iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 2h

My new Turing test is to ask an LLM to come up with a portmanteau. They are genuinely bad at it

Reposted by Jerry Neumann

Q McCallum @qethanm.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

(Coda: @ganeumann.bsky.social 's post was a timely one. A segment in the next newsletter briefly mentions the theatrics of the genAI scene. There's still time to subscribe before it lands -- either later this week or early next: newsletter.complex-machinery.com )

newsletter.complex-machinery.com

Complex Machinery

Welcome to Complex Machinery, a newsletter about the intersection of AI and risk. It occasionally dips into related matters like complexity, business models, emerging tech, and marketplaces. (While th...

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It's probably worthwhile to not just reject their chosen framing, but point out that they are no more the role they have chosen than some superhero actor is a superhero; that it is, in fact, just theater

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The problem is, even if it's theater, do they know they're playing a part? Jobs probably never thought of himself as anything other than a rebel, even when he was running a huge corporation with an iron fist

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is an investable archetype, obviously, and also one that can attract employees and business partners, so perfectly functional on its own terms

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The only answer I can think of is that they are trying to project the image of themselves as being the only ones we can trust to rule the world

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

So the question is, what are the AI labs telling us about their identity by meeting with religious leaders, worrying about AI doom (while doing nothing particularly about it) and the like? What is the identity they are trying to project?

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Knowing is always more comforting than not-knowing. Even if what you know isn't especially comforting on its face. Mike Markulla used to chide Jobs for not showering, but he still invested in and worked for Jobs

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This was mainly theater, but customers, employees, and financiers could use this archetype to convince themselves they knew how the startups would act

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

So, for instance, founders during the early personal computer boom projected themselves as rebels who were going to upend corporate and government control of computing

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Founders frame their identities inside this ambiguity to project behavior watchers will understand, allowing the watchers to believe they can predict how those founders will act in the future

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

There are many ways businesses overcome this particular liability of newness. One way is by telling stories that communicate what they think they are building. These stories are usually purposely ambiguous

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Every new industry must create its own legitimacy in the eyes of not only economic partners but of society because they have not been around long enough that counterparties can act based on evidence or reputation, they need to trust

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The interesting question isn't what the recent statements and actions reveal about what AI business leaders think, but what these actions are trying to make *us* think

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I've been doing this backwards the whole time. Was I supposed to get the secret non-fiction writer's memo during orientation

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I was going to on this one, but then figured they didn't write it, so they aren't going to learn anything. Generally, I decided that if they didn't even look at my site and see that I'm no longer investing, they don't really need a reply at all

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I don't invest early-stage anymore, but I'm still on some email lists that founders buy so I get pitches every day, flattering me for something I wrote but getting the lesson wrong. I'm pretty sure they're AI-generated, which is bad, but, if not, you have poor reading comprehension, also bad

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Thanks! Now I have to find my copy of conjectures and refutations :D

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Thanks! I left my university position a year ago and they just recently remembered to sever my library access, so I had to dig up a samizdat copy (link for reference) colala.berkeley.edu/papers/fedor...

colala.berkeley.edu

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I'd love to go down this rabbit hole...can you recommend anything to read?

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Out of curiousity I just put an essay I wrote through an AI detector. I don't use AI to write. It told me I used some patterns AI commonly uses. Then it said that these patterns are also common in "good analytical writing." Kind of a back-handed compliment at that point.

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Reposted by Jerry Neumann

Rohit @strangeloopcanon.com · 27/08/2026

Ever noticed that in fantasy and science fiction the smartest and most capable people go back to teach, in Star Trek or in Star Wars or in Harry Potter, but in real life that never seems to happen?

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Reposted by Jerry Neumann

Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Oh look the NYT is ON IT with an interactive explainer of sidewalk markings! www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/a... Apropos of nothing in particular, you can preorder the *third* revised edition of @lifewinning.com's NETWORKS OF NEW YORK, here. networksofny2026.bigcartel.com/product/netw...

networksofny2026.bigcartel.com

Networks of New York, 2026 Edition (PRE-ORDER)

SHIPPING SEPTEMBER 2026! Networks of New York is a book by me, Ingrid Burrington. It helps readers identify indicators of physical internet and telecommunications infrastructure in New York City. Usin...

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I don't think the readers want shallow books. But the curation mechanism for what gets published rewards the wrong thing. People used to learn about books from expert reviewers, knowing the author because of magazine or op-ed think pieces, etc. That's all pretty much gone and we need a replacement

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Same. The problem is that publishers expect you to show up with an audience ready to buy the book. For most people, a big enough audience means a media presence, and probably social media. That kind of audience is used to short-attention-span writing, so publishers end up with writers good at that

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Or, you know, "Keep busy til I get back, ya slackers."

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Well, true, there's a deeper problem with taking it literally than just which exact words you're using 😂

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Agree. Jesus told a story (Luke 12 and on) where he says "Occupy till I come." That's the King James. A better translation would be "Occupy yourselves until I return", it's closer to the original text

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

It's an interesting question, taking the bible literally, when you're reading a translation that uses words differently than you do. Like, I could raise my kids to think "meek" is our family name

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Some tell the tale of the ghost truck, ferrying packages back and forth in the rain...forever

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

OK, so this is truly crazy. I ordered something a month ago and it has, since then, been being shuttled back and forth between Bend and Portland, Oregon. FOR A MONTH

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Reposted by Jerry Neumann

Jeffrey Lin @jeffrlin.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

We develop a spatial competition model to explain spreading out: inventors ("you", below) choose locations in idea space. As the frontier expands and entry costs rise, they spread out — capturing larger territories, raising R&D investment and invention quality even as knowledge spillovers attenuate.

Diagram showing circular idea space and location of inventor ("you")

Diagram showing how innovation expands the frontier

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

I feel this viscerally, but otoh, it's the same with most technologies. Very few people have any idea how their car works, for instance, or their refrigerator or their plumbing, etc.

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

An infinite recursion glitch in the Oregon postal system

A USPS package tracking readout that shows the package being sent back and forth several times between Bend OR and Portland OR

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

And before chain belts were gentrified

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Reposted by Jerry Neumann

Jms Dnns @jmsdnns.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

I keep coming back to this post by @ganeumann.bsky.social > Fifteen years before the microprocessor, another revolutionary idea, shipping containerization, arrived at a less propitious time, when technological advancement was a Red Queen’s race colossus.com/article/ai-w...

colossus.com

AI Will Not Make You Rich

The disruption is real. It's also predictable.

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Om was the first big blogger to notice my writing online. He gave me the break that let me develop my own readership. And he did it by noticing a piece that wasn't about tech or innovation, but a personal essay about bouncing back from failure. He was just a good person om.co/2026/06/24/1...

om.co

Om Malik, 1966-2026

Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, at Stanford Hospital after a long health journey with his heart. He was surrounded by family and friends. We invite you to share your remembrances of Om in th…

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

In thirty years, through good times and bad, I have never seen that. Are they an actual fund? Or bankers pretending to be VCs?

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I've read about it, but haven't read it. I will put it in the queue

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I could never afford the cams until I was too busy to use them :)

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Jerry Neumann @ganeumann.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Queued up: - Power and Progress by Acemoglu (audiobook because it seems a little less dense) - README by McCray - The New China Playbook (I recently read Apple in China and was told this is much better) Oh, I also just listened to Skunk Works, and that was super-fun

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