Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence...not talent, genius, or education. Paraphrased - J. Calvin Coolidge.
Washington, DC
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
Everyone wants to fight about the smartest president, but honestly the best answer got handed down by another president. In 1962 John F. Kennedy hosted a room full of Nobel Prize winners at the White House and told them, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." The whole room laughed because they knew he was barely joking.
Because Jefferson was a genuine freak of nature. He wrote the Declaration of Independence at 33, in about two weeks, and it still reads like scripture. He taught himself to read in something like half a dozen languages. He designed his own home at Monticello and then designed an entire university, buildings, curriculum, and layout, from scratch. He obsessed over science, farming, wine, food, and gadgets, and JFK described him that night as a man who could "calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, and dance the minuet."
And here is the part people forget. When the British burned Washington in 1814 and torched the Library of Congress, Jefferson sold the country his personal library to rebuild it, close to 6,500 books covering basically every subject a human being can study. His private collection literally became the foundation of the national library. Who owns 6,500 books in 1815? A maniac. A brilliant one.
Purely on raw wattage, the man was operating on a different frequency than the rest of the list. Two hundred years later we are still living inside sentences he wrote alone at a desk.
Everyone loves to argue about the dumbest president, but the funniest part is that Warren Harding already ended the debate himself. He literally said "I am not fit for this office and should never have been here." Most politicians would rather walk into the sea than admit that. Harding just said it out loud and went back to his card game.
And the record backs him up hard. He stuffed his cabinet with his poker buddies, the so called Ohio Gang, and then let them treat the federal government like their personal piggy bank. His Interior Secretary took cash and cattle to secretly hand off government oil reserves to rich friends. That is the Teapot Dome scandal, and the man actually went to prison for it. His Veterans Bureau chief looted money meant for wounded WWI soldiers. Two of his associates killed themselves as the investigators closed in.
The kicker is that Harding saw it coming. He said his enemies never kept him up at night, it was his friends, because he could not say no to anyone. He even joked it was a good thing he wasn't a woman, because he'd never be able to say no and would always be pregnant. Self awareness was somehow the one thing he had plenty of.
Even his big talent was fake. He gave these grand flowery speeches, and the critic H.L. Mencken said Harding's writing "reminds me of a string of wet sponges, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it." That might be the meanest and most accurate review any president has ever received.
He died in office in 1923 with the scandals still coming apart at the seams, and decades later a DNA test confirmed what people whispered for years, that he'd fathered a child with a much younger woman while he was in the White House.
Historians have parked him at the bottom of the rankings for a hundred straight years. And the wild part is, Harding would probably just shrug and agree with them.
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
This might be my favorite one yet. Wow. Chills.
MC Bets
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
It’s fun that there are basically zero lessons any team can take from the Knicks. You can’t plan to rebuild by signing a guy who’s been raised from birth to be your specific team’s savior, who then becomes a superstar overnight — and THEN takes a $113m pay cut to sign his buds.
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
Craziest stat for me
The Knicks had the #1, #3, and #5 biggest comeback wins in NBA Finals history
In the same Finals
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
Today we remember Brendan Looney. An American hero who embodied everything we hope to be on and off the field. A leader at the Naval Academy, a captain on the lacrosse team, who ultimately gave his life in service to our country as a Navy SEAL in 2010.
The NCAA Final Four has decided its D1 champion on Memorial Day for the last 40 years. Including 2004, when Navy competed for the national title with all 3 Looney brothers on the field. Brendan wore number 40.
Today we honor the men and women who gave everything. Their sacrifice is the reason we get to play, compete, and live with purpose. Brendan would remind us, “Be strong. Be accountable. Never complain.”
brendanlooneyfoundation.org/
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
deeply convinced that the first 100 pages of this book tell you exactly what the big plan for this platform is and where things are heading
the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior - William James
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
99% of Ramp uses ai daily. but we noticed most people were stuck — not because the models weren't good enough, but because the setup was too painful and unintuitive for most. terminal configs, mcp servers, everyone figuring it out alone.
so we built Glass. every employee gets a fully configured ai workspace on day one — integrations connected via sso, a marketplace of 350+ reusable skills built by colleagues, persistent memory, scheduled automations. when one person on a team figures out a better workflow, everyone on that team gets it and gets more productive.
the companies that make every employee effective with ai will compound advantages their competitors can't match. most are waiting for vendors to solve this. we decided to own it.
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
Mockup of how would @AnthropicAI's new labor automation chart would've looked 200 years ago.
For our ancestors, the outer ring would be almost unrecognizable.
"Computer & math" was nonsensical. Medicine and law were tiny and barely professionalized.
The first photo was just about to be taken, so it would have been unfathomable to have a single blockbuster gross more than the entire gross national product of that period.
"Office & admin" barely existed as a concept; counting-houses employ a tiny literate class.
Agriculture alone consumed maybe 70-80% of the labor force in the US.
There was a thick band of artisanal trades that don't map onto any single modern category: coopering, blacksmithing, weaving, tanning, milling.
Clergy was a major professional category and Maritime labor was its own significant sector.
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
It is imminent -- the only thing that's unknown is the timing, location, duration, magnitude, policy response, recovery dynamics, and cultural impact.
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
In case you were wondering
Elijah Surrat (WR) Touchdown JMU transfer
Kaelon Black (RB) touchdown JMU transfer
The forced fumble by Indiana defenders
(LB) Aiden Fisher & (CB) D’Angelo Ponds JMU transfers
JMU is beating the shit out of Alabama
#JMU #JamesMadison #collegefootball
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
Andrew Thomas among Tackles:
#2 in the NFL in pass blocking efficiency
#1 in the NFL in pass blocking efficiency in true pass sets
0 sacks, 0 hits allowed in true pass sets
#ProBowlVote @allforgod_55
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
Repost to help me make my first Pro Bowl. Thanks for the support!
#ProBowlVote @allforgod_55
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
Double Votes Day!
ONE repost = TWO votes
#ProBowlVote + Andrew Thomas
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
.@JMUFootball in the last 10 years 📈
▪️ 2016 FCS national champions
▪️ 2017 & 2019 FCS runner-ups
▪️ Joined FBS in 2022
▪️ Earned spot in 2025 CFP
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Smart People Crazy retweeted
BREAKING: Giants to start rookie QB Jaxson Dart. (via @rapsheet, @mikegarafolo)
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