Max Sobol (@MaxSobol) header
Max Sobol (@MaxSobol) profile picture

First principles freethinker | Suit-free, hard-money macro | Rabbit holes with receipts | Recovering OG startup guy | Dog dad | NFA · DYOR

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Joined November 2008
Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)Photo by Max Sobol (@MaxSobol)
My bot still misses things. The difference now is that no miss stays hidden. Here's the intake log and the rules that make every miss show up within a day, plus a prompt you can paste into your own Chief of Staff bot.
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Supposed "experts" would be better off ignoring the determination than claiming it was natural. Seems like an inconvenient truth.
Natural formation, "they" say. Japan Coast.
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❗️ xAI will start hiding an invisible watermark in text from Grok's API on 7 November, switched on by default. The mark nudges which words the model picks and adds no visible characters, so copying and pasting will not remove it. Only a team admin who confirms a legal exception applies can turn it off. xAI says it is doing this to comply with the EU AI Act. In August, it stayed out of the EU's voluntary code on marking AI content.
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Max Sobol retweeted
Happy November! This month Voyager 1 will become the first spacecraft to reach 1 light day from Earth. 🔭 #astro
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The upkeep associated with the perception of wealth is a helluva drug and will only consume you. This is an excellent write-up. Freedom is waiting for you.
⚡️The greatest vulnerability of the next decade is a life that appears diversified but is actually one concentrated bet. Consider how modern success is constructed. A prestigious career finances an expensive home. The home anchors you to a particular city. That city sustains the professional network supporting the career. The network reinforces the lifestyle, and the lifestyle requires the income to continue. Every component reinforces the others. Until the economic value of that career changes. Suddenly, what looked like multiple sources of security reveals itself as one leveraged position in institutional continuity. AI is accelerating this vulnerability by changing the economic value of human capabilities faster than people can reorganize the lives built around them. And dependence accumulates quietly during prosperity. By the time the arrangement breaks, the cost of leaving has become enormous. That is what makes these ten recommendations valuable. Physical health, financial flexibility, practical competence, trusted relationships and independent judgment all preserve something increasingly scarce: The ability to change course without asking permission. And that freedom changes the balance of power before you ever exercise it. An employer negotiates differently with someone who can survive without the paycheck. Financial institutions have less leverage over someone who doesn’t depend on continuous credit. The ability to refuse is what makes consent economically meaningful. But the list leaves one essential dimension largely unexplored. Ownership. As AI shifts economic surplus from human labor toward productive capital, independence protects your downside while ownership allows you to participate in the upside. The strongest position combines both. And that changes how security should be measured. A person can possess enormous wealth, prestigious credentials and institutional access while remaining dependent on arrangements they cannot afford to lose. The coming divide will increasingly be between those whose lives require the existing system to keep rewarding them and those who retain the freedom to choose their relationship with it. Because the ultimate form of wealth is control over your own future, including the ability to walk away from the system that helped you build it.
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Chick-fil-A fries its chicken in peanut oil. Federal law says that oil isn't a peanut allergen. Chick-fil-A says it has cooked its breaded chicken in fully refined peanut oil since the original sandwich. The oil is refined, bleached and deodorized, and the company says the peanut proteins are stripped out in that processing. A peanut allergy is a reaction to the protein, not to the fat. The federal definition of a major food allergen lists peanuts, then carves out "any highly refined oil derived from" them. So a highly refined peanut oil doesn't have to be labeled as a peanut allergen. Unrefined peanut oil, sold as gourmet peanut oil, keeps the protein, and the National Peanut Board says it can cause reactions. Chick-fil-A's allergen page adds that wheat, egg, soy and milk are handled in the same kitchens, and that it can't ensure any item is free of allergens.
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Max Sobol retweeted
My bot still misses things. The difference now is that no miss stays hidden. Here's the intake log and the rules that make every miss show up within a day, plus a prompt you can paste into your own Chief of Staff bot.
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Leaf sheep (Costasiella kuroshimae), a species of sea slug, retains the chloroplasts from algae they graze on to perform photosynthesis, a process known as kleptoplasty. 📽: undersea_gameqmi
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Max Sobol retweeted
This bottle was never opened. Roman bird flasks like this one were filled at the furnace and then sealed shut by reheating the tip of the tail, with no stopper and no opening anywhere. To use the perfume you had to snap the tail off. An intact bird is an unused bottle, which is why there is still liquid inside this one after 2000 years..
