My irregular newsletter on work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom. LinkedIn
Finally some vacations! I’m recovered from my scooter slide and back on the mats.
1. WORK: Robotics Sparta
2. HOW I AI: New Talk, New Apps, New Courses! (bis repetita)
3. CULTURE: Wes, Clint, Darren + Gym Shows
4. THOUGHTS: Murder, Karaoke, Sore Throat
The SOSV VC/Founder matchmaking event focused on robotics is ended with 640 participants (300+ investors).
We will be hosting several matchups in 2026 covering our favorite topics - we hosted 5 this year - likely Climate, Health, Physical AI and more. Sign up to our newsletter to get updates.
My journey into the world of #AI #coding. My goals are to learn, have fun, and remove friction in my life. ChatGPT called me an “applied explorer”. Not bad.
Btw, it’s Christmas, here is a free code for my Udemy course! It’s expiring in 4 days.
I passed 100 projects, and it’s accelerating:
Antigravity (AG) is the new agentic coding tool from Google and it’s fire! I know it wiped a guy’s hard drive but he prompted wrong ;p I can build things so fast with it now - it’s almost unfair to say I’m building, as I’m just giving it pretty short prompts and it does all I asked, and often goes beyond!
I also overcame the issue of deploying apps to the web by using Streamlit to create a web interface, and push the app from AG to Github then Streamlit Cloud. Now it sometimes takes me just 15 minutes from idea to deployment (for a basic prototype). I’m astonished. It’s almost like being in a giant mecha (not matcha).
Some recent examples:
AI Image Remaker > Possibly the most useless, but I came across a post on LinkedIn showing how to use a very detailed prompt to obtain a realistic image. That made me think: why bother writing the prompt? Let’s use AI to turn an existing image into a prompt, then use it to generate a new image. Why? Because we can ;)
Youtube Vibe Checker > Some videos have interesting discussions in the comments, but it’s tedious to read. I made an app that goes through the comments and summarize them. In the case of a discussion, it will do a vibe check on each speaker, and give an overall summary of the individual and discussion vibe.
Social Card Maker > I’m running another Investors/Startups virtual matchmaking event. To help with marketing I made a quick tool where participants can create a personalized badge to post on socials.
App Menu > I made an app to showcase some of my web apps here. Let me know if anything is broken.
I spoke in Lisbon on Dec 10 on “How I AI” at the Embrace:AI Meetup (free). I’ve done half a dozen AI talks over the past few months. Things are changing so fast that I update half my talk each time.
More and more roles require “AI proficiency” for all roles. Most people (and companies) have no idea how to upskill.
And… I designed my first B2B training for the executive team of an international real estate investment firm. Some called it - I quote - “the most interesting training they did in their careers”. I think there’s something there!
I adapted some aspects of the course to the IT and legal constraints, and noticed B2B is quite different from B2C: with B2C people are self-motivated and have both - quoting Taleb - skin and soul in the game. There, the level of engagement varied. Some did spectacularly well, some less so.
Discussions are progressing with several partners in France. The first short course is launching late February as a pilot. It will be 3 x 1 hour in French and suitable for non-coders. I might run an English version of this course as well. Leave your email here if you want to hear about future courses.
As an aside, the Udemy model — discount VOD courses — is great for Udemy and for students (I learned coding with them!), but not so much for instructors. My “live” courses made 5 times more money with 20 times less students. Also, it requires a lot of self-motivation, while — just like yoga classes or gym coaches — a live instructor guarantees compliance, understanding and results! You also learn a lot from the difficulties and projects of others.
Like many, I am concerned about AI’s impact on society. In particular: education is lagging badly behind technology. One notable entrepreneur in France - himself a medical doctor - said he would not recommend studying medicine now, as students would probably learn things that AI can do better already or very soon, and not focus on what humans can still do better than AI.
AI is making it possible to create software on the fly - create an app on demand, including “single use” or rebuild a codebase from scratch. It turns code into “palimpsests” (you saw it here first!). And anyone can create some (that’s what I’m teaching). What should a software business or software engineer look like in the future, then?
Another - widespread - thought, is that AI tools like ChatGPT will amplify our natural tendencies: curious people will learn much faster, while lazy ones will outsource their thinking. Just like “screen time” on youtube watching deep conversations is not the same as watching USDC ;)
Ambient SaaS. While not strictly AI-related, I wasn’t familiar with this concept until a SaaS founder mentioned it to me. The idea is that interfaces for services (e.g. websites and apps) can disappear in favor of bringing the service into existing apps like Email, Slack, etc. or wherever you need them.
My slides How I AI: Building 100 Projects at Embrace:AI
My slides “Vibe Coding with AI for Non-Coders” for the InnoWomen Hackathon
My video talk on AI automation at the Lisbon Vibe Coding Club
My slides on “Vibe Coding for VCs” at VC Platform EU
My Udemy course (4.5/5, 4,000+ students, 1.5 hours, in English)
My live B2C course (NPS > 60, 200+ students, 15 hours, in Portuguese)
My live B2C short course (coming in Feb, max 20 students, 3 hours, in French)
Menu for some of my apps
1917***
Two British soldiers in WWI have to deliver a message. Impressive one-shot cinematography, sets, acting. A bit gruesome as one would expect. Solid movie.
The Phoenician Scheme***
Finally watched (twice - I fell asleep on the plane) the latest Wes Anderson. A cute fairy tale with impeccable visuals.
