Tweets on tech π€ (esp deeptech πππ§¬π§ͺπ§«) & finance π΅ | Me: πΉπΌπΊπ² deeptech + AI guy; 8+ yrs x-border deeptech VC; All opinions mine alone
Silicon Valley, CA
Joined August 2008
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Ben Tseng retweeted
It is a grave mistake to romanticize the past.
There is a common view that medieval people adapted to high child mortality by becoming more emotionally distant from them.
Modern scholarship has demolished this: medieval people loved their children just as much as us, made vast sacrifices for them, and expected little in return.
So the @SevaUT is directionally right here in saying that medieval people went about permanently traumatised. Most people had three or four children, of whom one or two died. This was torment for them.
The shadow of death over English childhood did not lift with the passing of the Middle Ages. My great-grandmother, whom I knew well, was born in 1906, when 15% of children died in their first year, against 25% in the Middle Ages. My grandmother, who is still alive, was the only one of her several siblings to survive her first year. The past is very near.
Ben Tseng retweeted
The economically devastated Rust Belt resident asked God, βI had faith in you, but you didnβt save us. You let our town die. Why?β
To this God replied, βI sent you three data-center proposals. What more did you expect?β
This is the main street of Monroeville in Huron County, Ohio. The town voted against building a $1 billion data center nearby.
Letβs just be honest here, does this town look like itβs doing well enough to reject a $1 billion opportunity for economic development?
How are you supposed to fix cost of living when people vote against $1 billion opportunities for jobs and economic development?
NIMBYism is killing the West. The same people who hate data centres hate nuclear energy and hate new factories for manufacturing and reindustrialisation.
Literally what are you supposed to do? People want 5% GDP growth a year with 0 inflation and then you try to give them new industry and they reject it.
Foreign backed information war on the American people has done massive damage to America. People voted against their own jobs and their own economic development because they watched a TikTok saying Donald Trump and Epstein ate Jon Benet Ramsay inside a data center or something.
Ben Tseng retweeted
Somewhere a health insurance COBOL mainframe just exploded
California city makes history allowing throuples, foursomes to legally register as partners trib.al/injZnvo
Ben Tseng retweeted
Ben Tseng retweeted
1. More billionaires are associated with less poverty.
2. Increasing billionaires per capita by ten fold lowers poverty by 43 percentage points.
3. Sweden has more billionaires per 10M people than the U.S. (34 vs 30)
4. Correlation is fairly strong (R-squared of 0.6 for two variable cross-section data)
4. Since the graph is only a correlation, what do you think is the cause?
πinπ§΅
Ben Tseng retweeted
A CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) is a publicly disclosed security flaw.
They increased following a slight upward slope all the way to early 2024, when there was a sudden small increase... then starting in 2026, we went full exponential.
In most instances, the vulnerabilities were pre-existing, so much of the increase is just our better ability to find the faults.
This is of historical importance. We have never witnessed anything of the sort.
Ben Tseng retweeted
If only there was some way to see what it would have looked like if Chiang had won. Some island where we could have run a natural experiment. Personally I think they would have become a first world economic powerhouse of critical importance in AI & advanced technology.
I don't know about 10 but 2-9 are alive and well and I like to believe many Americans still (rightly) believe in 1
I asked 50 Japanese people, ages 9 to 91, one question.
"What do you admire most about Americans?"
Here are the top answers.
10. "They clap when the plane lands." (Office worker, 34)
9. "They say 'I love you' every time they hang up the phone. Even men. Even to other men." (Taxi driver, 61)
8. "A stranger told me she liked my shoes. Then she just walked away. She didn't want anything." (High school girl, 16)
7. "They thank the bus driver when they get off." (Bus driver, 55. He got emotional saying this.)
6. "They tell you their whole life story in the grocery line. I know about one man's divorce, his boat, and his knee surgery. We knew each other for four minutes." (My mother, 64)
5. "They stand for the anthem at a children's baseball game." (Little League coach, 47)
4. "When they lose, they shake hands and say 'good game.' And they mean it." (Sota, 12)
3. "They fly the flag on a regular Tuesday. No holiday. Just because." (Nurse, 28)
2. "They help a stranger push a car out of the snow, then leave without saying their name." (My cousin's husband, 52, who got stuck in Colorado once)
And the number one answer came from the oldest person I asked. My grandfather. He's 91.
He thought about it for a long time.
Then he said:
"They still believe tomorrow will be better than today."
I asked him what he meant.
"In 1946, we had nothing," he said. "The American soldiers I met were young and far from home. But they acted like the future was coming, and it was going to be good. After a while, we started to believe them."
I asked him if he thought Americans still believe that.
He nodded slowly.
"Tell them," he said, "not to stop."
