Amy and I have helped start several non-profits over the last 30 years. While our Anchor Point Foundation covers a wide range of initiatives, most of the projects we’ve co-founded have been based in Colorado and focused on either entrepreneurship or the environment. One of my greatest joys is funding small, startup nonprofits that other people create, which inspire me. I was on a call Friday, being interviewed by Connie Loizos about my new book, Give First: The Power of Mentorship. We were catching up on some personal things, and she mentioned that one of her sons, Natty Gove, a sophomore at Redwood High School, had started a nonprofit called the Tech4Youth Foundation. I looked it up on the web and kept the tab open to look at after our call.

The AI hallucination problem is well known. If you’ve used any of the LLMs with any depth, I expect you’ve encountered this. One of the hints for me has been that when I press on something or ask the question from a different angle, I get either a more confident response or sycophantic behavior. I was on a periodic evening friendship call with my three longest-standing male friends (Will Herman, Warren Katz, and Dave Jilk) when our conversation turned to LLMs. I decided to try the newest model of Gemini 2.5 Pro on what I thought was a straightforward question that would require some work.

I haven’t read much in the last 30 days as I’ve been consumed with writing, speaking, and events around the launch of Give First: The Power of Mentorship. The Kindle version is now available, and the paperback version will be released on Tuesday, June 24, so I’m in the home stretch of pre-launch. It hit #1 in Startups yesterday, so if you are inclined to buy, now is the time to keep the momentum going!

Today, during morning coffee, as we were talking, Amy mentioned that she had already heard “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas, which is in heavy rotation on our Amy’s Faves playlist. Just a drop of water in an endless sea All we do Crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

The Kindle version of Give First: The Power of Mentorship launched today and is available for 50% of the regular Kindle price. Brad the Book Salesman says, “Please still buy the regular version also, but if you want an early look, buy the Kindle version today to help my Amazon ranking. And to get an early read of the book.” Amazon Reviews and Goodreads Reviews are now live. If you’ve read an early version and are willing, please share your thoughts with a review.

“The human obsession with purpose is merely a distraction from the absurdity of existence.” … Nikolai Gogol (unverified) Let’s start with existentialism. For a long time, I’ve believed that you create your meaning during your existence on this planet. You get one life, and when it’s over, it’s over. I’ve never embraced the idea of a legacy, as I care more about what I do while I’m alive than what people say about me after I’m dead. And, I’ve always been deeply intrinsically motivated by learning, so the extrinsic rewards of life, while nice, aren’t a core motivation for me.

From a friend I’ve known and worked with for 35 years. Brad – like you, in the 7th decade of our lives, there seems to be three truths: 1. Every generation has thought the end is near (ice age, nuclear threat, etc.) – always in the next 8 – 10 years, blah, blah, blah – has never happened 2. Every generation thinks the younger generation is being ruined by the latest technology – radio, television, internet, blah, blah, blah – has never happened 3. Every technology has been predicted to end employment for masses of people – electricity, machinery, computers, blah, blah, blah – has never happened I responded with the following…

In my car on the way back and forth between Denver and Boulder the past few days, I listened to The Steve Ballmer Interview on the Acquired podcast by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal. If you aren’t a subscriber, it’s in the category of a “must-listen to podcast.” I’ve known Ben and David for many years from their time at PSL and Madrona, and they’ve created an outstanding new media property with Acquired.

My morning started early with a 6:30 a.m. drive to Denver to give a talk about Give First: The Power of Mentorship, which Erik Mitisek had organized for a group of Denver-area founders. In it, one of Erik’s questions caused me to go off on a riff about authenticity, which led me to one of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto items titled Be Authentic—Practice: What You Preach and a section in the book titled Nonsense Phrases Such as “I’m Value Added”. I gave the example in the section Being Full of Value‑Added Shit and explained that when I hear someone say “I’m an (adjective) (noun)” I insert (in my brain) the word “not” after the word “I’m.” From the book: