covered a survey that found that most consumers are actually turned off by brands who say their products use AI. (Probably because so many companies are putting the hype cart before the horse on this tech…). That's an eye-opening stat. ➡ CONTROVERSY: Procreate recently announced it will NOT be using AI in its products. Cue mega press coverage. Companies who announce that they are replacing employees with AI are also getting mega coverage. AWS CEO Matt Garman just went viral for saying that developers are not going to be coding soon due to AI. 😬 ➡ UNEXPECTED USE CASES: Everyone is using AI to "optimize productivity" and "deliver cost efficiencies." But if you're using it to do something exciting, like improve the accuracy of cancer diagnoses, design cars, or get more people to vote, the story is much more interesting. (Your unexpected use case doesn't have to be world-changing, though that certainly helps). ➡ BIG $$$: If you're announcing $50 million+ in funding for your AI startup, or that you're now valued at $5 billion, LFG. If you're being acquired (or acquiring someone) for $100 million+, that's news. If you have seen a major boost in revenue thanks to AI or selling your AI products, great! What’s NOT working: 🤔 Simply dropping the words “AI-powered” or “gen AI” into your press release. 🙄 Pitching yourself as an “AI expert” if you don’t have a background in actually developing AI. 🚫 Calling machine learning “gen AI.” 💤 Pitching a survey about how 87% of business leaders are interested in adopting AI. 💵 Announcing $10 million in funding. You might land coverage in tech publications (*if* your story is interesting!) but it's not Bloomberg material.

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My friend Dan Shipper invited my on his podcast - AI & I - to talk through how I use AI in my writing process. I mainly use Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and I use it to help me better understand complex technical concepts, share sections of what I write to see if I got anything wrong, and to edit my full pieces. It's pretty great, but it also gives me an A- on pretty much every first draft and escalates the grade with each new draft I send. Dan and I worked through how to fix it and make Claude a more useful editor. https://lnkd.in/eUbsgecX

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This week on Decoder I sat down with Anthropic's new chief product officer Mike Krieger to discuss his journey from cofounding Instagram and Artifact to now working for one of the hottest AI companies in the industry. Anthropic has billions in funding from some of the biggest names in tech, primarily Amazon, to develop Claude, the name of both its industry-leading AI model and a chatbot that competes with ChatGPT. At the same time, Anthropic has an intense safety culture that’s distinct among the big AI firms of today. The company is notable for employing some people who legitimately worry AI might destroy mankind, and I wanted to know all about how that tension plays out in product design. I was a big fan of Artifact, too, so I wanted to know more about Mike's decision to shut it down as well as the decision to sell the underlying tech to Yahoo. Then I wanted to know why he decided to join Anthropic and work in AI, an industry with a lot of investment but very few consumer products to justify it. What’s this all for? What products does Mike see in the future that make all the AI turmoil worth it, and how is he thinking about building them? Check out a clip from the conversation below that's all about where Anthropic sources training data, a contentious topic in the AI industry, and read and listen to the full interview on The Verge: https://lnkd.in/eiJBr7se

