Sangwon

make it simple

[paul @paulscherer]

i haven't done a single interview in over 6 years.

then, a few months ago, @akothari introduced me to @jacksondahl and i immediately knew that now was the time to talk. and boy, do i have a lot to say.

over the last century, the word has changed a lot. we have more acquaintances than any generation before yet feel so isolated. over 40m americans have no close friends at all; 50% report feeling lonely.

some of the best parts of being human are when the people in our lives expand our world in unpredictable ways. seeing sides of ourselves that only another person can help us discover.

i want to live in a world with more, not less of these moments and i'm hopeful a mutual friend will help enable this. thank you, jackson, for a wonderful conversation.

[Jackson Dahl @jacksondahl]

Paul Scherer wants to create an AI that brings us closer to each other.

@paulscherer and @eigenhq are building a "mutual friend" for the world. Critically, the mutual part is more important than the friend part.

Imagine the best "connector" you know -- the person who is emotionally intelligent, thoughtful, and always bringing people together. What if they could be friends with a million people, rather than a few hundred? And what if they were entirely focused on creating more belonging in the world?

Modern social media--due to hyper-personalization and broken incentives--makes us feel more and more estranged from the people we care about. AI chatbots focus on engagement and can be anti-social.

Paul and Eigen are aiming for a pro-social AI friend who is more concerned with helping deepen and widen your relationships than getting you to talk to it for longer.

We discuss what all this might look like, the challenges of "growing" a new person that isn't a bad actor, and what it feels like to be a prodigious 22-year-old who Peter Fenton compared to the founders of last generation's great social media companies--all before he’s publicly launched a product.

Timestamps:
1:13 - Intro to Paul
3:28 - Start: 'Momo', Presence, Friendship, and Time
11:10 - How the Internet Connects Us and Isolates Us, and Conflating Social and Media
25:12 - A Future Where We Talk to AIs
33:55 - Paul and Eigen are Building a Mutual Friend to Help Us Connect with Other Humans
48:01 - Why Do We Need a Mutual Friend? And Making a Friend We Can Trust
1:16:53 - Belonging, Building the team at Eigen, and Inventor as Outlaw
1:25:38 - Managing the Psychology of Being a Promising Young Founder
1:36:53 - Maintaining a High Bar, Fighting Entropy, and Influences
1:53:50 - Self-belief, Authenticity, Seeing the Water
2:10:30 - Courage, and a Final Question from a Mutual Friend
2:16:27 - Eigen Office Tour with Paul

@DialecticPod 47: Paul Scherer - A Friend That Brings Us Closer - is out now on all platforms.

[Camille Ricketts @camillericketts]

.@zebriez and I are launching a newsletter today 🌅 we’re calling it early days.

we’ll write about the companies coming up we think more folks should know about.

our first post is about @eigenhq and the utterly singular @paulscherer - enjoy!

[Brie Wolfson @zebriez]

.@camillericketts and I first got introduced to @eigenhq by Akshay, Notion’s COO, who said its founder, @paulscherer, reminded him of Ivan, Notion’s exquisitely high-taste founder.

Then there was Benchmark’s $15M seed bet and Peter Fenton’s tweet putting Eigen in the lineage as “TheFacebook, Twitter, Instagram, and SnapChat.”

Stuff like this gets said pretty often about founders–especially by investors–but after spending time with Paul and the team, we think there’s something special going on here.

A dispatch from a month with Eigen and their honestly 🤯'ing mutual friend.

[Sangwon @funkcode]

Joined Eigen as a founding member. We raised $15M led by Benchmark to buihttps://x.com/homeld the world's mutual friend.

The problem: everyone has a different feed, playlist, stream. We share more than ever, but we aren't deeply connected.

https://t.co/py36K72fwx

[Sangwon @funkcode]

@SantaClaraPower Outage at Santa Rosa Ct

[C. Michael Gibson MD @CMichaelGibson]

Determining if an image is a Chihuahua or muffin is a tough problem in artificial intelligence

[Sangwon @funkcode]

@ggholic 용인으로 가는 M4101 광역버스가 8시 55분에 종각에서 승객을 안태우고 가버리네요.. ��도 더운데 너무 화납니다!

[Sangwon @funkcode]

정신차리자!!!!!

[전산과조교 @csTA_bot]

당신이 해머로 때려부술 수 있는 부분을 하드웨어라고 한다. 당신이 저주하는 것 밖에 하지 못하는 것을 소프트웨어라고 한다. -작자 미상

[Sangwon @funkcode]

> @unheim: RT @corean1985: @unheim 젊은이들의 욕망. 동작구 부재자 투표소! 점심시간이라 사람들 정말 많습니다. 전 무슨 HOT, 젝스키스 온 줄 알았습니다.ㅎㅎㅎ

[Sangwon @funkcode]

아 춥다

[Sangwon @funkcode]

“A useful software system must undergocontinual and timely change or it risks losing market share” (Lehman et al., 1997)

[Sangwon @funkcode]

멘붕 복구 중.... 하루 넘게 걸리네;;

[Youngsu Son @PatternLoader]

Agile의 대가 – Linda Rising과 만나다!: 지난 토요일 (2012/10/28) 애자일과 패턴의 대가인 Linda Rising(린다 라이징)과 만남을 가졌… http://t.co/x178qX3u

[Sangwon @funkcode]

네이버에서 '스칼라' 한글 검색했다가 깜짝 놀람..ㅡㅡ 스칼라 보정속옷이라니

[Enigma @enigmafilm]

제 사진과 디자인이 무단도용되어 백화점에��� 버젓히 팔리고 있습니다. 어떻게 이런일이 가능한가요? 배끼고 훔치는데 죄의식을 못느끼는걸까요? 보시고 RT 부탁드립니다. http://t.co/d6IQNq75

[Youngsu Son @PatternLoader]

[세미나 정보] 97가지 시리즈 총 결산 (아키텍트, 프로젝트 관리자, 프로그래머): 97가지 시리즈 (아키텍트, 프로젝트 관리자, 프로그래머) 를 한 자리에 만나는… http://t.co/fVyIjiUP

[Sangwon @funkcode]

“@umma_coding_bot: 걱정말고 퇴근하려무나. 어차피 서버는 네가 퇴근한 뒤에 죽을거야.”