Herb

@DemocracyEarth herbstephens.eth

[@levelsio @levelsio]

And you have to give it to Spain and Portugal

One thing they shine at is air quality, it's some of the cleanest air in the world

Which is why I like living here after a decade of Asia and its perpetual smog issues

[Herb @HerbStephens]

@Logos_network Nice, in Lisbon!! :) note: your graphic at Luna says “2025” .. might want to correct, @Logos_network

[Herb @HerbStephens]

I am looking forward to this event tomorrow! The EU needs to stay competitive .. in a new world where ‘governance’ is a service … and governments compete. That right, ⁦@TimDraper⁩ ?? 👀 https://t.co/PyCce5GI4r

[Balaji @balajis]

Billions of dollars.
Millions of followers.
Thousands of attendees.
Half a dozen governments.
And one idea whose time has come.

[Balaji @balajis]

There's dark talent around the world, from the Midwest to the Middle East. Backing this talent is the right thing to do morally and the smart thing to do economically.

[Herb @HerbStephens]

@camiinthisthang Going! …from Lisbon. :)

[Herb @HerbStephens]

Everyone needs to watch @realDonaldTrump UN Speech. LIVE now. #UN 👀

https://t.co/2SOXbnKJUx

[santi @santisiri]

el presidente ideal para la argentina no es un caudillo gritón ni un iluminado de powerpoint: es alguien que no robe, no mienta y no use al estado como kiosco, que entienda que gobernar no es campaña eterna sino construir instituciones que duren más que su ego. alguien que piense a 30 años, que siembre futuro aunque no lo coseche él, que mida su éxito en la calidad de las escuelas, hospitales y justicia que deja atrás, no en su rating de tv. argentina no necesita un salvador: necesita un jardinero del bien común.

[nader dabit @dabit3]

I'm convinced that the future of crypto development, just like the future of crypto itself, isn't to onboard people (devs) to "crypto".

Instead it's to present comprehensive solutions for building valuable apps - crypto primitives just happen to be part of the software stack.

Just like AI is now part of the stack. Like backend frameworks, frontend, mobile, and cloud are all part of the stack.

Crypto and blockchains are becoming a part of the stack, and this is how it should be presented to developers.

Crypto is not an exclusive primitive. You shouldn't have to choose to be a crypto dev or a non crypto dev. We should not be marketing to crypto devs only.

In fact if you've built anything, you know crypto apps have to integrate (many of) the same libraries and SDKs as regular apps.

AI will increasingly become ingrained into all software, including crypto. We should lean in on this, especially as the value proposition of verifiable AI - a primitive that only crypto can deliver - becomes more and more apparent and in demand.

And with AI-assisted IDEs, this becomes an even easier value proposition to realize because the developer can lean more and more into natural language to accomplish the large majority of their work.

We should present a new definition of a full stack developer:
- Frontend / Mobile
- Backend
- Cloud
- LLMs
- Smart contacts
- Verifiable off-chain compute

By being capable with this stack, developers increase their value and hire-ability by orders of magnitude.

IMO there is zero downside to adding more firepower to a developer's skillset and toolkit.

Thoughts?

[Alex Gladstein 🌋 ⚡ @gladstein]

Truly remarkable that a decentralized, leaderless, open-source, censorship-resistant, p2p, teleporting, programmable currency accessible to anyone (no paperwork required) is this high up on this list…

On its way to #1 ✌️

[Herb @HerbStephens]

The most 🎯 commentary I’ve read so far on Trump/tarrifs/economy…

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

At the moment, a huge amount of attention is rightly being paid to the newly announced tariffs and their significant impacts on markets and economies. But very little attention is being paid to the circumstances that caused them—and to the even bigger disruptions likely still ahead. Don’t get me wrong: these tariff announcements are important developments. But most people are overlooking the much larger forces that are driving just about everything, including the tariffs.

In my latest article, I discuss what I believe is far more important to keep in mind: we’re witnessing a classic breakdown of the major monetary, political, and geopolitical orders. This kind of breakdown happens only once in a lifetime—but it has happened many times in history, when similarly unsustainable conditions were in place.

#principles #politics #economics

[Peter H. Diamandis, MD @PeterDiamandis]

Very soon, any doctor, business, or government making decisions without AI will be like driving without a seatbelt. Dangerous, reckless, and completely avoidable.

[Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 @AndrewYang]

I have never seen so much value destroyed deliberately. This is the worst leadership ever.

[Balaji @balajis]

Ironically, one symptom of deindustrialization is that many commenters have never actually managed a physical business.

So. Suppose your US company imports $1M of high quality parts, and adds in its own components to produce finished goods sold for $1.2M per batch. Your gross profit is $200k per batch.

But wait! Suddenly a new 30% tariff is imposed on that $1M of parts. You now have to fork over $300k to customs before you sell anything. That’s cash you probably don’t have. Oh, and even if you do sell everything, you’re now losing $100k per batch.

With a sinking feeling, you realize your profitable business which you somehow managed to keep in America all these years has suddenly become unprofitable.

You post online about how bad this is but get shouted down by an angry mob, convinced that capitalists like you should die. You can’t tell nowadays if they’re on left or right.

Moreover, you don’t have the time, money, skills, or tools in house to build that $1M of parts yourself. You are being asked to do the equivalent of growing a maple tree when all you needed was a little maple syrup. So now you are faced with several tough choices.

(1) First, you may need to go into debt or fire people to quickly come up with the $300k in cash to pay for these surprise tariffs at customs. Even if the tariff might go away, it might not, so you have to get the cash somehow or risk having your shipment impounded.

(2) Next, you might need to reduce quality to stop losing $100k on each batch. You could order the lower quality $750k parts, grimace and pay 30% tariff at customs, and hope you can build and sell for the same price of $1.2M per batch despite the lower quality.

(3) Alternatively, you could keep the quality parts at $1M and instead raise prices to $1.5M per batch to get back your original margins of $200k per batch, which you need to pay employees after all. But that’s a big hike that your customer will probably not welcome, given that he’s likely dealing with his own tariff shock.

So: these tariffs don’t really give an incentive to build in the US. Because it’s far more expensive to build a screw factory than to pay even high tariffs on a foreign screw.

Instead what they likely mean is debt, layoffs, lower quality, and higher prices for any US company that buys parts abroad.

Just to understand how common that is:

[Balaji @balajis]

Here’s a reframe.
AI doesn’t take your job.
AI allows you to do any job.
So a coder can now make films.
And a filmmaker can now write code.
It allows a non-specialist to get started.
But a specialist will be needed for polish.

[Herb @HerbStephens]

@jimmysong Google now resembles late-Yahoo! (Ads and ‘sensational’ stories. NOT good .. and IMHO the long-term result of being in the wrong side of the biz/user equation.)

[Herb @HerbStephens]

@robprogressive Portugal!! 🇵🇹 Moved here after 30 yrs in San Francisco. Lived in London, NY and Chicago before that.

[Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 @AndrewYang]

Guys, disappearing people based on tattoos or their opinions is unAmerican.

[Balaji @balajis]

Privacy wins.
Tornado Cash is legal.

Now Roman Storm (@rstormsf) and Alexey Pertsev (@alex_pertsev) should be immediately freed, pardoned, and reimbursed by the state for their invalid prosecution.

[Watcher.Guru @WatcherGuru]

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Trump administration to "rescind and amend" all previous IRS crypto guidance.