Lars Schönander

Helping make factories run better
Software and policy (remotely) in The Swamp at @JoinFAI
@TuckSchool
Ex Senate Staffer - SBC
Former Fellow @congressfellows

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@TheStalwart Enjoyable if not as engrossing as the why Asia works book. Did appreciate learning more a lot about places I haven’t read very much about before. Case studies for better or worse for not being clear cut success stories

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

The NYRB has a novel by Gei Fei, Peach Blossom Paradise, at the tail end of this period, that definitely successfully shows how bad things have gotten

[Zoomer Green 🌲 @jusderaisingroy]

People Have no idea how apocalyptic Qing China in the 19th century was, Female infanticide skyrocketed leading to extreme imbalances, Life expectancies declined by a decade, per capita food consumption plummeted and GDP per capita declined. Taiping was a giant malthusian check.

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

In a sign of the times, at a event on the new encyclical and someone asked if we are nearing the end of the world

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@3stddev I grew up outside the city so you’re just wrong.

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

Traveling to Tokyo really put this in perspective. It’s crazy how undense the suburbs and boroughs are

[Ariele 🏗️🌐🏳️‍⚧️ @PositivistWitch]

it pisses me off how little dense nyc is. there shouldn’t be single family houses in any of the five boroughs at all!

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@veidt_comrade Bold to make a variety of assumptions! And blocked! Because it’s clear you are some zero sum NIMBY. I grew up in the westchester suburbs. They had practically not grown in 30 years! It’s causing many problems

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@swyx The trick (impossible) is to rectify the names and make sure Words Mean Things at level 1 again

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@keccers I liked one tweet about a hack that happened in crypto and my feed got flooded with it until I had to mark things as not interested. Not a good system!

[Alec Stapp @AlecStapp]

No one should be able to order a bioweapon through the mail.

@IFP & @JoinFAI are proud to co-lead an open letter calling for mandatory DNA synthesis screening & recordkeeping.

Signatories include:

- Sam Altman, CEO & Co-Founder, OpenAI

- Dario Amodei, CEO & Co-Founder, Anthropic

- David Baker, Director, Institute for Protein Design; 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient

- Patrick Collison, CEO & Co-Founder, Stripe

- Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator

- Demis Hassabis, CEO, Google DeepMind; 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recipient

- Emily Leproust, CEO & Co-Founder, Twist Bioscience

- Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard Law School

- Gerald W. Parker, former Special Assistant to the President for Biosecurity and Pandemic Response

- Mustafa Suleyman, CEO, Microsoft AI

- Alex Tabarrok, Professor of Economics, George Mason University

- Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer, Meta; Founder, Scale AI

- Christine E. Wormuth, President & CEO, Nuclear Threat Initiative; 25th Secretary of the Army

Read the letter and see the full list of signatories: https://t.co/BwZiJXw3JT

Many DNA synthesis companies voluntarily screen orders to mitigate biosecurity risks, but no law requires them to do so.

Leaders in AI, biotech, life sciences, national security, and the nucleic acid synthesis industry agree that Congress should act to strengthen safeguards against biological threats.

@deanwball put it well in the WSJ:

“If you’re synthesizing the stuff that yields biological life and viruses, we’re asking you to screen to see whether it is dangerous in some way. That seems like a reasonable thing for society to insist upon.”

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@alt1na1 Assuming you have one of those auto-feeder machines a cat can be maintained much more simply then a dog. And I say this as someone who grew up with dogs. They have a much higher floor for minimum taking care of

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@nosilverv

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@taobanker Going to shill for Tuck. Great program, good people, plus if you like skiing you can do it constantly

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

I got my first job through Twitter despite the ups and downs this platform has had - I’ve always been a fan of using it to meet people and get out IRL

[Dhaaruni ✨✨✨ @dhaaruni]

I'm biased because I met my husband and one of my bridesmaids through Twitter but publicly posting like this is just mean and petty and doesn’t reflect well on you. You can simply ignore the message!!

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

I went to high school with Timmy, support his gumshoe journalism work!

[Timmy Facciola @TimmyFacciola_]

I spoke with @RahhalEmily about what I saw at Delaney Hall last night.

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

As a fan of central asian history, this is very cute in the best way possible

[csz @cszabla]

don’t think I’ve ever seen this level of mainstream success from an academic historian: there’s now a children’s illustrated edition of the silk roads by peter frankopan https://t.co/GN7XyCU06K

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

@FeralPHunter Yes

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

This person is apparently a "tech critic" whatever that means at this rate

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

Honestly a really cruel, and ignorant statement to make. Also incorrect usage of the "two cultures" argument from CP Snow in that the humanities people are also at fault with this problem as well

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

Hanover is a pre-lapsarian type place where people can lose their wallets for days and they will be untouched. But then again Dartmouth is a unusual place all things considered

[Lars Schönander @LarsESchonander]

It still exists in some places in America, but it's not that common

[Romy @Romy_Holland]

i feel sad about living in a low trust society. japan, taiwan, and korea are all places where you can leave your laptop and wallet on an outdoor table at a cafe and go to the bathroom and not think twice. there’s virtually no violent crime, no trash on the ground (despite the lack of public trash cans!), nobody behaving erratically on the metros or sidewalks.

it’s relaxing to exist in a society like this. you can walk around with your phone hanging out of your backpack pocket and not think about it. you can wander around random parts of huge cities late at night and not worry about turning down the wrong street. everyone is courteous and sane.

i think this is, above all, a cultural artifact. i don’t know what it would take to change the culture in the US to resemble this but i desperately wish we could move in that direction.