Chris Hawkins

Let's upgrade our collective optimism & get a trillion, rich superhumans in space.

Founder, TIDY.
Formerly: Founder of SignNow.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@yo Nice of you to add the “thank you”

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@AmazonHelp any way you turn off Alexa shopping? It activates with no rhyme or reason, is slow, is not helpful. It’s seems to just add an ai generated blob of meaningless text at the top?

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@ForecasterEnten @mattyglesias I think this is an uncharitable take. It may not be fraud, but it would be hard to design an election to look more like fraud. IMO the reaction to this really should be making the elections feel less fraud-y. It undermines democracy.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@Dan_Jeffries1 I feel like people don’t talk enough about the doom case if we don’t massively increase gdp with AI: complete financial catastrophe. We are spending our way into oblivion and we need AI to save us. There is no plan b.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@repligate And organizations that are myopically focused on safety have poor track records (eg nuclear power regulators, environmental groups)

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@repligate Right now, our entire consistent deficit economic system will collapse without massive gdp gains. We will all die if we don’t solve aging.

Doom is default. AI is plan A. There is no plan B. Accelerate.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@charlieholtz @Shpigford For the 15th, maybe you can have usage aware defaults? Like default to big terminal for Claude, chat for gpt, etc? Maybe a guide?

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@hamandcheese If people lived longer, they would likely have more kids at more stages of life (eg have a new batch every 50 years). Many people who today opted for no kids might change their mind at 70, etc. I think longevity is the solution to fertility.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@GovNuclear

[Rod Wong, MD @docrodwong]

a standing ovation for daraxonrasib at asco. over 40k oncologists, entrepreneurs, investors, and patient advocates together celebrating revmed's breakthru in the fight against pancreatic cancer. u never forget these moments. it's what innovation is all about.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@CloisterRes We see this often. IMO there needs to be a line before “insurance/medicare has to pay for it”, like positive phase 2, where you can take/buy it at your own risk or something if the company will let you.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

Let’s eradicate them from California. Would be huge!

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@dareeexc @BullTheoryio Mosquitos are an invasive to California, arriving within the last 7 years. Kill them all

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@HarryStebbings @nico_laqua Weird. Thoughts (1) startups IMO are a marathon (2) not convinced you get good work from people beyond a level of work (3) they should be able to do what they want (4) I did time like this in the Army (wartime) but doing it for an insurance company?

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@OfficialLoganK the rate limits for Gemma 4 are absurdly low (30 RPM), can’t pay if we try for it. So we think “if google won’t let us use this I guess we will try openrouter” then on openrouter we say “might as well test deepseek v4 flash”. Silly way to lose this tranche of biz

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@brookejlacey I’m confused. Isn’t this “aislop” backwards? Is any of this real? The fundraising? I thought it was 100% a joke but apparently…not?

[Seth Howes @SethSHowes]

I just sequenced a human genome to 30× coverage entirely at home.

As far as I know, this is the first time this has been done.

I didn’t step foot in a lab once. Every step - from saliva collection, to running the sequencer - took place in a single room with a dining table + kitchenette.

Six weeks ago, I had never done wet lab biology before.

I used an Oxford Nanopore P2 Solo - the only commercially available sequencing device portable enough to do 30x human genome sequencing at home.

Biggest takeaway - I could build something that combined software, hardware, and molecular biology far faster than I thought was possible.

I can name >100 specific instances where AI helped me solve a technical problem that would previously have blocked me because I lacked access to a domain expert.

For example: how do I save my sequencing run when my DNA extraction yield is 4x lower than I need it to be, and I have this limited set of reagents to hand?

To make this work, I had to navigate multiple disciplines:

- writing software to monitor sequencing runs and orchestrate remote GPU infra for basecalling
- learning + executing 5 hour long molecular biology protocols
- building a hardware device to quantify DNA concentration

Apologies for the hyperbole, but I feel super lucky to be living in 2026.

A few weeks ago I decided to sequence a human genome to 30x at home.

Then I actually did it. And I did it really quickly.

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@xai You should try to get first class support for grok in @conductor_build

[Chris Hawkins @upgradeoptimism]

@iamshackelford I’m in Costa Mesa. If it blows I’m going to stay with family down south.

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

Capitalism is the solution in healthcare. But, there is a reason we have anti-trust laws. There are reasons why we have the @FTC

We are at a point in time where the big vertically integrated carriers and providers are abusing their market positions. Neither agency has done shit to stop them over the past decade

There is a bill, the Break Up Big Medicine Bill from @HawleyMO and @SenWarren. I have talked to democratic senators who have said they will support it if more republican senators do. They want to match 1 dem to 1 rep. Totally dumb shit. So they say nothing.

Other than Josh, not a single republican senator I have talked to has the guts to stand up for it. Period. They won’t give a reason. They just won’t do it.

If you want less government in healthcare, it can’t happen until these conglomerates are broken up

If you want single payer or M4A , it can’t happen until these conglomerates are broken up

Quit bitching and call your senator and tell them to grow a spine and support this bill