Honest Optimism with Spencer
is there free breakfast here?
Is the Music Still Playing and Other Rhetorical Questions on My Crypto Journey
When I started working in crypto in October 2021, I wrote a post on my journey into crypto and how I was drinking the web3 kool-aid but a...
recently I've been spending time thinking about the more social/meta aspects of all this AI progress - the industrialization of knowledge work, human creativity and meaning, and what it means to live in the 21st century (and future generations). i'm working on some writing on this topic - more to come soon! history rhymes, and we've seen society react and adapt to the industrial revoluti...
It’s been awhile since I’ve paid for a tasting menu in New York City. I think the initial novelty and status of fine dining eventually wore off. When friends ask me if I’ve been to any good new NYC restaurants lately, my only answers have been bakeries and a taco shop: Nick and Sons, Apollo Bagel, Radio Bakery, Taqueria El Chato. It’s egalitarian food - high quality food from establishments that you can walk in, wait in line, and eat on the sidewalk. None of the ridiculous NYC reservation cul.
1. Wrappers are good 2. Characters are the new medium 3. Show the work 4. FYP is the gold standard of personalized AI 5. Short voice input, long voice output
I’ve been thinking about this question recently — what makes you feel alive? Everyone’s answer is different. But I think it’s a great compass for how we should each spend our time. How we spend our days is how we spend our lives, and the more days we feel alive the more meaningful our lives become.
I sometimes joke that two of my favorite things to do in New York City are: 1. Leave NYC to take a break from the city and get some fresh air 2. Arrive back in NYC and feel main character energy staring out the Uber window at the Manhattan skyline
The other day I was scrolling through my YouTube feed and stumbled across a Steve Jobs talk I hadn’t seen before. It was titled “The Objects of Our Life”, a talk given at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen. I was struck by how prescient and truly visionary his thoughts were – this was
One of the most rewarding feelings is working on projects with friends. My most memorable experience at Uniswap was building a photobooth - a 16 hour project that included accidentally shattering a windshield, designing an iPad holster with wood, and coding in a U-Haul across the Williamsburg Bridge
One of my favorite questions to ask is, when was the last time you used tech that felt like magic? I think everyone has only a handful of uniquely personal experiences with technology that evoke a visceral feeling of magic.
The most magical dining experience I’ve had in recent memory was during a 6 hour layover in Tokyo at Sumibi Yakiniku Nakahara. Sitting at the counter...
Alice Cappelle has a brilliant video essay called “Capitalism and Ego Formation” where she discusses how we’ve reached a point where products generat...