Jeremy Johnson

Partner @OutlanderVC. Co-founder & board member @Andela. Backing founders building AI and software for the physical world.

[Jeremy Johnson @JeremyJ]

Happy birthday @Andela! And thanks to @Nasdaq for kicking off our 10th anniversary celebration in NYC. Feeling particularly grateful to the Andelans, past and present, who have spent the past decade building bridges to connect brilliance with opportunity

[Paige Johnson @PaigeWo82177631]

What happens when everyone becomes more articulate, more efficient, more optimized, and somehow less alive?

AI can obviously be extremely helpful. It can reduce cognitive load, organize information, speed up research, improve communication, support planning, and make certain decisions easier. Used well, it can create more time, clarity, and freedom.

But there is also a real risk that AI can make people feel like every area of life is available for constant improvement. Once a tool can analyze almost anything, it becomes easy to start applying that analysis everywhere - health, work, relationships, routines, travel, home systems, finances, creativity, communication, even emotional dynamics.

At that point, the issue is not the tool itself. The issue is whether the tool is reducing complexity or quietly adding another layer of complexity.

Optimization backfires when the process of improving life starts creating more work than it removes. For example, if AI helps someone make a decision faster, that is useful. But if AI creates more options to compare, more frameworks to consider, more systems to maintain, or more pressure to find the “best” answer, then the optimization is no longer serving its purpose.

There is also a difference between high-value decisions and low-value decisions. Some areas deserve careful analysis: business strategy, major financial choices, health decisions, hiring, travel logistics, and complex planning. But many parts of life do not benefit from the same level of scrutiny. Some decisions are better made quickly, intuitively, or with “good enough” information.

The risk is that AI can blur that line. It can make small decisions feel like they should be optimized with the same seriousness as major decisions.

Another important distinction is whether AI is supporting judgment or replacing judgment. Ideally, AI should help clarify thinking so a person can make a better decision. But if someone starts relying on AI to endlessly validate, refine, or improve every choice, they may become less practiced at trusting their own instincts and experience.

The same applies to relationships and quality of life. Some things improve with planning and structure, but others require presence, spontaneity, emotional attunement, and direct experience. Not every part of life becomes better by being analyzed.

A useful q is whether AI is producing more freedom or more mental overhead.

So the concern is not that AI should be avoided. The concern is that without boundaries, optimization can become self-defeating. The goal should be to use AI in areas where it clearly reduces friction, while being careful not to turn every part of life into a system, project, or performance metric.

*Conflict of interest: AI assisted in the production of this concern about AI optimizing the blood out of life.*

[Demis Hassabis @demishassabis]

I’ve always believed the No.1 application of AI should be to improve human health.

That work started with AlphaFold, and now at @IsomorphicLabs with the mission to reimagine drug discovery and one day solve all disease!

We are turbocharging that goal with $2.1B in new funding.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Anthropic has 454 open roles. The company is hiring software engineers at $320K-$405K. Their CEO, Dario, said three months ago that coding is "going away first, then all of software engineering."

The paradox resolves instantly.

Dario's engineers told him they don't write code anymore. They let Claude write it. They edit. They review. They architect. They didn't lose their jobs. They got faster. Anthropic grew from a small research lab to 1,500 employees in four years, adding engineers the entire time.

This has played out five times in computing history. Compilers replaced assembly. Frameworks replaced boilerplate. Cloud replaced server management. Every prediction was the same: most programmers won't be needed. Every result was the same: the number of engineers grew.

The global software engineer pool went from roughly 5 million in 2010 to 28.7 million today. BLS projects 17% growth in US software developer roles through 2033, adding 304,000 positions. The pool is projected to hit 45 million by 2030.

When building software gets cheaper, more problems become worth solving with software. A startup that needed 10 engineers now needs 3. But 50 companies that couldn't afford to build at all now can. The denominator shrinks. The numerator explodes.

Meta's engineering headcount is up 19% from January 2022. Google's is up 16%. Apple, 13%. These companies adopted AI coding tools years ago. They're using Copilot and Claude Code daily. They're hiring more engineers than before those tools existed.

Every generation of "coding is dead" content creates two cohorts: engineers who freeze up, and engineers who build 10x more with the new tools. The second group has won every single time.

[James Clear @JamesClear]

Always ask, but never expect.

Always ask for what you want. Many people are happy to help—if the request is direct and specific. In a surprising number of cases, something remarkable is possible if you have the courage to ask.

Never expect people to say yes. Everyone is busy and balancing multiple priorities. Your request is not their responsibility. When you're told no, move on lightly and freely. The world is full of opportunity.

[Brian Halligan @bhalligan]

Most of the founder/CEOs I work with are allergic to 2nd hand information.

They like to go to the source, irrespective of the org chart.

