>be 19yo uni student >get into guns, think of... design fix problems with current designs >shelve drawings because broke and scammed by uni tuition >graduate early, spend several years as code monkey >late 20s, jeets and MBAs destroy SWE job market >pull out drawings from a decade ago, start making 3d models out of drawings >design new bullpup rifle from scratch in 3 months >design barely works, since no exp or creds in MechE >keep fixing issues and burning through savings >start YT to document build process, terrible prod quality, barely get any views/subs >finally get it working, parts keep breaking >both patents granted b4 30th birthday >make DFM, weight, cost optimizations, reduce parts count, fix breakages, continue testing >start open sourcing parts of rifle >still suck at marketing/social media >looking for MFG to licenseshow more

I'M LOOKING FOR A TECHNICAL PARTNER I'm looking for... a coding wizard to help me build software (and to bounce ideas with). The deal is simple: you build / I distribute You do all technical work. I do all marketing, distribution, customer research. What I bring to the table: • deep expertise in social media marketing/distribution/email marketing/copywriting • total audience of 160k + 42k newsletter (that's a lot of eyeballs ready to see what we build) • big network of creators we can use to co-market • experience building media companies from scratch • sold over 7 figs worth of products to an audience before I deeply care about product so I'll be involved in everything but the coding side. I will document our journey with build in public content (X, LinkedIn, YouTube). You don't need to be part of the content if you don't want to, I'll gladly be the dancing monkey. What I AM looking for: • Full stack (at least to certain extent to get decent MVPs out there) • high agency, high creativity and product sense< • you've made money with your software before • a love for cash-flow • you love homemade goulash as much as I do (well, this one is not set in stone) • someone to share shitposts and memes with (you can't compete with someone who's having fun, I deeply believe this) • someone who is obsessed with building something that people LOVE instead of just use • someone who wants to build something to be really proud of What I'm NOT looking for: • ideas that need VC funding to get started • 2 years of building before we see a dollar • someone who started coding 12 months ago • someone running 3 other side projects • someone addicted to call-culture I'm not 100% certain on the idea yet. We'll figure this out together by testing demand with an audience. We'll probably test a few ideas quickly before going all-in on whatever gets the best signal from the market. Areas I find interesting right now: • AI enhanced-B2B content/GTM/marketing tools • Financial market analytics/consumer finance • Gamified health/longevity apps (probably mobile) Building and creativity is a way of life for me. It goes far beyond the money-creation part of work. I love bringing things into the world. Best case it's similar for you. We'll shoot the shit a lot, send memes, and have fun while working hard on whatever we build. There's also an option to do this on a salary instead of a split I'm open to both. Answer a few quick questions in the form below (next post) I will reach out to people that seem like a good fit. Please tag people who might be interested. RT for visibility so your coding genius friends can build something awesome with me!show more

Everyone's sleeping on image-to-3D AI models. They can make... your app look incredibly unique, with just a little effort. Here's how. This is my calorie tracker, built in a week with nothing but prompting. Just Claude Code + a couple APIs. The visuals are all AI-generated. I'll be sharing the full workflow + all the crazy technical stuff Claude and I did to make this work, so nobody has to struggle through it like me. Deep dive coming soon! Till then, this is the high-level idea: 1. Get a clean image of the food (or whatever your asset is) - In my app, the user describes foods via text, or attaches images (or both) - If text, an LLM extracts the food description and formats it into a specific prompt I tuned for this design, and we generate an image using Z-Image Turbo through fal - If image, we do the same thing but with FLUX.2 [dev] to edit the user image into our reference design - Originally, both used Google Nano Banana, but switching to open models cut costs and latency a ton 2. Gaussian splatting (2D image → 3D model) - I tried various 2D-to-3D options on fal and ended up with TripoSplat as my preferred balance of speed, cost, latency; this turns an image into a 3D model that looks super high quality (link below) - The app displays the 2D image while our backend generates the 3D splat - We "groom" the splat to reduce size and load time by culling low-opacity/scale points 3. Render efficiently on device Originally, it looked great but ran at 10 FPS. Getting to 120 FPS was a crazy journey. TL;DR: - SwiftUI had to go; it forced us to render each asset in independent MTKViews, which wasn't workable - Instead, we composite every dish into one full-bleed CAMetalLayer using MetalSplatter (link below) - We had to make some optimizations within MetalSplatter's code too, to reduce the overhead of sorting points per render Then I added some finishing touches like the subtle rotation and parallax as they move around. I think it turned out pretty cool :) Overall, this took some effort, but we still got it done in less than a day. Hopefully your agent can follow in the footsteps of mine and do it much faster. Keep an eye out for the bigger writeup, which'll give your agent everything it needs. If you have any questions, drop em below!show more

