59 chunks · 44 episodes
The skills to build at different pace layers are just different. For example, the skill to make a good browser is very different from the skill to make a great web page. So being great (cultura...
...ual end users use. These are two extremely different layers. They are different pace layers. The competitive dynamics are different. They require very different skills to succeed in each. Lots of people are mistakenly analyzing them as thou...
...ments, risks, and concepts, not on details. All of the details emerge in higher pace layers built on top of those lower pace layers of concepts, requirements, etc. When a leader dives into a detail, the likelihood the right solution is disc...
Most companies live in one pace layer. If you cross multiple pace layers it's orders of magnitude more challenging, but also an order of magnitude more value that can be created.
...er fidelity and real, into a roaring bonfire. The "fun" is found at the highest pace layer. If you had strict layering, you'd spend all your time on the lower layers before discovering if the higher layers were any fun. If you had tight cou...
There are different pace layers for getting results out of LLMs. Slowest: train a new foundation model from scratch. Also extremely capital intensive! Medium: fine-tune an existing...
... to code. The implications of this are significant. English is at a much higher pace layer than traditional code, which allows moving more quickly and experimenting with much higher leverage. It used to be that taking an English language de...
Prototypes should be at the highest pace layer. The most important thing for a prototype is adaptability; finding the fun. Ideally prototyping in a team should all happen on the same pace layer. I...
Lower pace layers are often very hard to change. But every so often an opportunity pops up when things have been thrown into chaos by a new disruptive force that scra...
...ng this feature. Why don't browsers add it as a feature? Browsers are too low a pace layer. It's not clear how to make a one-size fits all widget for this kind of thing that is generally useful. This kind of functionality should be built in...
...has already sublimated out of the chaos. If you try to do this at too high of a pace layer, the overall meta distillation cannot cohere because the individual components have too much chaotic energy. Once a meta ecosystem coheres out of the...
...e flexibility was just too important. An ASIC takes the logic into a much lower pace layer that is expensive and slow to change. A general purpose chip allows the logic to change in software, many pace layers higher. LLMs aren't the best at...
...ind and possibly out-competed. In those situations, you must grow quickly. Fast pace layers almost require messy, incoherent growth.
Different pace layers have different rates of healthy process. The higher the variance, the less process you want per unit. The higher the pace layer, the higher the vari...
...with their surrounding context. If you're trying to build a product at a higher pace layer, but it has to fit into a lower, slower pace layer, you'll get bogged down. You need to go as slow as the slowest pace layer you interact with that c...
...more resilient; wrapped in multiple layers of self-reinforcing and accelerating pace layers of the ecosystem. But to do this, you must give up control. You must give up control to the user to customize, including a potentially dizzying arra...
It's hard for software to be timeless. Software is at the level of bits; a high pace layer. If a given piece of software doesn't move quickly, it will be outmaneuvered by competitors. Software also tends to be used in coordination with othe...
...rand - Steward Brand In complex systems, it's the interactions across different pace layers that make the system robust. Civilization overall is robust because it is complex. Fast / Slow Learns / remembers Proposes / disposes Absorbs shocks...
.... In a changing context, adaptation is necessary to avoid death. The higher the pace layer you operate in, the more quickly the context will change, and the more important adaptation will be. Software (bits vs atoms) is at a higher pace lay...