@benroy

I write about technology, culture & markets

benroy.substack.com/
Joined September 2019
  • Tweets33.7K
  • Following1.7K
  • Followers20.2K
3.5KMedia
If you’re looking for stuff to read, here’s my personal canon

My Favorite 93 Books & Essays

Last week, as part of a fall clean up blitz, I went through both of my bookshelves (and every single book that I own) to see what was worth keeping vs. donating vs. throwing out, and part way through …

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New post on social media algorithms (and how to fix them)

Programmable Gravity

I spent a few months mostly offline writing a book this year, and in coming back online this fall I’ve been struck by how insanely powerful algorithms are and how deeply they impact my life. This is…

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A theory on what happens to software in a world of god-tier AI

Community Software

I have a question about the future of software.

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A short essay on how group chats run the world

The Group Chat Theory of Everything

The group chat theory of everything is the idea that group chats are a new social unit alongside the individual, family, city, and country and their existence (and coordination power) has implications…

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A personal essay about how we think as humans and how AI agents are changing that

Demigods in Our Pockets

Through the summer, I spent an hour every day walking around my neighborhood talking to myself like I was insane: headphones plugged in, waving my hands around like I was having a conversation with a …

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NEW post on startups & angel investing All my fumbles, some lessons, a few funny stories + everything that I've learned along the way

Treasure Hunting

OR: Notes on investing in 20 startups

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Riff: I built a writing plugin for Claude

Over the past month, I built a plugin for Claude to help with the process of writing essays. It's called Riff, and it's now on version 2.4.8. For folks who are unfamiliar, plugins are basically mini e…

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No One Else Can Speak the Words on Your Lips

Reflections on writing, LLMs, the human spirit, creativity, and what makes us unique in a world of elite AI

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A Mini Map of Modern Media

I talked to 3 friends over the holidays about a model I have in my head for classifying all the media I consume because I’m that kind of nerd, and I want to share it because I think it’s useful fo…

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Notes on Internet Addiction

I grew up on the internet, and I love it, but something broke in me during the COVID era and its aftermath. I worked remotely in the crypto industry for 5 years, spent all my spare time on Twitter, an…

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Quarterly thoughts on crypto, life & markets

TLDR: a couple months of thinking in a few minutes.

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My Worldview in 56 Quotes

I like to collect quotes. I have a decade worth of them sorted into files from different books, articles, movies, music, and other random places. It's a fun way to keep track of what I found cool or w…

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