Random Thoughts
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Random Thoughts

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These are my unfiltered thoughts. An experiment to use Twitter differently. All thoughts were originally posted, daily, on Twitter. (@blakeir)

May 2023

  • Twitter was at its best with the <=140 character constraint (and would be even better w/o threads)
  • YouTube content is way too heavily indexed on specific emotions (and editing styles)
  • If you're sending a cold email, only send it to one recipient.
  • Whiteboard animation videos (e.g. Videoscribe) powered by AI will be a massive unlock for video essays.
  • Gamecenter is one of Apple’s biggest missed opportunities.
  • What Fortnite did to PUBG, Stumble Guys (& Eggy Party) did to Fall Guys.
  • Better graphics != better game. e.g. Nintendo or Roblox
  • Everyone in tech talks about China + TikTok, but they rarely discuss MiHoYo (Genshin, Honkai)
  • Every consumer app can and should learn from gaming. (vice versa)
  • Twitch should create a centralized public Twitch Chat for every major live event — even if there isn’t a livestream.
  • Less than a week after Scopely got acquired, they released one of their biggest hits to date: Monopoly Go! (5m+ downloads in <1 month)
  • WebGPU rolled out to stable last week. Fun to think about what this unlocks? AAA games, LLMs, etc in browser?
  • Subways Surfers + Family Guy videos are the logical end state of the TikTok algorithm.
  • I don't know how I used to watch TV without closed captions.
  • Social media has trained everyone to have a hot take on everything…
  • I wonder what percentage of viral ChatGPT screenshots are fake vs. “hallucinations”
  • Elon/Twitter would probably make more by auctioning off dormant handles than they did from Twitter Blue.
  • It’s amazing how many people don’t do reference calls
  • There is a clear through-line between Fortnite, Fall Guys, Among Us, Squid Game, and MrBeast videos
  • If your website shows an old copyright, I assume it’s inactive
  • TripActions rebranding to Navan is ???
  • I initially started using Twitter because I loved the idea of only posting to people who opted-in. FYP jeopardizes this
  • AI is going to take parasocial relationships to a whole new level
  • Tears of the Kingdom reviews are very promising. Nintendo doesn’t miss
  • Books should release special editions that have annotations, highlights, and marginalia.
  • Hidden replies have the exact opposite effect. They only draw more attention.
  • If I’m not still playing video games in a retirement home one day, I failed.
  • It’s been over a week of doing these random thoughts. Not sure if I’ll continue doing it daily, but I’ll try.
  • Mobile deeplinking is still so incredibly broken.
  • Quote tweets are primarily a weapon for harassment (and dunking)
  • I can’t believe the food pyramid was that wrong…
  • The death of malls in suburbia feels a bit exaggerated.
  • I’m pretty confident the millennial pause only happens because Snap used to lag before recording videos.
  • Mental health, nutrition, and personal finance should be mandatory topics covered in school
  • There have been two new generations of the PlayStation since the last GTA was released (GTA V, PS3)
  • Reddit has the potential to be the best search engine
  • YouTube remains a step ahead of every other platform because they are the only one that has truly figured out creator monetization
  • As a result, all content roads lead to YouTube
  • If your company has an active subreddit, you’re probably doing something right
  • Two of my all-time favorite consumer products are essentially 'invisible' value adds via Chrome Extensions. (Grammarly & Honey)
  • Changing your avatar on social media is the equivalent of a brand redesign
  • Love is Blind is 100x better than The Bachelor
  • A well-researched and thoughtful cold email has uncapped upside with essentially no downside.
  • The more you write, the less likely you are to get a response.
  • If you add more than one person to the email, your chances for a response quickly approaches zero.
  • The busiest people respond the fastest.
  • I still believe in the iMessage interview format: Four screenshots of text message conversations.
  • At some point, I think it would be fun to explore rolling up niche video essay YouTube channels.
  • Valve is one of the most fascinating private companies in the world
    • Steam: 140,000+ games, 132M MAU
    • 1st Party Games: Counter-Strike, Dota, TF2, etc.
    • Market (In-game items): They also collect 5-15% of virtual goods transactions
    • Less than 400 employees
  • PCPartPicker might be my favorite example of a biz that was built by clearly understanding & addressing the needs of a "niche" community (/r/buildapc)
    • Related: Earning the trust and respect of a niche community (especially on Reddit) is priceless.
  • Computers have far surpassed the point where we have to prove we are not robots in order to use them. At what point does CAPTCHA break?
  • An opportunity for a PE rollup of the best Chrome extensions into one super extension (BetterTTV, RES, RoPro, vidIQ, etc.)
  • Video essays are the best part of YouTube
  • @dannymcmahon and @pgmuscat are on another level.
  • I’m still shocked that we haven’t seen a major creator emerge specifically focused on reviews for software/apps.
  • I'm not sure most venture firms can articulate why they 'win.' Speed and valuation are their primary levers
  • Two very distinct styles of venture investing: chasing what is hot vs. thesis-driven
  • FAANG execs largely ignore (and underappreciate) gaming
  • What would @MrBeast do if he ran marketing at certain companies e.g. If MrBeast ran marketing at Amazon would he put $10,000 in random packages?
  • 5-Minute Crafts might be the strangest media company of all time. And they absolutely crush on YouTube & Facebook
  • Being present is one of the greatest gifts you can give someone.
  • Outside of messaging apps — notifications are 99% noise and 1% signal.
  • There is so much knowledge & information that is locked in audio and video formats. AI unlocks it
  • TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, & Marshalls have all mastered the art of the “treasure hunt” shopping experience
  • Apple Watch (vibrating alarm) is the best way to wake up
  • It’s interesting that hashtags became cringe.
  • I (irrationally?) hate when brands tweet like they are humans
  • Bring back #FollowFriday
  • Moderators (Twitch, Reddit, Discord, etc.) are the under-appreciated glue of the internet.
  • The second most under-appreciated user of the internet is: commenters. TikTok & Reddit are perfect examples of: “come for the content, stay for the comments.”
  • @NeurosamaAI (@Vedal987) is one of the more thought provoking applications at the intersection of media & consumer AI
  • When I first entered VC, one of the first major hype cycles that I saw was: chatbots. It’s interesting to compare and contrast that to today
  • Keyboards were such an interesting medium to explore. Related: Do people still use GBoard?
  • There is only *one* iMessage app that everyone uses: GamePigeon, which was developed by a solo entrepreneur @vzlotskiy