623: AI Compute Bottlenecks, Constellation Software AI Podcast, Cowork, Greg Brockman, Dylan Patel, Anthropic's Culture, Sociopath Seesaw, Netflix + Ben Affleck's AI, and The Blues Brothers
"I have this theory that I call the ‘sociopath seesaw’."
To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.
—Eric Hoffer
🎬🍿👨🚀📙 I had Project Hail Mary on the mind because I’m going to see it in IMAX tomorrow, so yesterday afternoon, I started reading the book out loud with my 12yo.
We’re only 3 chapters in, and the plot has barely gotten going, but he’s LOVING it so far. The early scenes with Eva Stratt have landed perfectly, and I have a feeling she’ll be a highlight for him the way she is for me.
Naturally, for family movie night last night, we watched The Martian (their first time). I hadn’t seen it since it came out, and while I remembered enjoying it quite a bit at the time, it was even better this time. Maybe an ode to competence and thinking things through hits even harder in 2026 than in 2015? 🤔
A lot of what made it so fun for me was seeing it through my boys' eyes. They were so into it. They loved the problem-solving and the science. We paused a few times so I could explain orbital mechanics. And when it was over, my oldest said: “this was the best film I ever saw.”
🛀💭👺😈 What if AI could make it easier to identify psychopaths and sociopaths (I’m using the term loosely, you know what I mean) by noticing patterns no normal person has time to track, and by cross-checking information that no single individual would otherwise possess?
Should we use that ability to benefit society even if it requires some invasion of privacy?
I have this theory that I call the ‘sociopath seesaw’.
Most large organizations probably have around the normal human baseline, give or take.
But some organizations tip in one direction or the other.
Those with super high integrity leadership and high-functioning cultures with no tolerance for bullshit, lying, and bad behavior can effectively weed out and detect bad apples and tip the seesaw in a direction that makes it very unappealing to sociopaths. They get kicked out or self-select out.
BUT
If the balance tips the other way and people with low integrity take over and create a culture of bullshit, sycophancy, backstabbing, turf wars, and power and prestige flowing to those with sociopathic tendencies, the organization becomes repulsive to high-integrity, quality people. Then it spirals downward into an anti-meritocratic mess that increasingly rewards the very traits that made it dysfunctional in the first place. Would-be reformers get neutralized before they can have enough power to try to change things.
