James Baker

Oceans rise, empires fall 🌊 DeepTech VC 🚀 | Tequila builder @Pancho_Datos 🥃

[Matteo Franceschetti @m_franceschetti]

.@SpaceX is proving that in an AI age, the best companies won't do just one thing.

They become mini holding companies — a portfolio of distinct verticals, each a real business, connected by the same underlying dots.

SpaceX builds rockets, but also runs an internet provider, a social network, and data centers. That's not one business model — it's several, sharing a common spine of talent, capital, and capability. The question isn't "what's our product" but "where can we deploy our skills next."

That's the shift: from a single business model to a compounding set of them. Each vertical stands alone, but together they're far harder to compete with than any one could be alone.

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@MichLieben @shivsakhuja Ads

[Deedy @deedydas]

The vibes in SF feel pretty frenetic right now. The divide in outcomes is the worst I've ever seen.

Over the last 5yrs, a group of ~10k people - employees at Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Nvidia, Meta TBD, founders - have hit retirement wealth of well above $20M (back of the envelope AI estimation).

Everyone outside that group feels like they can work their well-paying (but <$500k) job for their whole life and never get there.

Worse yet, layoffs are in full swing. Many software engineers feel like their life's skill is no longer useful. The day to day role of most jobs has changed overnight with AI.

As a result,
1. The corporate ladder looks like the wrong building to climb.
Everyone's trying to align with a new set of career "paths": should I be a founder? Is it too late to join Anthropic / OpenAI? should I get into AI? what company stock will 10x next? People are demanding higher salaries and switching jobs more and more.

2. There’s a deep malaise about work (and its future).
Why even work at all for “peanuts”? Will my job even exist in a few years? Many feel helpless. You hear the “permanent underclass” conversation a lot, esp from young people. It's hard to focus on doing good work when you think "man, if I joined Anthropic 2yrs ago, I could retire"

3. The mid to late middle managers feel paralyzed.
Many have families and don't feel like they have the energy or network to just "start a company". They don't particularly have any AI skills. They see the writing on the wall: middle management is being hollowed out in many companies.

4. The rich aren’t particularly happy either.
No one is shedding tears for them (and rightfully so). But those who have "made it" experience a profound lack of purpose too. Some have gone from <$150k to >$50M in a few years with no ramp. It flips your life plans upside down. For some, comparison is the thief of joy. For some, they escape to NYC to "live life". For others still, they start companies "just cuz", often to win status points. They never imagined that by age 30, they'd be set. I once asked a post-economic founder friend why they didn't just sell the co and they said "and do what? right now, everyone wants to talk to me. if i sell, I will only have money."

I understand that many reading this scoff at the champagne problems of the valley. Society is warped in this tech bubble. What is often well-off anywhere else in the world is bang average here.

Unlike many other places, tenure, intelligence and hard work can be loosely correlated with outcomes in the Bay. Living through a societally transformative gold rush in that environment can be paralyzing. "Am I in the right place? Should I move? Is there time still left? Am I gonna make it?" It psychologically torments many who have moved here in search of "success".

Ironically, a frequent side effect of this torment is to spin up the very products making everyone rich in hopes that you too can vibecode your path to economic enlightenment.

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@HarryStebbings Fix the knees and hips rather than just going easier on them. Aches and pains isn’t aging (at your age especially), it’s lack of strength and flexibility. Look at @kneeovertoesguy

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@Danny_Crypton 2026

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@jbchoknows I have Bucky, ETN, Hendo, and Marks. Which would you bench? I’m not starting Marks rn

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@BobLoukas Why ignore end-2019 and early 2020 when there was a close below the 10ma twice? Price then went on to 6-7x before 2021 top…

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@gbCrypto_ @Sykodelic_ Honestly, technicals on ETH don't agree with a bearish view if you zoom out. Textbook inverse H&amp;S building on weekly. Perfect retrace to 61.8 fib. Can chop whilst building the shoulder peak but it's looking good to me.

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@itsme_urstruly Read my note [give myself a longer note]

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@Globalflows @sailor_hl There’s a few different short term TIPS etfs. Do they all move in similar way? Is it worth averaging their performance to get a broader view? Or dumb idea?

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@PPRFantasyTips @DynastyDadFF Would you start Keon or Charbs?

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@SalVetriDFS Sell Joe Flacco?! A guy throwing 40+ times a game with great WRs and a good ROS schedule. Seems like a bad bit of advice unless you have one of the top 3-4 QBs

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@Jacobsklug @lovable Build

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@darioperkins Tweet of the day.

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@davidsobell @levelsio Yeah I think this too. There needs to be trade, capital, and people union/freedom. If anything this is reducing current EU powers in certain areas (some economic &amp; legislative powers), but increasing in others (trade, capital, etc). Full federal union is la la dreaming.

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@levelsio You wishing for a world that simply can’t exist. The US became the US through a civil war. Europe has had sovereign states for so long they’re never going to cede that. We need to figure out a way within that framework. The current EU economic model as it is does not work

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@DrJesseMorse @Pancho_Datos 🤤😍

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@ajemas1 @zaidkdahhaj @snck88 I didn’t realise psoriasis, acne, eczema, neo-natal jaundice were all life-threatening… oh they’re not 🤷‍♂️

[James Baker @Baker3004]

@WelLdoOnEe Heading lower in 2025. Sweep of consolidation and potential reversal to the lows at 100