Your signal. Your price.
Matt Duss says the Gaza war is causing a rupture in the Democratic Party, similar to the Iraq War's effect in 2008, with senior Democrats like Brian Schatz and Chris Van Hollen calling for a new foreign policy staff and moral clarity.
Duss accuses the Biden administration of a disinformation campaign on Gaza. He cites its refusal to assess Israeli violations of international law, contrasting it with a swift war crimes assessment against Russia within a month of its Ukraine invasion.
Duss argues Biden's 'no daylight' policy toward Israel, where differences were kept private, and his rejection of conditioning aid as 'preposterous' during the 2020 primary, created guardrails that led to complicity in atrocities.
Duss proposes the Democratic Party's position should be to end aid and arms sales to Israel, citing existing laws like the Leahy Law and Arms Export Control Act that are ignored for key allies like Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
He contends U.S. policy has empowered extremist actors by imposing all consequences on Palestinians while allowing Israel to pursue de facto annexation with impunity, weakening prospects for peace.
Duss rejects the argument that continued U.S. support provides leverage, citing a 2019 letter from former Obama officials who admitted staying engaged in Yemen to influence Saudi Arabia was a mistake that only affirmed a terrible war.
Duss questions the strategic benefit of the U.S.-Israel alliance, arguing the costs outweigh the benefits. He says a progressive foreign policy should start by doing less harm and advance safety, prosperity, and solidarity.
He agrees with Congressman Jason Crow's analysis that Trump is a symptom, not the cause, of a rigged system. Duss links lost public trust to elite failures like the Iraq War and the 2008 financial crisis.
Duss notes that in every post-Cold War election except 2004, the more anti-war candidate has won. He says Democrats abandoned that lane in 2024, allowing Trump to claim it politically.
Duss argues Biden's Middle East policy, including maintaining Trump's pressure on Iran and pursuing the Abraham Accords to sideline Palestinians, contributed to the conditions for Hamas's October 7th attack.
He asserts the Biden administration's overriding focus on strategic competition with China to sustain American primacy drove flawed policies, including in the Middle East, and advocates for a positive-sum approach to global trade.
Duss says elite impunity and a rigged system are core to the political crisis. He supports Senator Schatz's call for new foreign policy staff and Van Hollen's push to bar officials who carried out Gaza policy from future service.
He endorses AOC's view that we are in a 'pre-rules-based order,' where hypocrisies have stripped the system of legitimacy. Duss advocates rebuilding international rules to constrain power, seeing it as a positive-sum project versus Trump's zero-sum view.
Duss emphasizes Congress must reclaim its war powers to provide accountability, citing the Iraq War debate and the impossible congressional approval for Trump's war in Iran as examples of the process's value.
On immigration, Duss argues for a legal, orderly system while making a positive case that immigrants drive growth. He says addressing the sources of grievance that fuel anti-immigrant sentiment is part of the needed political reordering.
He proposes centering anti-corruption in foreign policy, starting domestically with campaign finance reform and internationally by cracking down on the U.S. and U.K. as destinations for kleptocratic wealth.
Sue Kim says Brilliant teaches problem solving over procedural knowledge, a more transferable skill than memorizing formulas. She says school math often fails when students encounter unfamiliar problems.
Brilliant’s new AI tutor Cooji launched last week and went viral with nearly 5 million views on X. Kim says the success shows consumer demand for AI that makes you think, not AI that replaces thinking.
Jason Calacanis says startup founders should ignore traditional TAM analysis for novel ideas, citing Airbnb and eBay as companies that induced entirely new markets. He says bad VC behavior often stems from an inability to assess non-existent markets.
Jason Calacanis explains his firm's process to improve founder feedback scores. He mandates that every first meeting ends with the investor repeating the founder's vision back to them to ensure understanding.
Brilliant’s AI tutor Cooji is Socratic, uses interactive canvases LLMs can read and write to, and gradually removes visual scaffolding as students reach mastery. The core pedagogy and mathematical correctness are deterministic systems built over seven years.
Sue Kim says Brilliant’s pricing is benchmarked against human tutors, not casual apps. The goal is a product that does 95% of a tutor's job for 30 dollars a month, a fraction of the typical 10,000 dollar annual tutoring cost.
Jason Calacanis recounts a story where John Doerr attended a pitch meeting directly from the emergency room after a biking accident, viewing it as a sign of ultimate commitment despite Doerr being groggy.
Sue Kim says 40% of Brilliant’s users are in the US, with 60% international. This drove the choice of the name Cooji, which is short, globally accessible, and not tied to a specific language.
Sue Kim says Brilliant chose a direct-to-consumer model over B2B sales to schools to stay close to learner feedback. They read every app store review and customer email for real-time product development insights.
Sue Kim says the ability of frontier LLMs to tutor well has plateaued since GPT-3.5 because they lack verifiable reward signals for learning outcomes. Brilliant's unique dataset of tutoring sessions provides that signal for model improvement.
Jason Calacanis tells a story of a VC firm canceling a meeting while he was driving to it after a cross-country flight. He confronted the investor, calling him the worst venture capitalist of all time.
Sue Kim says Brilliant’s vision is a world-class tutor in every home for every subject and language. They are expanding from math and coding into science and younger age groups, leveraging LLMs for high-quality localization.
President Trump confirmed the government is exploring taking an equity stake in major AI labs, citing a concept where 'the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies' to benefit from AI success.
OpenAI is pitching the idea of donating equity to the US government to seed a public wealth fund, viewing it as a way for the public to benefit from AI growth through potential dividend distributions.