Simon O'Dell

Venture builder & investor | insurtech | fintech | AI | student of mindfulness | $TSLA

[Documenting Saylor @saylordocs]

Billionaire investor Ron Baron explained the silent math destroying your wealth:

Your money loses 4 to 5% of its purchasing power every single year. The economy grinds higher at roughly 2%. That is a relentless 7% headwind against you, annually.

What that really means. Prices double every 10 to 12 years. Your savings are cut in half in real terms within about 15 years. Cash sitting idle is not safe, it is decaying.

The system is structurally engineered to punish savers and force capital into risk just to survive.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

If big companies can't make a net return on their LLM token costs, that doesn't mean it's impossible to. In fact this is exactly what you'd expect to happen with a new technology. Incumbents can't use it well, and are replaced by upstarts who can.

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

Here is @SpaceX's full IPO roadshow presentation from CFO Bret Johnson, who has been CFO at the company for the last 15 years.

It's worth watching.

[Insurance Council of Australia @ICAUS]

New analysis from @ICAUS shows extreme weather generated $4.8 billion in insured losses in 2025, with more than $4.1 billion of that coming from Queensland alone.

[Simon O'Dell @SimonODell5]

Evaluating whether your problem is worth solving - watch this vid, particularly from 6:46 #ycombinator https://t.co/Vpy4lZEyYp

[Simon O'Dell @SimonODell5]

There has never been a time like this in human history - when anyone with a good idea, with no code experience, no venture capital, no team, can make millions and set themselves up for life. If your child is curious and pissed off about a certain problem that exists, rip in !

[Clara Bennett @CodeswithClara]

🚨BREAKING: Anthropic just dropped free courses to master AI with certificates.

No tuition. No waitlist. No BS.

Here're 10 courses that will replace a $50K degree👇

[Clara Bennett @CodeswithClara]

1. @claudeai Code in Action

Accelerate development workflows using Claude Code

https://t.co/zTN8rUQG9M

[Simon O'Dell @SimonODell5]

@lydiahallie @bcherny Amazing ❤️

[a16z @a16z]

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison: "Software should be like pizza… cooked right then and there at the moment of use."

"You don’t want mass-produced industrial scale software. You want bespoke custom software made for you, that moment."

"Up until now, the economics of software have been conceived as fixed cost and then infinitely monetized."

"Once there are inference costs and custom creation involved, it really shifts. It’s kind of the non-Walrasian software regime."

@patrickc with @collision on @tbpn

[Daniel Schreiber @daschreiber]

Many insurers are issuing AI press releases. It's all very exciting.
So at @lemonade_inc we built an AI BS detector: three KPIs, public data, no spin.
It won't boost our popularity. It might boost your returns.
https://t.co/Ua8vWxkObh

[Paul Graham @paulg]

What startups should do in a time of rapid change: be flexible in your plans, actively look for new opportunities that appear, focus on users' needs.

Which incidentally is what startups should already be doing anyway.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

The greatest period of creativity is just about to begin if you believe you can write the prompt for it

[Sawyer Merritt @SawyerMerritt]

NEWS: The Model YL has been approved for sale in Australia.

[Simon O'Dell @SimonODell5]

https://t.co/AIjcQwFkd5

[Simon O'Dell @SimonODell5]

https://t.co/9kTb0jwh8I

[Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse]

The fossil fuel industry might be able to lie about the climate crisis, but the insurance industry can’t.

[Insurance Council of Australia @ICAUS]

@ICAUS welcomes NSW's proposed Climate Change & Natural Hazards State Environmental Planning Policy – a streamlined framework to help communities better withstand bushfires, floods, coastal erosion & urban heat.
👍@PennySharpemlc, @scullyp, @ChrisMinnsMP
🔗Read on: https://t.co/NbhVlnDrwK

[Saganism @Saganismm]

Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.

— Carl Sagan

[Neil deGrasse Tyson @neiltyson]

January 21, 2026
After one year. Decisions, decisions.

Which hat to wear today?
( 48-hour poll )

[Y Combinator @ycombinator]

Constellation (@constspace) predicts satellite network failures before they happen and automatically reroutes traffic in seconds—no human intervention, no data loss.

Congrats on the launch @kamranmajid11, @raaidkabir, @laithaustin, @omeedtehrani!

https://t.co/HKs6ixtuk3