"Without a Trace" featuring Anoncast founder Kartik Patel aka @slokh | ZEROPOD S2 E4

When Vitalik Buterin buys a memecoin to try your consumer zk social app, you know you’re onto something. Kartik Patel (aka @slokh) joins ZEROPOD to talk about Anoncast— the ZK-powered app that lets you post anonymously and trustlessly to Farcaster and Twitter/X from a web interface at anoncast.org. From hacking RuneScape mods as a kid to pulling endless hours at OpenSea during peak NFT chaos, Kartik shares his journey, the lore behind $ANON, and why he thinks ZK privacy is the future. Along the way: why Farcaster is the Silicon Valley of crypto, how he learned ZK programming from scratch in three weeks, and how "lore-first, product-second" might just be the future of bootstrapping. Join us to learn all about the cracked dev who made it possible to speak your mind on the internet, without a trace. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - When Vitalik tries your app 01:09 - ZEROPOD Intro 01:26 - Anon, A-non, Tomato, tomahto.03:13 - Young Kartik 04:00 - Hacking game mods 05:00 - Happy in his space (software developing) 07:13 - From defi protocols to NFTs 07:33 - Joined Opensea 08:13 - Working at Opens during peak NFT bull 09:33 - Working at Manifold and then striking out on his own 10:28 - Solo hacking 11:25 - Why was he attracted to building on Farcaster 12:13 - Better Farcaster branding 13:40 - Similar problems to Ethereum 15:13 - Building Nook farcaster client 18:23 - A Kartik Primer on the ANON Lore 21:51 - Kartik wasn’t even involved in ANON until after the CTO 23:00 - How the anoncast idea came to be 24:49 - New paradigm of products coming downstream of communities 27:13 - Why he wanted to build anoncast 28:16 - Vitalik buying $ANON and trying anoncast 29:40 - How does ZK privacy work? 31:18 - Why is ZK privacy important? 32:55 - How does anoncast work? 36:00 - The future of what curation could look like on anoncast… ZK-anon reddit? 38:00 - Favourite feature shipped on anoncast so far 41:00 - Learning ZK on the go 42:00 - Best use cases for anoncast? (Alpha?) 43:30 - How can people contribute to the project? 44:00 - Best place to learn how to use anoncast? 44:44 - What is he most excited about? 47:00 - Just build, have fun and differentiate 47:30 - What is the sloth backstory 48:00 - Outro Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk, SuperTightWoody & Suno AI. This content is zero rights reserved (cc0), please remix and reuse it in any way you like!

Xer0x - Anonymity & Art

In the seventh episode of Season five, we are joined by the one and only Xer0x. Xer0x is one of my favorite artists and his work incorporates a mix of painting, 1-bit pixel art, retro hue cycle techniques and both traditional and new glitch techniques. We dive deep into the power of anonymity and how it shapes his artistic identity, what it was like growing up in Iran, his views on the absurdity of memecoins and general crypto culture, what artistic success looks like for him, and so much more. We're excited to announce that the rest of Season Five is now powered by Towns! Built on Base and running on River, Towns is a decentralized and permissionless group chat app that allows anyone to create & own digital town squares on their own rules. Available on web and iOS with full end-to-end encryption, users can join or create feature-rich Towns with native on-chain gating, paid memberships and more with tons of exciting features & rewards coming soon. We'll also be doing a little collabing with our friends at SHILLR in a joint Town for our communities so make sure to tap in to get access to some Towns exclusive giveaways, rewards and more. Head tohttps://www.towns.com/ for more. 01:45 Introduction 03:45 New York Adventures 15:21 Anonymity and Artistic Identity 40:19 Growing Up in Iran 47:09 The Meme Coin Craze 1:07:28 Balancing Art and Stability 1:14:32 The Reality of Artistic Success 1:29:46 The Role of Physical Art in a Digital World 1:48:28 Meme Coins and Artistic Integrity 1:53:45 Crypto Art Aesthetics and The Future 2:00:20 The Challenges of Group Auctions 2:03:05 The Importance of Conceptual Art 2:07:13 Reflections and Future Aspirations More Xer0x: X: https://x.com/Xer0x_NFT More Andy8052 X: https://twitter.com/andy8052 More Deeze X: https://twitter.com/DeeZe More Towns X: https://x.com/townsxyz https://www.towns.com/ More WDAL X: https://twitter.com/wedoalittlepod Discord: https://discord.gg/AStUCwXERh More Shillr: X: https://x.com/shillrxyz Podcasts: https://shillr.buzzsprout.com/ More h0m3w0rk (creators of our theme song) X: https://twitter.com/homeworkNFT Production by Weesh X: https://twitter.com/__weesh__ As always, this podcast is for entertainment purposes only, and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Andy, Deeze, and guests may be invested in companies or tokens talked about on this podcast.