[John Fadule @fadule_]

If you don’t get flooded with gratitude multiple times a week you’re dumb:

-we live in a free country
-gyms exist
-Christopher Nolan movies exist
-NFL Sundays happen 20+ times a year
-you and your wife can drink 5 bottles of red wine then smash all night without a condom
-you can build yourself into a superhero in a few months of hitting the gym
-every food item in the world has been hunted and gathered for you (grocery stores)
-you didn’t have to spend your entire life figuring out how to make a car… you were born into a world where they’re already invented
-you could be working in a coal mine in a third world country 16 hours a day breaking your lower back for less than $1
-you’re spinning on a sphere in an infinite universe and the fact you’re alive is a 1 in 500 trillion miracle

If anyone complains in front of you tell them they’re an idiot :)

[James Clear @JamesClear]

Habits that have a high rate of return in life:

- sleeping 8+ hours each day

- lifting weights 3x week

- going for a walk each day

- saving at least 10 percent of your income

- reading every day

- drinking more water and less of everything else

- leaving your phone in another room while you work

[Derrick Van Orden @derrickvanorden]

I was raised in abject rural poverty by a single mom, dropped out of high school at 16, joined the Navy at 18, and served for 26 years.

I am now a member of Congress.

Keep your bullshit to yourself, every American can rise to the level of their God given talents and drive.

[Andela @Andela]

Our CEO, Carrol Chang, recently connected with John Winsor, Founder of Open Assembly for the Transform Work podcast! Tune in as Carrol shares insights on scaling talent, building global communities, and shaping the future of work – including the importance of change management as it applies to AI adoption.

This one is not to be missed!

Listen on Spotify: https://t.co/c397mwOM0h

Amazon Music: https://t.co/mjMaUI3nPC

Or the Open Assembly website: https://t.co/6igJ8VFrEo

[Mark Manson @Markmanson]

Paradoxically, the less you try to convince people to like you, the more likable you become.

[Naval @naval]

Envy is a sign that you ought to be doing more with your life.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

NYC about to do the hard left doom loop thing

Ya’ll didn’t learn a thing from SF did you?

The innocent will receive no justice, the public school children will receive a far worse education, and housing will become far more expensive

[George Mack @george__mack]

How to spot high agency people:

They pet the elephant in the room.

[Alex Hormozi @AlexHormozi]

You can beat most people at anything if you just don't quit when it gets boring.
Not hard. Boring.
That's where everyone else stops.

[Andrew Kaczynski @KFILE]

he ended his term with 60% approval and has the highest approval of any public figure in America
https://t.co/kSJURXomXp

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

This is going to be a Rorschach test for a lot of people. What I see when I look at this is the harm of a quasi-mystical idea of “hate” as a spectral, even demonic, force. It’s a superstition that allows you to turn off your critical faculties, ignore anything that might contradict a sacred belief on a particular topic or about a particular individual — as in this case — and act with impunity.

It has always been a profoundly anti-intellectual idea, developed by those who saw intellectuals as mere tools for often extremely simplistic partisan ends to allow them to win arguments by brute force rather than logic and proof.

It has spread into the rest of society and across the globe in a way that allows taboo to defeat reason and skepticism almost every time.

I hope it’s an idea — like “speech is violence” — that we can relegate to the dustbin of history. If you believe the world is divided into a simplistic binary of “good people” and those infected with hate, then maybe the post-Enlightenment world is not for you.

And for those of us who believe that human morality and nature is more complex and less flattering than the sacred warriors in this battle, it's time to remember that Enlightenment values are not easy. But they are absolutely worth fighting for because the world without them is a place that lets you excuse the most monstrous behavior and never lose your sense of moral superiority.

That's the trap of the binary.

[Austen Allred @Austen]

There’s a new political divide forming:

If you celebrate when an innocent person whose political views differ from you is assassinated you’re gone.

Don’t care what that person’s political persuasion is or how strongly you disagree with them.

Cant think of one counterexample.

[Andela @Andela]

We're thrilled to share that Andela and @GitHub have teamed up to train 3000 technologists in GitHub Copilot. This is the first learning program in the newly launched Andela AI Academy and an important step toward ensuring our network is both enterprise-ready and AI-fluent.

Congratulations to the 200 developers who have already completed the Copilot training program in beta. We’ve been inspired by your hunger to learn and are looking forward to seeing the great things you will build.

For our clients: this is your chance to work with AI-fluent developers now, or partner with us to train your own teams so you can deploy enterprise AI solutions with fewer missteps.

The AI era is here, and we’re enabling the technologists who will power it.

Full press release: https://t.co/h3kpbOxRMy

#FutureOfWork #TechTalent #GitHubCopilot

[Naval @naval]

Blame yourself for everything, and preserve your agency.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

The answers you seek are found in the actions you avoid.