Has been a while since I've given an update... so here's a breakdown of where Sappy is at right now and what we're focusing on going into this year. Pre-amble: With altcoins & NFTs the market is definitely not the same as it was before. I think this is obvious to everyone but I've noticed there are still japanese soldiers that are convinced old tricks and mechanics work. They don't. Liquidity is thin; people want to bid assets that feel like "real companies" not vacuous memecoins. There's still room for memecoins, social currencies, and "utility tokens" (I would say without these functions, tokens are hard to justify versus equities). I'm not part of the camp that thinks there will never be hyperspeculation in crypto again, because there will be; we all love ponzis and PvPing each other onchain. Just not with solved games -- people need something new and fresh. So the overarching plan is to continue building for users, sustainable revenues that aren't tied to directly to crypto, and doubling down on the areas that we've already found PMF / Brand Market Fit. Then leaning into crypto during cyclical periods where liquidity is sloshing around at an accelerated rate. Where we've found early PMF / what we're leaning into: Roblox: we're going to continue to go hard and accelerate here. It's our main objective to ship more seal/brainrot focused games across most genres to cast as wide of a net as we can for the brand, and to also iterate and see what works and stays sticky. Our initial incursion into Roblox was very successful peaking at 2M+ MAU and still sustaining a large portion of that player base... for all of its success, that was a relatively amateur first attempt; we've been setting up better AI pipelines for Roblox development that makes it reasonable to ship many more games and 10x those player counts in totality. It's my belief that Roblox is the sandbox whose audience will be the most valuable on the internet once they are grown up. That intense feeling you get when you see a TikTok referencing an old game you enjoyed on the PS2 or the Gamecube, or when you see a Pokemon card is the exact same feeling the youth of today will get when reminiscing on the things they enjoyed engaging with when they were younger. Fortnite and Roblox are functional equivalents to the old school consoles and exactly where that is taking place. Which is why as much as I care about scaling revenues through Roblox, the long term brand equity gained purely through being popular on the platform is totally invaluable. It also can heavily convert to merchandise sales today if all touchpoints for the brand are dialed in (which is why brands get overcharged so much by Roblox dev shops for the same ROI that only cost us a few thousand $). We have the playbook, it's just about iterating new concepts and then aggressively scaling. Brand Expansion & Merchandising: I've started to create a content pipeline that is easily repeatable, cost efficient (costs next to nothing through either AI or smart reusable concepts), while still being very tasteful and meeting our quality standards for the brand. We are mostly focusing here on reaching people where they're at through nostalgic/emotional content, or just being visually stimulating through carefully curated aesthetics. Content that isn't superficial and touches people in a memorable way. I've attached some examples to the post so you can see what I mean rather than just read it. I don't think it's long until larger brands start doing this at scale, but it's always good to be ahead of the curve and most importantly winning on taste -- knowing what will resonate with people and what won't has always been our edge. The purpose for these accounts is not only to rack up attention but also to begin converting those into sales of both of physicals (plushies & gacha collectibles) and digital avenues like our games, and any other apps we produce. Because they're offshoot accounts it's also a lot easier to be aggressive/experimental with said conversion strategies. Sappy Studio: I'm wrapping everything like Omnia, and everything else into this category because they're all tangentially related. Beginning with Omnia, our current focus is gearing up for Season 0 which involves players competing in the ranked ladder for a prize pool that has rewards through Monad Momentum as well as a player-funded prize pool. This season will be fairly simple with us mostly logging retention, deck building habits, as well as qualitatively observing how aggressively players push the combat system. Deeper monetization wont exist yet outside of the player buy-in (to be eligible for P2E rewards). Beyond that our overarching principle this year is to focus heavily on risk-to-earn mechanics where a portion of that excess value is circular i.e. revenues flow back to prize pools or other parts of the economy, treating the game almost like a protocol where the objective is to amass TVL or player liquidity. Social is also a big focus, and that means implementing the Open World hub which from an infrastructure perspective has already been built out and tested by all of you previously. Right now we are scaffolding the environment in 3D and working through how that hub should look and feel, so players are excited to hang out & idle together while they're queuing. For sappydotlol, what I'm about to say is still early days from a design perspective so a lot can change, but I'm pushing the site in the direction of being a virtual game console. An intersection between Nintendo & Myspace where users can play, trade, and socially interact in a way that's deeply personalised; a breathe of fresh air from the hostility of the current internet. If you go back to my thesis on Roblox above and the game console references, you can kind of see how this will all sequentially tie together. In essence, the strategy is to acquire a critical mass of players through traditional platforms like Roblox, and use that attention and trust to provide an onboarding funnel for web2 users into our own sandbox filled with a mixture of our own browser-based experiences as well as an aggregation of others. The aim is to make the platform a breath of fresh air & bunker from the enshittified platforms like TikTok/IG/X where users are actually served in ways that delight rather than agitate, and where self-expression is incentivised. Closing: As always everything here is subject to change but I've never felt more conviction in our direction until now; I know exactly what we need to do and how, with everything aligning with our team's strengths. Very excited and grinding through things to the point where I'm getting headaches and can't sleep from being hyperfocused for long periods of time lol. There probably has never been a better time to join the ecosystem from a price to fuck around and find out perspective.show more

Bit of end of cycle / start of year... testing AKA gym yap Front Squat 140kg: Very happy with this given I've only been back squatting for 9 weeks, and that's the longest cycle I've been able to string together in like 5+ years. I can technically call this a PB since it was beltless, sleeveless and less fat bodyweight so over the moon here. Backsquats of any nature keep tweaking my lower back so gonna stick with fronts for the rest of the year. Bench 140kg: Ive done this a lot in the last 10 years, but I was always 105kg bodyweight or more. So to do it at 97kg is a big win. Pressing power has been feeling horrible for the last year or so and I couldn't figure out a good programme, so happy that it's finally clicked again. Deadlift 200kg: Tweaked my lower back 3 times last year and put a lot of effort into fixing it up and strengthening it. 200 was easy so I did attempt 220kg but as soon as it left the ground either I would have failed or had a 10 second grind on my hands so decided to just not risk it. Goal for last year was to get healthy enough to be able to train the deadlift again and I achieved that so despite being far from my best of 262.5kg I've very pleased Ive been able to get to a position where I can train it again without headaches or lower back tweaks. OHP 80kg: Haven't trained OHP in a year or more, and stopped doing behind the neck press 3 months ago when I started benching more, so just wanted to do this for fun. Bit off my best of 95kg but its funny how much strength you retain without even doing a vertical press. Cutting down to 90kg again over the next 2-3 months then will see where I can take these over the rest of the year. No real numbers in mind, just happy to be able to train hard.show more

Everyone thought he was crazy for quitting his finance... job to sell ice cream. ​ Today, his novelty brand is available in 5,000+ stores, including Whole Foods, Erewhon, Bristol Farms, and The Fresh Market. ​ Here's how to do the same: ​ Step 1: Find the big idea ​ David's advice: Ask yourself what's missing? ​ - Look around at the way you live - Write down the products you love - Ask yourself: what would improve my quality of life? How can I make something that is 5-10x better than what exists? ​ For David, the missing thing was a way to satisfy his sweet tooth with portion controlled & snackable products like Nestle’s Dibs. As someone who was lactose-intolerant and had issues with dairy, there weren't many options. ​ And so, his dream snack, Dream Pops, was born! ​ Step 2. Make your prototype ​ David's advice: It doesn't have to be perfect. ​ In the early days, David was making samples in his mom's kitchen by hand. ​ One thing entrepreneurs get wrong? Trying to launch something perfect. If you're prototyping a food product, follow his advice: ​ - Create a delicious and unique product - Differentiate with your packaging & branding - Iterate in small format grocery stores and get feedback from your customers before launching into national accounts ​ Step 3. Put your product out there ​ David's advice: Get your product in as many hands as possible—any way you can. ​ Some ideas: - Host pop-ups with like-minded brands. Some brick and mortar brands were willing to pay $5K-$10K for a tailored “ice cream social”’ event with custom packaging. Revenue + awareness = free marketing. - Personally do samplings at local grocery stores to get real-time feedback from your customers. What do they love about the product? What do they hate? Those are your golden nuggets. ​ Step 4. Scale thoughtfully ​ David's advice: Don't get tempted by a big retailer with thousands of stores out the gate. ​ Getting into a huge retailer can kill your business if you aren’t ready. Don't chase revenue and door count. ​ Consider profitability, product quality, and overall risk. ​ Some retailers require you to pay "slotting" where you spend $50K to $150K+ to be on the shelf for eight months. ​ If you don't perform? You're out. ​ The risk is massive and can put you out of business before you have the opportunity to flourish. ​ Instead, find independent grocery stores and regional grocers with 3-10 locations and scale slowly – laser-focused on profitability and velocity. ​ Today, Dream Pops is a multi-million dollar brand sold at Whole Foods, Safeway Albertsons, Acme, Shaws, Erewhon, ShopRite, The Fresh Market, Fresh Thyme, GoPuff, CVS, Thrive Market, and many more. ​ This is your reminder to tune out all the noise, trust your intuition & keep building. ​ Want to get 1:1 advice from a CPG industry expert? You can now book David Greenfeld on Intro. ​ -- Did you enjoy this business breakdown? Follow @useintro to learn how the world's most successful entrepreneurs built $100M+ businesses.show more

