Read-Listen-Watch - Adena Hefets

NYTimes Opinion - Ezra Klein - Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way

September 11, 2025

"Kirk and I were on different sides of most political arguments. We were on the same side on the continued possibility of American politics. It is supposed to be an argument, not a war; it is supposed to be won with words, not ended with bullets. I wanted Kirk to be safe for his sake, but I also wanted him to be safe for mine and for the sake of our larger shared project. The same is true for Shapiro, for Hoffman, for Hortman, for Thompson, for Trump, for Pelosi, for Whitmer. We are all safe, or none of us are." Well said.

Trump Hosts CEOs at the White House

September 5, 2025

It isn't often competitors dine together. But the white house seems to be uniting all CEOs with a common mission of bringing Trump on their side. The video is just opening remarks, lots of ring-kissing, little substance. What is striking, though, is how Silicon Valley, long known for its independence from politics, now feels deeply intertwined with Trump. The logic is clear: these CEOs need regulation to work in their favor, and picking a fight with the president is a losing game. Still, the whole thing felt like a real vibe shift from a decade ago.

Elon's $1T Pay Package - Good for Tesla, Bad for Founders

September 5, 2025

A massive pay package aligned with market cap is not unusual for Elon Musk. He would get no salary, no bonus—just stock and share price increases. I feel quite mixed on this type of pay package. On the one hand, for Elon Musk, it seems to make sense. Shareholders want him focused. He has plenty of money and doesn’t need a salary. It seems to align. However, the risk comes when investors model this type of pay package for others. I remember being told when I was running Divvy that investors wanted to give me the “Elon” pay package: massive grants if Divvy was tremendously successful, but no cushion for average performance. For someone who isn’t the richest person in the world, this is tough. You need a salary to live, and these extreme pay packages don’t often meet the needs of the average founder. So good for Tesla, yes—but a bad precedent for other founders, yes also.

Robotics Research - Dyna Example

September 2, 2025

In researching the robotics industry, it’s hard to convey just how different being on a shop floor feels compared to academic research or polished marketing videos. Dyna is one of the companies I’ve been following that is building general-purpose robots. This blog post offers a helpful look into what the process is really like: designing your own hardware, repeating tasks, building the right software backend, and making incremental progress every day. It felt far more reflective of where robotics stands today than the hype-filled YouTube videos that often circulate on X.

Stripe Podcast - Cognition CEO Scott Wu

August 29, 2025

I regularly listen to this podcast and will start posting more of there insanely good interviews. However, this one with Scott Wu, the CEO of Cognition, was particularly interesting on the future of agentic AI. Cognition has a coding assistant called Devin and recently acquired another code gen company called Windsurf. Scott talks through the future of application AI and when we will reach AGI (hint: we are already there!).

No Priors - Andrew Ng on Agentic AI

August 23, 2025

I really liked Andrew's interview because it started off talking through something I don't think is often brought up: the ability of AI to replace human workers is highly dependent on having very clear data around processes that humans do. Andrew more or less says that unless the AI agent can interview every employee, doing their job is really tough. I've spent time diving into the application AI layer, specifically for automating workforce rote tasks, and found the same thing. Without well-documented processes, it's really hard for AI agents to have the data/context to broadly automate workflow processes.

Uncapped Podcast - Brian Armstrong Interview

August 13, 2025

I'm a bit of a podcast addict, but I promise this one is good. Brian talks through the future of tokenization, working with government to set crypto policy, and his other companies. I found two things fascinating: (1) understanding how Coinbase will evolve into the platform for tokenized assets, and (2) I love hearing about founders who continue to build companies in deeply technical areas that seem outside of their core knowledge base. To expand on the latter point: it's amazing to hear founders continuing to have a growth mindset and learn industries that are deeply complex and outside their core expertise.

Educated by Tara Westover

August 9, 2025

I wanted to love this book. I grew up in a low-income family, was fortunate to attend incredible schools, and used my education to change my life. So when I started Tara Westover’s memoir, its themes resonated deeply. The first part was a page-turner: a vivid, unique window into a very different childhood and upbringing. But as it went on, the tone felt increasingly defensive, shifting away from the larger lessons toward family drama. By the end, I didn’t love it as much, even though I agree with its core message: education is freeing.

Hugging Face Write-up on GPT OSS & CEO Interview

August 5, 2025

The link to their blog post: https://huggingface.co/blog/welcome-openai-gpt-oss Link to their CEO's Venture Beat article: https://venturebeat.com/ai/why-open-source-ai-became-an-american-national-priority/ OpenAI put out GPT OSS, comprised of two open-weight reasoning models. Sam Altman had first teased the possibility of this earlier this year so its arrival was much anticipated. The reason for the open-source & open-weight push has been a massive America-first initiative to win the AI race against China. Clément Delangue, Hugging Face's CEO, discusses this in his article stating: "Open-source increases a country’s velocity in building AI. It fuels rapid experimentation, lowers barriers to entry and creates compounding innovation. When openness slows down, the entire ecosystem follows. If the U.S. falls behind in open-source today, it may find itself falling behind in AI altogether." Both are interesting reads together and explain the timing and importance of GPT OSS.

