If we do not use the Nonconformist Bee Strategy we will never reach AGI.
Here is why.
The epsilon function in AI, specifically in the epsilon-greedy strategy used in reinforcement learning, balances exploration and exploitation.
I will get a bit technical but please go in to it slowly. You can understand it and it is important for you to know.
Epsilon (ε) sets the probability of random actions to explore new possibilities versus exploiting known rewards, starting high (e.g., 0.9) and decaying (e.g., to 0.01) as learning progresses.
This method suits structured environments like games but struggles to uncover true novelty or fringe advancements.
It fails to capture radical breakthroughs because exploration is shallow, limited to predefined action spaces, and biased toward existing data distributions.
AI prioritizes efficiency, converging on safe, incremental solutions rather than high-risk, paradigm-shifting ideas often sparked by serendipity or interdisciplinary leaps in human contexts, like penicillin’s discovery.
Studies note AI’s tendency to consolidate rather than disrupt, with 86% of R&D cases favoring augmentation over novelty due to cost and benchmark pressures.
AI lacks human-like intuition or the unconstrained persistence of lone inventors, further limiting its reach into fringe innovation.
This problem intensifies when AI trains on conformist sources like Wikipedia and Reddit, which enforce status quo biases that stifle fringe perspectives.
Wikipedia’s editor consensus rules create a “debunker gaming system” bias, retaining existing content unless broad agreement favors change, leading to systemic underrepresentation of non-mainstream views and higher exit rates among pro-fringe editors.
Agenda-driven “keepers” weaponize this for ideological control, replicating paid science publication biases in sourcing and marginalizing diverse or disruptive narratives.
Reddit’s karma system, an intermittent reinforcement loop, rewards conformity through upvotes for popular opinions while punishing dissent via downvotes, fostering echo chambers where unpopular ideas tank karma and restrict posting.
Moderators, often biased, amplify this by removing non-conformist content, turning subreddits into hiveminds that conflate popularity with truth.
Training AI on these datasets—Wikipedia comprising up to 38% of GPT-3’s tokens and Reddit-linked web text 72%—embeds their flaws, creating a catastrophe of amplified biases and ideological distortions propagate into AI outputs, hallucinating stereotypes (a grifter, a quack, crazy) and suppressing novelty.
This feedback loop risks a “doom spiral” for reliable knowledge, as AI-generated junk floods sources, eroding trust and innovation while fringe advancements drown in curated conformity.
Historically, lone or fringe inventors drove 50–70% of major U.S. inventions pre-1900 (e.g., telephone), but now contribute 30–65% of granted patents annually (~10,000–45,000).
They remain overrepresented in high-impact breakthroughs (~80% of disruptive patents), despite teams dominating 85–90% of output.
Modern patents average 3.2 inventors (up from 1.7 in 1976), reflecting a shift to collaborative, less risky innovation.
Fringe inventors face barriers like funding, with only 0.2% of people inventing but potential for 4x growth if barriers drop, especially for underrepresented groups (e.g., 17% of global inventors are women).
If AI continues to use the very flawed epsilon function we will not see the very basis that has driven humanity forward.
If AI continues to site sources as “facts” and then takes on the “debunker” role learned by Wikipedia and Reddit, there will be no innovations.
This is not a guess, I have tested it in a small scale on my garage AI models. It is one reason I wrote about the Nonconformist Bees in the article attached below.
It is important for you to know, and not just a few math majors that only see this as a calculation.
AI must be the Nonconformist Bee.
After 6 years at Shopify, I’m joining @Opendoor as CEO. Here is why:
It is incredibly important that we use all of our energy and every modern tool at our disposal to build products that make home ownership easier. We must make the process of buying and selling a home less frictionful so more people do it.
Home ownership isn’t just about a house. It’s about families and communities.
The West has been built on the idea that ordinary people can stake a claim in their society, put down roots, and build a future. Renters move. Owners stay. That matters.
Studies show homeowners vote more, volunteer more, and are more likely to invest in their communities. It’s not sentiment—it’s data. Homeowners report higher life satisfaction and health outcomes. They have higher trust in our institutions and stronger families.
Ownership builds generational stability. Societies with broad-based property ownership are stronger. Alexis de Tocqueville saw it in America 200 years ago. Nothing has changed. Communities full of home owners are better communities. When people own, they maintain. Crime rates fall when ownership rises. Why? Because people guard what’s theirs. They police and take care of their neighborhoods, not out of fear, but pride. Ownership ties individuals to the fate of the community.
Home ownership is about putting down roots. And these roots tie us together and make our world better.
That is why the work to be done at Opendoor is so incredibly important. And that is why I believe we can build not just a successful company, but a generational company—one that empowers the promise of the West to be unlocked in the ways it was always intended. Today, Opendoor is the largest digital platform for residential real estate transactions, making it possible to buy, sell, and move at the tap of a button. We are 1% done along this journey!
My experience at Shopify showed me what happens when you build a platform that unleashes innovation at scale. Shopify gave millions of entrepreneurs the tools to change their lives, their families, and their communities. That platform mindset is what I hope to bring to Opendoor—to build a platform for homeownership, one that unlocks opportunity for millions of families and strengthens the fabric of society.
And that is why I am so incredibly proud that I get to support this team in our mission to use every tool at our disposal to make selling, buying, and owning a home easier.
AI gives us the chance to accelerate this work in ways never before thought possible. From simplifying the process of buying and selling, to unlocking personalized pathways to ownership, AI can help millions of families access homes more efficiently, more affordably, and more transparently than ever before. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine what’s possible in real estate.
Decades earlier she was shunned from science and called crazy.
She discovered Jumping genes: DNA sequences that move, switching on and off.
Impossible they said.
In 1983 Barbara McClintock was awarded the Nobel Prize—the first solo woman to be awarded.
At the edge of genius is madness.
Terry Davis, a schizophrenic programmer, single-handedly built an entire operating system from scratch "TempleOS" including its kernel, compiler, graphics engine.
He built one of the most unique and fascinating pieces of software ever created.
The snowball affect in trading is so real
This is why its so important to build the right habits and the actual skill first
If you can make $100/day consistently
Eventually you will make $1000 a day
Then $10k... and so on
It all start with consistency.
@APompliano@ericjackson @Karp_God Great timing @APompliano : booking CEO for Monday thus pushing the merry-go-round right when momentum started to slow! 🙏