Give First is now available to pre-order in Audiobook format (it will be officially released on 12/2/26). I’m the reader, so if you are an audiobook person, you’ll have to listen to me for a few hours. It was fun doing the recording (I’ve done the audio recording for two other books – Venture Deals (Jason and I alternated chapters) and Startup Life.

I’ve been a long-time Cory Doctorow fan. His new book Enshittification is delicious. Yup – I understand that a shit emoji doesn’t inspire deliciousness. Now that I’m back in hibernation (and figuring out what it actually means), I’m reading and writing a lot. I’ll probably blog some (a little, a lot, who knows) while in hibernation because I work out ideas by writing and putting them out in public (even if I don’t pay much attention to the feedback or engage) is a different type of writing for me than just “writing privately” (which is mostly a thing called journaling and valuable to me, but different …)

I love to read. I love everything about books. LLMs will not replace good writing anytime soon, although they have mastered the art of slop. Oh, and I love communities of people who love writing and reading. Authors & Innovators is a free, community-based event happening on October 30th in Newton, MA, for entrepreneurs, students, CEOs, venture and angel investors, and anyone interested in business. I attended in person a few years ago, and this year I will be there virtually with my book Give First: The Power of Mentorship (and a video). Larry Gennari created it a while ago, and if you like books, writers, readers, and entrepreneurship, it’s a blast.

I recently joined Dan Caruso on The Bear Roars podcast, and our conversation brought one thing into focus: we’re living through a shift that’s not just changing what we build—it’s changing how we learn, lead, and collaborate. We talked about AI, quantum computing, and robotics, but what we kept coming back to was access. How do we make sure every learner, founder, and educator has the tools—broadband, curiosity, and the freedom to experiment—to participate in this next era? The challenge isn’t the technology itself; it’s building the human systems around it that help people adapt and thrive. 

While “vibe coding” was a catchy phrase when I first heard it, something about it felt like a head fake to me. And, now that I’ve leveled up to “competent individual software developer” again (after 33 years of not writing any code) I think it’s the wrong phrase. Instead, I’d refer to what’s going on as AI Pair Programming. When I started playing around with AI-related coding tools last Christmas (because, well, I was bored), I had zero skills with contemporary software development. While I hadn’t written any production code since 1992, I played around with a new programming language every few years. Perl. Ruby. Ruby on Rails (sort of, not really). Python. Clojure. I could do Hello World and a few other simple things, but I never really got past basic CSS, tooling, or deployment stuff. I had a Github account and would futz around with it, but quickly get tired of trying to figure out why I didn’t care about a PR. And damn, so many CLI things.

I approached Echoes of October with trepidation. A graphic novel about violence and grief isn’t easy terrain. But it succeeds in a haunting, urgent way. The creators have chosen to explore the year leading into the October 7, 2023 massacre through the lives of four children who each lose a parent. The children are from different locales (Gaza City, Toronto, Tel Aviv, and Daliyat al‑Karmel) which enables a textured, multi‑vantage narrative. 

I’m not aware if there has ever been a book launch associated with a Yom Kippur Break Fast, but we are going to have one as part of the launch of Sue Heilbronner’s excellent new book, Never Ask for the Sale: Supercharge Your Business with the Power of Passionate Ambivalence.

Back when the pandemic hit, Chris Heivly spearheaded a podcast with Ian Hathaway and me in support of our upcoming two books, The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Build The Fort: The Startup Community Builder’s Field Guide. We did eight episodes of a solid but complicated-to-produce series. Chris is now spearheading a Season 2 podcast series with Techstars, mirroring a format pioneered by Seth Godin, who was a recent guest on our GiveFirst podcast.

Reid Hoffman’s new book Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future is spectacular and a must-read for every non-technologist about how to think about this “AI thing.” If you want the short version, the recent AI & I podcast with Reid is an excellent way to get a feel for it.