Reposted by James ChamEugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 30/09/2026This project was a multi-year collaboration with Samuel Sokota, Hengyuan Hu, Zhiyuan Fan, Zico Kolter, and over which time we found numerous tricks that allowed us to succeed despite being limited to academic levels of compute. 2371
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 29/09/2026We used to ask whether the models were so capable that they could do better than markets. But now that we’re about to face a world of varied AI agents, the question is whether market design can manage the agents! 010
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 01/09/2026X is getting so good at its recommendations that I definitely like it puts me into a very specific bubble. 100
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 01/09/2026There’s a terrific @add-hawk.bsky.social paper meditating on how apparently competitive games can actually be exercises in cooperation. And it reminds me that I need to think more about explicitly cooperative games like Spirit Island. philpapers.org/archive/NGUC...philpapers.org 030
Reposted by James ChamC. Thi Nguyen @add-hawk.bsky.social · 11/03/2026I got to chat with Sam Anderson while I was writing, and he gave me the most important advice I got: which was to trust your reader, because they're smart, they're generous, and they want to be there. 192
Reposted by James ChamCharlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Engineer: The cup is twice as large as it needs to be to hold the correct fluid volume. 2218114
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Started reading it and thanks for the suggestion! There’s something delicious about the way that a well developed mystery is a sort of social puzzle. A 020
Reposted by James Chamtimkawakami.bsky.social @timkawakami.bsky.social · 01/08/2026Will @mattbarrows.bsky.social bark at me if I mention that we've got more than enough fodder to do one more 49ers Emergency Podcast (yes, that should've been the name of the show) later today? Answer: Yes, he will. 1191
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Still waiting for a reliable way for companies and government agencies to broadcast new information. Perhaps someone could create a Reliably Sourced Syndicator? 160
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 25/07/2026My favorite comic book quote, even more relevant right now! 020
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Very curious what @dsquareddigest.bsky.social thinks about the Atlantic piece on what ailed Britain... www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...theatlantic.comHow Britain Became as Poor as MississippiA case study in self-sabotage 120
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 12/06/2026There is value in being able to bear the stink of AI sheen to uncover actual insights. 130
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 09/06/2026Jasmine Sun has an interview with Labatut that seems be begging for at least a blog post by @beenwrekt.bsky.social if not a live conversation with him! youtu.be/C8rLRIhDS-Y?...youtu.beHow the AI age forgets to ask: "What for?" | Benjamín Labatut + Jasmine SunYouTube video by Sana 030
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 02/06/2026and here is the essay: adamwiggins.com/posts/a-blue...adamwiggins.comA Bluesky feed for one · Adam WigginsI built a custom feed for Bluesky that trains a model on my past interactions. Here's what I learned about RecSys and social media feeds generally. 010
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 02/06/2026There’s a fascinating essay by @adamwiggins.com about how he created his own custom built algorithmic feed bsky.app/profile/did:... 120
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Are WhatsApp groups are more powerful than political parties? From David Runciman: > ...the MPs talked about their WhatsApp group as their primary focus of loyalty...what the group could and couldn't bear, would the group move together...one of the things that is structuring loyalty in politics 010
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 10/05/2026The terrible moment you realize an episode of a favored podcast is actually an advertorial. 010
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 09/05/2026It is incredibly stupid that as a culture we have decided to make it difficult for businesspeople to keep honest diaries. 020
Reposted by James ChamDan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 06/05/2026Everyone's somebody's edge case! 021
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 06/05/2026Now this is an amazing story begging for a @dsquareddigest.bsky.social post: www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/would-it-m... 120
Reposted by James Chamkottke.org @kottke.org · 04/05/2026Every Frame a Painting's Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos seem to be regularly releasing their excellent video essays again (in partnership with Criterion). The latest installment is on The Visual Comedy of Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs. [kottke.org]kottke.orgThe Visual Comedy of Wes Anderson’s Isle of DogsI’m gonna call it: Every Frame a Painting, my all-time favorite YouTube channel, is back. Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos stopped producing their fantastic video essays back in 2017 and while they have popped up here an 0216
