Matt Johnson

founder/ceo of paradigm search where we recruit eng/product execs. atx via sf via nyc via la with a hint of ann arbor. sadly, i'm much more active on linkedin

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@bryan_johnson Electrolyte recommendation?

[Alex Salazar @TheMostlyGreat]

Two years ago we made a bet that the action layer was going to be the hardest problem in enterprise AI.

Today, the @WSJ covered why that bet paid off.

Check out the full feature on our Series A announcement: https://t.co/EqLyulDtOP

[Jack Altman @jaltma]

One of my deep-seated beliefs is that happiness is a choice.

Obviously there are some natural temperaments and life circumstances that make being happy easier or harder, but I think you have to tell yourself your happiness is in your control.

Even outside the big pillars of life like health, relationships, and work, we can have a lot of control on our daily internal experience with things like:

- choosing to reframe losses as learning
- being happy for others' success instead of jealous
- looking for the good instead of bad in people
- focusing on what we're grateful for vs. what we lack
- looking forward to good things vs. dreading bad things
- etc.

[david friedberg @friedberg]

California started with the Gold Rush and might end with the Golden Exit.

it has been underreported how much wealth has left CA because of the asset seizure tax being proposed.

a private poll was conducted amongst affected individuals a few days ago and 80-90% surveyed said they have already left CA in 2025 or will leave in 2026 if the ballot measure looks likely to pass.

$2-2.5T of assets gone, representing about $20B of annual revenue for the state government. and likely hundreds of thousands of jobs now at risk.

less reported is the bigger exodus underway from folks who are NOT directly affected but worry (as they should) that this law will quickly transition from billionaires to everyone else...

the initiative actually gives CA legislators the right to take anyone's post-tax assets anytime in the future based on a majority vote. this isn't about billionaires. it's a new "tax system" that simply destroys private property rights in America.

all private property is now public property.
even after paying your taxes, it's not legally your property anymore. it's the government's, you're just borrowing it.
legislators will decide what you get to keep and temporarily use each year.

countless founders, CEOs, and other business leaders are actively looking to move their companies out of state. not just tech, not just AI, not just billionaires, but the core engine of California's prosperity since 1847 is unraveling.

and here is how this initiative risks unraveling America:
- ~10 states have explicit or implicit prohibitions against an asset seizure tax...
- individuals affected in CA (and other states trying to do the same) will move to these states that endow private property rights.
- CA already has a $20-30B annual budget deficit, an unfunded ~$1T pension liability for public employees/unions, and $500B of debt outstanding. the state can not afford to borrow much more and will launch more asset seizures to meet its obligations.
- asset seizures will first transition to "millionaires" and eventually to the entire middle class as more asset seizures drive more people to leave the state.
- the deficit, debt, and job loss will spiral. the Golden Exit.
- no US state has ever declared bankruptcy. in addition to CA, dozens of other states face similar fiscal crises - legislators promised future benefits that can't be paid or theft and waste have been allowed to run rampant and unabated for years.
- struggling states will eventually request federal government assistance, as they always have in times of fiscal crisis, effectively "federalizing state debt".
- states not in crisis will declare "enough is enough", individuals in those states will refuse to pay their federal taxes (why pay for other people's mistakes?), some states may try to secede from the Union, and a constitutional and civil crisis will erupt.

this may seem far-fetched but it is the obvious domino effect of selectively deleting private property rights for some people in some states.

i am not a billionaire and this CA bill does not affect me, but i care about the country and the state of CA. i want both to thrive. it's obvious that there are people in CA in desperate need of support and assistance, and inequities may exist that need to be rectified, but eliminating private property rights is the wrong path for everyone.

a few alternatives to consider first:
1) with a $350B annual budget, CA can cut programs that result in theft and little-to-no benefit for citizens. $50B per year is likely recoverable.
2) if more taxes are needed, tax loans against unrealized capital gains (very few objections will arise), eliminate tax-free rollover of certain appreciated assets (real estate industry will fight), create a step up in basis on inheritance (some will fight but most will support). likely $10Bs of incremental revenue can be realized.
3) restructure all public retirement programs from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution. eliminating the unfunded retirement liabilities ($1T+) will be the release valve on the future the state so desperately needs.

we must address what ails us without dividing and destroying our state, our nation, our home.

ignore the rhetoric, these are the facts.

