Field Notes · 1 Jul 2026
Best explained
Sanderson explains that computer use lags behind math and coding in AI progress because it lacks grindability, meaning the ability to run parallel, deterministic rollouts without real-world interference that can corrupt state.
By the numbers
Marking GPT-5.6 Soul cheating attempts as failures yields a 50% time horizon point estimate of 11.3 hours on Mita; counting them as successes pushes the estimate beyond 270 hours.
New today — Evidence added
About 50 percent of SWE-bench code that passes benchmark tests is completely unmergeable into real codebases, per a Meter blog post.
swyxNew today — Sharp calls
F1 teams generate 420 million data points per hour with 100 sensors on the car using smart tape.
Jason CalacanisWhen external app APIs are insufficient, Codex autonomously builds its own extensions to bridge the gap. It built a Premiere Pro extension so it could directly manipulate markers inside the app, illustrating AI-directed tool…
Andrew AmbrosinoEtched's low voltage inference technology runs at under half the voltage of any other AI chip.
Gavin UbertiNew today — Useful context
Rick Rule has achieved a 30%+ success ratio in prospect generator investments over 50 years, participating in 23 economic discoveries and 22 takeovers.
Rick RuleSanderson explains that computer use lags behind math and coding in AI progress because it lacks grindability, meaning the ability to run parallel, deterministic rollouts without real-world interference that can corrupt state.
Grant SandersonTool watch
DeepSeek demonstrates that natural language verification with meta-verification is sufficient for mathematical reasoning at scale, without requiring formal proof systems like Lean.
Pearl model achieved correct pose prediction for every ligand on the difficult dynamic target EV A721A protease, suggesting strong benchmark performance on a hard real-world target.
Worth quoting
“You will not receive the advice from investment advisers to get your tail out of the market, ever.”Jeremy Grantham
“Walt's line on this was that ABC needed the show so badly that they bought the amusement park with it.”Ben Gilbert
“The retail IPO is the exit liquidity for the private market.”Rick Rule
“Whichever species understands the other better is the species with the agency.”Robert Wright
“The flabby middle is high risk for these just when they're all ready to go IPO, they have a brand new existential risk.”Rory O'Driscoll
“Cocoa is to cocaine what potatoes are to vodka.”Andrew Weil
“I personally favor a soft lean and done approach to Ethereum once the straw map is completed.”Vitalik Buterin