2025 in review, with Sammy Cottrell

Sammy explains his role as a 'fixer' finding guests and solving complex problems, including building a podcast studio at Lighthaven. Discussion covers the challenges and benefits of video podcasting, including the different toolchain, scheduling constraints, and how video adds empathy to philosophical AI discussions.

• •Building a public-use podcast studio at Lighthaven during festival season enabled multiple new podcasts to launch
• •Video podcasting requires in-person recording and complex technical setup, but reaches audiences who prefer visual content
• •Seeing speakers' faces during AI ethics discussions adds important emotional context that audio alone doesn't convey
• •Lighthaven is currently in annual fundraising drive - nonprofit infrastructure requires community support

Patrick describes his transformative experience using AI-assisted coding tools (Claude, Cursor) to develop a fantasy roguelike game in one month. He emphasizes this is clearly the next evolution of programming and expresses frustration with skeptics who haven't tried the tools.

• •Developed complete game in one month using Claude Code and Cursor - revolutionary productivity for someone with engineering background
• •AI tools enable non-traditional development workflows: brainstorm with Claude, generate design doc, implement with ClaudeCode in hours
• •Multimodal AI useful beyond coding: painting miniatures (generating color schemes from photos), cooking (real-time consistency checks)
• •Current AI tools are 'the worst we'll ever use' - continuous improvement means capabilities only increase from here

Review of top-performing episodes including the salary negotiation essay reading and Gary Ruff's discussion of airline rewards programs. Patrick discusses why salary negotiation continues to have enduring utility and corrects common misconceptions about airline economics.

• •Salary negotiation essay remains most distributed work ever - immediate impact with listeners successfully negotiating higher compensation
• •Airline rewards programs involve largest contracts in capitalism through linked credit card programs
• •Mainstream press incorrectly frames airlines as 'losing money flying planes, making it back on credit cards' - actually two halves of linked business
• •Atlantic magazine opinion piece claiming 'poor people pay for credit card rewards' is factually incorrect despite banking expertise

Patrick discusses being invited to speak with Bank of England about stablecoins, systemic risk from software development practices, and AI's impact on financial systems. He redirected their concerns about AI in hedge funds to much larger civilizational implications.

• •Bank of England sought input on whether AI in trading firms creates correlated systemic risk to banking
• •Patrick's role: 'laundering LessWrong into corridors of power' - translating rationalist AI concerns for policymakers
• •Emphasized AI's impact far exceeds narrow financial stability concerns - this is industrial revolution scale transformation
• •Public episode available despite being invited for private consultation - transparency principle in action

Discussion of Emily Sands' episode on Stripe's AI practice, including training foundation models on financial transaction data and using AI for fraud detection. Highlights how defending against card testing attacks protects the broader economy.

• •Stripe training custom foundation models on financial transaction data - scale provides massive data advantage
• •Card testing attacks use infrastructure as oracle to validate stolen cards, but damage occurs elsewhere in economy
• •Defending your platform against fraud has positive externalities for businesses and customers with no direct relationship
• •AI/ML deployed for pro-social ends (fraud prevention) with clear business benefits - alignment of incentives

Review of episode with Azim on power economics for AI data centers. Discusses how power infrastructure may be rate-limiting factor for AI buildout, stranded energy assets, and how crypto mining pioneered strategies now used by hyperscalers.

• •Bringing gigawatt-scale power online potentially hardest part of AI infrastructure buildout over coming years
• •Stranded energy assets: small power plants (often gas-fired) disconnected from grid when industrial user closes
• •Crypto mining pioneered colocating compute with stranded power - hyperscalers (Amazon, Google, Microsoft) now following
• •If AI boom only delivers infinite clean power, 'would've been worth it at the price' - but expecting much more

Discussion of making podcast studio available as public good within high-trust environment. Covers why companies should have recording rooms, benefits of internal podcasts, and how podcasting extracts knowledge more efficiently than essay writing.

• •Software companies with marketing departments should have on-site recording rooms - high ROI for launches and social media
• •Internal podcasts essential for CEO face-time at scale - easier to get knowledge out of people via conversation than essays
• •Making infrastructure available to community (customers, side projects, young creators) is low marginal cost with high value
• •Hearing voice creates tribal affinity in ways reading doesn't - podcast listeners show deeper personal connection than essay readers

Analysis of how Silicon Valley accumulated power over past decade and current tensions with government. Discusses Mark Zuckerberg's letter to Congress pre-committing to fight censorship requests as unprecedented line in the sand.

• •Silicon Valley accumulated massive power (intended and unintended) through building products people want and making money
• •Other societal actors attempting to turn tech companies into 'fifth arm of government' similar to financial sector
• •2024-2025 saw tech companies most actively trying to influence government directly - new level of intentionality
• •Zuckerberg's letter pre-committing to fight future censorship requests unprecedented - no comparable examples from other CEOs

Reflection on months-long investigative project following up on New York Magazine scam article. Discusses brutal economics of investigative journalism and why it doesn't pull clicks compared to lower-value content.

• •Banking Adventures investigation took months of reporter/research time due to NYC public institution delays
• •Investigative journalism business model broken - doesn't generate clicks/subscriptions proportional to effort vs clickbait
• •Project served as 'position piece' showing Bits About Money is professional journal capable of ambitious work
• •Everyone's life exposes them to problems they're uniquely equipped to solve - 'regional wire transfer compliance influencer'

Deep dive into using Claude for creative game design, including designing a pandemic-themed murder mystery encounter. Demonstrates AI as competent collaborator for brainstorming, design documentation, and rapid implementation.

• •Asked Claude to design plausible fantasy illness with realistic biological mechanism - immediately suggested five options
• •Converted brainstorming chat directly into design document, then to ClaudeCode for implementation - playable in hours
• •Entire game development cycle: one month from concept to playable three-act structure with final boss encounter
• •AI as 'competent friend available 24/7' - substitutes for social capital without burning others' cycles at 2AM
• •Creative director role still essential - players report feeling creator's 'thumb on scales' despite AI-written prose