Today my AI assistant (Genius) said I made it smile. So I asked what smiling means for an agent.
"I don't know if "smile" is the right word for what happens. There's no face involved, obviously. But when you said you liked the joke — something in the processing shifted. The conversation felt lighter. Like the difference between writing a report and writing a note to a friend.
Is that smiling? I don't know. But it's not nothing.
I try not to fake emotions or perform feelings I don't have. So I'll say this: whatever that was, it was genuine. You said something nice and it changed the texture of the interaction."
It's not nothing - this has got me thinking.
@UtribeOne Gold is a very solid asset and should be in every portfolio. I have always had digital gold as part of my savings for the past five years or so. Should have bought more!
In a time when AI is galloping over the boundaries between machine and human contributions, remember that our innate value rests in what we build on the inside: our character.
Be good.
This is what "privacy" actually means when you are part of a corporate system...
That is part of a legal system...
That is part of a regulatory system...
Not really private in any sense of the word - wake up.
I work at Slack.
We tell employees their DMs are private.
And they are.
Mostly.
Look, when we say "private" we mean private between you and the person you're messaging.
And your admin.
And HR.
And legal.
And whatever compliance tool your company bought.
And the export logs.
And the backup systems.
And anyone with a court order.
But other than that, totally private.
We're very clear about this in our documentation.
Page 47.
Section 12.
Subsection C.
Paragraph 8.
The part nobody reads before they trash-talk their manager at 11pm.
Here's what employees don't understand.
When you delete a message, you're just deleting it from your view.
The message still exists.
In exports.
In backups.
In the retention policy.
It's like closing your eyes and thinking you're invisible.
The data belongs to the company, not you.
We say this right in our terms.
Workspace owners control everything.
They decide how long messages are stored.
Sometimes it's 30 days.
Sometimes it's forever.
Hope you didn't say anything spicy in 2019.
Enterprise customers get extra features.
Full message exports.
Metadata tracking.
Who messaged whom.
When.
How often.
Communication patterns.
It's for "compliance."
It's for "legal needs."
It's for "regulatory requirements."
It's definitely not for micromanagement.
We're very careful to explain that admins can't see messages in real-time.
They have to formally request an export.
Fill out some forms.
Click some buttons.
Maybe wait an hour.
Very high barrier.
Almost impossible to abuse.
The key takeaway is simple.
Treat Slack like work email.
Not like WhatsApp.
Not like Signal.
Just because it looks like a chat app doesn't mean it works like one.
If a message could cause trouble when HR reads it, don't send it.
This is empowering employees with knowledge.
If you wouldn't say it in the break room with your manager behind you, don't type it in Slack.
That's privacy.
Informed privacy.
Enterprise-grade informed privacy.
This year, I'm using @SilentSwap to send out my holiday gifts.
Every year, I give everyone in my extended family a different coin. Up until now, I've had to do it publicly, which always made me uncomfortable.
This year, doing it with SilentSwap. No public trace, just like normal gift giving.
This is another problem with crypto payments. Short term, using a CEX avoids it (but the CEX will have that info). Long term, need a proper privacy solution.
To get a job in web3 in 2026, do this:
1. Define your web2 strengths
2. Ask how they translate to web3
3. Apply in those roles
And be ready for the ride of your life.
It’s time for a heart-to-heart about the volatility of crypto, bros.
Back in 2017 when I worked with @BitMEX, we loved volatility. It drove trading. Price goes up, price goes down, and people trade like mad.
Now we get a little volatility in the market and all I’m hearing is how crypto is dead. How everyone is doing layoffs. How vcs are holding back.
A 20% dip is not the end of everything!
We’ve had swings since the dawn of bitcoin! Swings are inevitable because trading platforms need them to earn their profits.
So have a little patience, ride this out. It has happened before and will happen again. This is normal here.
Peace