Mike Monroe

Lots of people worry that AI will replace human writers. But I know something the computer doesn’t know, which is what it feels like inside my head. There is no text, no .jpg, no .csv that contains this information, because it is ineffable. My job is to carve off a sliver of the ineffable, and to eff it.

(William Wordsworth referred to this as... See more

The more hours you’ve put into this chaotic business of living, the more you crave a quieter, more nurturing third thing, I think. This needn’t mean dull. The friends I have now, who’ve come all this distance, who are part of my aging plan, include all kinds of joyous goofballs and originals. There’s loads of open country between enervation and... See more

I genuinely believe that relationships with family and close friends are one of the greatest sources of happiness in life. It sounds simple, but like any important investment, these relationships need consistent attention and care. But there are two forces that will be constantly working against this happening. First, you’ll be routinely tempted to... See more

Far too often, the money that companies spend on digital marketing is just lit on fire. All the companies are competing for all of the same shoppers using higher bids as their only advantage.  Swaypay flips that on its head. It amplifies an existing behavior - people telling friends about the things they bought - and rewards shoppers for doing so.... See more

A very common trope is to treat LLMs as if they were intelligent agents going out in the world and doing things. That’s just a category mistake. A much better way of thinking about them is as a technology that allows humans to access information from many other humans and use that information to make decisions. We have been doing this for as long... See more

Something that @jessepollak introduced to the @base team is "work zones," inspired by heart rate zones. It's been insanely helpful to clearly align the team, and balance the intensity of our work culture and sprints with important rest and recharge. As the year wraps up, the Base core... See more