Ankit Shah

been bringing people together more than half my life / tea with strangers, airbnb, fb groups, more / used to tweet lots, less now. active on ig + substack

[Ankit Shah @ankitshah]

I wrote 6000 words about loneliness, connecting with strangers, and building a relationship with yourself.

It's called "Being Alone": https://t.co/AFFWE3bBwY

I'd love if you read the whole essay, but if you don't, here's the twitter version:

(A thread)

[Adam Delehanty @adam__xyz]

Internet dialogue is fueled by those who have an incentive to post, but there is another Internet where those who don’t have any reason to post spill all the beans, this is the Internet i long for

[Ankit Shah @ankitshah]

@Noahpinion this is extremely lazy coming from someone who is so intellectually rigorous

[Adele Bloch @adele_bloch]

loneliness comes from not having anyone witness the version of you that's emerging

[Ramit Sethi @ramit]

Growing up, we didn't go to the gym in my family. So in my 20s, when I was working out with a friend and he said, "engage your core," I asked him what that meant. He was shocked I didn't know

Another time, at a restaurant, they asked which "protein" I wanted on a salad. I didn't know what they meant. We never used that word in my family

Growing up like this gives me a lot of compassion for JARGON, especially in phrases that people take for granted

That's why if you work in finance and you use phrases like "Pay yourself first" or "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world" or even "Spend less than you earn," you must understand that a sizeable amount of people -- tens of millions of them -- have no idea what those phrases mean.

This is why I rarely fault someone on my podcast for not knowing a random financial definition -- not even their own income, which 50% of people don't know! So if you encounter this, be gentle and show some compassion...just like the waitress at the restaurant who patiently explained that chicken is a "protein"

[Simon Sarris @simonsarris]

Important belief of mine is that you can make something on any budget, in your own way, with great effort, that captures a little of stuff like this

And living in it will be more visceral, more sensual, and more satisfying than taking trips to these places here and there

[Aaron Slodov @aphysicist]

taps sign

[Reggie James @HipCityReg]

Silicon Valley is so afraid of being held to moral standard

They’ll try to meme the Pope posting AI slop — which obviously isn’t true

To absolve themselves from the responsibility of their power

Absolutely shameless

[Ankit Shah @ankitshah]

you can tell when someone has nobody in their life that is any different from themselves

a sad, fearful, dehumanized reality

can't imagine how much it hurts to be so constrained by one's own small mind and lack of imagination

[Shaun Maguire @shaunmmaguire]

The Democratic party that you and I both loved no longer exists

It is being co-opted by Marxists who call themselves Socialists because it sounds better

But also by Islamists who are hostile to liberalism

We are electing people who openly hate America

We have insecure elections, open borders, an extremely complex network of NGOs that launders money (oftentimes state funds) to feed this machine

Many in politics and the media are either unaware of what's happening or too cowardly to stand up

A full generation of "educated" kids who were indoctrinated to believe that all of this is good

Etc etc

[Will Manidis @WillManidis]

“Always go to the funeral”

[Will Manidis @WillManidis]

we live in age of great moral panics about things that don’t matter and zero moral outrage over some of the most egregious societal sins we’ve ever seen

[kasra @kasratweets]

bringing back the best pieces of media on this

[Mo Shaikh 🇺🇸 @Moshaikh]

the most valuable thing in sports (and prob society) right now is proof that work still beats the genetic lottery, and Jalen Brunson is the carrying it (literally on his back last night against the Spurs)

the NBA is drowning in size and freak athleticism. wemby is a 7-foot miracle you can admire and never become. JB is listed at 6’2”, generously and last night he dragged the knicks back from 14 down on the road to steal game 1 from the team everyone picked. a whole city (lbh the world) sees itself in him because he’s the one man on that floor you could actually grow into.

everyone’s got the gifts but almost nobody left is living proof that the work alone still gets you to the top.

Bing MF Bong

[ruby justice thelot @being_on_line]

With every new technology, we develop new ways of showing affection!

https://t.co/JeJWKgSNnG

[Shreyas Doshi @shreyas]

https://t.co/BZ9YpF6DOo

[Ankit Shah @ankitshah]

we're doing a little too much thinking lately

[Ankit Shah @ankitshah]

bad day to be someone who has no sense of self

(or deep relationships that are independent of status games, genuine society serving interests or others-oriented purpose, belief in something greater than themselves, physically engaging hobbies, etc)

[Deedy @deedydas]

The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen.

Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope AI estimation).

Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there.

Worse yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life's skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI.

As a result,
1. The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb.
Everyone's trying to align with a new set of career "paths": should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic / OpenAI? should I get into AI? what company stock will 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more.

2. There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future).
Why even work at all for “peanuts”? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It's hard to focus on doing good work when you think "man, if I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire"

3. The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed.
Many have families and don't feel like they have the energy or network to just "start a company". They don't particularly have any AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies.

4. The rich aren’t particularly happy either.
No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have "made it" experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to "live life". For others still, they start companies "just cuz", often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they'd be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn't just sell the co and they said "and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. if i sell, I will only have money."

I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here.

Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. "Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?" It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of "success".

Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.

[N. @Nlacombe_]

you’re 22. you scroll 3 hours a day. it feels harmless

at 28 you can’t read an article without checking your phone twice per paragraph

at 32 you don’t understand why nothing you start ever finishes, you’re still dreaming of this project you wanted to start. still no time

at 40 you’ve never finished a book in a decade.

it all passed

[Shayy🧃 @shayy_lior]

Pretty house for the win ✨🤍