Process automation for appraisal and title companies. Data integration and APIs. Automate Everything.
Pittsburgh, PA
Joined January 2011
- Tweets7.1K
- Following3.3K
- Followers737
- Likes12.3K
convalytics retweeted
EVERYONE SHOULD START A BUSINESS
1. because AI agents make it possible to move like a team of ten
2. because you can start one while you still have a job (and probably should)
3. because it rewires your brain
4. because $100 and an audience gets you further today than $1M did in 2010.
5. because AI just created the biggest entrpreneurial opportunity window of human history
6. because it forces you to get good at storytelling
7. because it gives you an absurd amount of leverage in the job market
8. because you get to help people
9. because you can test demand before writing a single line of code.
10. because you can automate the boring parts and focus on the fun
11. because you can test ideas in 48 hours, not 48 weeks
12. because your ideas deserve more than a Google Doc
13. because making money in your sleep never gets old
14. because you get to stand on the shoulders of giants building on their tech (openai, shopify, cloudflare etc)
15. because it's 2025 and you can even get free startup ideas backed by trends @ideabrowser
16. because it's a rollercoaster of emotions and you'll learn a ton about yourself
17. because maybe you can't stop thinking about an idea and it's driving you mad
18. Because life is short and it's fun
convalytics retweeted
With AI, unit testing will become even more important.
Devs are changing huge chunks of code while trusting that the AI made no mistakes.
We should be running unit tests every time we accept a change made by AI.
convalytics retweeted
Recent internal and public polling shows this race is now in single digits. Just like Salena Zito wrote, this race is a pivotal district. We're up on TV with a uniting message and the incumbent is scrambling. broadandliberty.com/2024/07/…
convalytics retweeted
Today, the Federal Court for the Northern District of California ruled, as matter of law, that none of the tokens trading on Kraken are securities.
This is a significant win for Kraken, for the principle of clarity and for crypto users everywhere. It also confirms Kraken’s long-standing position that it does not list securities. 1/
convalytics retweeted
Did you know the Westinghouse Sign was a trailblazer in more ways than one? Installed in 1967, it was the first computer-controlled sign in the world! Its neon-lit "W" logo was made up of 81 parts and could display 120 unique light patterns, creating endless mesmerizing sequences that lit up #Pittsburgh’s skyline. Many believed the combinations would never repeat, making it an iconic symbol. At 200 feet wide, this sign wasn’t just big—it was a beacon of Pittsburgh’s industrial power, standing proud for over 30 years before being removed in 1998 to make way for PNC Park. – at Pittsburgh, PA
convalytics retweeted
I bet you know @robwalling and his SaaS Playbook.
But his earlier book, Start Small Stay Small, is also freakin' amazing for devs turning entrepreneurs.
I recently reread it after a 10 year gap.
My 5 favorite lessons:
1. Keeping up with the latest and greatest tech - something that used to excite you - will begin to wear you down.
Ten years ago, I thought such was impossible. Constant learning. New, better, shinier tools. Woohoo!
But now, as a jaded dev, I feel it. Rob says it best:
"You will begin to feel like a hamster on a wheel as you learn one more way to pull data out of a database."
Or yet-another-way to build a web app. Just look at the JS ecosystem over the years.
2. Your order of importance is market, marketing, aesthetic, function.
As devs, a tough pill to swallow because we excel at the dead last part: function.
Build great products and they won't come.
3. Taking VC money makes you more likely to fail.
Because VCs only want Unicorns and most businesses can't reach billion dollar valuations. (Or is it 2 billion now because inflation?)
I learned the hard way working 15 years in VC-backed tech startups.
4. Revenue has a natural plateau.
This is my favorite lesson!
All products have a natural MRR ceiling. One you hit it, put it on auto-pilot and move to the next.
Don't force yourself into new verticals, more content, more hiring, more ads, more, more, more. And definitely don't go to VCs (refer to #3 above).
I love this strategy because it fulfills the dream of resiliency: multiple income sources.
5. Use VAs
Your first products should be smoke and mirrors while VAs do the work behind the scenes.
