This week, we unpack The Optimist, the new Sam Altman biography; revisit OpenAI’s early days; and break down Coatue’s AI strategy deck. Plus, tips for squeezing in side projects between thought leadership presentations.
Watch the YouTube Live Recording of Episode 526 (https://www.youtube.com/live/1CnmEwdH6ME?si=64oVGDyCvXdzJeIj)
Runner-up Titles
Flow State
Altman and AI
Day 2 Thinking
Growth Mindset
Less of you
You don't need a Harvard Business Review subscription to know that
Running unnecessary hardware in your house
Lifelong Costco member here.
Pre-populate Everything
There’s no ROI on a good hotdog
Rundown
AI Native vs. AI Add-on (https://www.softwaredefinedtalk.com/525)
AI Frenzy
The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future (https://www.amazon.com/Optimist-Altman-OpenAI-Invent-Future/dp/1324075961?tag=googhydr-20&hvqmt=&hvbmt=%7BBidMatchType%7D&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8w2bwd161h_e)
Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab valued at $10bn after $2bn fundraising (https://www.ft.com/content/9edc67e6-96a9-4d2b-820d-57bc1279e358)
ChatGPT's Enterprise Success Against Copilot Fuels OpenAI and Microsoft's Rivalry (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-24/chatgpt-vs-copilot-inside-the-openai-and-microsoft-rivalry)
Iyo vs. Io — OpenAI and Jony Ive get sued (https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/06/23/iyo-vs-io-openai-and-jony-ive-get-sued/)
Zuckerberg Leads AI Recruitment Blitz Armed With $100 Million Pay Packages (https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-ai-recruiting-mark-zuckerberg-5c231f75)
After trying to buy Ilya Sutskever's $32B AI startup, Meta looks to hire its CEO (https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/20/after-trying-to-buy-ilya-sutskevers-32b-ai-startup-meta-looks-to-hire-its-ceo/)
Message from CEO Andy Jassy: Some thoughts on Generative AI (https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-on-generative-ai)
Clouded Judgement 6.19.25 - The Dropping Cost of Intelligence (https://cloudedjudgement.substack.com/p/clouded-judgement-61925-the-dropping?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F48bf3cef-6d79-4e10-8bb4-ccf48a08341b_1189x729.png&open=false)
Coatue's 2025 EMW Keynote Replay (https://www.coatue.com/blog/company-update/coatues-2025-emw-keynote-replay)
Slides in online PDF (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Srl8Y4pBoKtNVYZBxmfj2TEMYM5tp1mE/view)
Coatue’s Laffont Brothers. AI, Public & VC Mkts, Macro, US Debt, Crypto, IPO's, & more (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JA7n0wTChw)
Agents and the Web
Remote MCP support in Claude Code (https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-code-remote-mcp)
Agentforce 3, it's agents all the way down. (https://siliconangle.com/2025/06/23/salesforce-launches-agentforce-3-greater-ai-agent-visibility-connectivity/)
Google Cloud donates A2A to Linux Foundation- Google Developers Blog (https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-cloud-donates-a2a-to-linux-foundation/)
Linux Foundation Appoints Jonathan Bryce as Executive Director, Cloud & Infrastructure and Chris Aniszczyk as CTO, Cloud & Infrastructure to Oversee Major Open Source Initiatives (https://www.cncf.io/announcements/2025/06/24/linux-foundation-appoints-jonathan-bryce-as-executive-director-cloud-infrastructure-and-chris-aniszczyk-as-cto-cloud-infrastructure-to-oversee-major-open-source-initiatives/)
Relevant to your Interests
Amazon orders employees to relocate to Seattle and other hubs (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-orders-employees-relocate-seattle-212945920.html)
Microsoft announces advancement in quantum error correction (https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2025/06/microsoft-announces-advancement-quantum-error-correction/406175/)
Datadog DASH: A Revolving Door Of Operations And Security Announcements (https://www.forrester.com/blogs/datadog-dash-a-revolving-door-of-operations-and-security-announcements/)
the six-month recap: closing talk on AI at Web Directions, Melbourne, June 2025 (https://ghuntley.com/six-month-recap/)
Snap acquires Saturn, a social calendar app for high s