Ryan Jacobs

Founder, Cardinal 40.

[David Stein @DavidpStein]

“I’m done ceding my brain — the core of all that makes me who I am — to the financial interests of a small number of technology billionaires or the shortsighted conveniences of hyperactive communication styles.”

https://t.co/KfoWfT0mfq

[BlackRock @BlackRock]

In his Letter to Investors, Larry Fink shares a simple idea: when people invest their savings over decades, not days, their future can grow alongside their country’s economy. This letter is an urgent call for more long-term investing and the start of an important conversation. Read the letter and share your thoughts in the comments below. https://t.co/4MfJvdAER7

[Rohan Nadkarni @RohanNadkarni]

This is incredibly cool — A source familiar with Bad Bunny’s performance tonight tells me that the couple in the halftime show got married for real.

They invited Bad Bunny to their wedding and in turn he invited them to get married during his performance.

[Kevin Roose @kevinroose]

Gemini's deep research reports are much better than Claude's or ChatGPTs. I could do without the random chartslop it inserts sometimes, but Google seems to be putting real effort into making them better, whereas the others are still roughly the same as ~6 months ago.

[Lulu Cheng Meservey @lulumeservey]

Fake is worse than bad

“It’s not X — it’s Y” isn’t inherently bad, but it’s become a syntactic bête noir because it feels fake

Same reason most people don’t admit to nose jobs. Not because the result is bad. They’re embarrassed that it’s not “real”

Authenticity is among the highest virtues. Being wrong, abrasive, oblivious etc are all more easily forgiven than being a phony or a hypocrite

[Lulu Cheng Meservey @lulumeservey]

Posting AI wordslop is fundamentally disrespectful

You’re implying the person’s time is worth so little that they should read something you couldn’t be bothered to write

And you’re assuming they’re so dumb that they won’t notice

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

Bears are definitively the most fun team to watch of the 25-26 season

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

A commercial airliner flanked by 3 F-16s flying over northern NJ right now.

[The Economist @TheEconomist]

Finance is entering a “major evolution in market infrastructure”, write the BlackRock executives. “One that could move assets faster and more securely than systems that have served investors for decades” https://t.co/9Kn1gzB9Fg

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

Sora slop can be delicious if it’s niche. E.g. Historic generals doing the play-by-play on old battles as if they’re NFL color commentators.

Here’s Napoleon and Subutai breaking down Day 1 of the Somme.

[Greg Ip @greg_ip]

UBS economists: "AI has seemingly begun to make, to us, an important leap: replacing labor, not just augmenting labor... Layoff announcements attributable to workers being replaced by AI this year ... through October is up to 48,414 (out of 1,099,500). The numbers may be small but the direction of travel is clear. A technology shifting from being labor augmenting to labor replacing may be a sign of coming regime shift."

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

That’s why I thought this Roge Karma essay was so smart. On the surface, it’s about Democrats finally coalescing around an economic message. But between the lines, it's got some good stuff on how to write about the economy—politics or no.

https://t.co/XiSJ2JMXVE

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

Sometimes when people write about the economy — or any serious topic — they fall into this trap of literalness.

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

Either the writing is so hedged and technically precise that no normal person can follow it. Or they go the other direction and produce something so vague no one could possibly criticize it… largely because it means nothing at all. (See: “the opportunity economy.”)

[Andrew Yeung @andruyeung]

Storytelling is about to become the most valuable skill in business.

@a16z (world's #1 venture capital firm) just launched their New Media Fellowship to invest in creators, writers, and media operators.

Ten years ago, that would’ve sounded unusual, but today, it makes perfect sense.

There are many great builders. Capital is abundant and easier to access than ever. New products appear every day. What's scarce isn't money or talent, but attention. But specifically, attention that translates into trust.

Storytelling is how you create meaning around a product. It helps people understand why something matters. Without that, even good ideas can disappear.

If you study companies that break out, you see a pattern. They don't just ship a product - they describe the world in a way people already feel, but haven’t put into words yet. They offer a mission that others can participate in.

e.g.
- Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) is the idea that the internet should answer you, not overwhelm you.
- Figma (@figma) is the idea that creativity should be shared and that design should happen together, in real-time.
- Wispr Flow (@WisprFlow) is the idea that technology should feel human again. That interfaces should adapt to us, not the other way around.

The firms that understand this are building media arms, publishing platforms, and distribution engines to shape the conversation around what should exist.

We are moving toward a world where:
- The best builders will also be the best storytellers.
- The best investors will also act like publishers.
- And the most valuable product a company creates is the belief that it is worth joining.

Storytelling is your moat. The companies that understand this will define the next decade.

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

If Spielberg had made a blockbuster about quantum computing or nuclear fusion, would we be a little more inclined to talk about those instead?

Then again, those movies sound boring.

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

Even if AI hasn’t taken over the economy, it has taken over the economic narrative. For plenty of good reasons — although I’ve been wondering if a small part of it is this: We’ve spent decades watching movies about AI.

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

@hamishmckenzie Hard agree

[Sam Altman @sama]

if i were like, a sports star or an artist or something, and just really cared about doing a great job at my thing, and was up at 5 am practicing free throws or whatever, that would seem pretty normal right?

the first part of openai was unbelievably fun; we did what i believe is the most important scientific work of this generation or possibly a much greater time period than that.

this current part is less fun but still rewarding. it is extremely painful as you say and often tempting to nope out on any given day, but the chance to really "make a dent in the universe" is more than worth it; most people don't get that chance to such an extent, and i am very grateful. i genuinely believe the work we are doing will be a transformatively positive thing, and if we didn't exist, the world would have gone in a slightly different and probably worse direction.

(working hard was always an extremely easy trade until i had a kid, and now an extremely hard trade.)

i do wish i had taken equity a long time ago and i think it would have led to far fewer conspiracy theories; people seem very able to understand "ok that dude is doing it because he wants more money" but less so "he just thinks technology is cool and he likes having some ability to influence the evolution of technology and society". it was a crazy tone-deaf thing to try to make the point "i already have enough money".

i believe that AGI will be the most important technology humanity has yet built, i am very grateful to get to play an important role in that and work with such great colleagues, and i like having an interesting life.

[Ryan Jacobs @_ryanjacobs]

My wife every time we finish a bottle of Albarino.

[Green Bay Packers @packers]

The exciting whites remain undefeated!!