Episode 526: The Optimist, the Origin, and the Deck

This week, we unpack The Optimist, the new Sam Altman biography; revisit OpenAI’s early days; and break down Coatue’s AI strategy deck. Plus, tips for squeezing in side projects between thought leadership presentations.

Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 526

Runner-up Titles

• Flow State


• Altman and AI


• Day 2 Thinking


• Growth Mindset


• Less of you


• You don't need a Harvard Business Review subscription to know that


• Running unnecessary hardware in your house


• Lifelong Costco member here.


• Pre-populate Everything


• There’s no ROI on a good hotdog

Rundown

• AI Native vs. AI Add-on


• AI Frenzy
  
  
  • The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future
  
  
  • Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab valued at $10bn after $2bn fundraising
  
  
  • ChatGPT's Enterprise Success Against Copilot Fuels OpenAI and Microsoft's Rivalry
  
  
  • Iyo vs. Io — OpenAI and Jony Ive get sued
  
  
  • Zuckerberg Leads AI Recruitment Blitz Armed With $100 Million Pay Packages
  
  
  • After trying to buy Ilya Sutskever's $32B AI startup, Meta looks to hire its CEO
  
  
  • Message from CEO Andy Jassy: Some thoughts on Generative AI
  
  
  • Clouded Judgement 6.19.25 - The Dropping Cost of Intelligence
  
  


• Coatue's 2025 EMW Keynote Replay
  
  
  • Slides in online PDF
  
  
  • Coatue’s Laffont Brothers. AI, Public & VC Mkts, Macro, US Debt, Crypto, IPO's, & more
  
  


• Agents and the Web
  
  
  • Remote MCP support in Claude Code
  
  
  • Agentforce 3, it's agents all the way down.
  
  
  • Google Cloud donates A2A to Linux Foundation- Google Developers Blog
  
  


• Linux Foundation Appoints Jonathan Bryce as Executive Director, Cloud & Infrastructure and Chris Aniszczyk as CTO, Cloud & Infrastructure to Oversee Major Open Source Initiatives

Relevant to your Interests

• Amazon orders employees to relocate to Seattle and other hubs


• Microsoft announces advancement in quantum error correction


• Datadog DASH: A Revolving Door Of Operations And Security Announcements


• the six-month recap: closing talk on AI at Web Directions, Melbourne, June 2025


• Snap acquires Saturn, a social calendar app for high school and college students


• Frequent reauth doesn't make you more secure


• Checking In on AI and the Big Five


• U.S. House tells staffers not to use Meta’s WhatsApp


• How AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux Have Diverged Since CentOS


• AI search finds publishers starved of referral traffic


• 10 years of platform engineering at SIXT: Lessons in scaling and innovation - Boyan Dimitrov


• What Would a Kubernetes 2.0 Look Like


• kubectl-ai

Nonsense

• Costco Executive Members get extended hours

Listener Feedback

• Warp

Conferences

• CF Day EU, Frankfurt, October 7th, 2025.


• SpringOne, Las Vegas, August 25th to 28th, 2025. See Coté’s pitch.


• Explore 2025 US, Las Vegas, August 25th to 28th, 2025. See Coté’s pitch.


• Texas Linux Fest, Austin, October 3rd to 4th. CFP closes August 3rd.

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Recommendations

• Brandon: Discount Tire


• Coté:
  
  
  • Brimstone Angels
  
  
  • Rebels of Reason: The Long Road from Aristotle to ChatGPT and AI's Heroes Who Kept the Faith
  
  

Photo Credits

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