#188 - LGHT

LGHT is the founder & unofficial creative director of HIGHER. He is a writer, creator, and designer working on internet enabled quality of life upgrades. Follow LGHT on Warpcast @lght.eth and on X @notbylght. For more episodes, go to ⁠⁠podofjake.com⁠⁠. Previous guests include ⁠⁠Mark Cuban⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Brian Armstrong⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Balaji Srinivasan⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Keith⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Rabois⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Ali Spagnola⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Anthony Pompliano⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Raoul Pal⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Julia Galef⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Jack Butcher⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Tim Draper⁠⁠, and over 100 others alike. Learn from founders and CEOs of companies like ⁠⁠OpenAI⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Coinbase⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Solana⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Polygon⁠⁠, ⁠⁠AngelList⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Oura⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠Replit⁠⁠, and investors from ⁠⁠Founders⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Fund⁠⁠, ⁠⁠a16z⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Union Square Ventures⁠⁠, and many more. I appreciate your support and hope you enjoy. Thanks to ⁠⁠⁠Chase Devens⁠⁠⁠ for the show notes and ⁠⁠⁠Yiction⁠⁠⁠ for the music. Lastly, I love hearing from fans of the pod. Feel free to email me any time at ⁠⁠jake@blogofjake.com⁠⁠. Thank you!

December 4: Yoon, Russia in Syria, US Gov Bitcoin

Boring News December 4, 2024 1. Yoon out as president of South Korea in 2024? 2. Will Russia abandon Syrian naval base before April 2025? 3. Will US gov sell Bitcoin before Trump inauguration?All the news that's fit to predict.

Boring News: December 3, 2024 (Assad, Hegseth, Penny)

Today is December 3, 2024. We cover three stories pulled from Polymarket: 1. Will Bashar Al-Assad remain President of Syria through 2024? 2. Will Pete Hegseth be confirmed as US Secretary of Defense? 3. Will Daniel Penny be found guilty?

Ethereum Beacon Chain Turns 4

The Ethereum Beacon Chain turns four. The EF launches the ETH Rangers program. Jon Charbonneau writes about Ethereum’s North Star. And Coinbase integrates Apple Pay for fiat-to-crypto on-ramping. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/600

Role Call Ep 2: The End of the Airdrop Era w/Rafa (ZK Sync)

Role Call is a 6-part miniseries on DAOs, produced by Rehash and co-hosted by Hats Protocol. In our second episode of Role Call, we're joined by special guest host, Amy Jung (Eigen Foundation), to talk to Rafa (Governance Lead at ZK Sync Association) about the future of DAO governance and the implications of the end of the era of airdrops. We talk about the challenges in designing sustainable governance models, differentiating between geographic and interest-based communities, and the concept of soft versus hard accountability in DAOs. Rafa also delves into governance at ZK Sync, the importance of modularity and composability, and the evolving mechanisms of distributing control in the crypto space.

Philosophy, Guilds and Open Machines — Ven Gist

Ven Gist is a philosopher of networks, designer of worlds. Researcher at The Open Machine which is a publication for the generation of experimental cultural and conceptual compliments to the decentralized web. He's an early member of MetaCartel, an org which funded many projects to develop open source technology and experiment with DAOs. Now working on Guild Guild. A locus of coordination for Creating, Stewarding, Enabling, and Studying Guilds. We talk about the open source movement. The historical context for where we are today. And what's coming up heading into 2025, where Ven is helping to stage Cosmolocal Playground in Amsterdam in the Spring. UFO Sponsor Resources Towns — https://www.towns.com/ ↑ Higher — https://www.aimhigher.net/ 🌐 International Meme Fund — https://imf.bz/ --- @vengist @ufoclub.eth @hollins For more episodes, go to ufo.fm

Embedding Culture into Tech with Constanza Gomez Mont | S4E10: Regeneration Nexus

