THINGS MY PATIENTS TAUGHT ME — No. 2 A patient mailed me a letter after he went home. Actual paper, actual stamp—I didn't know people still did that. He said I could share it if I kept his name off it. So here it is, in his words, not mine. Doctor, For most of my life I was the one who showed up. The one people called when something broke. I answered every message, made every flight, carried whatever needed carrying. I mistook that for strength. I think a lot of us do. Then my body stopped asking my permission, and I ended up in one of your beds, hooked to machines I couldn't name, unable to do the one thing I'd built my whole identity around—being useful to other people. I want to tell you what I saw from down there. I saw my brother cancel a closing he'd worked on for a year and just sit. I saw a friend I'd been too busy to call for three years walk in at 6 a.m. with coffee he knew I wasn't allowed to drink. And I saw my wife fold herself into that terrible vinyl chair in the corner every single night and sleep sitting up, because she wasn't going home without me. One night I woke and she was spooning ice chips into my mouth because my hands were shaking too hard to hold the cup. A grown man, fed by his wife, in the dark. I had spent forty years terrified of exactly that kind of helplessness. It turned out to be the closest thing to holiness I have ever felt. Somewhere in those days it occurred to me that God wasn't just sending me people who loved me. He was letting me feel His love through their hands. He'd finally gotten me to hold still long enough to notice what had been true the entire time, underneath all the striving: that I was already loved, and had been all along, and none of it was ever something I had to earn. So I'm writing this down while I still remember it, because I know myself. Life will speed back up. The messages will pile in. And I will be tempted to become useful again and forget. When that happens, I need to remember the chair. The ice chips. The 6 a.m. coffee. What it felt like to be loved with nothing to offer in return. That was a gift too. Maybe the biggest one. Thank you for keeping me alive long enough to learn it. He's back at work now. Fully recovered. I keep the letter in my desk drawer, and on the days this job tries to turn my patients into charts, I read it again. He treated me. Not the other way around. Blessings,

In many ways, I am 18. If an alien encountered me, they’d struggle to distinguish me from my son. I know this seems impossible. I also know I look my age, 49. But here are the ways I am indistinguishable from an 18 year old: > Sleep quality > Erection function > Fertility > Resting heart rate > Vascular health > Cardiovascular health > Blood pressure > Metabolic health > Blood glucose control > Bone mineral density > Muscle > Fat > Inflammation (undetectable) > Shitposting And here are some ways I am my age: > Hearing > Somatic mutations Friends, I think I’ve done something no one else has ever done: I am more 18 than I am 49. This is the first rep and we are still figuring things out, but it points toward our inevitable future: better technology and therapies will make youthful vibrance the default. If you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and wondering if you can do the same, the answer is yes. If you’re a teen or in your 20s and feel awful, you can too. These results only took me 5 years to achieve. The most powerful things are free, and gated only by choice. It feels amazing. I feel nimble, and spry, and excited by the world. I hope you join me in saying yes to life and no to die culture.

