soltran

Engineering Leader. Building fintech for the unbanked at Nclusion. ex-Yuga, ex-Rubrik. Silicon Valley bred. Tweets about tech, crypto, sports, & life.

[soltran @soltran]

In life, school is always in session. Never stop learning.

[Kevin Carpenter @kejca]

Warren Buffett: "The bottom 2% in terms of income in the United States, the bottom 5%, and for sure the top 1% all live better than John D. Rockefeller was living when I was six years old."

"John D. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world and, today, you can get better medicine, better education, better entertainment, better transportation. You can do everything better than he could."

"When I was born, the dentist didn't use novocaine!"

[soltran @soltran]

Watching a championship being decided by Penalty kicks is so unsatisfying

[soltran @soltran]

@drethelin @Bordash @cis_female But I imagine it does cost money to have a digital library of ebooks and audiobooks

[Mayor Matt Mahan @MattMahanSJ]

UC STEM faculty are absolutely right, and this change is long overdue.

We’re doing our kids a disservice and putting at risk the reputation of the world’s best public university system. As Governor, I’ll bring back SAT/ACT scores as part of the admissions criteria for STEM degree applicants.

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

A new report shows that 30% of Berkeley Calculus students are severely underprepared.

These students have “non-passing rates as high as 46%.”

From 2021-2023, “over 800 students (or 24% of the total population) did not pass their Calculus I classes.” Of the 500 among them who were tested for proficiency,

“-63.6% came from the proficiency tier with severe preparation deficiency (0-2);
-30.2% came from the proficiency tier of underprepared students (3-6);
-6.2% came from the proficiency tier of prepared students (7-8).”

“Obscuring these preparation gaps does not provide access; it provides a near-guaranteed introduction to failure for our most vulnerable students.”

[Aaron Levie @levie]

CEOs are uniquely prone to AI psychosis because they’re sufficiently distant from the last mile of work that still has to happen to generate most value with AI.

So when they play with AI, they see the happy path results, often not considering the next 10 or 20 things that have to happen to get sustainable results from agents.

“Look I made this awesome product prototype”. Yes but you didn’t have to review the code before it went into production and fix a bunch of issues.

“Look I generated a contract”. Yes but you didn’t verify all the terms before it goes out to the counterparty and didn’t have to wire up all the past contracts to work with.

The best thing you can do as a CEO is to use AI a *ton* to figure out the real implications of agents in the enterprise, and come out the other side with an appreciation for both the upside and the real work that goes into them.

[Brett Winton @wintonARK]

on AI and water use.

You could ask a frontier model 4 questions per day every day for a year.

Or you could eat a single solitary almond.

[soltran @soltran]

@MyFryHole Reminds me a bit of what I was reading about Celebrini coming into the 2024 draft. Complete game but not as high of a ceiling offensively as Bedard.

[MacKenzie Price @mackenzieprice]

Two questions I get all the time:

"What educational AI tools would you recommend for my kid?" "What adaptive apps does Alpha use?"

Many of the apps we've built ourselves aren't publicly accessible yet. Here are ten third-party ones I do recommend.

[Santa Clara University @SantaClaraUniv]

Proud to partner with @SutterHealth to launch the Mark & Mary Stevens School of Medicine, a new model of medical education, built from the ground up in Silicon Valley.

[SF Democratic Party @SFDemocrats]

Proposition D puts our city's economic recovery at risk, and now the City Economist has published a report agreeing with our position:
https://t.co/pplZWpLJhA

[soltran @soltran]

@NickKristof @nytimes @clairecm Cupertino Union school district is 5 grades above average for math, how is that possible??

[Kelsey Piper @KelseyTuoc]

In the Argument today, Nicholas Bagley and Robert Gordon argue that Democrats have a public sector unions problem: if you want good results, you have to be able to hire the best people and fire the worst ones.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

It's so weird how difficult it is for the left to understand that all you have to do to decrease housing costs is to let people build more housing.

[Matthew Berman @MatthewBerman]

Absolute banger explanation of why AOCs recent comments about it being impossible to earn a billion dollars is not only wrong, but societally harmful

[soltran @soltran]

@NielsHoven @MentavaInc He did get switched over to the preschool curriculum but then he got switched back to the kindergarten curriculum. He's gotten to around lesson 40 or so after 1.5 weeks. It's been pretty great to see his progress!

[soltran @soltran]

Been eager to try @MentavaInc . Finally, my son is old enough to try it and I can say I think it’s the best reading software out there (I’ve tried a bunch and previously would say https://t.co/zGqnwelDra was the best). My son just turned 2 last month and it’s awesome hearing him now identify sounds and start blending them together.

[MacKenzie Price @mackenzieprice]

The cultural pendulum has swung toward lower and lower expectations for kids, disguised as "kindness" or "gentleness." But unfortunately, it's not doing today's students any justice. Kids rise to whatever standards are placed upon them, and high standards are what set kids up for real success.

David Yeager calls it the Mentor Mindset: high standards paired with high support. Drop the standards and you've told kids you don't believe in them. Raise the bar without helping them get there and now they don't believe in themselves.

High standards with high support is the sweet spot that helps kids develop genuine agency, competence, and belief. We've lowered the bar out of love, but it's time we raise it out of respect.

[soltran @soltran]

I toured 20+ elementary schools in the S.F. / East Bay Area, particularly seeking Chinese immersion for my kids. Who would be interested in reading my reviews / thoughts on them? I toured both public and private schools

[soltran @soltran]

Every time I see the cow dancing, I imagine @NielsHoven dancing even though I’ve never met him in person 😆