Dara

Product, design, stories. @netflix @browsercompany @microsoft ++

[joshpuckett @joshpuckett]

In Defense of Writing.

A disturbing trend I see emerging is people lazily generating longer form content from bullet points or dictation they give to an LLM, and then passing it off as their own.

Beyond the obvious breach of trust and social expectation when doing this, there are several more nuanced but equally insidious problems with doing this.

First, writing is thinking. If you aren't taking the time to write, edit, rework, reshape, and play with your words, you're shortcutting a key aspect of refining an thought. You rob yourself of this opportunity if you just skip to the end.

I have yet to read anything generated that even comes close to the clarity and impact of a well-written piece.

Second, respect. Very few people will tell you this to your face, but as soon as they read something 'from you' that has all the tell-tale signs of AI slop, their respect (and trust) for you drops.

What you are communicating is that you don't take the time and effort to do things properly, or at least entirely honestly. This is damaging in way many don't realize. I instantly discount anything I read as soon as I recognize it as AI slop.

Third, and I think most important, you are training yourself to take the easy way out. I think this is different than 'working smart'. It's intellectual laziness, effectively choosing cheap calories rather than a nourishing meal, even if it takes longer to prepare. That effort is where good things, as well as your own growth, come from.

Many days on here I feel like the last man alive who wants to actually read what you wrote. It's entirely possible that this is a losing battle and the nature of media and medium is trending in an irreversible way. But I really hope it's not.

I'll leave you with a philosophical question: every social media platform is going to great lengths to label AI-generated images and video. Why not writing, as well?

[Josh Miller @joshm]

We’re gonna look back on this period as the “we all got too drunk in college / started drinking for the first time” era of AI.

AI is going to upend how the economy works, what labor does, how we learn, etc. But a lot of us are going overboard & actually making our work worse.

[Joe Holder @JoeHolder_]

this is what sports teaches you and it’s so valuable to life

it’s about the magnitude of importance. There are key critical moments where you must win. That doesn’t mean you have to win ALL the time.

but crucial windows, don’t lose.

and if you know how to recognize those moments consistently, you’ll win the war even if you lose a bunch of battles

[Dara @daraoke]

@chrstnerode @diabrowser love this!

[Brandon Hill • Vori.com @IamBrandonHill]

Grocery is a $1.5T domestic market — bigger than restaurants, bigger than hotels. But it's running on technology from the Reagan administration.

We just raised a $22M Series B for @VoriHQ to make every supermarket in America autonomous.

[Dara @daraoke]

Congrats to the Vori crew! 🎉🎊

[Brandon Hill • Vori.com @IamBrandonHill]

Grocery is a $1.5T domestic market — bigger than restaurants, bigger than hotels. But it's running on technology from the Reagan administration.

We just raised a $22M Series B for @VoriHQ to make every supermarket in America autonomous.

[What Kept Me Up @WKM_Up]

Filmmaking brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri have landed a distribution deal with acclaimed company NEON for their upcoming film, Clarissa.

Shot on 35mm from Nov-Dec 2025, the sophomore project moves between Lagos and Abraka, Delta.

Read the full story. https://t.co/8hfPKWGsqk

[Obinna @obinnaokwodu]

Stablecoins are emerging as the clearest view of what a dollar actually costs in frontier markets.

Over the past year, I’ve been looking closely at how stablecoins trade across 20+ frontier markets. Here's what I found:

[Obinna @obinnaokwodu]

https://t.co/eKhSDsoK7j

[Brandon Hill • Vori.com @IamBrandonHill]

2025 wrapped: We crossed $355M in payments volume at @VoriHQ 🚀

Grocery is the most important consumer spend category on the planet—and Vori is building its AI-powered infrastructure.

• +$22M in incremental sales for grocers
• 1.26M lbs of bananas sold 🍌
• 577k+ cost changes detected by Vori AI
• 50+ teammates building this every day
• Live nationwide — Seattle → Staten Island

2026: escape velocity. $2B+ in payments.

Buckle up.

[Dara @daraoke]

@abidibidibambam 😭 1,2,3 🎈

[Dara @daraoke]

@LukaMarr @soleio Strong co-sign on this.

[Dara @daraoke]

@bria_sullivan @hankgreen Go Bria! 🎉

[Dara @daraoke]

@jeffand_ @shapingelements Thanks Jeff!!

[Dara @daraoke]

Looking for a 3D artist who specializes in physical product design, such as homewares and objects. Anyone have any recs?

[Dara @daraoke]

Thanks for the recs, y’all! Just to clarify - this is for a physical product, not digital/CGI. Looking for someone who can do CAD-style modeling for fabrication, not visual/CG art. Thank you!

[Dara @daraoke]

This. I’m increasingly pro local & open source LLMs. Holding your own memory is both privacy and leverage.

[Willem @vanlancker]

Holding a private repo (memory, metrics, IP data) offline may be one of the last real edges.

Handing it to LLMs is replaying media’s fatal mistake: trading content for reach… until the platforms no longer needed them.

[Lyn Alden @LynAldenContact]

The most notable thing in today's market isn't what's happening in stocks, it's that bond yields went up despite what's happening in stocks.

[Morgan Housel @morganhousel]

You can, simultaneously:

- Dollar cost average, remain long-term optimistic.
- Not panic.
- Enjoy the outdoors, kids, good food, etc.
- Realize how unbelievably destructive and unnecessary this is.

[Dara @daraoke]

@_KarenHao Can’t wait to read this, congrats Karen!!