A lot of people have been asking what I think about $BATON after it started running hard again, so here’s my updated view BATON isn’t a new play. It’s been around for quite a while, and most people who have been following probably already know the narrative behind it, so I don’t want to spend too much time repeating the old story What interests me this time is that the thesis around BATON is starting to become interesting again The BATON/$PUMP pair isn’t new either. It has existed for a while, so I don’t see the PUMP pair itself as a catalyst. What matters more is the timing $PUMP is currently in a pretty clear uptrend. Based on the data I’m watching, it’s up around 33% over the past 7 days, 51% over the past 30 days, and almost 300% over the past 90 days. Just from its late September lows around $0.0041–$0.0049 to current levels, it has already recovered roughly 30–50% So as liquidity and attention start flowing back into $PUMP, I think BATON naturally becomes one of the easier names for the market to use as a bet on the broader Pump ecosystem But my thesis isn’t simply that BATON is paired with PUMP That has been the case for a long time What I’m actually betting on is whether BATON could be closer to than what is publicly known, or at the very least whether it is gradually becoming a token that the ecosystem implicitly accepts To be clear, there is currently no solid evidence proving that or Alon is actually behind $BATON. This is still speculation, and I think it should be treated exactly that way But there are a few things that make this bet worth watching : > BATON has been around for quite some time. It wasn’t created recently just to capitalize on the current $PUMP move. The community survived for months, and now liquidity is starting to come back > $PUMP is getting stronger at the same time BATON is regaining attention. If PUMP maintains this momentum, a PUMP pair like BATON with existing history, liquidity and community could continue to benefit > Holder rewards are another part I find pretty interesting. Rewards are paid in $PUMP, and a few friends of mine who hold BATON have shown me that they’ve received several thousand dollars just from rewards. To me, that matters because it creates a real incentive for holders rather than being just another narrative to sell > also has the $PUMP buyback running while the battle for attention and market share with StonkFun continues. If Pump keeps bringing volume and liquidity back into its ecosystem, PUMP pairs that already have volume and a community become even more interesting to watch This is why I look at BATON a little differently now Previously, BATON was mostly a lore play Now it feels more like a speculative proxy for a broader thesis : $PUMP continues to perform, regains attention, and the market starts looking for tokens that can directly benefit from that flow BATON is sitting in a pretty good position for that If nothing deeper ever comes from it, then BATON is still just a community token with good lore, a PUMP pair and holder rewards. That’s the risk of this trade But if we eventually see any kind of recognition, interaction or deeper integration from I think BATON could be repriced very quickly because most of the foundation is already there The chart is also making this thesis more interesting BATON spent quite a while around the 1–2M range, eventually reclaimed 4–5M, and recently expanded all the way toward 15–16M before pulling back to around 11–12M I entered my position around 5M, so I’m not looking to chase immediately after such a large move From here, I’ll be watching whether BATON can hold its new market cap range, whether volume stays, and most importantly whether $PUMP can maintain its momentum I also want to see whether we get any additional moves from or any new information that materially strengthens the thesis. If that happens, I’m completely open to chasing higher and adding to my position For me, this is still a pretty simple bet I’m not claiming is behind BATON because there isn’t enough evidence to say that I’m betting on the possibility, while also betting that the market continues to treat BATON as a proxy for $PUMP and the broader ecosystem The BATON narrative itself is old But $PUMP is getting stronger, liquidity is coming back into BATON, and several pieces are starting to line up in the same direction That’s what makes $BATON genuinely interesting to me again right now Hg5Ja55T5wESq4vyFoiVCMeHXtGyVA69X2UHq8hgpump

1/ gm. gm. Name is Hsin-Ju. I have a dark, kinda tragic personal announcement. I've decided I'd rather take $0 than accept a settlement that requires me to stay silent about what happened to me. I have since fired my lawyers at @sanfordheisler & will be releasing all the evidence from my time @hack_vc on Wed 8/26. INTRO: I've been in crypto for 9 years. Most recently I was a partner & head of platform @hack_vc which is a $600-700M crypto VC firm. Many of you may know me from my time as Head of Growth at @StellarOrg in 2017 (worked w/ the Mt. Gox founder), @Solana in 2018 (joined under ~10 ppl, but quit before my cliff), & @Fhenix in 2024. Or have attended one of my @DystopiaLabs ETH events (2019-now). Last year, I was forced to work through a serious medical emergency while at @Hack_VC due to threats by @alpackaP @dbulaevsky, saying that they would blacklist me from the space if I quit before finishing the hacksummit conference & side events that I was helping with during @kbwofficial. I was working 13-14hr days, 6 days a week, sleeping 0-4 hrs a night, and had documented Graves' disease, hyperthyroidism, and severe insomnia. I repeatedly asked to quit. Hack VC refused. This + other threats and intimidation went on for almost a month. The conditions got so bad I attempted suicide. The fucked up part is that, even after the suicide attempt, I told everyone at Hack VC (in writing) that I had no plans to sue. I was scared & extremely sick. I just wanted to leave. I told them that as long as there was no retaliation or badmouthing - I had no plans to sue. @Hack_VC chose to retaliate. After just 1 month after my near suicide, Hack VC mishandled my COBRA health insurance, refused to fix things, kept shooing me to customer support (when it's legally Hack VC's responsibility to fix this), and my insurance had issues and was not fixed for almost 4 MONTHS. Hack VC did not fix everything until I hired lawyers and had them force Hack VC to adhere to the law & fix my COBRA insurance issues. The sheer cruelty of an employer harming someone's health insurance almost immediately after they nearly committed suicide is extremely fucked up. And, even during the legal engagement, Hack VC continued to lie & attempt to harm me through their lawyers and other employees/partners (multi-million dollar carry & clawbacks can make even the nicest ppl willing to turn the other way or lie). @0xRodney @IsTheBaron @roshunpatel @Alex__Botte. Now. Almost an entire year of engagement & my near suicide anniversary coming up, our lawyers (mine & Hack VC's) have reached the point of preparing for private mediation and settlement. And...I realized that I just can't do it. I don't want money in exchange for silence. I'd rather speak. I fired my lawyers yesterday. In case it needs to be said, I did a good job at Hack VC. I was only there full time for 7 months; been part-time since 2021. I got a $50k raise to $300k, $30k bonus, and promises of additional carry that would have been implemented about a week or so after my last day. I was also offered admission into the GP entity (but not sure if admission was actually completed bc it was during my medical emergency). This + my resume, should show that me suing is not a money grab; I was genuinely harmed. I'm aware that I'm just one person (who is not rich) facing a $600-700M VC institution. I've been told by @alpackaP that he's known most of the managing partners at most VC firms for almost a decade and he could absolutely blacklist me. I'm also painful aware that the conclusion of this will probably be extremely poor for me or death - but I've accepted it. Sharing with other web2 & web3 VCs: @paulg @ycombinator @500STARTUPS @a16zcrypto @PanteraCapital @dragonflyvc @RaceCapital @hosseeb @haunventures @hiFramework @ElectricCapital @blockchaincap @Delphi_Digital @variantfund @1kxnetwork @archetypevc @shimacapital @robotventures, etc. TLDR; I’m done with continued threats, pressure, and intimidation. I'm not going to take a payout and allow Alex or Hack VC to walk away from harming me. As mentioned, I'll be dropping the evidence from my case on Wed 8/26 (or before) -- privacy be damned. Support here (or DM) please: ETH: 0x68c10776C5c05Cbf5B4C2318bE02D61B9f06B875 SOL: B7S8TPcWWJXTsmgG8ShoTmy8sNPuJ3Dbmt7z5gLFAveq

