Adventure Capital

The Sticky Starter Shadow: How Reputation Becomes Reality in a Consensus Culture

And how any attempt to change will *also* be graded by that consensus will just further cement you.

Nov 3 • 

Ben Mathes

3

October 2025

The Accidental Semiotics Shuffle

Unavoidable problem of using loaded human terms as shorthand for AI mechanics, creating a semantic trap where narrow tech definitions are later mistaken…

Oct 30 • 

Ben Mathes

9

Goodhart's Law and "Lowest Common Consensus"

Consensus cultures, paralyzed by the complexity of agreeing on nuanced trade-offs, often default to single, easily-gamed metrics, making them uniquely…

Oct 30 • 

Ben Mathes

2

2

September 2025

Agents: Librarians or Butlers?

We call them both agents but they are very different.

Sep 30 • 

Ben Mathes

3

1

To Do, To Be, and/or To Understand

pick two?

Sep 4 • 

Ben Mathes

3

2

The Rulebook vs. The Sandbox

How explicit instructions for an AI to be good probably doesn't work when we can't say how to be good ourselves.

Sep 3 • 

Ben Mathes

August 2025

Unbundling Intelligence from Personhood

When "Brains" Walk Away From Bodies (and Responsibility)

Aug 12 • 

Ben Mathes

1

Google's Strategy is There is No "Strategy"

And that was not on purpose, which is an example of the strategy.

Aug 12 • 

Ben Mathes

6

1

Derailed (an old draft, series of moments)

Breakups, getting fired, missing friends, and other times when your ascendancy ends.

Aug 11 • 

Ben Mathes

The ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ Equation

Efficient Frontiers are n-dimensional. And they apply to "good, fast, cheap" and "exit, loyalty, voice"

Aug 10 • 

Ben Mathes

4

The Paradox of Plenty

Abundance Creates Value. Scarcity Destroys Value. But Scarcity *in* Abundance Collects Value.

Aug 6 • 

Ben Mathes

2

June 2025

AI is Single-Player for now. That's Bad. And it Won't Last

The Arc of AI Collaboration is long but it bends towards functional workflows

Jun 23 • 

Ben Mathes

7

1