Valerian** (Prime)
I had missed this space opera movie from Luc Besson and, while the cast and dialogues were fair at best, the visuals and creativity - inspired by the original French graphic novels - were gorgeous. Pretty good!
Juror #2** (Turkish Airlines)
Stumbled upon this Eastwood movie — I’m generally a good client — focused on the moral dilemma of a juror. Pretty good though not as great as Runaway Jury. Coincidentally, a colleague has been on jury duty for over 2 weeks - I wonder what the case is!
Stranger things Season 5***
After the good surprise of the first Season, I found Season 2-4 a bit boring and predictable. Will Eleven win with a nosebleed again? The new season is starting pretty well.
USDC*** (YouTube)
A few years ago this young Lithuanian aikido master decided to test his skills in a light MMA sparring and got crushed. He realized his aikido had never been “pressure-tested” (sorry, Steven Seagal). Later, he decided to create a channel to document his journey to try to modernize his art, then to become a better fighter (note: he gave up on aikido). On the way he created a show inviting a group of martial arts influencers in an “Ultimate Self-Defense Championship” (USDC) where contestants face all kinds of situations.
The production budget is minimal - largely crowdfunded - but he did a pretty good job and is now in his 3rd season. It’s quite educative, especially on situational awareness and de-escalation. It’s also a reality check in what self-defense can really do (it’s not Hollywood). I recommend it!
As a side note: some YT celebs do poorly because they never spar, or lack in either striking or grappling - I wondered a bit how I would perform with my haphazard background in BJJ (brown belt - 6+ years - this was the hardest), shorinji kempo (black belt - 3 years in Japan - they give it fast), hapkido (blue belt - 6 months in Korea, building on my kempo baggage), wushu (long stick - no belt system - 2 years light practice in China), karate (teenage orange - 2 years) and aikido (6 months at Sugino dojo in Japan - papa Sugino was the technical advisor on Kurozawa movies) - ChatGPT gave me a decent shot! The creator organizes a USDC retreat in Lithuania for normies to play - maybe one day ;p
Younger** (Netflix)
I did not expect to be in the target audience for this story about a 40yo divorced mom who pretends to be 26 to get a publishing job, but it’s quite a relaxing show after long days. Also, did this guy Darren Star write all of US TV for the past decades?
Boots** (Netflix)
A young not-so-athletic guy joins the army during DADT (iykyk). Based on a true story. Quite a lot if predictable, but still decent entertainment.
Final Draft (Japan)** (Netflix)
It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure to watch people go through a bunch of physical challenges while I’m on the couch, but this show was reasonably entertaining after some long days. Some really have astonishing endurance.
The few women participating did not do so well including in agility challenges so from a training perspective, I asked ChatGPT what were the sports in which women would perform well against well at elite level against men. The list was short: ultra-endurance (100km+), horse-riding, sailing, shooting and archery — sports where performance was mediated by a device, an animal, or where women could tap into deep endurance metabolism. Biology matters for everyone: Khabib, Pacquiao and McGregor would have almost no chance against a skilled (but not world class) heavyweight fighter. I am constantly reminded of this in BJJ (like this 110kg, 35yo black belt yesterday… my goal was “survival”). Unless I outclass them technically by a wide margin my chances are minimal. The fun is to be on the mats, and face every challenge the best we can.
Makers on YouTube
Youtube has tons of channels about everything. There are a few notable ones by “makers / engineers”.
Mark Rober (now also on Netflix) is probably one of the most visible.
While I respect the educational and entertaining aspect of Rober’s work, I find the ex-Formlabs guy from Stuff Made Here much more impressive technically.
I also came across a team of Chinese robotics guys called HTX Studio - even more impressive thanks to their team firepower.
Chess principles
I’m a casual at chess (peaked around 1800 on Lichess - no patience and time to work on openings, in particular). I came across this video about 5 simple principles from Capablanca. I haven’t tested them, but found them remarkable as they reminded me of the simulation of bird swarms “boids” (also works for fish schools), which also derive from very basic principles. If you’re into engineering, similar ideas are used in the design of this and that. Oh and there is this funny free game that has nothing to do with this. Beware: it’s potentially addictive, and teaches you about risk/reward and the importance of a talent pipeline.
The Art of Spending Money**
Morgan Housel wrote “The Psychology of Money”, which I recommend. This one feels much less necessary, though it helps you think about what makes sense beyond emotion, envy and more.
From heavy to light.
A young guy I used to train with at BJJ and his father were killed by a shady business partner. It made national news in Portugal. I went to the wake and it made quite an impression on me as I’ve never really lived in a place where violent deaths were a thing, nor known people dying so young. I told his brother that everyone like to train with the guy, and that he had unlimited energy and enthusiasm. He replied that his brother was often talking about his training and friends from the gym, and that it brought him joy.
Different vibe: I joined a Japanese end-of-the-year party, forgetting they often double as talent show. This one had taiko drums, a virtual drummer, medieval sword fighting and more. It of course ended up in karaoke - I gave a shot at Pilantra, a Brazilian song, to the audience’s surprise (and mine).
For decades I heard that with a sore throat it’s good to have a hot drink, sometimes with honey. But then Strepsils(tm) have honey, and honey is a natural antiseptic. And it finally clicked: the hot water is a vector to deliver the honey, which covers, soothes and fights the infection. You could just as well eat a spoonful of honey without the hot water. If you have hot black tea with no honey, it can actually have the opposite effect!
Stay tuned for the end-of-the-year special recap!
Keep vibin’
— Ben