I wrap my lips around your cock, slow and sure, tasting 😋 how hard you are for me. I take you deeper on purpose, tongue working the underside while I look 👀 up and watch you fall apart. This is mine now—every pulse, every groan, every second until you can’t hold back.

I, Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house, and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

Trust me when I say this… life is so much better when you’re living on your own terms and chasing your own dreams instead of spending your life building someone else’s. I know because I’ve lived both. I spent 8 years at Apple. From the outside, it looked like I had it all. I was paid well, worked with incredibly smart people, and got to help build some of the best products in the world. I’m grateful for that experience because it taught me a lot. But deep down, I was never fully fulfilled. No matter how great the job was, I was still helping someone else achieve their vision. I wanted the freedom to build my own, take my own risks, and create something that was truly mine. Today, I’m my own boss. Literally no one can tell me what to do, where to be, how to act, or anything. There are definitely harder days. There’s more uncertainty, more responsibility, and no guaranteed paycheck. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The feeling of waking up every morning knowing you’re building your own future is hard to describe. Every win feels truly earned. Every setback teaches me something. And every day has purpose because I’m moving toward a dream that belongs to me. Yes, money matters, stability matters. But time, freedom, and having control over your own life matter much more imo. You only get one life. If you have a dream that won’t leave you alone, don’t ignore it forever. The biggest risk in life is looking back one day and wondering what could have happened if you had just bet on yourself.

The ape on the left was mine. I bought him in 2021. Four traits. Bloodshot eyes, a grin, a blue sky. Nothing else. Clean. For two years he was my face on X. People knew me by him. Somewhere along the way he stopped being something I owned and became part of how I saw myself. In 2023 I sold him to @machibigbrother. And even though it was a sensible decision at the time, it was one I regretted deeply for years. I'd catch myself thinking about him. Not the price. Him. Then I heard he'd been chosen for a collection of apes curated by Machi who would be made available to museums. I was proud of him, and a little jealous. This month I found the one on the right. Same blue sky. Same grin. White fur, an eyepatch, a diamond in his ear. He looks like my old ape after three years at sea. I knew he was mine the moment I saw him. And then something happened that I never thought was possible. I started to like him more. My first ape was the classic Bored Ape, perfect in his simplicity. This one has a story. The eyepatch says he's been somewhere. The white fur makes him impossible to miss. The diamond says he came back with something to show for it. He's not just bored. He's been through it, and he's still grinning. Which, after three years of wondering why I ever let go, feels about right. Here's what nobody tells you about collecting. You don't just collect objects. You collect versions of yourself. A profile picture becomes a face. A face becomes an identity. And when you sell it, you find out you sold something that was never on the price tag. I don't regret that sale anymore. It sent me looking, and I found my forever ape. It feels so good to be home. 🦍🍌