A very good morning. Welcome to The Council Benji... This marks the third Skull in a little run. The first went to a fund I've never met. The second: through Eli Scheinman to a new collector/foundation who has been quietly entering the space in a very significant way across a number of collections whom I’ve never spoken to. Their new entrance enabled a wedding and start of a new married life for Conviction. In my very first conversation with him, we spoke about curses and commitments to the people we love. Since meeting got to talk through each step on that path, from letting go, what is imbued in the ring and ceremony of it all, a proposal, and on the way to the most important of the steps in pursuit of a blessed life. It is easy to get a little cynical on the over-leveraged exit stories that spring up from time to time, so it is a treat to watch one go towards a celebration that’s been building up in his life since the Skull was first acquired. And now: this. The third Skull and the first I can really write about as a shared story across both source and destination. An exit and an entrance. The exit: The Skulls of Luci were awarded as gifts 4 years ago. But before I'd minted Birth of Luci or painted the other 49, the first person in this space I showed the sketch of The Blueprint Skull to was actually Casey💎, when he was working at SuperRare . Casey was the very first person who onboarded me to NFTs, helping me navigate the early days of whatever it meant to even mint something. I explained the idea of gifting one to each person who bid in my first auctions. Though most of the Skulls went to the bidders, Casey's didn't. He didn't ask for one. I didn't tell him I'd give him one. But he helped me take my first steps here, and it's hard to imagine any of this making sense, or unfolding the way it has, without him. Since then, we've broken bread across continents, seen quite a lot of chortling margarita consumption, watched the rise and fall of a lot around us, weathered inter-Council dramas. He brought Laura El into The Monument Game, played as a Player, wore a Mask. Most of the vibe that started all of this, the wild west of it, feels faded in the broader space at times. But every Skull has a story and a person who helped us get here. Casey will always be the one who was there before any metric muddled the reason to care. The entrance: Last fall, Benji came over for a studio visit. We walked through Luci, the works, structure, and dream, as anyone who visits does. But we mostly talked about being a father and having a father. We discussed the very idea of "collection" stripped of accumulation, value, or signal, located more in the act or ceremony of it. What it was to grow up with a curious father who studied the edges of each thing he saw to know the next layer beneath why anyone might look or ignore it. That to pass this on is to pass on questioning, more than it is to pass on any kind of answer. The process of collecting can be perceived as an individual act of hoarding. For some it is maybe. But at its best, it's a way to bind through shared questioning, to bond in cooperation and competition with friends and family, it is the swapped story and meme of it all, and each object gathered along the way carries some shared memory that can, often does, and with intent: should; drift out of the object entirely. All in the psalm, always has been. The studio visit came and went. Soon after, a package arrived in the mail with two of the softest stuffed animals added to my daughter's own collection, now among her favorites. The Skull is a bonus to that, in the scheme of shared memory. For Rachel and I, while we are heads down making a body of work that unsettles us and excites us but demands unknown time to accomplish, it means a great deal to have this kind of support from long term people in the quiet process of making work we want to leave behind ourselves. Enormously grateful to Casey for the many years of support and friendship, to Benny for being a true patron, and to Benji for entering the arena for what I'm working on next. Welcome.show more

VTubing is for everyone! I don't like to bring... this up, but recent events in the VTuber community made some people really vile. I had my M&G at HolMat last week and had people come up and just yell at me for being a girl in the "womans world", that is VTubing, no idea about who I was, or why I was there. I had the same group return to my handler multiple times, I felt really worried about the person carrying me around having to deal with this repeatedly and tried to steer them away from the group. It seems they found my YT and left me a handful of the same comments, luckily all caught by moderation tools. While I will refrain from M&G's for a little until this calms down I want to say this; I have been managing for over 1.5 years now, I deliberately take on male VTubers to show them that they can still do it. I take on people that have babiniku accounts, those that are changing from one gender presentation to another and want help, and those that have no gender presentation in their avatar. A lot of male VTubers struggle to find a manager because the stereotype is that all male VTubers are evil and it perpetuates a stereotype that extends beyond entertainment industry subcultures like streaming. VTubing has always been a medium, while character and marketing matters, it's about what makes you happy, YOU are the person that makes the content. Use whatever you want as an avatar, use a voice changer if that's what you want to do. Every month I have a male client bring up they can't do it the same way, that it's easier if jiggle physics or a cute voice is the answer to fast growth. And I tell them yeah, I can also do ASMR, I can do drama content, collab with a larger person, and get to x amount of viewers. There are shortcuts in every entertainment profession and subculture. Does it last? Do quick fixes for anything ever last? Yes, great physics and an expensive model can get people in, but if your value, your way of interacting with people, your content plan and marketing is ass, you can pack up. Most of us start on a small budget, premade or resold models, and it's the same in the big league entertainment industry too. Can I take out a loan and put myself on a billboard tomorrow, can I pay the most expensive model artist and rigger and get in along corporate VTubers tomorrow? Sure. Will it last, will it be genuine, will people trust me? Hell no. Genuine communities and growth build trust. I think streaming, creative industries, entertainment, are full of people, regardless of gender, that will see success and call it "easy", because of what they see as the end product. They don't see most VTubers working a second job, they don't see the managers, they don't see 100+ hours a month going into content production, years invested in singing and voice lessons, model redebut after redebut. I think a lot of male VTubers get a bad rep, because so many boys are raised without putting emphasis on empathy and creativity, watching my brothers be told they should not pursue art, that theatre class is a waste of time, and that they needed to go study x or y to make money for their families in the future was heartbreaking. Nobody should have to look at others and feel so much hatred for society they turn against a whole group of people. If you want to pursue entertainment, please do. If you want to grow and try and make a name for yourself, you should start there, not with yelling about how you already failed. "Oh but I can't", "Oh but the odds are stacked against me", look at the big streamers, look at Ironmouse who overcame everything with hard work, look at Kiara who rose from the ashes, look at everyone that fights against their odds every day and give it your all. If you already think you lost, then you have nothing to lose. Don't give up on your dreams because others tell you to.show more

