#74 | AI or Die, HBO Silicon Valley 10y Later, Big Animals and more

Benjamin Joffe

May 21, 2025

My irregular newsletter on work and play. Unsubscribe at the bottom. LinkedIn

Keeping up the tempo - as a few things are happening.

1. WORK

VC/Founders Virtual Matchmaking

The SOSV Biomanufacturing event ended with 800 participants (about 50% investors) and a NPS of 44. Some new tools we introduced (and vibe coded) helped.
Next events are focused on Health (June) and Climate. Pre-register here.

2. VIBE CODING

Quite a lot happened since the launch of my Vibe Coding Bootcamp on Udemy 2 months ago (the very first one published there):

Over 2,000 students.
Selected into the “Udemy Business” catalog.
Received requests and in talks to license the course for trainings!

The feedback also helped me realize a few things:

Setup can be difficult. Cursor and Google Colab might be better than VS Code.
Vibe Coding can get you fired. Some firms don’t like you to run unverified code.
Vibe Coding has limits. Great for prototyping and personal apps. Not enough (yet) for public apps that require reliability, security and performance.

More than ever, I am convinced that vibe coding is the fastest, most useful (and most fun) skill unlock of the decade. Try it out here!

3. CULTURE

SHOWS

Silicon Valley**** (HBO)
It’s been 10 years! It is fun to rewatch it now that I’ve spent a decade in the world of VC and startups. Most of it is still relevant - a crash course in startup life with lots of gems. I also have a renewed appreciation for some of the characters (Jared/Donald in particular). Several actors are standup comics!

Legally Blonde *
Apparently I suffered from a cultural gap. This was the first opus of a canon I was supposed to watch. Not being the target audience made the first half especially difficult — lots of cringe.

Mean Girls**
More tolerable. Still not the target market. Wish me luck for the third one! (will you guess?)

VR GAMES

Tiny Archers VR***
You’re an elf shooting at goblins attacking your tower. What’s not to love?

PowerWash Simulator***
I only played the trial version, but a thorough power wash can indeed be very satisfying. See this guy on YouTube.

MATHS

Over 3 decades ago I was taking advanced math classes to prep for engineering school. I recall there was one little exercise I could not solve, with an interesting unstable solution to an iterated series. I couldn’t recall the details so I finally asked ChatGPT, who quickly helped narrow down the problem, then solve it! If you’re versed in the arts:

f(x) = 2 . sin(pi . x)
The only fixed points are 0 and x* = 2 . sin (pi . x*) (±0.72)
| f’(0) | and | f’(x*) | > 1 so they are repelling fixed points.
It also has ergodic behavior and values explore the whole space.

BIG ANIMALS

Can a bird carry a coconut? A baby?

The strongest bird out there — the harpy eagle — can carry max 5kg (about half their body weight of 10kg), roughly the weight of a 3-months-old baby.
The heaviest insect is only about 100g.
The heaviest land mammal is the African bush elephant (±10t) and sea mammal is the Antarctic blue whale (max 190 tons).

4. EXPERIENCES

Blackout Part 2

I talked about my Lisbon 10-hour blackout experience in the previous email. I forgot to mention the type of concerns I had:

How long will the water from the tap/shower be usable? It needs treatment.
How will hospitals do after a few hours? Their generators will likely last only a day.
How long will transports work? Gas stations are out so people only have 1 tank of gas.

Scams

Thanks to my reader A. who shared a "six zeros" scam story!

It’s a fairly elaborate scammer pretending to be an investment firm offering an investment in the form of a convertible loan (Safe) to a startup at a high valuation.
They asked to put the first year's note interests in an escrow stablecoin wallet, for “guarantee”.
The US-based startup founder went to meet in person in Europe, had all the paperwork in order reviewed by lawyers, etc.
The money was gone within minutes. Now it's a criminal case. As often: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. But… dayam!

Any seven zero scam?

Business Dishonesty

After scams, a few other tricks I came across:

This guy spied on his tech employer for their competitor for 5kEUR / month.
Looking at some online courses, some creators had many thousands of students but only a handful of reviews… Free passive users to boost optics.
A friend discovered his YouTube channel had systematic downvotes, and found out their competitor used “capping bots” to do it, and game the algorithm.

Play fair!

5. THOUGHTS

AI or Die

I came across a video of a pulmonologist looking at an X-ray who said he spent 20 years honing his craft and now AI does it in seconds. That’s an example of a high-skill profession made irrelevant.
On that note, the first decade of my life was in market research and consulting. It is a peculiar feeling to think that I spent a decade doing work that AI can now probably do in minutes. I suppose those skills apply elsewhere, but still…
The CEO of Duolingo said AI teaches better than humans (but schools will remain because people need daycare).
Entry-level tech job offers have seen a big drop in numbers. Is the on-ramp disappearing?
In academia a famous phrase is “publish or perish”, which MIT Media Lab then evolved into “Demo or Die” then “Deploy or Die”. I think ignoring AI today is like putting one’s head in the sand - like refusing to see doctors because one doesn’t want to know. It is quite clear that some jobs will disappear, and others will require AI literacy. It is not really AI or Die yet, but the writing is on the wall. The best way to start? You guessed it: vibe coding ;)

Over and out.
— Ben

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