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Unfortunately, there's still a problem with asks and tasks getting lost silently. Michael's post is a good one to reference. I also have a potentially helpful write-up: teapawt.net/maxsobol/status/211615…
I've been experimenting with asking Grok Bot one question before I finish work: "What have I forgotten today?" The idea is simple: have my Chief of Staff check everything that could need my attention before I switch off. Emails I haven't answered. Calendar commitments I might have missed. Tasks still outstanding. Even things I've discussed with my Bots but never added to my task list. Here's the 5-point end-of-day audit prompt you can give your Grok Bot Chief of Staff. "Create a lasting rule called DONE FOR TODAY. Whenever I say 'done for today', check the following: 1: EMAIL AUDIT Review my inbox for important unanswered emails, urgent requests, promised replies and messages that need action. Check the latest thread before flagging anything, so you don't include emails I've already dealt with. 2: CALENDAR AUDIT Review today's calendar and upcoming commitments. Identify meetings with unresolved follow-ups, deadlines I've missed and anything I need to prepare for tomorrow. Don't assume a meeting's actions are complete just because it has ended. 3: TASK AUDIT Review my task lists and project Pages. Find overdue tasks, unfinished priorities, blocked work and anything due tomorrow. Check current status before reporting. 4: LOOSE ENDS AUDIT Review the conversations, shared Pages and files you can access. Find decisions, promises, parked ideas or tasks that were discussed but never recorded. Clearly identify anything you couldn't inspect. 5: TOMORROW'S PRIORITIES Combine the findings, remove duplicates and recommend the three most important things I should tackle tomorrow. Give me one short report with: • Urgent emails needing replies • Missed or unresolved calendar commitments • Outstanding tasks • Loose ends not yet recorded • Tomorrow's top three priorities For every item, show the source and next action. Don't invent deadlines, assume something is unfinished without evidence, send messages or change my calendar without approval. If something important needs action tonight, flag it separately. Remember this rule and run it whenever I say 'done for today'." The goal is to finish each day knowing what's been handled, what still needs attention and what tomorrow should start with. One question. Five checks. Fewer things slipping through the cracks.
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Max Sobol retweeted
we're so lucky elon is autistic imagine if he were like all the other billionaires and could just be bought he'd be the ultimate supervillain by now you wouldn't even be able to criticize him without ending up in jail or getting vaporized by a space laser
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If you aren’t already heavily using agentic AI -- PLEASE start now. The world is about to change — so much, so fast — and you won’t understand what’s coming until you’ve tried @Bot or similar “iPhone moment” platforms for plug & play agentic “staff.” It’s like getting superpowers. This is not hyperbole: the opportunity to be ahead of this wave is once-in-the a-civilization. You cannot get out of it its way, so learn to surf or get crushed. Those are the only two options.
Super Intelligence WILL EAT MANY ENTIRE businesses, industries and professions in the next few *months* and *quarters*. The rest will follow. The physical world will take a bit longer. That needs A LOT of humanoid robots. Strap yourselves in.
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Max Sobol retweeted
The flex stopped working. Everything has a knockoff, nobody's impressed, and people see right through it. Real wealth is quiet. It's the trip you still talk about, the toll road home, the great meal. Buy the memories, not the logo.
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Max Sobol retweeted
Who lifted these rocks?
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I TESTED EVERY MAJOR “BOT” PLATFORM AND THE WINNER IS CLEAR. @Grok @Bot wins on all measures. At this point it can only be copied as the others are watching a rocket launch ship change in AI going into orbit. Read below my exclusive analysis seen no place else!
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Max Sobol retweeted
Get ready to lose your job
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Getting lots of positive feedback about this article. Really appreciate it and glad its helping🫡
My bot still misses things. The difference now is that no miss stays hidden. Here's the intake log and the rules that make every miss show up within a day, plus a prompt you can paste into your own Chief of Staff bot.
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Late 19th century German firefighter's smoke helmet.
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Happy 18th birthday to those that celebrate 🎂
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This is a ghost turnip, a Halloween lantern from Donegal, Ireland, around 1900. Before pumpkins, the Irish carved turnips, put candles inside and used them to scare people on the eve of Samhain. What you see is a museum cast, because the original was falling apart.
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