Wow. WOW. WOOOOOOOW. So um, that first Wildcard+Thousands stream... was... *amazing* and also... a *lot* 😅 In the end, it was *exactly* what we were hoping for - a true stress test of ALL these systems coming together for the first time. We are SO grateful for the thousands of people who showed up today to play, attend, tune-in and help us PLAYTEST all this new stuff. We can't wait to see you all again at NEXT WEEK'S EX2 EVENT! So, now let's talk about how it went... Stuff that worked: - Our community SHOWED UP. Oh boy did you show up 😅. Our servers were straining under the load... which is good actually, in fact it's the whole point. Even more importantly, we have already received insanely valuable feedback, bug reports, stuff people loved/hated - and it's only been a few hours since the stream ended. I can't even explain to y'all how valuable this process is. Yes it's stressful, it reminds me of trying to keep Words With Friends online during that first insane year, but it's EXACTLY what we were hoping for (NEED) to turn this into the polished, top-notch game and streaming experience we are on a mission to deliver. I truly can't thank y'all enough, and hope to see you again when we run it all back again next week 🥹 - The stream itself stayed up and was mostly stable! Phew 😅. For context, ThousandsTV is not a twitch wrapper, it's a web3-native streaming tech stack built we built specifically to connect game, web/mobile, and blockchain together all at the same time. There are a LOT of moving pieces going on behind the scenes. - We brought viewers INTO THE GAME! Viewers showed up in the stands of the arena, with connected wallets/assets, triggered actions/rallies from chat, and were seen and heard during the whole stream. - The brand new 2v2 build of Wildcard was (mostly) stable and our players and viewers seemed to be having a blast down on the field and up in the stands. It was thrilling to watch Team Blue dominate, even though Team Red held their own in game 3! - Our production crew did an insanely good job running the stream, managing the players, shoutcasters, and talent, and producing a top-notch show. Of course we will work hard to make every stream better than the last, but I was super proud of how our team "rolled with the punches" during today's event. Stuff that didn't work (and/or needs to be dramatically improved): - Although it's fun to see chat going crazy, chat spam is actually something we are passionate to FIX. As you can see from the attached video, chat spam dominated today's stream and made it impossible for anyone to even see anyone else's messages. We have some GREAT ideas for how to fix this and actually turn chat spam into a FUN and exciting and not annoying thing - but those improvements didn't get shipped in time for this event. - Credits purchasing flow needs a LOT of work. As I'm sure y'all know, bringing money on chain is pretty complicated, and although we've been working hard to make this as seamless as possible, it still needs a TON of improvements. Many users who WANTED to spend money today weren't able to and/or ran into frustrating bugs in the credit purchase flow. Fixing this is obviously a top priority for our team. - Rallies need a LOT of work. Spectator-interactive features like rallies are at the heart of our vision for Wildcard. These "stream apps", as we call them, are the UNLOCK for how spectators, viewers and fans directly connect and interact with their favorite competitors, content creators, and communities. The current rally feature HINTS at this potential, but it needs to be WAY easier to understand, use, and have fun with. Improvements are ON THE WAY. - Referees were only partially working. Referees are a key innovation of the Thousands platform. They are AI-driven "personalities" (NPCs) that pay attention to everything that's happening in the arena, both on the field and especially in the stands (i.e. in chat, during rallies, etc.) The referees then make "calls" at the end of every match, rewarding users for their engagement and participation. Unfortunately, the referees weren't fully functional and seemed to drop the ball on recognizing everyone's contributions (especially people who showed up holding valuable assets such as Wildpasses in their wallets, and people who boosted those rallies with credits.) What's happening next: 1. We are combing through ALL the logs from the event right now, to make sure we don't miss a SINGLE action that our viewers and fans took during the event, including what they brought in their wallets (i.e. Wildpass holders!), any credits that were purchased, rallies that users engaged with, etc. This information is normally processed by our referees, who then determine dynamically how they're going to distribute $WC awards. We were originally hoping to complete this process and the subsequent airdrops within a few hours after the event, but given the amount of data, we need a bit more time to run these scripts (and airdrops) in batches instead of all at once, and make sure ALL of the data is being included. IMPORTANT: I will keep y'all updated in real-time here on twitter/X as this process is ongoing, and let you know the moment it's complete and all the awards have been distributed (i.e. when to go check your wallets 😎) 2. PLEASE keep sending us your feedback and bug reports. Open a ticket on our Discord and let us know what you loved, what you hated, and especially what we need to FIX. Given the overwhelming response to this event, it will likely take us several days to process everyone's feedback and fix all the bugs, but we WILL NOT REST until every ticket is closed/resolved. Thank you in advance for your patience. 3. We turn it up another notch next week. As our dear friends Wolves DAO just announced, the Wildcard Exhibition Event #2 is streaming LIVE from the WOLVES DEN AT GDC next Friday! If you missed out on all the action today, DON'T WORRY, because as I keep saying: we are just getting warmed up (and there is a LOT more b that needs to be distributed, get what I'm sayin??? 😎) Finally: Just wanted to say THANK YOU, again. Truly, from the bottom of my (our) hearts. Your excitement and enthusiasm for what we're building is why we do this. Even (especially, in fact) when you tell us all the things you want us to improve. We thrive off this feedback, it's how this game and this platform go from good to GREAT. I am so grateful for those of you who are taking this journey with us. SEE YA NEXT WEEK!!!show more

I think I've stumbled onto the future of building... startups. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. It's 2 AM. I'm editing a podcast, questioning every life decision that led me here. I've already burned through hundreds of thousands on this thing since 2021. Zero monetization. Just burning cash. My business partner's probably thinking I've lost it. We're juggling 6 businesses, and here I am, playing wannabe Joe Rogan. Then it hit me. Not during the podcast. In the darn comments section. I start sorting comments by "contains question" using this AI creator tool called VidIQ. "How do you validate ideas?" "What tools do you use?" "Can you dive deeper on XYZ topic?" These questions keep popping up. Over and over. That's when the lightbulb went off. What if I could turn this into a lead magnet machine? Find questions. Answer them with free stuff. Rinse. Repeat. I team up with Design Scientist to crank out 2 lead magnets a month. (Tried doing it myself first. But it was hard lol) We start pumping out things like "6 Tools I Use to Find Startup Ideas." Suddenly, I'm drowning in subscribers. 10,000 to 20,000 a month. On autopilot. Now, you're probably thinking, "Cool story, bro. But how's this a big idea?" Clarity of what to build is probably one of the most valuable ways to build products people want. You have to understand a niche's problem better than they even know them. Problem: what's the roadblock keeping founders stuck? Segment: group these founders by their specific obstacles. Product: build the bridge that gets them over their hurdle. I use ConvertKit like a scalpel, dissecting these segments. Not by age or location. By the problems they're desperate to solve. Suddenly, I'm staring at a treasure map of founder pain points. And that's when you can build startups to solve their problems. Instead of being a lead factory, you become a startup factory. You use tools like v0/replit/cursor to prototype like a madman. And it makes your life less stressful as a founder. Because you know people are lined up to buy the products. I'm so convinced this is the future of startup building, I've bet $1M+ of my own cash on it. Building startups to solve people's problems. And cool part is this blueprint can be replicated in any niche. The best SaaS ideas aren't in some Silicon Valley incubator. They're hiding in your "free" content. Think of it like this (Isenberg's formula?): (Engaged Audience) x (Targeted Lead Magnets) x (Problem-Centric Segmentation) = Product-Market Fit on Demand Here's the step-by-step: 1. Use AI/software to categorize every single audience interaction by problem type. Build a heat map of pain points. 2. Create ultra-specific lead magnets for each major problem cluster. Think "5-Step Framework for Validating SaaS Ideas" not "Generic Startup Guide". I also use free communities as lead magnets. 3. Forget demographics. Segment by the problem they're trying to solve. Use ConvertKit to build dynamic segments that would make Zuck jealous. 4. Use AI to build rapid prototypes for top problem clusters. Test with your segmented lists for instant feedback. Your next cash-flowing business is probably stuck in a comment somewhere, just waiting for you to notice it. I accidentally built a startup factory at 2am. Happy I did. Sharing in case this is useful to anyone out there. The future of startups: 1. Be a content factory 2. Be a lead factory 3. Be a startup factoryshow more

