Field Notes · 13 Jul 2026
Best explained
Noam Segal explains the 'full gas on neutral' pattern: ICs ship many prototypes but see no meaningful progress or impact, producing activity without forward motion.
By the numbers
54.7% of tech workers reported significant (above moderate) burnout in 2026, up from 2025 levels.
New today — Evidence added
In 2026, aero changes in F1 are driver-activated and occur 3 to 4 times per lap on every lap during the race.
Lewis HamiltonSignificant burnout (above moderate) among tech workers rose to 54.7% in 2026, up from 2025 levels.
Noam SegalNew today — Sharp calls
Grok 4.5 completes tasks near-instantly compared to GPT-5.5, which took up to 30 minutes for the same tasks roughly one month earlier.
Greg IsenbergDanielle Perszyk reframes AI agent reliability as a mind-modeling problem, not a mechanical consistency problem.
Danielle PerszykA proof assistant called 'Colon' is now on GitHub in early development and will be used for safeguarded AI.
David DalrympleNew today — Useful context
The enterprise AI search market is currently in a land-grab phase where every company wants a product like Glean.
Arvind JainTool watch
Colon, an early-stage proof assistant on GitHub being developed specifically for safeguarded AI, worth watching as a potential formal verification layer for AI safety.
Worth quoting
“Every good AI is good in the same way. Every rogue AI is rogue in its own way.”David Dalrymple
“If we just talk specifically about 300 million ARR, most of that's like almost 70% are agencies.”Alex Mashrabov
“It's not the stress that burns us down, it's the response to stress.”Martin Picard
“The transformers can't plan but they can do a very good job of pretending essentially that is in a sense.”François Chollet
“You cannot sell Bitcoin. If you are selling Bitcoin, the whole system breaks.”Michael Saylor
“We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development.”Jason Calacanis