Tippets #200
The context graph, Jevon's Paradox for knowledge work, AI as the new steel and more. Enjoy!
Happy holidays! A warm welcome to new readers getting this for the first time, and thank you for letting me be a small part of your week! As a reminder, I’m Rishi Taparia, Co-founder and General Partner at Garuda Ventures, a pre-seed focused fund that partners with founders as they pull the future into the present. Tippets is a curated set of tidbits and snippets (get it…tippets…) from my reading around the web.
Tippets from Around the Web:
AI’s trillion-dollar opportunity: Context graphs
A great piece by Jaya Gupta of Foundation Capital illustrating how context is key when thinking about AI Agents and the opportunity in front of them. Agents won’t replace systems of record, instead they will become the interface on top of these systems. The key, however, is their understanding of the underlying decision history. That “context graph” can become the new system of record and major commercial platforms.
(9-minute read - Jaya Gupta)
Silent Sirens, Flashing For Us All
Jack Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, talks eloquently about why everyone needs to be playing and using AI more than we already are. AI is “naturally illegible”, and requires agency, time, and curiosity. We will all benefit from spending more time with it.
Most of AI progress has this flavor: if you have a bit of intellectual curiosity and some time, you can very quickly shock yourself with how amazingly capable modern AI systems are. But you need to have that magic combination of time and curiosity, and otherwise you’re going to consume AI like most people do - as a passive viewer of some unremarkable synthetic slop content, or at best just asking your LLM of choice “how to roast a turkey and keep it moist”, or “TonieBox lights spinning but not playing music what do I do?”. And all the amazing advancements going on are mostly hidden from you.
(5-minute read - Jack Clark)
Steam, Steel, and Infinite Minds
A well-researched article by Notion co-founder Ivan Zhou on why AI is this generation’s miracle material and will require driving to the future looking forward, not, as Marshall McLuhan describes it, “via the rearview window.”
AI is steel for organizations. It has the potential to maintain context across workflows and surface decisions when needed without the noise. Human communication no longer has to be the load-bearing wall.
We're still in the "swap out the waterwheel" phase. AI chatbots bolted onto existing tools. We haven't reimagined what organizations look like when the old constraints dissolve and your company can run on infinite minds that work while you sleep.
(6-minute read - Ivan Zhou)
Jevons Paradox for Knowledge Work
Aaron Levie, Box’s CEO, makes an optimistic case for AI, arguing that while AI will make knowledge work much cheaper, the opportunity is not fewer tasks, but more. Thus, small teams and startups can now afford work that only big firms could before, and this surge in demand will create new projects, jobs, and uses we can’t fully imagine today.
(5-minute read - Aaron Levie)
The hidden forces ruining youth sports
Back in the day, youth sports were about playing with friends, learning teamwork, and maybe getting a snack after the game. As a dad now, I see a very different picture, with higher costs, intense competition, and a focus on winning that can lead to stress or injuries for kids. Families often spend a lot hoping for scholarships that most young athletes will never receive. I can’t help but miss when the game was just about the love of playing.
(6-minute read - Vox)
Quote I'm thinking about: “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” — Marshall McLuhan
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