Unpopular opinion about El Salvador. A TON of workers... here are lazy as hell and i do hope this message reaches many Salvadoreños in the United States. You leave the job site, little will get done and yes tools and materials will disappear. I said it. If you’re going to build a home, start a business, or just hire a few helping hands for that side project, get ready to fire fast. Put in systems of checks and balances, hire solid management, use cameras, and lock up materials. If you have the time or money you or someone you really trust must manage the project on SITE. I’ve hired thousands of people throughout the last few 6 years while personally living in 9 Latin countries and El Salvador has been one of the hardest to work in. El Salvador also happens to be my favorite country at the moment with my favorite people. It’s beautiful, small, has a Chuck E cheese for my daughter but most important, it’s safe for my family. So why is it so damn hard to work with people here? I think it’s because of the civil war. This is going to sound crazy coming from a president of a non profit but free money destroys people. It enables them. It ruins their will to work ultimately creating a lazy and slothful person Over 2.5 million people from El Salvador live in the United States. MANY of them send money every 2 weeks to their aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews to “help” them. This has turned into dependency. It has created a cycle of entitlement rather than self-sufficiency. “Why would I work for 10 hours in the sun when I can tell my aunt that I need money for medicine?” There are kids here with no desire to self educate, no desire to work, because they’re sucking the tit of their families in the United States or Canada. 2 of my hardest workers who show up early, never miss a day are these two men in this video. No arms, and an elderly who just wants to work. Their speed compared to a young healthy man is slow in comparison but their will and desire to work is unwavering. They’re inspiring. They are happy at work. They don’t complain. They’re not rich working for me but they are ok. I believe they are hard workers because they were never a part of a welfare system given to them from family in the states. I also believe that the civil war has created a massive divide between the wealthy and the poor. Maybe this already existed but chatting with enough people you can put 2 and 2 together. The socioeconomic divides between the wealthy and the poor. Certain families growing incredibly rich over the suffering of the lower class. People have lost trust, they’ve lost hope. Their views on money and rich people are shaped by past experiences of being taken advantage of. People are sick and tired of making $75 per pay period in the farms of El Salvador. I know that’s a whole other discussion. How do we fix this? I don’t know but I know my mission with casa conejo is to inspire others to work their asses off and to get paid by the sweat of their brows. I want to create a micro economy that allows the poor of the poor to grow! To break the cycle of poverty. To shatter the idea of “we can’t make it in El Salvador” We can and we will by working our asses off and getting paid what we deserve. Once we’re open a percentage of profits will go towards these workers. The rest back into our projects of building schools, running our women’s shelters, feeding the elderly. Let’s do thisshow more

This grandad found a 500 year-old, 17ft deep well... under his living room in Plymouth, Devon, England. As well as, he also found a 16th Century BC, Bronze Age Sword and Coin from 1725 AD, inside the well :- The 70 year-old Colin Steer has spent last decade digging out well after he found it while redecorating living room of his home. He noticed a dip in floor while carrying out DIY, which led him to uncover well. While digging it out, Steer found what he thinks is the leather casing of a sword, which he believes could date the structure to 1500s. The 70-year-old said: "I found what seemed to be a leather casing of a sword when I was about 5ft into dig which leads me to believe that well could be medieval. "However it could date back to even earlier than that because we have no real way of accurately dating it at moment." He said that house was constructed in 1895 and he moved there in 1988 but it was 10 years ago while decorating that he saw the dip. "I immediately thought someone must have buried someone under there or that we had a sinkhole. "Since that moment, I decided I was going to dig it out and see what I would find. The hole is currently 17ft deep and there is about another 4-5ft that I want to dig out when I eventually get round to it. Since I began digging out well, I have also found a coin from 1725. In late 18th Century AD, during reign of George III, government issued large copper coins known as "Cartwheel" penny and twopence. An ancient sword was also discovered inside the well. Historically, sword developed in Bronze Age, evolving from dagger; earliest specimens date to about 1600 BC. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. At the bottom of well the is about 4ft of water, so everything that I did out now will be wet and mucky stuff." Colin wants to go another few feet further down though before he finishes and although he is bringing up mud into his living room, he says that his wife Vanessa is understanding and is equally interested in the well. His plan is to then extend well wall up into his living room and use it as a coffee table which he thinks will make an attractive feature. He is also keen to find out why the well is actually there and consulting old maps have not given any answers. He said: "I would extend the walls of the well up through the floor and then add a round tabletop on top to make it into a coffee table. I think it would be a great feature for our front room. We still aren't really sure about why the well is there". The 17ft hole in the couple's living room is currently covered over by a sheet of Perspex and a trap door so that it is safe. Colin and Vanessa have grandchildren who love to look down the hole through the sheet of Perspex and they are very intrigued by unique feature in their grandparent's home. He added: "It is a good thing to show off to people as it is not something that you see every day. I have actually even tried some of water that is at the bottom of the well. It was really clear and tasted fine to me. I am going to get it tested for bacteria and if everything came back good then I could even bottle it up and sell it." According to the researchers, this well belonged to a wealthy or noble families, because only high status families could afford their own private well - most likely in the basement of your house, during medieval and late medieval times. Because, it was common for external wells to be poisoned in Medieval times, which is why castles would have them built internally. It could take decades to construct the well but it was worth wait to have your own clean water. To prevent well from collapsing, some were lined with stones, bricks or wood. Researchers also stated that, according to the preservation status of this well, it looks that the well was regularly maintained, to keep functional for long. It also involved periodic cleaning to remove debris, prevent contamination and maintain quality of water. #archaeohiatoriesshow more

