Apurva Shukla/writing

11-22-25: Internet goodies I read last week

  1. day 0 is loud. day 2 is real.

    • In the AI era, starting is cheap: you can spin up branding, trailers, and a myth in a day. The real cost arrives on day 2, when hype fades and habit wins. Products survive by fitting existing loops—removing steps, slipping into transitions, regulating “emotional weather”—not by demanding new workflows. Think furniture, not fireworks: quiet, ever-present, and useful. Hype is a tax if day 2 disappoints; it breeds churn and distrust. Retention now depends less on features than on timing, tone, and attunement—showing up at the exact moment a user needs relief. Ask: Where does this live at 8:37 a.m.? What loop does it ride? What tiny burden does it lift? Quotes: “day 0 is theater. day 2 is truth.”

  2. Powerpoint is your therapist, Gamma is your coach | Andreessen Horowitz

    • Edward Tufte said PowerPoint makes us dumb. This essay celebrates Gamma (fresh off a16z-led Series B) as a rare fix: AI-first presentations that start with a prompt, not a blank slide. That shift forces creators to explain context, think laterally, and build arguments around “what’s going on” rather than the org chart. Gamma also supports non-linear consumption, seamless switches between slides and text, and deep embeds of live data/apps—turning decks into navigable compositions. The result is less jump-cut slop and more agency: you spend less time formatting bullet points and more time interrogating reality, then presenting it flexibly as the conversation evolves. Where PowerPoint helps you survive meetings, Gamma helps you change outcomes—acting more like a coach than a therapist. Quote: “In a world where agency is everything, you don’t want PowerPoint to be your therapist. You want Gamma to be your coach.”

  3. Search Wars: Episode 2 | Andreessen Horowitz

    • The internet is entering a new search war—this time built for AI agents, not human clickers. Instead of monolithic engines, startups now offer API-first, AI-native search layers that deliver token-efficient, fresh snippets ready for LLM reasoning. Most companies will outsource indexing to specialists given the cost and pace of iteration. Players like Exa and Parallel run large, continuously updated indexes; others like Tavily and Valyu optimize with targeted recrawls. RAG and test-time compute transformed static models into dynamic reasoners, and deep research is emerging as the killer app, alongside CRM enrichment, live docs/code search, and proactive recommendations. Competition today centers on speed, price, and integration, with differentiation growing in deep research. The shift ultimately benefits humans as agents surface cleaner, faster, more relevant information. Quotes: "Web search for the past 30+ years was built for humans. Now it’s being rearchitected for agents."

  4. A Toolkit for Making Career Decisions: Key Pitfalls and How To’s — Reforge

    • Optimize career moves for impact, not pay. Bangaly Kaba’s heuristic: Impact = Environment x Skills (a product, not a sum). It spotlights traps: shiny projects, self-only fixes, short‑termism, brand chasing, comfy mediocrity, and confusing perception with truth. Environment spans manager, resources, scope, team, compensation, culture—with manager as the top multiplier. Skills: communication, influence, strategy, execution; communication often determines how far great work travels. Apply it by: naming variables, scoring what helps/hurts, finding root causes, gauging what you can change, and sizing the time required. Reassess often; when unsure, pick the best manager. Quotes “Compensation is the output, impact is the input.”

  5. Cold Email First Principles Thinking

    • Growth Engine X is an outbound email agency that sends about 3,000,000 emails every month on behalf of clients. They specialize in precise data segmentation, AI-driven messaging, and creative campaign design, and they share a social proof deck to showcase results. The post invites companies to apply for a free campaign launch, suggesting a try-before-you-buy experience. It also recommends Clay for prospecting workflows, offering a free trial and 3,000 bonus credits when upgrading via their link. The accompanying video includes auto-dubbed audio tracks in multiple languages, broadening accessibility. Shared on Eric Nowoslawski’s channel, it’s a concise overview of GEX’s scale, capabilities, and offers, with clear calls to action for seeing case studies, applying for the free campaign, and exploring the Clay integration.

  6. Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System

    • Donella Meadows shows how small, well-placed changes can transform complex systems—and why our instincts often push in the wrong direction. She ranks leverage points from least to most effective: tweaking numbers (taxes, standards); changing buffers, structures, and delays; adjusting feedback strengths; redesigning information flows; rewriting rules; enabling self-organization; redefining system goals; shifting the underlying paradigm; and, highest, transcending paradigms. Real power lies above the level of numbers: transparency that restores feedback, rules that align incentives, and goals and mindsets that set the system’s purpose. Examples span growth-centric economies, urban housing, market price signals, and “success-to-the-successful” loops that amplify inequality. Her caution: the higher the leverage point, the greater the resistance from the system. Effective change calls for humility, thoughtful redesign, and, at times, slowing down so feedback can work.