Strategy and operations at @duolingo. Founded @leveleducation. If you see me tweeting, tell me to stop.

New York, NY
Joined June 2009
Rather than whiffing on a joke, I thought I'd use my new twitter power to share the best pieces of advice I've received: - Find someone who believes in you more than you believe in yourself - Accept blame in 1st person, credit in 2nd - Optimize for learning - Say thank you - Eat
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What’s the best thinking for why AI is still so bad at writing?
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Coordinating for a pause seems hard but not harder than building machine god
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Well it’s not 1066 anymore
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The Substack feed is the closest thing I’ve found to the signal-to-noise ratio of Old Twitter (2015ish)
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Small man's idea of a big man
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I think people are underrating how magical this experience is. The closest I’ve felt to downloading a new skill
all this talk of Claude + Cursor and becoming capable of building anything you put your mind to (no matter your skillset) is warranted if this is the future, i want to live in it
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I've been trying to think more about the funniest outcome rather just just the most likely, and I'm sorry to say my mind is clearly not creative enough
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Claude Sonnet is the first LLM that truly crossed the line dividing “fun toy” and “serious tool”
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Impt to recognize this stems from supply/demand pressures. As a country, we’ve cut back on gov funding of universities (esp. post-GFC), which increases pressure for universities to be *businesses*. Of course universities chase potential students- they have to!
Why is trust in US institutions—esp colleges—collapsing? Here’s a theory. The 21st c has became the age of the unfocused institution—the age of mission inflation, goal ambiguity, and complex orgs losing any clear sense of priority, or identity. theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv…
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I sometimes like to think about the small coincidences of the world that aren't actually all that small. Like: 1. We developed the technology to detect damage to the atmosphere around the same time we developed chemicals that damage the atmosphere
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2. The sample sizes required to generalize about large populations (like the US) are small enough to be affordable 3. Soap is affordable to make
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I really do wonder why edtech hasn't figured out how to have an impact. So many tailwinds (connected, tech literate, wealthy students), and yet....
What is HAPPENING here? Between 2012 and 2023, it appears that average OECD reading, math and science scores have declined consistently. This is not (just) about pandemic learning loss. It’s not about one US city. It’s not even just the US. This is the entire developed world.
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(1/2) All four of these things can be true at once: 1. Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed horrible acts 2. A full siege of Gaza is only justified if you have little regard for civilians and their suffering
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3. Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians who feel less safe today have good reason 4. As a non-Israeli Jew, I am (and have long been) deeply uncomfortable with the conflation between Israel and Jews (noting that Israel has perpetuated this on purpose for decades)
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I tried and failed to build a basic app using GPT 3 and 3.5 only....but I can do it with GPT 4. Still clunky, but reality being only 6mo behind the hype isn't too bad
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[guy who speaks French and Spanish translating "Louisiana"] "The yes yes Ana"
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Whoever booked the Four Seasons for Giuliani has the opportunity for the funniest sequel when booking his flight to Georgia
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