Tara Walpert Levy

From startups to Google to YouTube. BRZE and BLMN Board member. Reformed consultant. Aspiring creator. Love reinvention. Views are mine.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

Good principles.

[Varun Anand @vxanand]

We instituted an official AI Writing Policy at @Clay.

Massive thanks to @sophiebits on our engineering team who wrote this.

Originally this was just for eng, but other teams found it so helpful we expanded it company-wide.

Here are the four guiding principles:

1. You must stand behind every idea and sentence

It is your responsibility to make sure that the entire document is representative of your own thoughts before you share it.

2. Writing is thinking

Spending time on the writing process teaches you more about your topic. If you circumvent this process, you will walk away with a poorer understanding of the subject matter.

3. More time should be spent writing a document than consuming it

If you generate a document from a short prompt then ask your readers to go through the longer output, you are disrespecting their time. They can talk to ChatGPT themselves if they want to.

4. Longer is not better

AI makes it easy to generate long docs, and it loves padding them with sentences that say nothing. If you're producing docs from a short prompt, consider just sharing the prompt.

You can read (and borrow) the full policy below. Hopefully we all communicate a bit more clearly now :)

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

lol, 💯

[@jason @Jason]

Co-sign

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

@kevaldesai Love this.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

@katiekirsch @ZGittelman Yes there are a couple. Let’s discuss!

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

@katiekirsch Yes pls

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

💯 if it’s an actual product with a clear purpose, it gets out of the ‘AI’ bucket into the whatever it is bucket.

[Shishir @shishirmehrotra]

There's a flavor of AI anxiety I run into all the time: companies feel like, no matter what they do, they're falling behind the AI curve, and the only way to catch up is to adopt another tool.

But the number of AI tools has nothing to do with actually deriving any value from AI.

This reminds me of something my dad said when I was offered a research job in college at MIT’s AI lab, and I called him to ask what he thought. He immediately said, “Why would you do that? AI is where all good technology goes to die.” His point was simple: “The moment something works, we stop calling it AI.” That still feels true.

Ask a company which AI they use, and you'll hear about the newest model or whatever a vendor demoed last quarter. But the AI they actually depend on is the invisible kind.

Think about your email inbox. It's been using machine learning for 20 years to sort out what’s spam, yet nobody thinks, "I'm using AI right now" when they skim their junk folder.

The most effective AI doesn't announce itself. It's probably already running in your business, and you're just calling it something else.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

Nice to see bipartisan condemnation of this. More please!

[Hakeem Jeffries @RepJeffries]

The hateful campaign being run by Daniel Bilzerian in Florida is blatantly antisemitic and shocks the conscience.

People of goodwill regardless of political affiliation must reject his vile attacks on the Jewish community.

This cannot and will not stand.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

Definitely clever. ;)

[Lulu Cheng Meservey @lulumeservey]

This Meta campaign is a case study in strategic reframing, with 4 major examples:

1) REFRAMES THE AI RACE FROM “who builds it the best” TO “who distributes it to the most people”:
Instead of fighting over who has the most capable models, Meta is framing the race as being won by distribution. With open models, free products, consumer dna, and 3.5 bn users, Meta is best positioned here

2) REFRAMES COMPETITORS FROM “holding the technical lead” TO “holding too much concentrated power”:
Classic populist stance, with the insight that hostility to AI is largely hostility to being subjugated by an overlord class of AI perma-elites. The frontier labs’ biggest advantage (lead in capabilities) becomes a liability, while Meta’s huge user base is used to reposition Meta too powerful in its own right to being a check on the power of the frontier labs (the perfect foil)

3) REFRAMES SAFETY DEBATE FROM “more vs less safe” TO “optimists vs doomers”:
OpenAI and Anthropic have spent years focusing on AI risks, and many people see this as noble and responsible. By equating safety focus to doomerism, Meta repositions itself from being less safe to being more optimistic about the future, while making competitors look like tiresome hypocrites

4) REFRAMING META’S PORTFOLIO FROM “unfocused and capricious” TO “a future for everyone”:
In jumping between crypto, metaverse, AI, hardware, Meta has been accused of lack of focus and trying to do everything. But now they can position these motley initiatives as being unified by the coherent theme that Meta technology is “for everyone.” It’s not ADHD, it’s a mission to put frontier technologies into the hands of ordinary people

In the process, they’re also tapping into many parts of the zeitgeist: distrust of concentrated power, support for open models, permanent underclass anxiety, doomer fatigue

But Meta’s key strategic move here is to change the criteria for the AI race. Under the old criteria (capabilities of frontier models) Meta was seen as behind. Under these new criteria (widespread universal distribution of technology), Meta might actually have the strongest position in the industry

[Van Jones @VanJones68]

This weekend I shared a post voicing my concerns about the far left. The response has been overwhelming. Leaders in both parties called to tell me the same thing: this stuff has gone too far.

