AI Forces a Moral Reboot. The emergence of superintelligence renders our current societal goals dangerously obsolete. Survival must become the new prime directive.
Existence is a Team Sport. The "Don't Die" philosophy is a collective mission ("we don't die") to ensure species-wide survival, not a selfish quest for individual immortality.
Prepare for the Biological Sandbox. Humanity is moving from manipulating physical atoms and digital bits to programming our own biology—a frontier with both unimaginable potential and catastrophic risk.
US Leads in Capital-Intensive Frontier AI; China Excels at Industrial Diffusion. The US leverages deep capital markets for its massive compute buildout and AGI research, while China uses state direction to embed AI into its vast industrial base via open-source models and hardware.
Market Structure Dictates AI Strategy. The US "efficient oligopoly" model prioritizes global dominance and profit reinvestment by a few players. China's "subjugated swarm" model creates intense domestic competition, driving down prices and accelerating adoption at the cost of profitability.
Geopolitical Tension May Be a Necessary Stabilizer. The competition between the US's freedom-oriented, frontier-pushing approach and China's stability-focused, diffusion-driven model creates a complementary tension that could be essential for navigating the "narrow corridor" between AI-driven totalitarianism and uncontrollable chaos.
Development timelines are collapsing from months to days. AI allows developers to swap entire asset libraries or generate new game concepts at unprecedented speed, turning a two-month art project into a day's work.
The lifespan of any single game is shrinking. Prepare for a world of disposable entertainment. As AI floods the market with content, the strategy will pivot from creating one long-lasting hit to deploying a rapid succession of engaging experiences.
Games are the next evolution of the attention economy. Just as memes became a core tool for community-building around tokens, easily created games will be the next engine for capturing and directing user attention in a hyper-competitive digital world.
Word-of-mouth isn't a feature; it's the engine. Before spending a dime on marketing, obsess over the first 30 seconds of the user experience until people can't help but share it.
Being different is better than being better. Don't build incrementally better slideware. Redefine the core primitives of your category, as Gamma did by moving beyond the 16x9 slide.
Hire painfully slowly to protect your DNA. Resisting the temptation to scale headcount with user growth is a superpower. The goal isn't to hit a hiring target; it's to hire the best people.
Adopt a Stock Picker's Mentality. The crypto market is no longer a monolith where a rising tide lifts all boats. Focus on assets with real products, user growth, and cash flow, as the gap between winners and losers will only widen.
Shorting is a Tactical Assault, Not a Siege. Don't "invest" in a short. The only viable short strategies are tactical, targeting specific events like VC unlocks or news-driven spikes. Otherwise, even "total scams" can 5x against you.
Cultivate a Goldfish's Memory. The most critical trading skill is learning how to change your mind. Cut losing trades, forget the loss (but remember the lesson), and redeploy capital without emotional baggage. Stubbornness is a portfolio killer.
AGI Is a Definitional Debate. Progress toward an AI that can replace a remote worker is happening fast. However, achieving "true" human-like learning efficiency may require an entirely new paradigm beyond scaling current LLMs.
The New Creator Economy Is Code. AI is turning software development into a mainstream creative pursuit, empowering a new class of solo entrepreneurs who can build what previously required entire teams.
Incumbents Learned Their Lesson. Unlike past tech shifts, today's giants are aggressively adopting AI, making it both a sustaining *and* disruptive force. The market is large enough for both incumbents and startups to create massive value.
Build the Tools, Not Just the House: CZI’s greatest leverage comes from creating open-source tools and datasets. By building the fundamental infrastructure, they empower the entire scientific community—from academic labs to startups—to accelerate discovery.
Data Is the New Microscope: The future of biology hinges on a tight feedback loop between generating novel, purpose-built datasets and training domain-specific AI models on them. This synergy is unlocking insights that were previously impossible.
Virtual Biology Is the Next Frontier: Simulating biology computationally with "virtual cells" will become the new standard for research, enabling scientists to test riskier hypotheses faster and cheaper, dramatically compressing the timeline for major breakthroughs.
The Interface is the Bottleneck. Today's chatbots are the MS-DOS of AI. The next trillion dollars of value will be unlocked not by the models themselves, but by the new "Windows/Mac OS" interface that makes AI accessible and useful for everyone.
Every Creator Will Build Software. The distinction between a content creator and a software developer is collapsing. The next platforms will empower anyone to build mini-apps, turning software into a new medium for community, expression, and monetization.
Ditch the Voice-Only Dream. The Her-inspired fantasy of a screenless, voice-only AI future is a dead end. The winning AI device will be screen-first, built around an AI-native OS that makes software deeply personal and context-aware.
**Structure Dictates Speed:** A flat hierarchy with small, autonomous teams is the key to maintaining startup velocity at scale. Extreme ownership is the goal; traditional corporate structures are the enemy.
**Align Incentives, Explicitly:** As a company matures, passion gives way to process. In sales, commissions become a lagging indicator of strategy. Ensure incentive structures explicitly reward strategic decisions, not just closing any deal.
**Balance Ambition with Delivery:** Don't let the quest for a perfect, research-led solution kill your product momentum. Implement clear rules to decide when to ship a practical fix now and when to wait for the scientific breakthrough.
Enterprise blockchains are making a comeback by embracing crypto, not avoiding it, marking a significant shift from the failed attempts of 2018.
The success of corporate chains hinges on strategic focus, prioritizing ecosystems and BD, over trying to dominate the entire value chain, as too much control can stifle innovation.
Public, permissionless blockchains must remain relevant by continually finding product-market fit in emerging segments to maintain their monetary premium amid increasing competition from verticalized corporate chains.
**ICOs are evolving:** The return of ICOs marks a shift from hype-driven raises to more sustainable models focused on established projects and fair price discovery.
**Ethereum is primed for capital formation:** With its stablecoin liquidity, auction mechanisms, and tokenization narrative, Ethereum is positioned to become a central hub for internet capital markets.
**Regulatory clarity is crucial:** The industry must continue to pursue regulatory clarity to foster innovation and attract institutional investment in tokenized assets.
Embrace Futarchy: Explore and implement market-driven governance mechanisms to enhance decision-making in decentralized organizations, reducing reliance on traditional, potentially biased, governance models.
Prioritize Investor Protection: Adopt capital formation models, such as MetaDAO's, that offer robust investor protections through market-based checks and balances, mitigating risks associated with centralized control and poorly informed token allocation.
Prepare for Crypto-Native Solutions: Build cryptonative primitives that can compete with traditional financial systems. This can prevent tradFi from dominating the blockchain space.
**Regulation is inevitable:** Crypto's foray into traditional financial activities necessitates regulatory oversight to protect investors and maintain market integrity.
**Compliance is key:** Crypto firms seeking legitimacy and long-term sustainability must prioritize regulatory compliance and address inherent conflicts of interest.
**Philosophical divide persists:** Fundamental disagreements regarding decentralization, code as speech, and the role of intermediaries continue to fuel tensions between the SEC and the crypto industry.
