The YouTube algorithm that I helped build in 2011 still recommends the flat earth theory by the *hundreds of millions*. This investigation by @RawStory shows some of the real-life consequences of this badly designed AI.

For a while I worked in the maker space at the university library and one my favorite things to do was troll “business bro” students.

They’d come in and look around, and you can always tell it’s them cause they wear blazers all the dam time. I’d watch them look around and finally ask if they needed help.

“Oh maybe, I don’t know if you can help me. I’m looking for... *hushed voice* ... a coder.”

“Oh yeah?” I’d murmur, matching their tone and seriousness. “We do coding tutorials, no worries, everyone starts somewhere, here let me pull up the tutor schedule...”

“Heh, no, no. I’m looking for a serious coder... for a business project.” They’d answer, suddenly puffing up.

“Ahh.” I’d nod solemnly. “Well, what kind of coder? I may have one in the back.”

“A good one.” They’d day, usually pulling up a chair.

“Yes but, what coding language?”

“Oh well I don’t know, that’s up to them.” They’d wave dismissively with one hand.

I’d nod again, pretending to take notes. “A good coder. I see. Well it depends on what you need...”

“It’s an APP!” (It’s always an app)

Sometimes I’d let them launch into their pitch, sometimes I’d cut them off.

Either way I’d say: “I see, and the salary you’re offering?”

1/ Someone emailed me asking how to break into VC, so I wanted to answer on Twitter where others could see and contribute to the conversation.

2/ “Being a VC” can mean a lot of different things, so it’s worth asking:

What actual activities do you want to do?

- Deep market analysis?
- Be in the flow of information and people?
- Make deals?
- Work closely w/ founders over time (e.g take board seats?)
- Manage capital?

3/ It’s worth specifying what type of VC you might like to become — as there are different archetypes. E.g.

- Benchmark (Lead series A/B - couple investments a year)
- First Round (Lead seed rounds, partner w/ a few companies a year)
- SV Angel (Make lots of seed investments)

4/ Continued:

Expa - Incubate companies

YC / Village Global - Build a platform to help entrepreneurs at scale

Do you want to join a firm or start one? There’s a lot to consider.

Different paths will require different skillsets & sets of experiences.

5/ Since the person who wrote the email is a young person trying to break into VC by joining a firm (and who doesn’t want to start a company), I’ll tailor this tweet storm to that goal. There’s some overlap.

An interesting set of games that I've been vaguely interested in since I was a kid, after seeing one at a friend's house and never being able to find it again, was the BATTLES IN A DISTANT DESERT/BATTLES ON DISTANT PLANETS series.

These are turn-based wargames for windows 3.x, sharing the same engine.
Battles in a Distant Desert is from 1992, and is based on the first Iraq war (Desert Storm)

and Battles on Distant Planets is from 1991, and takes place in SPACE!
I'm pretty sure this is the one I played as a kid.

They've got 3 options to play with:
* Player vs. Player
* Player vs. Computer
* Computer vs. Computer

So it's a 0-2 player game!

They also did a DOS strategy game called "STARDATE 2140.2: GALACTIC CONQUEST" in 1990, but it seems to be lost.
All the games share an experimental AI system based on neural networks.