The Work Runs Ahead of the Title
Titles trail the work. Read the scope a person ran, who checked it and who promoted them. For an investor: recognition from people with nothing to gain is the best evidence.
Where the Wall Is
Faster hardware moved the wall of what computers can solve by a handful of steps. Mathematical shortcuts moved it far more, and they hold until physics shows up. For an investor: ask what the shortcut assumes.
Nothing Is Alone
The point of a good education is not the fields. It is the connections between them. A hard-science degree makes the liberal arts argument, and an investor can use it.
Cold and Heavy: Why a Shipyard Town Could Hold an AI Data Center
An AI rack weighs about 3,000 pounds and draws about 120 kilowatts. Most data centers can't hold one. A cold place with heavy floors and power can, and a shipyard town may be one.
Who Buys the Company
Most startups do not end at an IPO; about 94 percent of exits are acquisitions. For investors: who can afford to buy, why the largest private companies have no buyer, and why control decides who can say no.
A House Divided: Six Fans, Six Teams, and What My Sundays Taught Me About a Country Coming Apart.
One roof, six football fans, six teams — and the two nastiest rivalries in the sport, Steelers–Ravens and Eagles–Cowboys, both living here. "A house divided" is Lincoln's line, and he meant it as a warning. What my Sundays have taught me is which kind of division a house can survive, and which kind it can't.
Bell Labs Was Filed Under "National Lab." Three Tribal Governments Were Filed Under "Nonprofit." Getting a Database Right Is the Same Problem as Getting a Country Right.
A flavorings company filed under "AI Application" led to a full audit of Oluwadi's own 11,839-company database -- corporate research labs mistaken for government facilities, tribal governments read as advocacy nonprofits, entire universities crushed into one department, and an honest account of what still isn't fixed.
Three Apps in Three Months: What Building With AI Actually Looks Like
The dominant narrative about AI and developers is replacement. That's not the only real experience out there. A 40-year developer's own account of shipping three real, working apps in three months -- and why the actual mechanism wasn't speed for its own sake, it was iteration.
Open Data Isn't the Same as Usable Data
BLM, EIA, and FRED are all real federal data sources, integrated the same afternoon -- a silently-null field, a row that splits five ways without warning, and one that just worked. None of it was documented anywhere. All of it required checking, not trusting.