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Mastodon CEO Criticizes Meta's Moderation Changes, Cautions Threads Users on Cross-Posting Eugen Rochko, the CEO of Mastodon, has raised concerns about Meta’s recent decision to shift its moderation approach. Meta announced that it would replace fact-checking across its platforms with a crowdsourced Community Notes system, similar to what’s used on X (formerly Twitter). Rochko described this change as “deeply troubling” and warned that it could have serious implications, particularly for marginalized communities. He also addressed how this impacts users who cross-post from Threads—a Meta platform—onto Mastodon using the fediverse-sharing feature. Rochko made it clear that Mastodon will enforce its existing policies, including taking action against hate speech and other violations, even for content originating from Threads. The fediverse-sharing feature, introduced by Meta last year, allows Threads users to share posts directly on Mastodon, expanding their audience. While Rochko initially saw this as a step forward for decentralized social media, not everyone in the Mastodon community feels the same. Some smaller Mastodon servers have blocked Threads entirely, citing concerns over moderation and privacy. Similarly, Meta has blocked certain Mastodon servers for similar reasons. This latest moderation shift from Meta has created uncertainty about how large Mastodon instances, are like Mastodon. social, will handle Threads accounts moving forward. Rochko assured Mastodon users that the platform is prepared to address any challenges that arise. For those uncomfortable with Meta’s new direction, Rochko suggested moving to Mastodon as an alternative. However, he acknowledged that transitioning from Threads to Mastodon isn’t as straightforward as moving between Mastodon servers, due to Threads’ current limitations in fully integrating with the fediverse. By reinforcing its commitment to protecting its community, Mastodon aims to maintain a space that prioritizes thoughtful moderation and user trust. https://lnkd.in/dG6hDTT8? Platform: TechCrunch Author: Sarah Perez #mastodon #meta #metasocial #moderation #threads #socialmedia #socialmediaplatforms #bigtech #technews #socialmedianews #technology #crossposting

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𝗣𝘆𝗿𝗲𝘅 𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘃𝘀. 𝗔𝗜 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗿 I’ll admit, my sister-in-law is 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 with Pyrex. She has a collection worth thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars. Who knew a casserole dish could be such a hot commodity? And look, I get it—Pyrex is 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘭. But is it 𝘈𝘐-𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨-𝘵𝘩𝘦-𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 cool? Ehh, not quite. Now, what I do think is cool—scratch that, 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨—is Corning’s transformation from kitchen staple to AI powerhouse. You see, thanks to William Patalon III’s latest article, I found out that the company behind your grandma's favorite dishware is now positioning itself to ride the AI wave like a pro surfer. Yup, Corning has gone from 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸 to 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗸, and the market hasn't even caught on yet. Turns out Corning’s been flexing its muscles in the optical fiber and display tech game for years. And with their new AI-driven 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱, they’re looking to add $3 billion in annual sales by 2026. That’s right—Corning is gearing up to power AI data centers and the Internet of Things, leaving casserole dishes in the dust. So while my sister-in-law is on the hunt for her next vintage Pyrex gem, I’ll be keeping an eye on Corning’s next-gen innovations—and maybe picking up some shares along the way. Catch William Patalon’s full breakdown of Corning’s AI game plan here: https://lnkd.in/gvCvny7h. #AIRevolution #TechStocks #Innovation #ArtificialIntelligence #Investing

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The prompt is pivotal for powering GenAI solutions, acting as the foundational blueprint that determines the quality & relevance of the AI's output (AI can't think on its own). But the critical question is: how does a Prompt Engineer craft the most intelligent prompt? The answer lies in leveraging the most robust data source - and in the realm of marketing that is VidMob. Yes, Vidmob holds the richest cross-channel Creative Data asset in the world. If you want to learn more about how Vidmob can empower your brand please reach out. The Prompt is the Creative. #CreativeData #CreativeTechnology #DataDrivenMarketing #CreativeExcellence #DigitalTransformation The Wall Street Journal

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Reddit beat revenue expectations for the quarter?? How could that possibly happen??? :) -> Reddit shares soar 14% after company reports revenue pop in debut earnings report "Revenue increased 48% to $243 million for the first quarter and reported 82.7 million daily active users for the period." Also, and this is crazy -> AI-powered translation at scale, indexed by Google? This should result in a manual action or algorithmic demotion. Let's see how Google handles this. -> Reddit tests automatic, whole-site translation into French using LLM-based AI "Huffman noted that this content is also being indexed on Google results for the French language, driving more traffic to the site, and the company next wants to tackle Spanish." I've had companies reach out to me (big companies with big brands) that got obliterated during spam updates for doing this exact thing. I'm very interested in seeing how this goes for Reddit (and how Google handles it). Auto-translating content at scale can be very, very risky SEO-wise. i.e. Manual actions, spam updates, etc. can have a big impact when sites do this. Stay tuned. #google #seo #reddit

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