In this episode of the ReFi Podcast, we welcome Constanza Gomez Mont, a renowned social entrepreneur and founder of C Mind and AI for Climate. Mont shares her extensive experience in leveraging AI and emerging technologies to address environmental challenges, particularly in Latin America. She discusses the significance of integrating cultural and traditional knowledge with modern tech, emphasizing a shift towards regenerative and inclusive solutions. Tune in to hear Mont's inspirational journey from founding an action tank to pioneering groundbreaking conservation projects, including AI-driven biodiversity credits and biodiversity credits for protection of jaguars. This episode offers valuable insights into ethical AI, sustainable development, and the imperative roles of governments and local communities in fostering transformational change.👉 ReFi Podcast: https://twitter.com/ReFiPodcast  👉 ReFi DAO: https://twitter.com/refidaoist     👉 Constanza’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/constanzagomezmont👉 CMinds Website: https://www.cminds.co/ 👉 For Climate AI: https://www.forclimate.ai/ 👉 Tereza's X profile: https://x.com/TerezaBizkova  👉 Maya's X: https://x.com/mayazdentzel 00:00 Introduction to AI and Cultural Relevance 00:38 Meet Constanza Gomez Mont 02:01 Constanza's Journey and Vision 03:19 The Role of AI in Conservation 18:32 Challenges in Tech Adoption 25:40 Engaging Indigenous Communities 38:59 The Role of Governments and Policies 46:12 Final Thoughts and Rapid Fire Questions

3: Dan Romero - Why Information Should Flow on Protocols

Dan Romero (Farcaster, X, Website) is the CEO and co-founder of Farcaster, an open Twitter/X-like social network protocol built on blockchain rails. Before co-founding Farcaster in 2020, Dan previously worked at Coinbase as a Vice President, among many other roles. He joined the company as the 20th employee in 2014 and left in 2019. He's thought about and used Twitter-like networks for nearly two decades and is passionate about open information flow, market-enabled progress, and individual freedom. Timestamps: (01:39): We were promised flying cars and all we got was 140 characters (8:48): Bring Your Own Algorithm (BYOA), RSS, Elon, and The News Channel-ification of Social Networks (35:54): The Field of Dreams Fallacy: If You Build It, It Doesn't Mean They'll Come [Farcaster & Crypto-Focused Section Begins] (44:25): Status as a Service and Building the Home for Crypto Status (55:03): What is Farcaster? (59:34): Why not counter-position against Elon? (01:03:42): Programmable social and “Open APIs” (1:14:22): The Future of Farcaster (1:18:01): Farcaster's Value Capture  (1:25:01): Sufficient Decentralization (1:28:44): Why Dan has created NFTs but not tokens [Farcaster & Crypto Focus Ends] (1:29:53): Product Market Fit, Focus, and The Idea Maze (1:37:01): Dan's career arc, contrarian paths, distributed systems, and creative destruction  (01:44:09): Coinbase: pre-2017 learnings, hypergrowth, comparisons between building a culture and social network, and anti-lessons (1:49:20): Brian Armstrong and fostering repeatable innovation (1:52:24): What do you wish Balaji [Srinivasan] could work on? (1:53:20): Group Chats and the pendulum between private and public discourse (01:58:55): Power: Elon, Zuck, Trump?  (2:00:24): Politics, Populism, Going Direct, and the Podcast Era (2:08:48): What have you changed your mind on this year?  (2:10:22): Final Questions

Trust Me Bro Weekly #53

In this episode, we cover the Lens V3 Treasury Update, Warpcast Starter Packs, FC Frames V2, Percs Guess the Movie Hits 100 Games, Curator Collects: Dankshard, and Harbottle Brewing beer. Prefer reading? https://paragraph.xyz/@trustmebroshow/lens-v3-treasury-updates-or-warpcast-starter-packs-or-farcaster-frames-v2-or-percs-games-updates-or-meet-dankshard-and-more

Vitalik Buterin Aped Into the Social Media App Anoncast. What's It About?

Farcaster-based social media app Anoncast has quickly grabbed the crypto community’s attention—especially after Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin jumped in. The platform allows users to speak freely while ensuring no one—not even the platform itself—can trace their identity. And in its short week-and-a-half life span, it’s already generated thousands of posts. In this lighter, Black Friday edition of Unchained, developer Kartik Patel joins to discuss how Anoncast works and why the platform has taken off so quickly. He shares insights on the challenges of maintaining anonymity in a connected world, how AI intersects with these developments, and what it was like to “nerd-snipe” Buterin.

