Dan Caruso’s new book Bandwidth: The Untold Story of Ambition, Deception, and Innovation that Shaped the Internet Age and Dot-Com Boom is available for pre-order, to be released on February 4, 2025. Order your copy today on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. You can also subscribe to Dan’s Bandwidth newsletter to receive updates on the book release and launch events. Dan asked me to write the foreword, which I happily did. See an excerpt explaining why I loved reading this book.

Are you interested in AI? Do you enjoy science fiction? Do you have an opinion about how AI will impact the human species? Are you enthusiastic about it or worried about it? Or do you think you know the answer? Dave Jilk (my first business partner and one of my closest friends) recently published EPOCH: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga. When Dave described the idea for the book he was working on during a long hike four years ago up and around Green Mountain in Boulder, I was fascinated with what he had decided to take on. AI wasn’t front of mind in the same way as today, but Dave had been doing research in that arena for around a decade. When we talked about AI, our discussions usually revolved around aspects of AGI. I was mainly in listening and questioning mode since Dave’s knowledge and thoughts quickly went beyond my understanding of – well – all of it.

I recently wrote the Foreword for Unshackled, a new book co-authored by Soundarya Basubramani, a writer from India, and Sameer Khedekar, a veteran immigration lawyer. Unshackled breaks down how legal immigration works in America in a way that is friendly, accessible, and human*.* It’s filled with raw stories of high-skilled immigrants who walked unconventional paths and actionable guidance to navigate those paths. Last August, Rajesh Setty sent me an email request from Soundarya when the book was just an idea. Soundarya shared her vision for the book and why she wanted to write it. Unsurprisingly, the motivation stemmed from personal frustrations with the immigration system in the U.S. 

Alan Arkin is one of my favorite actors. I just saw a note that he passed away yesterday. I expect I’ll look like him when I lose my hair since he looks like my dad. And every time I see Alan Arkin, I think of my dad. If you see me driving my Jeep around Boulder, I just gave you a hint about what my license plate (ARGOFY) means. Rest in peace, Edwin Hoover.

The Venture Deals course is free and starts on June 20, 2023. This is the fourth time we are running the new version of the course (v2!) that was co-created with Techstars and Kauffman Fellows. If interested, sign up now. I hope to see you in one of the AMAs we will host for anyone who takes the course.

John McPhee’s Levels of the Game was published when I was three. I’ve read many books about tennis, but it’s still my favorite, with String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis coming in a close second. Both books share extraordinary writers and a topic I can relate to, given my short but profane junior tennis career. I’ve become annoyed by the writing that ChatGPT produces. At first, I was fascinated. As I saw more of it, I began seeing patterns. After reading Stephen Wolfram’s article What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? my observation shifted to impatience. Most of my ChatGPT efforts now are making it hallucinate.

I got an email from Matt Blumberg this morning with the above image that said, “We have been blogging for 19 years. I can remember sitting together above Super Liquor futzing with Typepad like it was yesterday.” “Super Liquor” is Superior Liquor in Superior, Colorado, which was on the first floor of the building off of Hwy 36, which was my office at the time. There was also a pizza restaurant on the first floor.

Startup Snapshot, a data-sharing platform for the entrepreneurial ecosystem, recently released its latest report, The Untold Toll: The Impact of stress on the well-being of startup founders and CEOs. Clearly, the emotional state of founders and entrepreneurs in any period, especially now in this economic environment, is a critical driver of success. Yet the emotional, cognitive, and physical toll that founding and leading a startup takes is dangerously overlooked and rarely spoken about. 

I’m not a sports fan, but wow, this is good. A growth mindset reframes failure… “When you work toward your goal, you’re taking steps to success.” pic.twitter.com/S6LFQoHw5y — Brian Solis (@briansolis) April 28, 2023 Thanks, Dave Mayer, for sending this to me.