Napkin Math

Profit and power in technology.

Sep 28, 2023

The Double Bind Theory—Or Why Sensationalism (Unfortunately) Works

If you want to win, you gotta spike

Oct 5, 2023

Automate the Simple Stuff With Stupid Tools

This is the dumbest AI will ever be—and it’s still magic

Oct 11, 2023

Falling Out of Love With Michael Lewis

The complicated demands of business writing

Oct 19, 2023

Every Software Business Has the Same Playbook

The strange contradiction at the heart of B2B SaaS

Oct 26, 2023

Live Fuller, Not Bigger

You must escape the shallow joy of more

Nov 2, 2023

How to Win Arguments and Manipulate Managers

Make your spreadsheets shape strategy

Nov 9, 2023

We Should All Want to Be Mitt Romney

What is the point of F U money if you never say F U?

Nov 16, 2023

COGS: How I Bankrupted MoviePass

An intuitive explainer for how to lose money and win anyway

Nov 21, 2023

The Case Against Sam Altman

The board is bad at their job, but they may not be crazy

Nov 30, 2023

How I Use ChatGPT (As A Reasonable Person)

My AI awakening

Dec 5, 2023

Death of a Flywheel

Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway got really big. Here’s why it might kill them.

Dec 7, 2023

The Impossibility of Being Charlie

RIP to nerd Jesus

Dec 14, 2023

Want to Build? Technical Excellence Won’t Be Enough.

This new era of startups requires a founder baptized in the humanities

Dec 21, 2023

Should You Fire This Newsletter? 2023 Edition

2024 is the year I go big

Jan 11, 2024

The Books, Videos, Movies, and TV Shows That Changed Me Last Year

If you want to develop great taste, you must taste a lot of stuff

Jan 25, 2024

The Zone of Deployment

How can you know when to invest?

Feb 1, 2024

Crypto’s Prophet Speaks

A16z’s Chris Dixon hasn’t abandoned the faith with his new book, 'Read Write Own'

Feb 6, 2024

Profit, Power, and the Vision Pro

Will Apple’s new headset change everything?

Feb 8, 2024

The One-person Billion-dollar Company

Can AI agents make you a billionaire?

Feb 15, 2024

Autonomous Vehicles Have a Problem of Narrative

The tech industry needs to be honest about the trade-offs of risk

Feb 22, 2024

AI and the Vision Pro Don’t Need a Killer App

Software that drives hardware adoption is rarer than you think

Feb 27, 2024

What the Media Is Getting Wrong About AI

The future must be built on truth

Feb 29, 2024

Reddit: The Internet’s Bellwether

Is AI training a sustainable business model for the future?

Mar 5, 2024

Claude 3 Is The Most Human AI Yet

But that doesn’t mean it's going to beat ChatGPT