I think even in this age of AI, virtual assistants are a power play. People are better at taking vague instructions and executing.
Warning: It will take time to find VAs you trust and establish a relationship. You won't find someone great on the first try.
To sum up:
Parts are dated (as Rob admits himself). He mentions RSS feeds (RIP) and validating ideas via magazine ads.
But don't let that sway you. This book is filled with timeless wisdom.
convalytics retweeted
My keynote speech.
We are delighted to publish this incredible full Keynote Speech by Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) which he gave at #SomniumConnect2024✨
What will #AI bring to humanity in the next 10 years? How will this technological crossroad look like?
Past + present = future❤️#unaligned #XR
convalytics retweeted
Introducing Structured Outputs! A huge leap beyond JSON mode, solving a major challenge for developers.
If your app relies on a specific JSON format to drive the UI, our models now match your schema—every time. No more missing keys or hallucinated enums!
openai.com/index/introducing…
convalytics retweeted
AI without high quality data is hallucinating over and over again!
This fact should give data engineers, analysts and scientists some peace
Here’s a great example:
In 2017, Ethiopia shut off the internet. Active users on Facebook in Ethiopia dropped 99%.
An AI would be hard pressed to troubleshoot that and would almost certainly say that it was a data quality error.
How would it know what to do next? It would look at the data and probably say a logging error happened on a majority of Ethiopian devices.
But it’s NOT a data quality. It’s a data anomaly. A REAL anomaly. Bringing in contextual geopolitical information seems far away for LLMs.
Will there be a day when AI will be able to troubleshoot and diagnose all data quality errors with the proper context needed?
Yes!
Is that day in the 2020s? Most likely not unless we see a dramatic step up in quality from LLM diagnoses.
#dataengineering
convalytics retweeted
I saw a post on Reddit today about SQL being a hard language and how many online courses and tutorials make it sound so easy. SQL for the most part is easy but it has one major weakness:
It's not easily composable.
SQL for querying a well-designed table is very simple and easy:
SELECT <col> FROM <table> WHERE <condition>
Once you start to use SQL to transform data, especially if you have to chain multiple transformation steps, you run into SQL's main achilles heel. Unlike programming languages like Python, SQL is really hard to compose.
With Python you can write very sophisticated code in a few lines by importing ready-made libraries. You can also package your own code as libraries and publish it locally or open source it. SQL on the other hand doesn't have libraries you can import and you can't make your own.
Well you sort of can with tools like dbt, and I've gone a long way towards composable SQL in my professional day to day job. I even wrote a book about this which you can find on my profile.
convalytics retweeted
Ready to start working with Llama 3.1? Here are a few new resources from the Llama team to help you get started. 🧵
convalytics retweeted
Customize GPT-4o mini for your application with fine-tuning. Available today to tier 4 and 5 users, we plan to gradually expand access to all tiers. First 2M training tokens a day are free, through Sept 23.
platform.openai.com/docs/gui…
convalytics retweeted
Introducing `claude-sonnet-to-gpt-4o-mini` ✍️
Get the quality of Claude 3.5 Sonnet, at a fraction of the cost and latency.
Give one example of your task, and Sonnet will teach 4o-mini (20x cheaper!!) how to do the task perfectly.
And it's open-source: shorturl.at/Cjjwt
convalytics retweeted
I see a lot of anti-automation sentiment that sees some grand scheme to automate literally everything, sucking the joy out of doing meaningful work.
But the whole point is automating the bullshit so we can put *more* time into doing meaningful work, whatever that means to you.
convalytics retweeted
Carson Street Deli is such an outstanding place. Amazing food, great people, and they definitely don't deserve to be hassled by some jagoff. We're buying a sandwich ring for two lucky followers each chosen from those who RT this. Drawing will be Thursday, after 5pm. More below
convalytics retweeted
Trust me, I've traveled a lot. Name me another city like Pittsburgh with its unique geography at the confluence of three rivers, numerous bridges, rich history as a steel industry hub, vibrant cultural scene, with a strong sports legacy. It is truly incomparable.
