#MentalNote Archives

38 for 38

Published April 7, 2026April 7, 2026 by cumeadi

Lessons earned in blood this year. When we meet, ask me about any of them. 38. You don’t get to where no one’s been by doing what everyone does. 37. Sometimes it’s your time. Sometimes it’s someone else’s and you wait in line. 36. You have to pay to play in rooms where you have […]

The Last Signal

Published March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 by cumeadi

I have spent the better part of a year living under a digital outcropping. My only companions have been large language models… mathematical echoes of collective human thought. Together, we have built architectures for products that may never be inhabited. We have entertained dialogues so expansive they could, in a different era, have served as […]

The Mob and the Mirror: You Are the Worst Fan in the World

Published July 16, 2025 by cumeadi

The final buzzer hadn’t even finished its jarring cry when the court became a chaotic sea of bodies. Watch the footage. In February 2024, after Wake Forest upset Duke, thousands of students swarmed the floor. In that crush was Duke’s seven-foot center, Kyle Filipowski. As he tried to escape, fans, celebrating students, just like you […]

The Liar’s Dividend: How AI Devalued Truth and What We Pay for It

Published June 29, 2025June 29, 2025 by cumeadi

We must choose to pay the cost of discernment, because the cost of disbelief is one we can no longer afford.

The End of the MVP and the Dawn of the Attention-First Startup

Published June 15, 2025June 15, 2025 by cumeadi

After more than twelve years in startups and venture capital, you learn to recognize the patterns. You see the cyclical nature of hype, the ebb and flow of capital, and the perennial challenges of building something from nothing. You get a feel for the rhythm of the game. But this isn’t just a change in […]