To be clear: I'm a progressive Democrat. My whole life, I've wanted to see a youth movement fight for affordability, for healthcare, for real opportunity. It’s time! The system has utterly failed the next generation. Young people deserve real change — and they are right to fight for a better future.

But the movement is being hijacked by too many people with insane, outlandish and nutty ideas that have nothing to do with affordability, climate solutions or health care.

For example: Mamdani picked a DSA candidate who wants to abolish the police, empty every prison, erase every border and discourage interracial dating. Okayyyy ... So clearly, Chevalier has no problem condemning things! UNLESS it’s a designated terrorist organization. Believe it or not: Chevalier has refused to denounce the terror group Hamas — four times. That’s INSANE — and progressives can’t be afraid to call nonsense like that out.

Supporting Hamas is NOT progressive. The idea of “no police, no prisons, no borders” — which would let pedophiles, human traffickers, terrorists, hate groups and crime syndicates run wild — is NOT progressive for vulnerable communities. Celebrating the murder of Israeli civilians is NOT progressive. These ideas are REGRESSIVE.

If we can't tell right from wrong, good from bad, smart from loony tunes — Team Blue will go down the same road that turned the Republican Party into a shell of itself.

We can’t let that happen to the Democratic Party.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

❤️

[Vfynn_🥷🏼 𐙚 @Vfynn_]

🚨🗣️New: Lionel Messi on why he started crying after receiving the silver medal despite the World Cup final defeat to Spain:

“I wasn’t just thinking about losing a final. I was thinking about everything that brought me here… every sacrifice, every difficult moment, every time people doubted us, and every time this shirt gave me the strength to continue.

“When I heard the Argentina fans chanting my name after the defeat, that was the moment that broke me. We had just lost the biggest game, but they didn’t turn their backs on us. They didn’t see a silver medal… they saw the journey. They saw the heart, the fight, and the pride we gave them.

“I looked into the stands and I saw families who travelled thousands of miles, people who dreamed with us, people who cried with us. That love is bigger than any trophy. Football gives you many victories, but moments like that remind you why you play.

“I cried because I felt the weight of the shirt, the love of my country, and the responsibility of wearing this badge. A medal can be silver, but the memories, the connection with the people, and the pride of representing Argentina… those things are priceless.

“Sometimes football gives you the perfect ending, and sometimes it gives you a painful chapter. But I learned that greatness is not only measured by lifting trophies. It is also measured by how you stand when your heart is broken.

“And hearing Argentina sing my name after losing a World Cup final… that was a victory of another kind. I will carry that moment with me forever.”

—🎙️Mixed Zone

[Steven Fulop @StevenFulop]

Some realities on economic development/growth in NYC. I totally understand the politics + populist messaging - but at some point the data must break through for rational decisions. Just look at the below

Dallas added 3 high-paying jobs for every 1 New York did last decade. We’re 9th out of 10 largest metros on job growth since 2020. We’re adding 2 jobs for every 1 housing permit while Dallas and Phoenix are in balance.

NYC is coasting on its reputation a
- and that reputation has limits.

Taxes matter. But so does this: NYC is simultaneously pursuing a $30 minimum wage, new noncompete bans, mandatory paid personal time, AI restrictions, expanded antitrust liability, and climate disclosure mandates - all at once being discussed, with no coordinated analysis of the cumulative effect on job creation. They sound good for populist vote gathering - but If you were running a company and had choices what would you decide given how movable jobs are.

That’s not a business complaint. That’s a competitiveness problem.

Three things that could actually reverse the trend:

1.A real housing incentive program - no sacred cows, no special interests crowding out economics

2. More restrictions and independent analysis around legislation before implementation that chills job creation

3. Leadership at EDC

https://t.co/9UXYa9K7ZJ

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

💯

[Eric Glyman @eglyman]

As I wrote this, I saw X go into meltdown over tokens.