Reposted by James Chamvaughn @vaughn.bsky.social · 04/05/2026I wrote a strategic map of four types of AI business. One example of type 3: a developer built a bespoke court submission tool in a single afternoon, using no AI at runtime. Hours of manual work done in minutes. This is what AI has done to the economics of custom software. vaughntan.org/ai4waysvaughntan.org4 ways to build an AI business - Vaughn Tantl;dr: Most people use “AI business” to mean one of two things — building the AI itself, or building products that call AI at runtime. There are 041
Reposted by James ChamWilliam Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 26/04/2026joepernice.substack.com/p/reposting-... A song by Joe Pernice (Skud Mountain Boys) that directly contributed to my deciding to try to quit drinkingjoepernice.substack.comReposting "Lift Me Up" because MJ Lenderman And Waxahatchee Covered it live!!Holy cow! from the Scud Mountain Boys 1996 LP Massachusetts 1116817
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 25/04/2026We say we want liberty but sometimes we forget that others will act in their own self interest and make their own decisions 120
Reposted by James ChamEthan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 22/04/2026Every system that was regulated, either explicitly or implicitly, by the fact that they were effortful for humans (letters of recommendation, government filings, essays, or, as this paper finds, lawsuits) will break under a wave of AI. 19887219
Reposted by James ChamWilliam Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 24/04/2026Neuromuncher, that should be. Weekly podcast wherein I describe my favorite snacks and local snackeries. 851620131
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 17/04/2026Good point. I think we should make fun of that and look at least mildly disapprovingly… 000
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 16/04/2026But I think even if you say that the AI writes the newsletter, you‘ve got to take responsibility for it... 110
Reposted by James ChamDan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 15/04/2026I ask - why don't we have mental capacity measures for managers like we know the physical capacity of manual workers? backofmind.substack.com/p/the-most-i...backofmind.substack.comthe most important numberand why we won't get it 2134
Reposted by James Chamqntm @qntm.org · 08/04/2026Yes it is thematically appropriate to mute the word "antimemetics" 515315
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 10/04/2026Most of the problems that the pessimists point to are fixable. There are probably a few that are fundamental, but might be fixed by better design and management. At the same time, the actually transformative examples are few and fairly nuanced. I haven’t seen it scale past a dozen people yet. 010
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 10/04/2026I think it is possible, and it has definitely happened in a few places. But right now it usually slop and poorly thought through, haphazard processes. 110
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Tell me again what solutions Stafford Beer would have suggested for the current cybernetic info-flow nightmare we are in the middle of? (Looking at @dsquareddigest.bsky.social ...) 311
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 05/04/2026A fascinating example of how disastrously wrong the establishment can be: www.nytimes.com/1963/09/28/a... 020
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 31/03/2026human in the loop (interactive mode) vs human on the loop (manager mode) vs human out of the loop (escaping blame and avoiding responsibility for your LLM's actions mode) 140
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 30/03/2026Did I read Declare because of you? I have been trying to figure out how it ended up in my library. 100
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 30/03/2026Kind of like asking Michael Jordan for advice on succeeding at basketball! 000
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 27/03/2026AI gives us a chance to run a massive study to figure out which signals: - have quality because they have value vs. - have quality because they just seem scarce! 010
Reposted by James ChamHenry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 26/03/2026This is really very good and reminds me yet again of how we need to start pulling together an Actual Political Economy of AI. 59125
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 26/03/2026In my day to day work, there is a race between machine-generated vs voice-generated text. I hope voice typing wins! 030
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 25/03/2026remember that the most important VC is version control! 040
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 24/03/2026That’s a good point! I’m trying to imagine a niche social media platform that’s run by what used to be called mainstream media in which there are good reasons why individuals should be subscribers to media properties. 000
Reposted by James ChamRJ Andrews @infowetrust.com · 24/03/2026What media companies you've unsubscribed from is the real signal. 111
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 23/03/2026I would like a social network in which you had to show what media companies you subscribed to (and for how long). 120
James Cham @jamescham.bsky.social · 23/03/2026What folks say is almost as interesting as what they don’t say 010