near.blog
I’m a solo founder of a bootstrapped startup (launching in a few weeks!), do independent research, machine learning, investing, programming, and other creative work.
Most of my work revolves around AI, longevity, biology, VR, infosec, finance, music theory, UX, anime, meta-rationality, memetics, and epistemology. I’ve ran several small bootstrapped companies (with a new one to be announced soon!) and currently operate around 30 websites.
It seems like the most impactful field right now is AI. Longevity, bioengineering, coordination mechanisms, and VR/AR are also really exciting this decade.
If you’re reading this, feel free to send me a message anywhere you see me! you can DM me on Twitter or email me at near at this domain. This page was last updated on Jan 12th 2025.
This Blog
My most popular posts are:
- Links
- Supplements
- How to Twitter Successfully
- Personal Finance Tips
- Personality Basins
Things - On The Edge
- LLMs Are Strangely Shaped Tools
- Types Of Memetic Information
- Take More Flights
- Unusual Holidays
- Try a Thing Some Time
- Productivity Tips
Some other posts that readers have found interesting include:
- Blueprint 1.0 Review
- Where Are The Builders
- Allulose: The Best Sugar Substitute
- The Bouba/Kiki Effect And Sound Symbolism In CLIP
- The 1/8th Sleep
- Does 17α-estradiol/estrogen extend male human lifespan
- Against ReCaptcha
- This Anime Does Not Exist
- Pascalian Longevity: Why not
- Free Alpha By Design
- Leveraged ETFs
- Fact Checking Is Really Hard
- Claude
- Optimal Webcam Setup
- AI -> Inequality++, It’s Just Math, HeavenBanning
Personal
I live in San Francisco and spend most of my time reading, researching, creating, programming, and artisting. I post about AI and other things I find interesting or funny on Twitter. if you want to get an idea for what I’m into intellectually, check out my large links post – it is almost guaranteed to contain something new you’ll love!
I love music and actively play piano, having played many instruments prior. Some of my favorite genres of music are artcore (examples: Xi, An), symphonic video game music (examples: FFXIV OST, Nier:Automata OST), progressive, instrumental, melodic, and djent metal (examples: Animals as Leaders, Uneven Structure, Undead Corporation, Arch Enemy), Jazz, Japanese/Weeaboo (examples: Touhou remixes, anime OP/EDs, Made in Abyss OST), and other things even more strange like this. I have no relation to the character Near from Death note, I liked L more. The theme song on the bottom right of this page is featured in the OP from Serial Experiments Lain.
I grew up immersed in video games, most often MMOs like OSRS, WoW, FFXIV, or VRChat, and gradually realized that if I applied the level of effort I was putting into said games into tech and real life instead, the rewards and impact I could have on my surroundings went up by well over 100x. I even have a personal website now!
My favorite thing about America is that it is by far the most antifragile country, and I feel lucky to have been born here.
The most important three things I’ve learned are:
- the ability to learn skills and self-modify is far more general and far more powerful than almost anyone thinks
- time spent doing nothing without electronics is valuable
- the heuristic that you become the average of your five best friends is astonishingly powerful given its simplicity
Feel free to message me and say hi if you got this far – I rarely bite.