Overcoming Creative Block: Reignite Your Creative Spark

In this episode of 'Diary of a Nobody,' Frankie returns after a four-year hiatus, sharing major life changes including moving, being medically retired from the military, and venturing into music production and web3. The focus of this installment is on understanding and overcoming creative blocks, discussing personal experiences with creativity, stress, perfectionism, and depression. Practical advice is offered, such as taking breaks, engaging in different activities, setting flexible creative goals, and collaborating. The episode also touches on aspirations to expand the podcast into a broader media brand.

Building a Sustainable Startup

Jonny Mack is the Founder of Hypersub, a membership platform that helps creators and communities monetize and build together using programmable crypto assets. Hypersub gives you access to your own payment solution, so you can never get banned. (00:08) The challenge of early adoption: viral growth through community-driven value (00:50) Building sustainable products vs. fast cash in crypto (03:25) Timing in crypto: balancing innovation and market readiness (06:07) Conviction as the ultimate competitive advantage for founders (08:19) Why building on-chain is critical for crypto projects (11:39) Hard truths about building and scaling in the creator economy Connect with Jonny: Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/nonlinear.eth Website: https://www.hypersub.xyz Connect with Kris: Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/thekris LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/thekrispartner For sponsorships and collaboration: pod@optimism.show

6/9 Blob Capacity Increase Feasibility

ethPandaOps publishes research on increasing Ethereum's blob count. Arbitrim introduces Trailblazer AI grants. The EF opens applications for the Next Billion Fellowship. And Starknet v0.13.3 goes live on mainnet. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/599

Moxie Protocol: Empowering Creators, No Middleman

I had the pleasure of speaking with Jason, the founder of Airstack, about their exciting project, Moxie Protocol. In this episode, we dive into: 1. What is Moxie? 2. Empowering the Creator Economy on Farcaster 3. The Dynamics of Rewards, Earn, Trade 4. What is Farscore? 5. How Moxie helps developers build and thrive. Jason's Warpcast account: https://warpcast.com/betashop.eth moxie.xyz

Understanding Stablecoins, USDC, and Circle ft. Peter Schroeder

Peter Schroeder leads Global Marketing & Integrated Campaigns at Circle, focusing on USDC and EURC. Before joining Circle, Peter lead marketing for multiple B2B tech companies. He shares his knowledge about stablecoins, digital money and technology in his newsletter, The API Economy. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Pods, and YouTube. Subscribe to Kaloh’s Newsletter & Podcast at www.kaloh.xyz