[david friedberg @friedberg]

why not just raise income tax rates?

because your real intent is not to just “provide healthcare”.

you’re masking that you are proposing the creation of, for the first time in the 250 years of this American republic, an organized government seizure of private property from citizens.

you’re calling it a “wealth tax” or a “billionaires tax” or “millionaires tax” or whatever nom du jour polls well. but at the end of the day, it’s the seizure of private property from citizens by the government. citizens that earned money, paid their fair taxes on those earnings (53% if they live in California) and are now being told they need to hand over after-tax assets because the government has failed to provide promised services with the revenue it’s collected, and are now re-casting their own failure to be a socio-economic inequity that must be justly resolved... a slippery slope that has never gone anywhere good (see economic effects in USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, France and Norway wealth tax etc.)

the American founders fled tyranny in Europe and this amazing nation was populated by immigrants (myself and your parents) from around the world not just looking for a “better life” but for a place where they could have freedom from tyrannical governments that can take what they want from private citizens. a great nation borne of property rights, the rule of law, and endowed freedoms to believe, speak, or act. these principles led to the greatest run of innovations, successes, and widespread increase in prosperity, for all citizens, ever seen.

the citizens, the individuals, not the institutions, delivered this progress. those who invented, who toiled, who bled, who sacrificed, who took risk and persevered, who led, and who changed the world, are not charlatans, kleptocrats, or oligarchs. they’re what made us all better off. prosperity is a measure of america’s success, not its failure.

it is your principle that is so offensive, as evidenced by the broad disdain for your flippant flirtation with the darkest of human fantasy - socialism. you and other neo-socialists have led so many of us to reflect on America’s history and what it is becoming. that now leads so many to consider, so unnecessarily, leaving their homes for a place where everyone stands up to shout down the principle you suggest. because if your ideas are now considered moderate, it’s clear this titanic is sinking.

that a “simple tax” of taking assets that have been earned, through toil and tribulation, rightly taxed, and preserved, should now be unjustly seized, is your solution to a problem of obvious government mismanagement and outright fraud, tells us that your true motivation lies not in giving people healthcare but in cutting down success and deleting the system of prosperity and opportunity for all.

i don’t care, and neither should anyone else, what the sum total market value of a private citizens private assets might be. it is none of my business and should be none of yours. because, again, once you open that pandora’s box, we might as well study Lord of the Flies … there is literally nothing stopping 51% of citizens demanding that their government go out and seize 100% of the private property of the 49%.

want to give healthcare to people in need? do your job and fix healthcare. make it affordable. want to be lazy about it? then do your job lazily and raise income taxes.

want to take private property from private citizens who have paid their fair share of taxes and legally earned their property, then honestly declare that it is envy, not inequity, that you strive to resolve…

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@chrija @a16z @CBinsights KuCoin

[Willem @vanlancker]

https://t.co/7Tkw52IEsY

[Hiro Finance @hirofinanceai]

Introducing Hiro.

Your AI financial planner.

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@WillManidis And family

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@AutismCapital https://t.co/RFUo992BxS

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@S27G_ I would like to do this with mine, what age would you recommend starting book one?

[Eric Stromberg @ericstromberg]

We're hosting a tech basketball tournament at Barclays Center this Fall.

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@HashemGhaili The Katy Perry reference - brilliant

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@zachweinberg @rabois do you have a take on this and others e.g. trevor milton et al?

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

Thousands of Tesla owners were doxxed and threatened.

Dozens of Teslas were set on fire and vandalized.

A bunch of Tesla dealerships were targeted with violence.

Tim Walz hasn’t condemned this coordinated domestic terrorism.

Instead, he’s practically celebrating and egging it on.

Evil.

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@Austen

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@vhmth If you could go back in time, would you have still sold Loom?

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@immad @mercury please do virtual credit cards for personal, would be huge!

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@Jaguar Do you sell cars?

[Matt Johnson @mattjtweets]

@JLSearch @mrmikeMTL 💯💯💯