CR Smith

Seeing the unseen game // Cofounder 👇

[Erik Voorhees @ErikVoorhees]

No, you don't get it.

He does not have $1 trillion sitting in cash, it is 99% stock in his companies.

To make that wealth liquid would mean selling all that stock which would swiftly destroy *both* the companies (Tesla, SpaceX, others) and the wealth. If he sold it all, he'd end up with maybe $100b max, several hundred thousand people would be out of work, the companies ruined and many of their suppliers also ruined.

Okay, but now Elon has $100b in cash, and can "solve the world's problems".

$100b divided by the world's 8 billion people is $12

If you were in charge, several of the most innovative industrial companies in the world would be destroyed, hundreds of thousands out of work, and space would again close to human civilization for another generation.

But everyone on earth could have one nice meal and you could revel in your altruism.

[Alex Finn @AlexFinn]

Scariest video I've watched this week

America's next generation actively booing the most transformative technology our species has ever seen

In China grandmas line up to get OpenClaw installed

In America, supposedly our most educated people BOO even the mention of AI

The west simply does not stand a chance if this continues

We have a massive AI marketing problem in this country and nobody is doing anything to fix it

Tomorrow Meta will announce 8,000 layoffs. They will blame it completely on AI

They won't blame it on their irresponsible hiring in 2021 or extended elevated rates or horrible market conditions or bad inflation

No, in order to not tank their stock, they'll blame it on AI

College students will read that and learn to HATE the technology

They'll protest outside datacenters holding ridiculous signs that say "SAVE OUR WATER NO MORE DATACENTERS"

Politicians will see this and run on blocking data centers just to get a few votes

All of it will be a cycle that leads to America losing to China

This should be a warning sign to all frontier labs and CEOs: messaging matters. And if your messaging doesn't change the West is cooked

[Clint Teeples @TeeplesCY]

New all-time record convert baptisms in 2025, an increase of 24.9% from last year.

2025: 385,490 (+24.9%)
2024: 308,682 (+22.6%)
2023: 251,763 (+18.7%)
2022: 212,172 (+26.1%)
2021: 168,283 (+33.7%)
2020: 125,930

Previous all-time record: 330,877 (1990) — broken by 54,613

[Kirk Rollins @nicoraytruth]

Why Mormonism may be true.. a take from a pragmatist

[Clint Teeples @TeeplesCY]

Researchers broadly agree: higher income, higher IQ, and more education all predict lower fertility in women.

One exception: Latter-day Saints.

Among them, the relationship inverts. The more educated, affluent, and intelligent the woman, the more children she tends to have.

[CR Smith @colbyrosssmith]

@treysonbourguet @CriddleBenjamin Salt Lake Temple’s reopening open house next Summer is gonna be 🔥

You gotta visit it man! Go cougs! 🤙

[Alex Finn @AlexFinn]

Massive move from Claude

Claude can now control your entire computer. Just tested and it actually works really well. Definitely will use it regularly

Does this kill OpenClaw?

Well…no for many reasons.

It’s still in Anthropic’s closed garden. The future is open and model agnostic

For instance on my 2nd computer I have a local version of Qwen 3.5 running. It continuously scans specific websites for business opportunities (for free) 24/7/365

If I wanted to make changes to this automation, I would send a message to my OpenClaw on Telegram. It would then SSH into my DGX Spark, download a new local model if it needs to, load it into memory, then use it as a tool whenever it wants to do a scan. If it doesn’t know how to do any step here, it’ll create its own skill

This will never be possible with Claude. You simply will never be able to leverage other models when necessary that complete tasks the Claude line can’t do. (And obviously you’ll never be able to do anything locally)

Also for reasons I 100% understand, there are guardrails all over Claude that would make it difficult to complete most of those tasks (a lot of what I described introduces a ton of security risks)

Claude is still awesome though. Claude Code is still an amazing, if not the best way to write code. Adding these computer use tools into Claude Code makes it an even more compelling product

I’m a daily Claude Code user and think EVERYONE should be including it in their daily routine