E98: Solana's Leading Expert Explains How It Hits $1,000

Mert Mumtaz is the co-founder of Helius Labs, a leading Solana Infrastructure provider company backed by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Mert is one of the biggest personalities in the Solana ecosystem and one of the few voices who was hyper bullish and supporting Solana since the $8 SOL low in November 2022 after the FTX collapse. In this episode, Mert shares his unfiltered insights on why Solana is set for explosive growth, despite market doubts. We dive into how Helius is helping developers build faster and more efficiently on Solana, the $1 Trillion opportunity within the ecosystem, and why Mert believes Solana will hit over $1,000. In this conversation, we discuss: - Why Solana is the blockchain to watch. - The critical role Helius is playing in Solana’s growth. - Why the collapse of FTX is actually a win for Solana. - The $1 Trillion billion opportunity most people miss. - Mert’s mission to accelerate Solana’s growth. - How Solana will reach $1,000. - How Mert turned Baldness into a superpower - Stoicism and risk taking - How losing his mum at a young age impacted Mert's hunger for life And much more! __________________________________ FOLLOW MERT & HELIUS • Twitter: https://x.com/0xMert_ • Twitter: https://x.com/heliuslabs • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mertmumtaz • Website: https://www.helius.dev/ FOLLOW KEVIN & WHEN SHIFT HAPPENS👇 Twitter (X): https://x.com/KevinWSHPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinwshpod/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kevinfollonier_ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinfollonier/ Website: https://www.podpage.com/when-shift-happens/ __________________________________ PARTNERS 🚀 Jupiter is the most used Decentralized Exchange in Crypto and the largest DEX by volume on Solana. https://jup.ag/ 💧Sui is a first-of-its-kind Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform designed to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible. https://sui.io/ 🤖 SwissBorg is Europe’s top trusted crypto app offering user-centric investment platforms and DeFi asset management with reliability and innovation. Sign up with this link and earn up to €100 : https://join.swissborg.com/r/kevinH6E7 ♾ Coinsilium provides vital funding and expert advice to Web3 and AI-powered early-stage technology companies. https://www.coinsilium.com 🍷 Dvin is building the operating system for the $100 billion wine industry. https://www.dvinlabs.com/ __________________________________ DISCLAIMER The info contained herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing herein shall be construed to be financial, legal, or tax advice. The content of this video is solely the opinions of the speakers who are not a licensed financial advisor or registered investment advisor. Trading cryptocurrencies poses considerable risk of loss. The speakers do not guarantee any particular outcome. #Entrepreneurship #Crypto #news __________________________________ 0:00 Introduction 1:28 Please Subscribe 1:50 Our Valued Sponsors 2:26 The System Isn’t Your Ally 5:03 Society’s Expectations for Men 6:57 Trump’s Tweet and Viral Chaos 8:44 Misinformation in Media Reporting 13:51 Accelerating World Computation 17:49 Breaking Shackles to Accelerate Progress 22:39 Fueling Action with Discontent 24:28 Pursuing Meaning Over Happiness 26:31 Lessons Learned Through Loss 33:03 DVIN Labs 33:26 Embracing the Bald Identity 42:37 Crypto World Fascination 49:30 Nicotine and Creative Stimuli 53:40 Turning SOL Doubters Into Believers 59:24 The Reply Guy Role in Crypto 1:03:47 Building Teams for Big Goals 1:06:49 FTX Collapse to Solana Leadership 1:10:01 Paranoia Fuels Solana’s Growth 1:14:12 What is Helius? 1:17:23 Why Big Money Backs Solana 1:21:27 Why Talking Isn’t Enough 1:25:33 Importance of Your Mindset 1:29:19 Biggest Prediction Next 12 Months?

S10 E6 | Funding Olympic Dreams Through Onchain Content w/Naomi Metzger (Afrochicks)

In this episode of Rehash, we’re speaking with Naomi Metzger, an 11-time British triple jump champion, about her use of Web3 to fund her journey to the 2028 Olympics.

Richard Ma, Quantstamp

Follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter for more founder & CEO interviews! LI - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-gaziano-9091b6202/ X - https://x.com/LindsayGaziano Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com/ https://x.com/Quantstamp 0:54 Richard’s quant background 1:39 @Quantstamp background 2:21 hobbies 3:50 what made @Quantstamp successful 7:53 staying on the bleeding edge of tech & angel investing 10:48 early days of business development 13:15 growing with the US market in 2025 14:37 customer service best practices 15:53 hiring and growing the team 19:02 pro-crypto gov 20:11 working with smart people 21:28 @Quantstamp culture 22:43 favorite book 23:38 how to become a good decision maker

What's the Best Way for Ethereum to Grow? Two Ethereans Debate

Ethereum has been left behind in this bull market. As rivals like Solana gain ground in metrics such as speed, cost, and developer mindshare, questions are being raised about whether Ethereum’s reliance on Layer 2 solutions is the right path forward—or if it needs a more fundamental redesign. In this episode, Martin Köppelmann, co-founder of Gnosis, and Justin Drake, researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, discuss the trade-offs of native and based rollups, execution capacity, and Ethereum’s ability to maintain its dominance. They debate how Ethereum should address fragmentation across rollups, whether ETH has strayed from its ultrasound money narrative, and whether its deliberate pace of innovation could make it vulnerable in an increasingly competitive landscape. Whose ideas will lead Ethereum out of this dark forest?