AUKUS, Mistakes and Opportunities In 2016, Japan offered Australia... state-of-the-art, diesel-electric, ultra-quiet submarines with the option of local production at the Henderson shipyard. The Australian government rejected the proposal, claiming its goal was always nuclear-powered submarines. Instead, Australia decided to spend roughly A$4-5 billion extending the life of its ageing Collins-class fleet until the 2040s . enough money to have bought seven-eight Japanese Taigei-class submarines outright. If that’s really what the government wanted, the Americans and British certainly sent them the bill for AUKUS. Australia is footing almost the entire cost: A$368 billion over three decades. - The United States receives US$3 billion from Australia to expand its industrial base, build more Virginia-class submarines, and then sells 3–5 second-hand boats back to Canberra. - The United Kingdom receives around £2.4 billion from Australia for design and infrastructure work, shares some development costs, and ends up using the exact same SSN-AUKUS design for its own future fleet at essentially no extra cost. I’m genuinely intrigued by how they managed to sell the Australians on this deal. I’d love to meet and congratulate the American and British negotiators – true sales geniuses. Nuclear submarines must have been a childhood dream of that Australian government; there’s no other explanation. But the problems don’t end there. Just as the Americans have cancelled over 300 programmes and thrown away more than US$200 billion in the last 20 years, the British have serious and very recent issues with their own naval projects. It feels like a structural disease in the Western defence industry. - The Astute programme is more than a decade late, costs have tripled, only 5 of the planned 7 boats have been delivered, and engineering problems keep cropping up. - The Dreadnought class (replacement for the Vanguard ballistic-missile submarines) has ballooned by billions and is now delayed well beyond 2030 because of failures integrating propulsion systems and Trident missiles. - And the crown jewels – the Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales aircraft carriers – are operational but chronically short of compatible F-35s and cost a staggering £10 billion in overruns. - The Type 45 destroyers suffered catastrophic electrical failures that left them inoperable for years, and the Type 26 frigate programme has been repeatedly cut back, reflecting completely misplaced priorities. And a programme that is supposed to deliver eight submarines to Australia sometime around 2050–2060 is extremely unlikely to proceed as planned, not only because of budgets and operational complications, but because underwater drones are evolving fast and China is leading that race. The Americans and British have a long naval history, but they are also visionaries who understand perfectly well that the future lies in decentralisation: swarms of UUVs, lithium or solid battery submarines, or even small nuclear-powered ones using micro-reactors. These platforms cost 10–20 % of today’s conventional SSNs to maintain, are lighter, and leave far more internal volume for weapons – meaning smaller, cheaper, and more heavily armed submarines. And what does Australia get left with? Far more than just a submarine partnership with Japan – an entire security ecosystem. By 2026-2028, Japan plans to have the HVPG hypersonic glide vehicles fully operational with ranges up to 2,000 km. Their upgraded Type 12 missiles will reach 1,000–1,500 km and can be launched from ships, aircraft, and land batteries. This is enough to cover and protect the entire Australian coastline for thousands of kilometers. And finally, a 3,000 km-range hypersonic missile is being integrated into the Taigei-class and its successor. That arsenal is far beyond anything currently fielded by any Western nation and only Russia and China have comparable systems.show more

I just ran Gemma 4 31B on @CerebrasSystems at... 1,800+ tokens/sec and it's multimodal. For context: that's 35x faster than a typical GPU endpoint, and the first token (reasoning included) lands in 1.5 seconds. This isn't a benchmark slide, I recorded the inference live. Prompt I used: "Create a simulation of an iPhone. Include at least one working dummy note taking app, a functional notification pulldown, high quality graphics, single HTML file, any libs via CDN." - Generation time: 3 seconds. - Notes app worked. - Notification panel worked. - Rendered first try. This is what wafer-scale inference unlocks, not just "faster," but a different category of product. When generation is this fast, you stop waiting and start iterating in real time. Why this matters: Gemma 4 31B is Google DeepMind's flagship open weight model, Apache 2.0 licensed, dense (not MoE), and built for efficiency over raw parameter count. It scores close to Claude Haiku 4.5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (30 vs 29) but runs ~18x faster on Cerebras. It's also the first multimodal model on Cerebras's platform, meaning you can now feed it screenshots, documents, charts, and UI states at wafer scale speed. # Applications I'm most excited about: - Screenshot → Insight: Drop in a dashboard or document screenshot, get structured findings back instantly. no waiting, no batching. - Live UI generation: Full interactive interfaces (like my iPhone sim) generated and rendered in under 2 seconds. - Screenshot -> Patch: Feed it a broken UI + console error, get a minimal code fix and verification steps back. - Computer use & agentic loops: See -> reason -> act - verify, fast enough to keep a human in the loop instead of waiting on the model. - Long context summarization: Full research reports condensed into decision ready summaries you can read and requery in one sitting. The bigger unlock isn't the speed number itself, it's that agentic and multimodal loops (see -> reason -> output -> tool call -> verify -> retry) finally run in real time instead of feeling sluggish. As Logan Kilpatrick (Logan Kilpatrick) put it: "If every model was doing 2,000 tokens per second, you wouldn't build the same product and just have it be faster, you'd build different products." Gemma 4 31B is live now on Cerebras Inference Cloud in public preview. If you're building multimodal, agentic, or real time apps, this is worth testing today. What would you build with such insane inference throughput?show more