But it’s simply not a general purpose, open, customizable, self improving agent

I would use Claude over OpenClaw if:
• You have no interest in tinkering with or customizing your AI agent
• Are paying for the $200 a month Max plan and have no interest in using other AI models
• If your entire workflow is at the computer (still find the remote/telegram Claude stuff unreliable at the moment)

But if you think this is a replacement for OpenClaw I think it proves you don’t even really know what OpenClaw is, let alone have ever used it

If I’m you I’m muting/blocking every engagement farmer who will quote the post below with “OPENCLAW IS DEAD” and then put some cringe reaction gif of John Hamm dancing or Ryan gosling slowly taking his sunglasses off since I guess those reaction videos are now an algo hack.

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

https://t.co/kJc3ewLW69

[etn. @etnshow]

Sequoia (@sequoia) Partner @JulienBek tells us why the next $1Trillion company will be a software company masquerading as a services firm:

"Ultimately, if you look at the TAM today, for every dollar that you spend on software, $6 are spent on services".

"If you sell the tools, the models are getting better and better and so you're at risk... whereas, if you sell the services, you're actually delivering outcomes."

"Until now, we could really just go after the $1, but now with services first and human at the centre, we think you can capture the six".

[Polymarket @Polymarket]

JUST IN: Replit CEO suggests being “brainrotted” & “terminally online” is an advantage in the AI age.

[CR Smith @colbyrosssmith]

@nikitabier @jaydwivedi_ Nikita in his peak form

[CR Smith @colbyrosssmith]

@MrGoldBro @Austen did it first

[CR Smith @colbyrosssmith]

The last month has arguably had more development in AI than the last 3 years combined.

Everyone's building AI companies now. Everyone's talking about the Saaspocalypse.

We can now see the pathway: the platforms that will win aren't the ones with the best AI — that's becoming a commodity.

The real game is moats. And there are only a handful left worth building on, in order of cost/complexity/barrier to entry that come to mind:

"The human premium" (relationships, skills training, etc)

Brand via a tight knit, loyal community

Deep workflow embedding (migration is too painful to justify leaving) - extra strength points if you control your data

Ruthless vertical specialization (zoning in on your hedgehog concept)

Proprietary data

Regulatory positioning (licenses and compliance that take years to earn)

Physical infrastructure (takes years + massive capital — even better when fused with software)

IMO you need at least 2-3 of these to build on like a fortress for even a chance to survive as a Saas over the next 3-5 years

Any I missed?

[Paul Graham @paulg]

For the foreseeable future, everything about starting a startup, both good and bad, will be accentuated. It will be even harder to figure out what to do, but the founders who get it right will be able to create amazing things even faster than they could before.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

I meet a lot of founders who are worried by the rapid rate of technological change. They shouldn't be. It may feel uncomfortable, but techno-turbulence is net good for startups. They're much more likely to adapt successfully to some big change than incumbents are.

[Jack Moses ∞ @jackmoses777]

I am so bullish on the real world.

Group events. Cookouts. Sports. Parties. Animals. Music festivals. Phoneless dinners. Co-living centers. Healing centers. Retreat centers. Beautiful views. Group adventures.

These things light me up. Tech, ai, and materialism continue to disguest me more every day.

The pendulum has swung too far. A small group of soulless nerds will continue to obsess over ai, automation, effiency, and the intellect. But those of us connected to our hearts and spirits are becoming disgusted by it. We want real, and we want human.

Expect a huge countersurge of irl businesses and events in the next few years.

[Shaun Maguire @shaunmmaguire]

I am a techno-optimist

The next few years will see a lot of people's jobs change

But I strongly believe the overall rising tide will lift all boats

It just requires an open mind to change

[Balaji @balajis]

AI is amazing for small-TAM custom software.

Indeed, the smaller the market, the more amazing it is. Because small markets typically don’t support the costs of software development.

[CR Smith @colbyrosssmith]

@steipete @JustBroOnX Bait used to be believable

[Beff (e/acc) @beffjezos]

The last lock in you'll ever need.

Go all-in