Butt massages, squash soup and the importance of divas - Erica in Los Fomos

Meet Erica, the co-founder of UNO and a fullstack developer & designer. She is also known as heavygweit on Farcaster/X. Become a producer of the show to support Los Fomos: subscribe on Hypersub! 🌶️ ⁠⁠https://www.hypersub.xyz/dashboard/los-fomos-fm-producer-yfpf5xwg6qkg⁠⁠ Follow Los Fomos on Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/~/channel/los-fomos⁠⁠ and X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/LosFomos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Regenerative Technology with Jessica Groopman & Danielle Lanyard | S4E9: Regeneration Nexus

In this episode of the ReFi podcast, hosts Maya and Tereza sit down with Jessica Groopman and Danielle Lanyard, the visionary co-founders of the Regenerative Technology Project. Together, they explore the transformative potential of regenerative technology across various domains. Jessica’s journey from archaeology to Silicon Valley and Danielle’s holistic approach provide a well-rounded view of how technology can serve living systems. Key topics discussed include integrating regenerative principles into the tech sector, the convergence of technology and sustainability, and the roles of blockchain and AI in fostering regenerative systems. The episode also delves into practical implementations, featuring case studies on Materiom, Ecosia, and Fairbnb, and assesses the cultural and financial barriers to scaling emerging technologies.  👉 ReFi Podcast: https://twitter.com/ReFiPodcast  👉 ReFi DAO: https://twitter.com/refidaoist     👉 Regenerative Technology Project’s website: https://www.regentech.co/about/👉 Jessica’s LinkedIn profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicagroopman/  👉 Danielle’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlanyard/  👉 Tereza's X profile: https://x.com/TerezaBizkova  👉 Maya's X: https://x.com/mayazdentzel  00:00 Introduction to Regenerative Technology 00:47 Meet the Guests: Jessica Groopman and Danielle Lanyard 02:25 Jessica's Journey: From Archaeology to Regenerative Tech 07:49 Danielle's Path: From Meditation to Tech Innovation 19:16 Defining Regenerative Technology 23:00 Research Insights and Challenges 37:00 The Importance of a Holistic Approach 38:36 Challenges in Implementing Regenerative Technology 40:46 Examples of Regenerative Technology Projects 55:57 The Role of Blockchain in Regeneration 01:01:31 The Impact and Potential of AI 01:08:32 Rapid Fire Questions and Closing Remarks

#8 - @cameron

weird internet kid. helping Creators with ⁠/seemore⁠. yapping on ⁠/okbanger⁠. curating in ⁠/creators⁠ and ⁠/cameron⁠. dev + veteran + HBS. ⁠seemore.tv/cameron⁠ 🫡

1: Jason Liu - The Freedom in Being Nobody

Jason Liu is a technologist, consultant, teacher, and friend. He spent the first part of his career as a machine learning engineer, mostly at Stitchfix, only to run into a wall: a hand injury that prevented him from being able to write any software for over a year. Fortunately, he's not so one-dimensional, and spent time reclaiming somatic experience in learning to free-dive, train Jiu-Jitsu, and return to the pottery practice he developed in art school, all while reckoning with big questions of ambition, purpose, and self-fulfillment. Since then, he's built a consulting practice helping modern AI companies better implement RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), avoid system design mistakes, hire elite talent, and build for an LLM-centric world. He maintains a large structured output library called ⁠Instructor⁠ with about 1m downloads per month, ⁠writes prolifically⁠ (which he does entirely via voice input with LLM editing, as we discuss), tweets semi-manically (he's grown to 30K followers on X with the simplest strategy I've ever heard anyone articulate—tweeting 30K times), and teaches courses on ⁠RAG⁠ and ⁠online consulting⁠. Finally, my man can yap. He was a perfect first guest because he has no shortage of ideas but comes at nearly everything with a beginner's mindset. Timestamps (0:00): Intro to Dialectic (2:55): Brick laying vs. capital allocating (6:04): Acid Story: Trying so hard to be a somebody (9:20): Planning, judgement, elasticity, and abundance (11:28): Ambition and Trusting your future self (14:20): Fear; Confidence is the memory of success (18:46): Compounding psychology of risk taking (21:30): Do you get what you deserve? (22:32): Playing life on hard mode (27:22): Agency, Taking Accountability, and becoming essential (35:58): Consulting and Independent Contracting (39:52): Ambition and “Manhattan Project” Appeal (42:30): What are you motivated by? (44:36): Challenge runs and side quests (46:39): How to be prolific (53:46): Mastery, complex games, and creative fingerprints (57:47): Programming, animation, and style vs. cohesion (1:07:56): Jason only writes with his voice--with some LLM help (1:12:47): Flooding the airwaves with content (1:14:10): Twitter growth: simple math (1:19:49): Using the “sawdust” (1:23:30): ELI5 RAG (Retrieval augmented generation) (1:27:39): A final rant against couches