A16Z SPEEDRUN 2026 UPDATE: I think most people secretly... know if they’re founders or not. Some of you can never be happy working inside a giant company, writing docs, in endless meetings. Deep down, you know you’re supposed to build. we're opening up a16z speedrun today! We are accepting applications for our 006 class, where we'll invest up to $1M. It's based in SF, kicking off Jan 2026 but you need to apply now in september. here's how to apply: And yes, we are investing up to $100M in the next 30 days -- it's all happening in september. Quit whatever it is that you're doing, and in 2026 come to SF and work with us out of Andreessen Horowitz's office in SOMA, alongside over a hundred other founders, building the startup you've always wanted to build. We will help you -- both myself and the a16z speedrun team. the details: - up to $1M of investment - hosted at a16z HQ in San Francisco - 12 week program, with an IRL kickoff, luminary speakers, community events - live events with the founders of Carta, Zynga, DoorDash, Behance, Airtable, Twilio, Figma, and more - private dinners/Q&A with Marc and Ben of a16z - apply now, and the deadline will be Sep 28 2025 for SR6 At a16z speedrun, you get access to programs from our operating team and work with experts in marketing, BD, talent, people and capital—more below MARKETING Our team of expert marketers is here to help you win. Whether refining your brand, launching, or building a thriving community, our marketing operators have powered dozens of startups with: - Brand Development -End-To-End Marketing Strategy -PR & Media Coverage -Go-To-Market Execution -Creators & Content TALENT Find and attract the talent you need to build and scale your company. Our curated network connects you with world-class technical talent, executives, advisors, and specialists who can help accelerate your success. Here’s how the program works: - You tell us what you’re looking for. - We use a16z speedrun's brand and referral networks to magnetize talent. - We take hundreds of calls each week to curate a list that we only send to speedrun founders. - You request introductions and we put you in touch. PEOPLE We help you quickly stand up the tools and practices needed to hire, manage, and lead highly performant teams. Our goal is to help you anticipate challenges and navigate some of the most foundational decisions you'll make as you build a world-class company. While a16z speedrun takes place in the US, we welcome founders and companies from around the world. Our Global Founders Program provides specialized guidance for navigating visas and relocation, plus dedicated access to our expert immigration attorney network, so you can focus your energy on building your company. BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT We unlock unparalleled access to networks, expertise, and tools that help startups scale faster. - $5M+ in free credits in our speedrun Marketplace from AWS, GCP, OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Stripe, Deel, and many more. - Dedicated advisors & experts to guide you through every partnership, sales, and GTM motion, including crafting your business model and pricing. - Level up your sales with real live demo experience across various events to executives and operators in your target market. - Access to a16z’s network of executives & decision-makers at 2,000+ companies. CAPITAL One of the most important things a founder can do is raise money. Our fundraising program sets the stage for your raise through an in-person Demo Day and an online platform reaching 1,000+ top early-stage investors. We help you prepare with practice sessions, stress tests, and materials review. When you’re in high-stakes negotiations, we coach you, share insider knowledge, and leverage alumni intel on the investor across the table. More details: The a16z speedrun program is a fast‐paced, 12-week startup program that guides founders through every critical stage of their growth. It kicks off with an orientation to introduce the cohort, then dives into rapid product development—helping founders think through MVP while addressing key topics like customer acquisition and design partnerships. Throughout the program, startups benefit from expert-led sessions and interactive office hours that cover: - Brand Building & Go-to-Market Strategy: Crafting your story, marketing, and driving product-led growth. - Customer Acquisition & Launch: Securing early users and executing effective launch plans. - Fundraising & Strategic Partnerships: Pitching, navigating investment, and building lasting relationships. - Team Building & Operational Scaling: Developing high-performing teams and refining internal processes for sustained growth. - Community & Enterprise Sales: Building communities, forming strategic partnerships, and landing your first enterprise customers. - Product-Market Fit & Demo Day Prep: Assessing market traction which culminates in a Demo Day to showcase progress. The a16z speedrun program is IRL and runs for 12 intensive weeks in which our team of expert investors and operators guide your startup from idea to market launch. The program moves through sequential modules—each dedicated to key aspects such as rapid product development, go-to-market strategy, fundraising, team building, and operational scaling. Expect regular check-ins, one-on-one office hours, and interactive sessions, culminating in a Demo Day where you present your progress to potential investors.show more

Managed to get out of Dubai. The following is... my personal opinion & experience 🇦🇪 Everything went quite seamless. Careem cabs operate normally. The airport is extremely well organized, considering the circumstances. The world has changed since Saturday and unfortunately, the country I moved to 3 years ago has been under heavy attacks. Why? No one really knows. However, I find it extremely disturbing that most media - including our beloved CT - exploits that serious situation to take cheap shots at Dubai and people who moved here. There are real families and hard working people affected. Most are scared or feel extremely uncomfortable. It's a traumatizing experience to hear missile interceptions right above your house. Nothing I wish for any human to ever experience, no matter if you pay 0% or 50% taxes. I don't even know what the link between those two things should be?? If anything, it proves that the UAE cares about their people and is able to protect its residents. Even at 0% income tax. Dubai was not known for it's strong military. It was always portrayed to be bling-bling golden steaks and influencers. But the UAE has shown the entire world that it can defend 1,000+ drones and 200+ missiles from a direct neighbor. That is impressive, whether you love or hate the UAE. Many countries would likely not be able to absorb that. So, if anything: Dubai and the UAE have demonstrated that the system works. I have lived in multiple countries around the world and the UAE is by far the most capable of handling crisis. Why did I leave Dubai then? Because it's not a situation I want to be in. Missile interceptions and drone explosions are no joke. Besides the danger that debris could hit your roof, there's an incredible intensity in the air. Most describe it as "intense calmness". While the Government managed to keep everyone from panicking, it's impossible for everyone to stay fully calm. And you can feel that in the day to day. The first night I got virtually no sleep. The night of my departure neither. I haven't left my house at all after the attacks started. But I'm out now. I really hope that leaving the country wasn't necessary, and that I will be able to come back to Dubai as soon as possible. And no, I'm not paid to say this, nor did I sign anything. Maybe part of the truth why no one who lives in Dubai has bad things to say about it is because it's one of the rare places on earth where people actually trust the Government and respect them? Not only for creating wealth and understanding business, but for caring and communicating in a way most other countries are simply incapable of. Anyways, I guess the point of this post is to 1) Tell everyone in Dubai that it's possible to leave right now. I know many people are very scared and want to get out. Be persistent with the airline if they cancel your flight and push hard to get rebooked on the next available one. And maybe choose a destination that isn't Europe, considering most of these flights are overbooked already and impossible to get on. 2) Dubai's self defense is impressive and we should acknowledge that. At least this one time, let's not derail into irrelevant discussions but show respect to the leaders + express empathy for those affected. 3) As an expat living in Dubai, I can still feel proud of my home country and do not have to choose. This isn't a black and white situation. Dubai is a melting pot of cultures and great place for Business. Other countries have better nature, social life or other things. It's also up to individual preference. 4) If you hate Dubai, yalla you don't need to live here, visit nor speak about it. Enjoy the place you live in and focus on your own. No need to feel triggered and take cheap shots at hard working people and families that are currently under heavy missile attacks. One final thing that really became clear to me this week is that after all, safety, health and living in freedom are absolutely priceless. May this all be over with soon and for sustaining peace to come in 🤲🏼show more

