Melvin Luu

Paid by the internet since 2016 | I write about where value is moving in the AI economy and how solopreneurs can capture it.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

2 months ago I paused X and focused on Substack.

Grew 2500 followers within that time. Compare that to X where 5 months got me like 170 followers.

Think the game here is incredibly rigged for small accounts. Everyone is also optimizing for engagement and Elon bucks which increases slop amount drastically.

I am back on X but focus will remain on Substack.

So much more fun over there.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

Every great business starts with a worldview.

Tesla believed the future was electric.

Airbnb believed people would trust strangers with their homes.

Apple believed computers could become personal.

The product is what people buy.

The worldview is why they believe.

In the AI economy, this becomes even more important.

The tools are becoming available to everyone.

The differentiator is the perspective you build around them.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

@thedulab Real. Timeline is healing

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

2023: We took everything you ever wrote for free.

2026: Wait, did you just use 27 of our AI’s word to clean up your email? We have to slap a secret watermark on that paragraph so you don’t take credit for our work.

[Anthropic @AnthropicAI]

We’ve written an FAQ to answer some of the questions we've received about watermarking.

In summary:

• We’re implementing watermarking to comply with the EU AI Act. Other major model developers have signed the same Code of Practice and will also be implementing watermarking;
• Our watermarking method doesn’t have any practical impact on the quality or content of Claude’s outputs;
• The difference between watermarked and un-watermarked text will not be distinguishable to readers;
• Nothing is added to the text and there are no hidden characters;
• Watermarking doesn’t require extra tokens, and will not be more expensive;
• Watermarks can’t be traced to a specific person, organization, or chat.

Read more: https://t.co/G76iUOJ7Hu

[ADONIS @adonispara]

Nietzsche describing the mindset of high performers.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

Boris, the creator of Claude Code, says they deleted 80% of the system prompt for the newest model.

Why?

Most of those instructions existed to compensate for things older models couldn’t do.

The model got smarter.

His advice: every few months, delete your prompts, skills and hooks. Run the model naked. Watch where it actually fails. Then add instructions back only when the same failure happens repeatedly.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

Might be my new favorite app.

[Eli Rousso @elirousso]

⚪️ New App: Slate — a voice journal built on one rule: nothing leaves your phone.

100% Apple, top to bottom. Transcription by SpeechAnalyzer on device. Reflection by the 3 billion parameter Apple Intelligence model on the Neural Engine. Storage in SwiftData. Swift 6, SwiftUI, Liquid Glass. Zero third-party code in the binary.

There's no account. No analytics. No tracking. No third party SDKs. No network calls. The app is private because there is nothing to collect. Turn on airplane mode and everything still works. There's no server.

You speak your mind and slate writes it down. It notices patterns and reads your week back to you in a summary every Sunday.

The local model is an observer. It never replies or advises or comforts. When it has nothing real to say, it says nothing.

[Nationalist @euronationalizt]

Summer is far from over if you’re doing it right

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

@AgentOrToy @EXM7777 Absolute slop

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

Absolutely hate X

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

A lot of people want to build online but refuse to be specific.

They say: “I help people grow.”

Grow what.

Hair? Revenue? Confidence? Tomatoes?

The internet does not reward vague. The internet rewards recognizable pain. You might want to read that last sentence again.

“I help freelancers get their first 3 clients.”

Clear.

“I help solo founders turn messy expertise into a paid newsletter.”

Clear.

Your offer should make the right person feel caught.

Not inspired.

Caught.

Nobody wakes up at 2am thinking: Damn. I need a holistic growth solution.

They think:

Why do I still have no clients.

Why does my offer make people confused.

Why did I spend four hours writing a homepage that explains absolutely nothing.

That is where the money is.

That is when strangers pay attention.

Vague sounds safe.

Specific sells.

Annoying, because specific also means some people will not care.

Good.

They were not going to pay you anyway.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

@CoachThisath Muay Thai too. The best

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

@GRITCULT Moving despite uncertainty >

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

@jacksonmaynot @wizofecom No way lol

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

A sign of self-respect is refusing to let random apps decide the shape of your day. No vote. No permission. Delete the noise and return to the meaningful work, or leisure. Guarding your attention like a king guards his throne.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

https://t.co/XyQ1IZZTHm

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

Mind on the mission.

It is of imperative importance that you keep your mind on the mission.

Do not feed it news.

News takes your mind off the mission.

Do not feed it scrolling.

Scrolling takes your mind off the mission.

Do not feed it sports, drama, gossip, and useless noise.

All of it takes your mind off the mission.

Fuck all that.

Keep your mind on the mission.

Let it sit there.

Let it brew.

Let it follow you into the shower, the gym, the walk, the bed.

Until you dream of your mission.

If you do not, you do not want it bad enough.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

@CoachThisath Yeah that crossed my mind. Yes I have been to the south. But brooo salt water crocodiles. Ain’t no way I will surve there 😂😂😂

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

Spent the last 5 years living in the same 3 countries in Asia .

Time to go on a world tour for a year.

Need hidden gems.

Give me your recs.

I all I need is a good neighborhood.

Few good cafes to get some work done, a decent martial arts gym (preferably striking), an okay lifting gym.

I need places that are overlooked.

No Bali, No Thailand, No Medellin.

More like Busan, Kuala Lumpur, Bucaramanga or Tirana.

Where normal people don’t go.

I will stay 3 months.

Probably no one will see this anyways.

Thanks X.

[Melvin Luu @melvinbuilds]

@TreyWhitfield_ Love these yeah. I am eyeing China heavily!