Product builder @pollenlabs_ Keep it real & simple.
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Joined November 2009
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Chiali retweeted
We’re unironically humbled, honored and proud to announce 127 people backed us in @OctantApp's Epoch 13!
Turns out privacy requires B2B sales too.
Paraphrasing Eric Hughes, we must better sell people on privacy if we expect to have any.
Time to lock in on Umbra v2.
Onward.
We're humbled, honored and proud to announce that Umbra has been selected for @OctantApp's Epoch 13.
What has this taught us about B2B sales?
Nothing. We build open source privacy tools.
It's time to fund privacy.
Chiali retweeted
1. A student from Waterloo emailed me asking for advice
2. Replied
3. Got an AI-generated reply, very clearly templated
4. Looked back: the original email was probably AI-written
5. This is how you wreck cold email for everyone else, even from univesity domains
Dead internet
Chiali retweeted
Going live in a few minutes to talk privacy and @UmbraCash
Epoch 13 Project Intros | Paperweight, Hisoka Labs, and Umbra teapawt.org/i/broadcasts/1pJdRDdrO…
Chiali retweeted
I've been traveling the world a bit. One of the most incredible experiences was getting to visit Taiwan w/ @JensenHuang. It was wild 🤯.. huge crowds of engineers, insanely good street food at night markets, and of course a lot of good conversations across many days. I caught some of it on video, see below. Alright, that's it from me, love you all ❤️
Timestamps:
0:00 - Highlights
0:46 - Intro
3:25 - Computex: crowds, engineers, tech, future of AI
9:12 - Chat with Jensen: keynote prep & nerves
13:03 - Chat with Jensen: Taiwan's tech history
19:47 - Raohe night market
29:37 - Chat with Jensen: memories from childhood
33:44 - NVIDIA party
40:29 - Lunch: braised pig's feet
43:09 - Chat with Jensen: GPUs, AI, and competition
55:07 - Ningxia night market
1:10:14 - Taiwanese breakfast
1:29:54 - Outro
Chiali retweeted
As I posted before, I've cancelled almost all of the SaaS subscriptions for my business
The only thing I still pay for as a business:
- AI inference
- Hetzner server hosting
- Cloudflare storage
- Backblaze backups
- Taxes
Now I started cancelling personal subscriptions too and just vibecoding my own versions or using Claude to take an open source project that does the same and then customize it for myself
All I still pay for personally is:
- Claude Code
- YouTube (content)
- Spotify (content)
- Starlink (internet)
- Phone eSIM
- Personal cloud storage
- Electricity and water (utility)
- Taxes
So if we summarize it for both, I only still pay for:
- AI inference
- Content
- Cloud storage & hosting
- Connectivity
- Electricity & water
- Taxes
So to summarize all my money now goes to:
- Content
- Data centers
- Power plants + water
- Governments
I think we'll be facing a tidal wave of cancellations once people find out how much money they can save
It's just how the economy works
the fundamental basic economics misunderstanding that ppl have esp on here is that they think normal ppl need to use models to build their own software to be disrupted. they obviously don't & they obviously won’t.
but even if just 1% of the population can build software, that's enough to flood the entire supply side with millions of new products collapsing the cost to near zero.
you absolutely don't need universal adoption to destroy scarcity. you just need enough producers to overwhelm demand. you can feel this now already. i never pay for software because i just ask claude to point to something like a chrome extension or a mac app & it’s just there. at some point your agents will also auto update & maintain your software automatically too.
Chiali retweeted
Good design with AI is mostly noticing what's off.
I must have prompted Claude 60 or 70 times today and almost none of it was building new stuff.
I'm working on a side project, and Claude builds the pages and components fast, but the styles it creates aren't consistent with each other, so I spent most of the day fixing the small things that don't match.
None of these look like a big deal on their own, but together they make a product feel cheap, and people can pick up on it even if they can't tell you why.