$KDR token is a pivotal moment in the history... of the Kaidro universe. Finally a piece of the world that can be accessible to millions of future audiences to come. Kaidro’s $KDR will lead the forefront of what a token supported intellectual property can do. Kaidro sets the stage for what true franchise intellectual properties are capable of with dedicated fans and cross multimedia approach. We will lead the charge to be the example of a story and world can be if others like Star Wars, Harry Potter, League of Legends, and others could involve their community in this way. Kaidro has always been about the steady growth and long term play in the development of the intellectual property. Before launching the web 3 elements through out 2024 with 4 successful NFT launches, Kaidro had another lifetime in web 2 with the growth of the story and audience through the online manga on Webtoons exactly 4 years ago in 2020. We as the creators spent a good decade developing the world, storylines, art, and design as well as sharing the world alongside our audience of over 1+ million followers on TikTok. Since then, Kaidro has grown beyond a manga series to NFTs, an ARPG game, web game, audiobooks, merch, future animation and now the upcoming $KDR token. All of which onboard more and more champions in the Kaidro world. Along the way, we have been able to invite our audience into the universe by getting involved in it, whether it be voice acting, drawn into the mangas, voting on designs or making up their own designs. It’s web 2 and web 3 working together to bring the universe to the masses. This is just the beginning of the journey of Kaidro. There are those who discover the manga on Webtoons, there are those who found Kaidro on the Steam games page, and many of those who joined us through the Kaidro NFT collections. That is the beauty of the Kaidro community, people can come together and relate to one another on the various forms of the story and world. Token Generation Event for $KDR is coming fast and we want talk about what there is to know. The total number of tokens is 100,000,000, FDV of 55M with an initial circulating supply at TGE of ~17M tokens. We will be listing on the Katana DEX and Bitmart as our first CEX. The future is bright and we have been in talks with multiple CEXs to list $KDR. $KDR will have many utilities, from eligibility to become a producer in the Kaidro animation series get Kaidro NFTs, obtain battle passes on the Kaidro game and to receive exclusive in-game items, and more to come. Starting with the planned FDV continues our belief of accessibility to the largest audience possible to grow along with. Much like our approach with the free Journal NFT mint which minted 350,000+ journals to the free mangas that have garnered over 2 million readers, to the free ARPG game that have tens of thousands of Steam Wishlists. We must continue to be accessible to those who show interest in Kaidro. Historically from wide exposure there are a good percentage of those who want to dive deeper into Kaidro. Those who obtain the NFTs, the physical mangas, listen to the audiobook, the merch, and now the upcoming $KDR tokens. Our goal has and always will be to onboard more people to Kaidro and the next biggest expansion which will be the animation series that we are working with Tim Hedrick (Writer and Executive Producer known for Avatar: Last Airbender & Korra) and the full Kaidro: Clan Battles game launch. The unlimited ability to reach many more people through a streaming series and a fully published game. We continue steady on our journey to the building and the spread of the Kaidro universe. This is just the beginning. Kaidro is undeniable 🐉 Peggy & Robert Creators of Kaidro Find all things Kaidro here:show more

This is the second of two posts I’m making... about the teaching of Andy Stanley because I have a burden to warn people to be like the Bereans "examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." (Acts 17:11). I have attached a short video clip where Stanley says we don’t know Jesus rose from the dead because the bible tells us so. He says it’s the other way around. Now how do we know Jesus bodily rose from the dead? Did any of us see it happen? No, it happened 2000 years ago. But haven’t people researched the resurrection and found all sorts of evidence consistent with Him rising from the dead. Yes, but such evidence, though powerful, and we can certainly use in our witnessing, does not ultimately prove He rose from the dead. In fact, no matter what evidence we point to in geology, biology, astronomy etc., none of this proves in an ultimate sense the bible is true. Now it is certainly true such evidence properly interpreted does confirm the bible’s history. For instance, the molecule of heredity DNA is a complex information system and language system. No one has seen matter produce information or a language from matter by natural processes. Our observations and experience show information and language have to come from an intelligence. Such evidence confirms an intelligence behind life. This certainly confirms the first verse of the bible, “In the beginning God created… .” But nonetheless, it’s not absolute proof. Think about it. We are finite beings living in the present. We don’t know everything. We don’t know how much we don’t know or do know in relation to whatever there is to know! When we try to interpret evidence of the present in relation to the past, how do we know we have all the relevant information to make the correct interpretation. Some information we don’t have could totally change our interpretation. That has certainly happened with scientists solving crimes using circumstantial evidence. When new evidence comes along, some of the interpretations change and certain people thought to be guilty were found they were innocent after-all. We need to have all the information needed. But we can’t know everything. However we have a book that claims over three thousand times to be the Word of God. This book claims that God moved people by His spirit to write His Word, what He wants revealed to us about life, the universe and history. This book, the bible, tells us that God knows everything, He is infinite in knowledge and wisdom. He has all information. “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). If God’s Word is what it claims to be (and it is), then the infinite Creator God has revealed to us the key information we need to know to have the ability to correctly interpret this world in relation to the past, present and its purpose and meaning. “Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). This means if we build our thinking on God’s Word, we build a Christian worldview to enable us to look at the world through “biblical glasses” and have the ability to correctly interpret and understand it. And Genesis 1-11 is the history that is foundational to the rest of the bible and thus our worldview. So, when we start with God’s Word we learn that the God revealed to us in the bible is the One Who created all things. Now by just looking at the world, for instance at DNA, we might deduce that there’s an intelligence behind life. But we would not know who that intelligence is unless revealed to us. The bible reveals who that intelligence is, God the father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, if we just looked at the world with all its death, suffering and disease, we could assume that the intelligence behind life must be an ogre to make such a violent disease ridden suffering world. But when we start from God’s Word, we understand there was no death or disease to start with, but these entered the world because of sin. We also find man has a problem called sin which alienated him from God. We even find in Genesis that God promised someone would come to save us from our sin and restore our relationship with God (Genesis 3:15; 3:21). We learn later on that “someone” is Jesus--the one who became flesh for us, the babe in a manger 2000 years ago. It's important to understand we can’t know anything absolutely unless an absolute authority has revealed to us what we need to know. Now Andy Stanley claims we don’t know Jesus rose from the dead because the bible tells us so, but claims it’s the other way round, that because Jesus rose from the dead, we can believe what is says about this in the bible. In reality, Andy Stanley is actually claiming he knows all information about the resurrection to know it’s true so then he can proclaim what the bible says about the resurrection is true. This is not so. And remember from the previous post, Andy Stanley accepts man’s view of evolution and millions of years as true to declare what Genesis records about creation is not all true. So why shouldn't people take the word of others who claim Jesus didn't rise from the dead to then declare the account of the resurrection in the gospels can't be true. Stanley, as a finite fallen human being with very limited knowledge, starts outside the bible to go to the bible to make pronouncements over God’s written Word. No wonder he rejects a literal Genesis. Sadly, this is the case for the majority of our church leaders and Christian academics, particularly when it comes to Genesis. Think about it. Really Stanley is acting in accord with our sin nature because of what happened in Genesis 3. Part of our sin nature concerns us wanting to be our own god. Consider Genesis 3:1 and Genesis 3:5, the temptation by the devil. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to question God’s Word, and be want to be like God to decide good and evil, truth, etc., for themselves. In actuality, the statements Andy Stanley is making about Christianity and God’s Word are reflecting this sin problem we have. He is letting his sin nature master over him in this instance instead of letting God’s Word tell us clearly what we should believe. And I would say that about all Christians who reinterpret parts of the bible (like Genesis) because of beliefs from outside the bible. Now the whole bible is actually about Jesus, from the very first verse, that Jesus is the Creator (Colossians 1:16 “For by him all things were created,”), & and he is the Savior (Revelation 5:9), to the very last verse, “He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Revelation 22:20–21) God reveals all we need to know about Jesus in His Word. We know Jesus rose from the dead because the bible tells us so! We know we are sinners because the bible tells us so. We know we can be saved through faith in Christ because the bible tells us so. We know we need to repent of sin because the bible tells us so. As Christians we know we will spend eternity in Heaven because the bible tells us so. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God” (Romans 10:17). I still remember singing the chorus as a child Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so. Yes, the bible tells me so – that’s how know who Jesus is, that He is the Creator, that he died and rose from the dead, and that He is our Savior.show more