Ben Roy
@benroy

I write about technology, culture & markets

benroy.substack.com/
Joined September 2019
3,512 Photos and videos
New post on social media algorithms (and how to fix them)
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Programmable Gravity

I spent a few months mostly offline writing a book this year, and in coming back online this fall I’ve been struck by how insanely powerful algorithms are and how deeply they impact my life. This is a

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A theory on what happens to software in a world of god-tier AI
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Community Software

I have a question about the future of software. Now that we have god-tier LLMs that can generate and maintain increasingly sophisticated codebases with minimal human time and effort, does the software

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A short essay on how group chats run the world
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The Group Chat Theory of Everything

The group chat theory of everything is the idea that group chats are a new social unit alongside the individual, family, city, and country and their existence (and coordination power) has implications

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A personal essay about how we think as humans and how AI agents are changing that
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Demigods in Our Pockets

Through the summer, I spent an hour every day walking around my neighborhood talking to myself like I was insane: headphones plugged in, waving my hands around like I was having a conversation with a

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NEW post on startups & angel investing All my fumbles, some lessons, a few funny stories + everything that I've learned along the way
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Treasure Hunting

OR: Notes on investing in 20 startups The first company I ever invested in imploded so quickly it was like I had a reverse Midas touch of instant death. This was back in 2022: someone asked me if I

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Riff: I built a writing plugin for Claude

Over the past month, I built a plugin for Claude to help with the process of writing essays. It's called Riff, and it's now on version 2.4.8. For folks who are unfamiliar, plugins are basically mini

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No One Else Can Speak the Words on Your Lips

Reflections on writing, LLMs, the human spirit, creativity, and what makes us unique in a world of elite AI Everyone I know that works in tech is having some flavor of existential crisis these days.

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A Mini Map of Modern Media

I talked to 3 friends over the holidays about a model I have in my head for classifying all the media I consume because I’m that kind of nerd, and I want to share it because I think it’s useful for

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Notes on Internet Addiction

I grew up on the internet, and I love it, but something broke in me during the COVID era and its aftermath. I worked remotely in the crypto industry for 5 years, spent all my spare time on Twitter,

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Quarterly thoughts on crypto, life & markets

TLDR: a couple months of thinking in a few minutes. Hello to all internet homies. I’ve missed yapping with you, so I’m logging on this afternoon to share some of what I'm thinking about these days.

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My Worldview in 56 Quotes

I like to collect quotes. I have a decade worth of them sorted into files from different books, articles, movies, music, and other random places. It's a fun way to keep track of what I found cool or

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Notes on Anthony Bourdain, Media & Building an Audience

Last weekend I was in a bookstore and I saw "Kitchen Confidential " on one of the shelves, which was Anthony Bourdain's first book. I was a big fan back when he was alive & I’ve been thinking about

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