Everyone has the same AI tools now, so people who know what good looks like can get there 10x faster than a year ago.
AI builds what you ask for, so you need to know what to ask for, and that comes from years of noticing when something's 2px off.
I'm happy to see this policy has been set by the leaders.
There were so many times that I replied to messages that were so well written, and I hesitated to point out whether the message was written by AI. It's very ok to use AI to enhance your own thinking and writing, but at least let the other parties know, so people know they are debating with AI, not a human.
Use AI responsibly.
Sign up for a free trial, review their software, and build one tailored to my needs with my agent.
Most SaaS now should position themselves as a tool, and it should be easily adaptable to users' needs at any time; basically, not just as generative ui, but as a generative core. Otherwise, game over.
Chiali retweeted
Spending too much time on X makes you think every company is running Claude, agents, MCPs and automating half the business.
Then you get on a client call and they’re still sending feedback over WhatsApp and emailing PDFs back and forth.
There is a huge gap between what feels normal in our bubble and what most businesses know is possible.
Learn the tools early, use them to make your agency better, then go sell to people outside the bubble.
Nation Design Studio is really cool; I can understand this is like a dream come true for all designers. But hey, we are Canadian; I think we can do things differently and not fall into the trap of being a copycat.
This is once again when people don't understand blockchain and what it empowers people to do.
Instead, focus on the very wrong point.
About 3 out of 5 websites I stumble upon per day are made with AI. As a sr. designer, I can quickly see the pattern; although I don't have proof, it's quite obvious.
There are also designers who leverage the power of AI to make designs very stunning.
In my best hope, please don't let AI slop design take over the digital culture we are all part of; everyone has this responsibility.
Chiali retweeted
DEAR CRYPTO, LETS SHOW THE WORLD WHAT WE ARE MADE OF. DONATE NOW.
The Nepal floods have been devastating, 5,083 people are still missing but the search is still on, and it needs your help. This morning, two workers were pulled out of a hydropower tunnel after nine days underground.
Imagine being their family yesterday, and now imagine being one of the thousands of families tonight who are still waiting.
Every drop counts, and you can help directly.
Nepalrelief.org
Now let me get a bit more personal, I wrote this in my journal last week:
“My country was ravaged by what can only be described as an apocalyptic flood meets earthquake meets tsunami. It feels very strange being so far from home. It’s hard to think of anything that can even compare in the slightest to what those who perished or witnessed the floods felt; because for that, there is NO precedent, there are no previous videos of such things happening, there are almost no warning signs. It just happened, on a quiet morning, suddenly gargantuan waves filled with tons of debris moving at 200mph overtook entire villages, toppled entire buildings..and, well you’ve seen the footage.
And all I can think of is WTF are we doing? My industry speaks of millions and billions in revenue and hundreds of thousands in paper profits; but the beauty of all of that is that it is powered by a global financial network; one that literally just works and can genuinely help the world.
I’m also sat here thinking who the FUCK cares about all the bullshit we argue about everyday?
Solana donated 160k through a channel made by Polygon, and it just worked. Chains battling pseudo religious battles while thousands have been entirely displaced feels so inconsequential.
We ask which chain will win, but we never ask what will the world win if one does? We conveniently say we are boosting economic freedom but what about when it matters most? Why not reframe progress from real world outcomes instead of charts? Why not become the #1 vessel for relief on any calamity in the world? Why are we simply optimizing to please tech narratives? What about impact we can give to the world TODAY?
We have everything it takes, we just need to do it.”
Well, this is an attempted answer to most of those questions:
Nepalrelief.org
Special thanks to @sandeepnailwal, @Mudit__Gupta, @Ronak0010, @DianaChimes, @vibhu, and countless others who have spent nights and weekends to help Nepal.
And a major h/t to @0xPolygon
Chiali retweeted
Revolut, a leading fintech with 80 million customers globally, is launching a Euro stablecoin on Ethereum.
Welcome to @Ethereum, EURR.
