iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lesson 5: Genius doesn't generalize In an age of influencer marketing & interview podcasts, its important to remember what it takes to be brilliant at one thing comes at the expense of others TLDR: don't ask a gymbro for relationship advice or a VC about how to help the poor

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2020 was a hard year. I was unemployed w a young son & aging parents I couldn't see But it was also the year I built a telemedicine operation 0-to-1, built AI models which made it into academic papers, and did policy work which led to new friends & opptys Embrace the unlikely

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Lesson 3: There’s little upside in talking about politics Modern political discourse is about tribal outrage. It leads to bad policy and bad behavior. Disengage from the daily outrage cycle and focus on *policy*. It's boring, but that's a feature, not a bug

Lesson 1: Don't partner with someone until you've seen them in a crisis It’s easy to be open & giving when things are good. It's the bad times that reveal value & priorities. Before you enter a partnership (💰 or ❤), see how they handle a storm

Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 28/09/2025

How you know it's time to start thinking about selling...

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 27/08/2025

You are buying this shirt because you're a Swiftie I'm buying this shirt to protest the Chinese Communist party We are not the same 🤣

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 23/06/2025

Oldie but goodie in these times

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 22/06/2025

Apparently this is the stage of Big tech capitalism we're in now...

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 05/06/2025

Meanwhile, on the other app...

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 24/04/2025

No problem, I can totally build that for you

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 03/03/2025

Yes, importers benefit from having lower tariffs. But it doesn't mean the impact of tariffs on prices (makes them higher), on exporters (who want to avoid trade wars), and much of domestic manufacturing (makes it harder) is any less

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 03/03/2025

Yes, electrification benefits purveyors of green technologies. But it doesn't make climate change any less real, nor diminish the numerous other economic, resilience, and technology benefits that EVs, heat pumps, grid upgrades, and solar/wind bring

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 03/03/2025

Yes, pharma benefits from vaccine adoption and approval. But it doesn't make any vaccine approval any less valid nor the underlying fact that vaccination is one of the single greatest public health interventions in history.

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 15/02/2025

This was too good, I literally LOL'd x.com/MathMatize/s...

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 08/02/2025

Gents, this season, give the special woman in your life the gift that shows you truly value them

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 28/01/2025

While everyone else loses their mind on DeepSeek, allow me to present my unpopular hot take

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 23/01/2025

Just a reminder when you hear someone try to sound all fancy about their "priors"

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 13/01/2025

Great piece from veteran investor Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital on what makes a bubble and why "the Magnificent 7" have all the hallmarks of one. You don't have to agree with him but it's wisdom that's worth consuming www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/mem...

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 10/01/2025

Give your almost-three-year-old daughter a pen and she'll... DRAW ALL OVER YOUR FURNITURE AND WINDOWSILLS WITH IT 🤦🏻‍♂️

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 23/12/2024

While it won't win any design contests, it's made my experimentation much easier and I've enjoyed setting up fun conversations between LLM agents (ie. Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington [who beat him at Waterloo] pictured👇🏻, Professor X and Magneto, Python guy vs Javascript guy, etc.)

Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 23/12/2024

To tackle this, I built a... - Single HTML file (no build, no server) - Versatile (multiple LLMs to start) - Secure (API keys only go to LLM) - Easy to use (tabs for agents, editable message history) ...interface to experiment with multiple agents 5/

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 22/12/2024

Waymo Finance team: Team, our CAC (cost of customer acquisition) is really high. We gotta get it under control Waymo Growth team: Hold my beer, I have a genius idea to reach people in the Bay Area at lower CAC...

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 16/12/2024

My son and I have different definitions of "watching a model train"

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 15/12/2024

Nevermind apparently it does mean animal penis? So "divine penis wine" would not be completely off...

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 04/12/2024

1/12 🚨 Diagnostics save lives, but building a business around them is another story. Why do so many promising tests fail to achieve financial or clinical success? The problem isn’t bad science—it’s brutal math. Here’s what diagnostic innovators need to know: 🧵👇

Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 28/11/2024

So does this make Safeway mortal enemies of RFK Jr?

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 27/11/2024

I'm not afraid to admit I LOL'd pretty hard at this one

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 26/11/2024

Great point by Dwarkesh The US has housing shortage & has fallen behind on manufacturing -> US debt crises come from buyers taking on too much debt to buy inflated asset China has ghost cities & under-utilized factories -> China's debt crises come from insufficient income to cover builders' debts

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Benjamin Tseng @benjamintseng.com · 20/11/2024

Completely unnecessary to use my own domain, I know, but I kinda like it 😇

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So, in summary: 1. Get in the trenches with your team 2. Achieve and maintain tactical superiority 3. Move fast and stay on offense 4. Unconventional teams win 5. Pick bold, decisive battles If it's good enough for Napoleon... 19/

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Each of the great commanders exhibited this in their own way, but Hannibal crossing the Alps and Caesar crossing the Rubicon, and the chaos it caused for their enemies, are emblematic of the type of risky, bold bet that changes everything that startups should aspire to ⛰️🧗🏻 17/

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Ex: Napoleon Bonaparte famously of common descent made his Grande Armée "the career open to the talents" more of a meritocracy than ever before. The result was France was able to field some of the largest armies Europe had ever seen 14/

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Ex: The army of Central Asian conqueror Timur had soldiers of all nationalities. As a result, he could draw on Indian War Elephants, Mongol horse archers, Persian siege experts, and Ottoman gunpowder: this flexibility helped him defeat every major power in Central Asia 🌍⚔️ 13/

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Ex: The Mongol commander Subutai used his cavalry's superior speed and discipline to turn a failed attack on the Rus into a 9-day feigned retreat and decisive victory at Battle of Kalka River 🏇💨 10/

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Ex: Julius Caesar leaned heavily on military engineers to win battles. Outnumbered at the Battle of Alesia, he built 2 sets of walls, 1 to entrap the Gauls & 1 to defend against their reinforcements. Victory here ended Gallic resistance to Rome for centuries 7/

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Ex: Alexander the Great was famous for "leading from the front", oftentimes leaping first into even the most dangerous battles. While startups don't quite ask for that, it's the same concept as Elon Musk sleeping on the Tesla factory floor during "Model 3 production hell" 5/

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As an amateur military history fan, I looked at 9 commanders — from Alexander the Great to Napoleon Bonaparte — and I found 5 key principles that guided their victories which apply just as well to startup strategy and leadership 3/

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