for my final post as @waterloo_intern, i'd like to ‘outroduce’ myself. it takes exactly 4 years and 8 months to make a waterloo intern. today is the last day of mine. the full life cycle, in four stages, is as follows: 1- interview hazing 2- cali or bust 3- inflection point 4- convergence stage 1: interview hazing a cohort of high school grads are ingested by waterloo. they are put through 4 months of academic bootcamp; the pre-requisites of the academic program they’re in. waterloo filters out the students who could not pass. they are put through another 4 month bootcamp, while simultaneously FORCED to find an internship for the following 4 months. this leads to students with ZERO experience applying to every job that is semi-adjacent to their field of study (a strategy, known in the literature, as spray-and-pray). it immediately backfires with a sea of interviews leading in a 1:1 fashion directly to infinite rejections. eventually, the student finds something…anything. this stage lays the foundation. rejection becomes noise so repetitively played it no longer registers. failure in an interview doesn’t matter. failure itself doesn't matter. for me, this unfolded as internships with blackberry and ford, summer of 2023 and winter of 2024, respectively. stage 2: cali or bust the next step by the program is to inject absolute dissatisfaction into its students (now in their second/third year). a CACOPHONY of immense fomo materialized as the university’s official unofficial motto: “cali or bust”. you must find your next internship in san francisco. your peers are doing it. all your smart friends have done it. you must do it too. failure to cali means your experience is BUST. you don't need to have a plan. you don't need to have anything. just go to san francisco. find an internship in sf. immediately. right now. for me, this was a cold email to a director at tesla and an internship with them in cali, fall of 2024. stage 3: inflection the reason behind step 2 appears here. somewhere, along the way, during your time in sf, you find your purpose. it could be as a direct result of your internship, but, more often than not, it is because of the people that you are surrounded by in cali. this is the inflection. for me, while at tesla, i was mentored by @pavanjayasinha , at the time interning at @Modular. he got me interested in gpu kernels & referred me there for my following internship. it was here that i had my second inflection point (due to the mentorship of fabio & hengjie, and the supervision of absolute field giants like @clattner_llvm), and decided to work beyond kernels and across the entire inference, serving, and model performance stack. stage 4: convergence having discovered the field you want to work in, you do your (usually last) internship in one of the companies within said field. here, you are at a disadvantage, being both a new-comer needing to onboard and inexperienced. but... you are also able to work on interesting projects / side quests that most full-timers are all but too busy to dive into. your time is also protected from a majority of the meetings others have to attend (in part because you are not important enough to have your presence expected), allowing you to make faster progress on assigned projects, and jump from one project (or team) to another. your title (intern) allows you to ask stupid questions of those around you, and so you can brain rake across the stack with no regard to who sits where in the company’s hierarchy... usually leading your questions with something to the effect of ‘can you help a new little intern onboard to X’, to which most people respond quite positively. in my case, this last stage took place over the past 8 months with @baseten, and i genuinely cannot imagine it being any better. i rejoin baseten full-time, but i wish i could have stayed an intern forever...

📡 Kinda anecdotal but I now have 2 friends with @Starlink (and so 3 if you include me) I loaned my Starlink Mini to @mick__net after his 🇵🇹 Portuguese ISP @NOS was (and still is!) down for 2+ months, while he lives 500 meters away from the NOS headquarters in Lisbon 😂 Nobody can fix it, customer support is useless and even cancelling his plan is difficult Anyway Starlink Mini got him his internet back immediately and saved his ass cause he had to work, and now he ordered his own and gave mine back, which I then used for traveling in Greece, and he's a Starlink convert Now today my other friend @cso_notes also got one in 🇷🇴 Romania! Adoption in Europe always comes a bit later than in US, but I think Starlink is starting to get a significant presence now Many people who I tell about Starlink are still skeptical about satellite internet, they always talk about latency issues, and they think latency is like 1 second but it's more like 10ms (1/100th of a second) which is the same or better than regular fiber internet I've never had so LITTLE issues with internet as since I had Starlink, it's never been down, it always just works and customer support is via chat and works really well I absolutely HATE having to call a phone number and be on hold for 30min or more and then wasting most of my day on stuff like this, which par for the course with Portuguese ISPs (and well every Portuguese business) So having Starlink is a godsend for me, it just works! 🙏