I published a report card for my AI donor advisor. On its core job of vetting organizations, the AI is pretty much as good as a capable human. In other areas, not yet. seeds.bluem.ventures/p/my-ai-dono...

Update on my AI donor advisor: ten screening categories, 84 questions, 48 red/green flag items. Plus it has 200+ academic and practitioner research papers for baseline efficacy of tactics under various conditions. All run near-instantly on any project.

I like @adamjentleson.bsky.social's tests for when a group becomes a capital-G "Group": Does it demand positions that are wrong on the merits or lose elections? Sell them with junk polling? Punish the candidates who won't fall in line? Way better than ideology- or vibes-based definitions.

I thought my AI donor advisor was the cool part. But most of the feedback on that piece was some version of "ok, but what should nonprofits do about funders doing this?" Fair. So I wrote that up: seeds.bluem.ventures/p/what-your-...

Organizations fundraising should create a packet of AI-legible materials that they can easily share with funders. I expect this will be common within 1-2 years.

The world is a museum of passion projects, exhibit 1,000: A white line www.wsj.com/business/whi...

This Simple White Line Is America’s Greatest Unsung Innovation

You know about the lightbulb and the iPhone. This is the unknown story of another ingenious creation that changed a nation.

wsj.com

The real magic with AI starts when you give it your own thinking: essays, strategy documents, etc. Then it can start analyzing material *on your own terms* as you would.

Glad to help folks in my circles with vibecoding; holler if this is you.

If I can help anyone understand why building more homes is good regardless of who is paying to build them (private equity or otherwise), please reply or DM.

Sounds bad when you put it that way

Kyle Cheney@kyledcheney.bsky.social · 6mo ago

👀The federal judges in West Virginia, where ICE has been pulling over and detaining people on the freeway, are literally screaming about ICE's tactics. "It is an assault on the constitutional order," Judge Goodwin says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

If 6x the local police force actually spent months capturing the "worst of the worst," we should see crime drop noticeably. Let's see what happens…

Bad government wastes so much of people’s time that could otherwise be spent on useful things.

Rep. Veronica Escobar@repescobar.bsky.social · 6mo ago

At the urging of my office, the FAA is rightfully lifting the Temporary Restricted Airspace. I will again reiterate there is no threat to El Paso or the surrounding areas.

Anyone else thinking about this these days?

New second amendment just dropped! Guns are great as long as you aren’t doing anything the government dislikes.

So many parents asked me about Alpha School that I wrote up our experience. Five months in, our whole family (kids and parents) would be crushed to go back to regular school. Here's why 🧵 alphanyc.substack.com/p/why-our-family-loves-alpha-school

Why our family loves Alpha School NYC

The good, the bad(ish), and how to decide for your child

alphanyc.substack.com

The Politico UATX story hits a nerve because it's the classic authoritarian rise: 1. Make fair critiques of the status quo 2. Enlist sympathetic pluralists who help you rise to power 3. Become a mirror image (or worse) of everything you once criticized www.politico.com/news/magazin...

They Wanted a University Without Cancel Culture. Then Dissenters Were Ousted.

Inside the civil war at the anti-woke university backed by Bari Weiss.

politico.com

My working model of the country has been that it's split into three groups: Left, Right, and low interest in politics. (And that calling the middle group "moderate" is misleading.) This is a great addition of texture to that middle group.

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · 9mo ago

Good morning. I've got a banger new post out today that develops a new method for placing voters on the left-right ideological spectrum, and adds a new, "non-ideological"/affordability axis to usual way we chart & think about US voters (esp swing voters). www.gelliottmorris.com/p/not-just-l...

It's good that the case against Comey is falling apart, but I hate how easily we became a country where the president gets to prosecute his foes.

Among people who saw Trump and said "Now seems like a great time to start my career in national Republican politics," it's not shocking that 30-40% are groypers.

No image says forgiveness more than a fully armed soldier.

Olga Nesterova@onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 9mo ago

Add a dose of propaganda to your morning coffee.. This smells of Russian-like “special operation”

My favorite part of the Deciding to Win report by @simonbazelon.bsky.social @liamkerr.bsky.social and Lauren Pope: A working definition of moderation! "Being moderate means taking popular, heterodox positions—not defending the establishment."

In a sense, the report kind of bridges the gap between "abundance" liberals and their skeptics. It identifies regulatory sclerosis as a big problem while also seeking to reimagine a true progressive administrative state with New Deal-scale ambitions: newrepublic.com/article/2023...

"Nobody can say what 'moderate' means" is an essay I wrote. So I'm loving this thoughtful nine-page citation-heavy document titled "What It Does and Does Not Mean to Be Moderate (Detailed Analysis)"! Solid work by @simonbazelon.bsky.social docs.google.com/document/d/1...

What It Does and Does Not Mean to Be Moderate (Detailed Analysis)

What It Does and Does Not Mean to Be Moderate (Detailed Analysis) Often, the view that “Democrats should be more moderate” is interpreted as meaning that Democratic candidates should present themselv...

docs.google.com

I’m looking forward to to digging into this. Too much punditry is data-free or data-light; I’m optimistic this won’t be. x.com/simon_bazelo...

Simon Bazelon on X: "You can read DECIDING TO WIN at https://t.co/QkDbQ5IbPo. We've surveyed 500,000+ people since the 2024 election, so the report covers a lot of ground. But it's about two main ideas: Prioritizing and Positioning. (2/14) https://t.co/jQXRPxQciR" / X

You can read DECIDING TO WIN at https://t.co/QkDbQ5IbPo. We've surveyed 500,000+ people since the 2024 election, so the report covers a lot of ground. But it's about two main ideas: Prioritizing and Positioning. (2/14) https://t.co/jQXRPxQciR

x.com

It’s easy to hide a lot of theft in military budgets, until war reveals the rot. And soldiers pay the price. This is why authoritarian states’ armies often end up being paper tigers.

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 10mo ago

Just in: Florida-based Unusual Machines, a little-known drone company backed by Donald Trump Jr, said the US army had contracted it to manufacture 3,500 drone motors, alongside various other drone parts. on.ft.com/3WYgkUI

Pritzker: Throughout history we've learned that tyranny doesn't arrive with dramatic proclamations. Most times it comes quietly wrapped in the language of law and order, with fingers pointed at someone who doesn't look like you, promising safety while demanding that we sacrifice our neighbors.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Two interesting things I'm bringing to No Kings protests tomorrow: 1. Fifty little American flags. These were were a big hit last time. I easily gave them all away. 2. A Gadsden Flag. This may be our finest piece of national iconography against infringement on liberty.

Government should ban everything I dislike, then allow everything else. I am a libertarian.

Max Kennerly@maxkennerly.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Ross Douthat treats this guy like they're having some deep conversation about the relationship of Christianity and the government, but the dude is a garden-variety dull, shallow, hateful, worthless bigot with nothing interesting to say, just endless riffs on "God hates everything/everyone I do."