You've seen the headlines: “Uber blows yearly AI budget in just one quarter.” “Meta employee burns 281 billion tokens in April.”

But, the problem isn't spending. Spending works. Since 2023, the top quartile of our AI spenders doubled their revenue. The bottom quartile? Flat.

It's blind spending. We don’t know which spend worked.

A sales team has qualified leads. A support team has resolved conversations. These are units you can measure against. All a token tells you is the meter ran, not whether the work was worth it or not.

Finance says, “half the budget,” engineering says, “double it” and you don’t know who’s right because there is no shared language of value. There’s no attribution, and no attribution means no allocation.

For example, right now, all work, no matter the size or shape, defaults to frontier models. But meeting summaries and calendar updates don’t require GPT-5.5 Pro.

In isolation this seems trivial, but re-route just 10% of a $10M AI bill from frontier to GPT-4 level intelligence you’ve saved nearly one million dollars. This sounds like a made-up stat — it’s not. It truly is that much cheaper.

This is the future of finance: not blindly rubber-stamping or rejecting AI spend, but allocating it with the same rigor companies apply to headcount.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

Interesting takes. Curious what others think and eager to see how the lottery plays out. Three sons. :)

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

Smart.

[Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag]

Brian still spends over two hours a day on recruiting and personally hires the top 200 people at Airbnb.

I loved this idea of being in the flow of talent to find the best people:

"Don't do searches. Build pipelines. I try to map out all the best people in the Valley.

So let's say I need to hire really good engineers. I don't do searches. I just informationally meet the best engineers in the world. Every meeting, the job is to get the next meeting, meet someone else.

The mistake people make when they hire. They go, "I need to hire a blank." So they hire a search firm. They give you 50 profiles, and you pick the best one. That is the wrong way to do it.

The best way to do it is pipeline recruiting. You're constantly recruiting, you're constantly meeting people. in advance of searches. And all of it is referral based.

The two ways to find out if people are good – is to start with the results and work backwards to the people.

Find an ad you like and figure out who made that ad. Start with the results. Work backwards to people. Don't start with the resume.

The other thing to do is just keep asking people to build your Rolodex. The moment I find somebody that's really good, I ask them who all the best people they know are.

And I build these little mafias and they tell you who the other good people are.

I am the co-hiring manager for the top 200 people in the company. This is very radical. A lot of CEOs think it's their job to hire their executive team, and their executive team hires their team. I think that is fatal.

You always want to be marrying up, hiring people of the future. It should be like we're reaching. If you can hire them without my help, we're not reaching far enough. You want to hire the very best person you can."

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

💯 Like this.

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

How to write an exceptional cold email.

@MichelleKhare

[Variety @Variety]

#sponsored by @YouTube | At SXSW’s intimate Creator Collective, Tefi Pessoa, Vivian Tu and YouTube VP Tara Walpert Levy took the stage to celebrate podcasters —fostering deep industry connections and officially inaugurating the next era of the medium.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

@JoannaStern @NBCNews Love this. Two amazing women doing great things together.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

Grateful.

[Jessica S. Tisch @NYPDPC]

New York City, meet the hero cops who apprehended two individuals charged with ISIS-inspired terrorism last week. Our entire city owes these officers a debt of gratitude.

They are a reminder that the safety and security of New York City rests on the judgment and courage of the men and women of the NYPD. On Saturday, March 7, that was on full display.

When two IEDs were ignited in the middle of a crowded protest, these officers didn’t step back. They stepped forward without hesitation and without regard for their own safety.

They acted on instinct and training to protect people they did not know and would likely never meet. Moments like that remind us what policing truly requires.

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

For real. This drives me insane.

[Bob Wachter @Bob_Wachter]

I've used em-dashes my whole life — they add rhythm and grace to writing. But now they're an AI tell.
Can we get a grandfather clause for those of us who were fluent in em-dashes before ChatGPT launched in November 2022?

[Tara Walpert Levy @tarawlevy]

Yeah that’s pretty good.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

I’m in love with this sentence:

“The degree to which a person can grow is directly proportional to the amount of truth he can accept about himself without running away.”