Ben Roble

Ex-JPMorgan Private Bank | Building for the financial chaos of your first job | Strong opinions weakly held

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

https://t.co/2TjTTiDtYo

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

I can’t be the only one who’s tired of reexplaining things to an LLM and watching it respond with the same cloying tone for three paragraphs when a good answer would have been three sentences

I’m surprised as I move around SF that everyone is just hooked into an LLM chat like some kind weird cyborg army

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

If Adobe is so great why does I jump up and down with a “buy now” notification every single time I use it to look at anything on my desktop

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

The reason that so many large companies include equity in their compensation is because they "want people to act like owners."

First, this doesn't work when you are a giant. When I was at JPM all of us owners had a bad 2012 when the "London Whale," who none of us hired, had a bad year. The company is just too big.

Second, owners can only make decisions when they know the big picture. Most companies deliberately keep information from people, which leads to politics.

Third, politics is a terrible and soul-crushing mechanism and is not necessarily related to "ownership," which begs the question what is your ownership stake for if not to override people with less of one?

The reason large companies provide equity is because they've been told they're supposed to.

Owning equity in your employer can work out, but it probably does so without your input as an owner.

Small companies are a totally different conversation.

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@signulll It took a decade after living there for my system to wind down and realize that I wasn't missing out by not living in Manhattan anymore

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

The ones who answer immediately, who have a scheduling system, who send a confirmation text, who arrive in a branded vehicle within twenty-four hours, are the ones you should be afraid of.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I called a recommended electrician and he did not answer.

I called again the next day. He did not answer.

I mentioned this to the man who gave me the number, apologetically, assuming the man had died.

He said, "Oh yeah, he's terrible with the phone."

Then he said, "He's great though."

Terrible with the phone. Great though.

I asked how I am supposed to reach a man who does not answer his phone.

He said, "Just keep calling. He'll pick up eventually."

I called eleven times over six days. I left three messages of increasing formality. The third one was, I now realize, addressed to a dead man.

On day seven he answered and said, "Yeah?"

No apology. No acknowledgment of eleven calls. He answered as though we were mid-conversation.

I have since learned the rule, and the rule is upsetting.

The good ones do not answer.

The ones who answer immediately, who have a scheduling system, who send a confirmation text, who arrive in a branded vehicle within twenty-four hours, are the ones you should be afraid of.

Availability is the warning sign.

A man who can come tomorrow is a man with nothing to do tomorrow.

I said this out loud to an American and he nodded like I had recited scripture.

He said, "My guy took nine days to call me back. Best tile guy in the state."

Nine days. He said it with pride. He was bragging. He was bragging about being ignored.

I asked the electrician why he does not answer.

He said, "I'm in an attic."

That is the whole answer. He is in an attic. He is in an attic every day. The phone is in the truck and the truck is in the driveway and he is in the attic.

He said, "If I answered the phone I'd be a guy who answers phones."

He fixed my problem in thirty minutes and did not charge me for the trip.

I have his number. He will not answer it.

That is how I know it is a good number.

How long did your best guy take to call you back. Post the number of days. I want to see the correlation.

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@paulg I have tried 2x to get into Faulkner sitting at a restaurant bar and 2x left it behind so that it can find its future home.

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@paulg Leave on restaurant table or bar. Somewhere is someone who says (or will) that it is their favorite book. You just push it off the dock for that journey.

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

This is both the best place to stay up to speed on AI and technology and to get catfished by those same applications into thinking you need way more than you do to get something done

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@SherryYanJiang Busy

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@Austen recent toddler quote: "restraunot"

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@junkbondinvest This is what cable companies have looked like for decades... cash is fungible once it's in anyway, so in for a penny, in for a pound

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

Every time I get some pseudo-intelligent comment from an LLM I try to imagine where it came from... like what part of the internet convinced it to say "...it's worth calling out"?

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@SherryYanJiang I think the idea is that pessimism is intended to reflect discernment and therefore intelligence. but it usually doesn't work because being a pessimist is free.

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@shadcn @Suge_dif you have the receipts. this too shall pass...

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@render Moar!!! Super helpful

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@unusual_whales Nobody ever pushes on this concept (maybe just because it's Elon) and it's implications beyond "money"
\

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@PolymarketMoney wut??

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

Is everything (EVERYTHING) just insider trading now?

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@barakgila Dangerous to try to run anything on normative statements, especially in a state that has a history of voting itself more benefits but no way to pay for them

[Ben Roble @rowbull]

@ashpreetbedi Writing code ≠ productive