Uncapped - Jack Altman's Interview of Sam Altman

July 25, 2025

It isn't often you get to hear one insanely successfully person interview their insanely successful brother. I don't think Sam shares anything particularly new here but it is very entertaining to hear these two banter about the future of AI.

Surge AI - Interview with Harry Stebbings

July 21, 2025

$1 billion in revenue, 100 employees, and no outside funding. That is every founder’s dream. Edwin Chen may be running one of the most spectacular yet overlooked companies I have ever encountered. He keeps a low profile for good reason: he discovered a brilliant business model. Listening to Edwin, I found myself nodding along to almost everything he said. As a former founder, it is rare for me to hear someone describe their ethos and agree so completely. His focus on quality, the absence of 1:1s, and a commitment to profitability all resonate with me. I have already shared his podcast with founders who are just starting their journeys.

Ben Eater - How Semiconductors Work

July 18, 2025

Ben Eater has a series of youtube videos that explain, in depth, how semiconductors and transistors work. As I mentioned in my prior post, when I go deep, I really dig in :) His videos start with the basics and go all the way to building an eight bit computer, showing exactly how machines store, process, and output information. Mastering concepts at this small scale makes it easier to grasp how today’s processors, packed with billions of transistors, operate. His videos are not for casual viewing. They require focus and really processing the information. I suggest you start from his oldest youtubes and work your way forward. They are all incredibly rewarding.

Chip War - Chris Miller

July 15, 2025

When understanding any fundamental technology, including AI, I generally go down a deep rabbit hole to understand the foundations of the technology. For me, this meant the transistor level of how GPUs work. Chip War doesn’t go quite that deep, yet it still delivers a thorough overview of the semiconductor industry: Bell Labs’ invention of the transistor, Fairchild and Intel’s early processors, TSMC’s revolutionary foundry model, ASML’s EUV lithography breakthrough, and Nvidia’s ascent. Woven through the narrative are the shifting geopolitical dynamics between the US and China, and Taiwan's precarious position in between them. Overall, it is a riveting read and gives you enough of a history on chip development to better understand the dynamics playing out today.

Andrej Karpathy – Deep Dive into LLMs

July 12, 2025

I have to admit, I’ve watched all of Andrej Karpathy’s YouTube videos, usually immediately when they drop. He explains complex concepts with remarkable simplicity yet extreme depth — these are better than any college course on AI and LLMs. I’m linking to this particular video because it’s essential viewing for anyone interested in AI who wants to truly understand how LLMs work. I suggest exploring his entire YouTube catalog, especially “Let’s Build the GPT Tokenizer,” “Let’s Reproduce GPT‑2,” and the complete makemore series. Note, these aren’t quick watches. I had to focus intently, take notes, and occasionally re‑watch sections. However, they provide an unparalleled education in LLMs.

Sequoia AI Ascent – Jim Fan on Robotics

July 10, 2025

All of the Sequoia AI Ascent videos are incredible. Some are predictably excellent given the lineup (Sam Altman, Mike Krieger, Jeff Dean… the list goes on). However, one lecture embedded itself in the deep recesses of my brain: Jim Fan’s talk on robotics. Until watching this presentation, I hadn’t grasped how the lack of training data would impact robotics, and it got me thinking about the speed at which the industry will take off and what the key bottlenecks will be. It piqued my interest enough that I’m currently writing a detailed memo on the industry, which I’ll share once complete. Watch them all — they’re easy to throw on during a workout and incredibly thought‑provoking.

Acquired Podcast – Epic Systems (MyChart)

July 1, 2025

Like most people, I love the Acquired podcast. So much so that my husband and I made our first night out post‑baby an Acquired episode live taping. I found this episode particularly engaging as it explores the founding and growth of Epic Systems, the electronic medical‑records company behind MyChart. If you’ve ever been part of a large healthcare system, you’ve likely used their platform. What made this story so compelling was founder Judith Faulkner — from her engineering background to her decision to forgo outside capital while maintaining an unwavering focus on quality, she exemplifies the type of CEO I’d want to work for (and be!). I highly recommend this to any founder!

Mustafa Suleyman – The Coming Wave

June 25, 2025

The Coming Wave explores the risks and opportunities that AI presents. Mustafa Suleyman, co‑founder of DeepMind, argues that AI will be transformative across areas like synthetic biology, robotics, quantum computing, and energy. He draws parallels to past technological waves such as the agricultural and industrial revolutions, showing how these created massive economic gains while also bringing broader societal risks. Suleyman advocates for a containment strategy for AI, establishing guardrails to ensure the technology drives economic prosperity without falling into the hands of bad actors. While an interesting read, the book isn’t earth‑shattering — some sections can be dense, though the opening chapters are particularly engaging.