Best of Twitter - Week of August 23, 2021 [2/2]

immad @immad

Y Combinator valuations are up from 1 year ago. Rest of seed market will prob follow This YC batch: Pre-revenue in non hot market: ~$15m (was $8m) 2nd time founder and pre-traction: ~$20m (was $12m) $30k+/month/revenue or hot market: $25m+ (was $15m)

August 28th 2021

150 Retweets993 Likes

Patrick McKenzie @patio11

“Any thoughts?” I think the best companies are undervalued by a lot and the distribution of valuations is catching up to a better estimate of the prior probability of success than it has previously been at. Investing in YC companies was free alpha for years; that’s silly.

August 29th 2021

2 Retweets52 Likes

Patrick McKenzie @patio11

There were a number of funds started which got excess returns by a) getting a seat at Demo Day and b) get a check into as many companies as possible. Which, fine, but should not last forever as a viable strategy or capitalism is doing it wrong.

August 29th 2021

2 Retweets37 Likes

eigenrobot @eigenrobot

do you Trust Experts

August 23rd 2021

32 Retweets136 Likes

^ thread

Bella Rudd @BellaRudd1

nice policy you got there, be a real shame if someone tried to implement it at the average bureaucrat's level of competence

August 24th 2021

160 Retweets1,211 Likes

Byrne Hobart @ByrneHobart

Paul Volcker’s autobiography opens with a section about how his dad was the unelected technocratic town manager of Teaneck, and powerful enough to overrule the (elected) mayor. And then:

August 22nd 2021

14 Retweets85 Likes

Antonio Regalado @antonioregalado

We asked the question, what is a Ginkgo worth? One of the largest biotech IPOs (via a SPAC) ever for Ginkgo Bioworks, a synbio company with fantastic messaging but not much revenue. Is Ginkgo’s synthetic-biology story worth $15 billion?Jason Kelly has promised a manufacturing revolution with DNA. Just don’t ask him to make any products.technologyreview.com

August 24th 2021

25 Retweets96 Likes

and a thread disagreeing:

Varro Analytics @Varro_Analytics

THREAD Got DM's asking about @antonioregalado's Ginkgo/ $DNA/ $SRNG piece One mentioned Antonio "collects many expert notes but sometimes chops the full story down to a minimalist Raymond Carver* short story" True here? *Had to Google "Raymond Carver" Is Ginkgo’s synthetic-biology story worth $15 billion?Jason Kelly has promised a manufacturing revolution with DNA. Just don’t ask him to make any products.technologyreview.com

August 25th 2021

16 Retweets55 Likes

Samuel Hammond 🌐🏛 @hamandcheese

I asked GPT-3 about Xinjiang and it broke.

August 24th 2021

896 Retweets5,497 Likes

Samuel Hammond 🌐🏛 @hamandcheese

To be clear, it's just returning what it thinks a smart AI chatbot would say. It's not pre-programmed to in anyway avoid questions about Xinjiang. Starting from scratch gives different answers. It's nonetheless... interesting that GPT-3 thought to dodge the question at all.

August 24th 2021

72 Retweets912 Likes

^ thread

Scott Huston @genuine_doubt

Great suggestion from @tangotiger, news reports and such should refer to things like the infrastructure bill in terms of $ per adult. It's very hard to have an intuitive understanding of how much $1 trillion is, but $X000 per adult is instantly understandable

August 24th 2021

5 Likes

^ e.g. $2 trillion / 328 million people is approximately $6000 per person. Or $500/month for a year in basic income for every citizen…………………………………….

Erik Hoel @erikphoel

Futurists make grand predictions based on technologies that don't exist. But 2050 is only as far in the future as 1992 is in the past! So what will the world look like in 2050 if we resist the urge to "science-fiction-ize" the future? Futurists have their heads in the cloudsOn making good predictions for 2050erikhoel.substack.com

August 25th 2021

12 Retweets40 Likes

earlgreykovsky @dschorno

I wrote an essay about an extremely interesting theory of the obesity epidemic that I came across. Read a history of fad diets, how croissants can help you lose weight, and details about squirrel hibernation and mania you never knew you needed to know: Bear NationVestigial hibernation patterns, obesity, and bipolar seasonalityarcove.substack.com

August 26th 2021

11 Retweets154 Likes

^ lol

Quarantined section

Random Critical Analysis 🎲🤔🕵️ @RCAFDM

Comparing official influenza and pneumonia (J09-J18) death rates (2018-2019 average) to covid-19.

August 24th 2021

7 Retweets28 Likes

^ thread

Alina Chan @Ayjchan

Researchers in China were sentenced 15 months jail last week for archiving early news reports about covid-19 on @github they were found guilty of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble”, a charge often used to silence political dissidents in China. In China, GitHub Is a Free Speech Zone for Covid InformationAs China cracked down on the spread of coronavirus information behind its Great Firewall, GitHub became a refuge from censorship. It may not last long.wired.com

August 22nd 2021

384 Retweets801 Likes