Some years ago, I worked for one of the top dance music record labels in the world, Armada Music in Amsterdam.

It’s the record label of frequent world’s-number-one DJ Armin van Buuren.

Armin’s business model is insane, and it’s something I’ve always thought of as a “virtuous triangle”.

There are three parts to Armin’s empire:

1. The DJ. Armin gets exorbitant fees to perform around the world. And the music he plays largely comes from the catalog of his record label.
2. The record label owner. In addition to a gigantic back-catalog of dance music classics, Armada supplies Armin the DJ with a never-ending supply of new tracks. He gives publicity to the catalog by playing the music live, and in turn the music generates extra money in the form of streams and buys.
3. The talent manager. Throwing giant events is big business. When you’re selling tens of thousands of tickets, picking the right talent is key. Ensuring your signed artists perform at these events compounds the ROI.

Each of these parts of the triangle is distinct, yet each reinforces the other.

Whenever you see an outsized personal or business success, chances are there is something like this triangle at play.

On your own path, are your activities reinforcing each other or hurting each other?

I started programming Z80 assembly language on my TI calculator when I was 13.

I wrote code like this:

Start:

ld hl,

FPNum1

call $42D7

call $4263

call $4A7E

call $4A86

call $4A95

ld hl,title

ld de,$c324

ld bc,51

And it would compile into gibberish like this:

¡2˝¿>02¡!÷ÊÕCÁÕ°fiÕ°fiÕCÁÕ°fiÕ°fiÕCÁÕ°fiÕ°fi!:ÁÕCÁ!:ÁÕCÁ√ŸÕÇJÕ˜fi!�¸°‚>C2¡Õfl…ÌK¡ÌC¡>2�¡Õ¡Ÿ:˝¿˛� A€˛ˇ A€>

Every programming language is an abstraction layer that makes it easier for humans to interface with machines.

So when a “real” programmer tells you that using AI isn’t coding, unless they are literally writing machine code on a TextEdit doc (or directly manipulating physical transistors like Steve Wozniak did), they are benefiting from the exact same abstraction layers that have made modern programming possible for decades.

Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for the insanely talented programmers whose mathematical and logical genius forms the underpinning of our entire society. And I don’t believe that we should toss them aside like yesterday’s garbage.

I just believe that AI is the next evolution of programming languages, nothing more. And in the hands of experts, these tools become even more powerful.

Coding is a way of looking at the world, using logic and problem solving. Everything else is just a means to an end.

When you speak with as many Silicon Valley founders as I have, you start to recognize their “doublespeak”.

They switch into pitch mode and jump into the same set of rehearsed lines they’ve practiced 1,000x.

One founder seriously told me that his motivation to electrify taco trucks was that the gas generators were so loud he and his friends couldn’t have a conversation.

As a connoisseur of hundreds of taco trucks, I can safely say that while gas generators aren’t the best thing in the world, they’ve never stopped me from eating or talking.

So the Silicon Valley investor reason is: I needed to fix this annoying problem that made it unbearable to talk! But the real reason is: I want to electrify everything to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

We don’t need to couch our solutions in made-up problems. We don't need to communicate what we think people want to hear.

Just be honest. Exit pitch mode, and enter "real human being" mode more often.

In Vaclav Smil’s book: How the World Really Works, he argues that modern society isn’t possible without cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia.

There’s no conceivable present or future where we don’t need increasing amounts of these building blocks, and all are heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

These days, we’re all mired in an onslaught of digital problems and digital solutions. We tend to lose sight of the big picture.

I’m reminded of a line in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist: “The Secret of Happiness lies in looking at all the wonders of the world and never forgetting the two drops of oil in the spoon.”

This means yes, we should focus on all the many wonders of our digital age. But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that every great advancement in AI is backed by a giant, fossil-fuel-guzzling super plant.

Can we embrace the miracles of our technology, while still remembering that we are sustained by the finite resources of a pale blue dot, drifting through space?

Alt title: Why the roads are empty at 3:30 AM.

When booking a flight, why would anyone choose to wake up at three in the morning to head to the airport?

Now being a little extra tired on any given morning isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s certainly more of a pain than sleeping in. It’s not much friction, but it’s enough for the roads to be largely empty.

So much of our society and culture is shaped by things that the vast majority of us “kinda don’t feel like doing” at any given moment.

Our collective reactions to a series of slight inconveniences define our public life.