dustin curtis

Designer, investor, nomad. Temporarily embarrassed billionaire.

Building

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

If you want to do something great with your life—whatever that means to you—remember this: you get an unlimited number of tries. The only constraining factor is your lifespan.

The worst things you can do are:
care what other people think,
not take risks,
fail slowly,
give up.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@kyleanthony Great work. Kinda feels like Anduril set in 1960.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

This is perhaps the most hilariously ugly car they could possibly have designed. Everything about it screams Fisher Price car for adults.

It even amplifies the sound of the electric motor into the cabin. It’s like a parody.

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Ferrari has just officially unveiled its first ever all-electric car, called the Ferrari Luce.

• Starting price: $640,000
• Interior co-designed with Apple's former head of design, Jony Ive
• Range: 280 miles (expected EPA)
• Peak charging speed: 350kW
• 122 kWh battery
• 1,050 horsepower
• 0-60mph: 2.4s
• 800v
• Four-door four-seater
• Four electric motors
• OLED screens
• Weight: 4,982 lbs
• Front motors spin to 30,000 rpm, rears hit 25,500 rpm
• Car uses an accelerometer to capture real vibrations from the electric motors & rear chassis. An algorithm filters out unpleasant frequencies and amplifies only the more “musical” sounds. This can be heard inside and outside the car.
• Paddle shifter on steering wheel changes how aggressively torque is delivered, with five different levels
• The trunk has 21.1 cubic feet of space, the largest luggage capacity the company has ever offered
• 197.6 inches long, about as long as a Tesla Model S

U.S. deliveries start in Q2 2027. More photos in the thread below:

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@nikitabier The algorithm is the enemy of storytelling, but the human brain has evolved over tens of thousands of years to run on stories.

This will be the downfall of social media in the long term.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@nikitabier Your biggest mistake here is considering "content" a single post, when actually the only great content is many good posts over time.

The way X ranks and fans out posts individually instead of the considering the whole story of an account over time is a disaster.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@sentdefender Seriously? This is obviously a weather balloon. Why are you posting this junk?

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@BoredElonMusk Looking forward your X reviews of random expensive household appliances, tech products, and exercise equipment.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

Tim Cook is leaving Apple with an insane record as CEO. One of the greatest who ever did it.

“Under Cook’s leadership Apple has grown from a market capitalization of approximately $350 billion to $4 trillion, representing a more than 1,000% increase, and yearly revenue has nearly quadrupled, from $108 billion in fiscal year 2011 to more than $416 billion in fiscal year 2025.”

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@soleio How is that different from point and click?

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

Listening to NASA’s science teams enthusiastically talk to the Artemis II astronauts is incredibly inspiring. The passion and excitement is visceral and real. You can hear the smiles as they make new discoveries.

It’s a beautiful contrast against brain-rot political discussion and AI doomerism that has saturated the news lately.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@jarrichvdv @MartianHoplite It would be a significantly better use of resources to redirect $10-15B to SpaceX and Blue Origin than to build two+ more SLS rockets. It's a sunk cost at this point.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

Tonight’s Artemis II launch to the moon is going to cost every American about $12 each.

An Artemis launch costs $4.1 billion, is 95% single-use, and is largely based on technology from the 1980’s.

It’s insanely overpriced, but I’m willing to pay $12 to watch a rocket take humans back toward the moon. Can’t wait.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@GayassGearhead @ChazLingleson SpaceX is targeting $10-40 million per Starship launch at scale, so it's possible. Probably not likely though. Much, much cheaper than $4.1 billion.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@ChazLingleson No, but Starship can launch fuel tankers to refuel and still be 99% cheaper than this thing.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@MartianHoplite You're right. I would bet on SLS being canceled after this mission. SpaceX is just so much more efficient and cheaper.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@AmericaFailed1 @guinnessstache Are you troll or an LLM?

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@jamescham Maybe the clunky PGP/GnuPG web of trust model was just ahead of its time, and now is the time to shine.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

If you’re not a software engineer, this should be a wakeup call to what has happened in the past few months with AI engineering tools. Everything has changed.

Now we get to watch as companies learn how to either use these tools in earnest or slowly fall behind.

[jack @jack]

we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company.

####

today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i'll be straight about what's happening, why, and what it means for everyone.

first off, if you're one of the people affected, you'll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if you’re outside the U.S. you’ll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you're being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay.

we're not making this decision because we're in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that's accelerating rapidly.

i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures.

a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we've done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we've pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we've built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers.

we're not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i'll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i'd rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold.

to those of you leaving…i’m grateful for you, and i’m sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that's a fact that i'll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward.

to those staying…i made this decision, and i'll own it. what i'm asking of you is to build with me. we're going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we're going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that's what i'm focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow.

jack

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

@Ricburton @rsg It is a loss to humanity that they wasted their time designing a car interior for a few thousand rich people when they could have built something for millions.

[dustin curtis @dcurtis]

Imagine designing iOS, an operating system used by billions of people—literally changing the world—and then following it up with… a car interior design for a few thousand rich people.

Absolutely shameful waste of talent. Insanely beautiful, made for no one.

[Mike Matas @mike_matas]

After many years of development, I’m excited to share the interior of the first electric Ferrari designed by LoveFrom. Tactile controls and digital interactions blend into one cohesive interface, shaped through deep collaboration across engineering, interaction, graphics, typography, sound, and industrial design. So incredibly proud of the thoughtfulness and care the team brought to every detail.

https://t.co/JZCleflfu7