talsraviv

Hey! Tal here. Maxim and I created Familiar to capture our screen (and clipboard) every few seconds and save it as markdown. That way our local agent can use that as context (through a cron, skill, or slash command).

Our early testers are showing us how to use it:

- Update Claude's skills/memory based on their workday (in a scheduled task/heartbeat)

- Typing "help me with what I'm working on right now" without having to prompt/describe

- Enriching meeting transcripts with what was actually on screen (and vice versa)

- Forking it into their coaching app so coaches can see what learners did between sessions

- Someone new to tech used Familiar during a trial week at a YC startup, so that AI could coach him every few hours (and got the job)

We've consistently seen AI use Familiar context like a "router" layer. Recently, my agent "saw" that I spent a long time on a document, so it fetched the full doc directly. We've also seen the agent traverse the markdown, then decide to fetch the original image (so cool).

Familiar uses Apple's native OCR, deletes screenshot images after 48 hours, and redacts passwords/credit card numbers/SSNs/API tokens/etc. We'd love contributions on what else to block: https://github.com/familiar-software/familiar/tree/main/src/... or in general ways to improve privacy.

We stand on the shoulders of giants: screenpipe, rewind, dayflow, etc. Since then: 1) Local agents got good at handling massive amounts of messy text files 2) Local agents have their own memory and skills systems

Familiar is our "bitter lesson" version: just hand over context and get out of the way. The right way to do that piece is open source/free/offline.

Yeah, that's a good point - the filter has definitely changed for me over time as well. The don't-care bucket is filling up, and I like it.

The site lost a lot of credibility at several moments for me, this being a big one.

This coheres with my dating experiences as well. The medium may have changed, but we're all still people, with mostly the same spectrum of motivations we've always had.

My issue with dating apps is that they're too efficient. Our attractiveness fluctuates dramatically based on context. If we're doing something we love, doing something interesting, or exhibiting a particular behavior or trait, we can be far more attractive than any five curated photos will show. And vice versa.

Dating apps remove all contextual variety and flatten us out. And in that case, "efficiency" is actually inefficient.

This premise has always been the first thought in my mind when hearing of a conspiracy. Cool to see it modeled in historical context.

> The "flow" that imaginative people love so much has a darker cousin that prevents you from pausing to savor life...

I'm glad he pointed out this seemingly small detail. This took me a very long time to understand.

EDIT: It reminds me of another great post by Paul Buccheit. It's so important to have the 'heroes' of startup culture explicitly spell out these values:

> I worry that perhaps I'm communicating the wrong priorities. Investing money, creating new products, and all the other things we do are wonderful games and can be a lot of fun, but it's important to remember that it's all just a game. What's most important is that we are good too each other, and ourselves. If we "win", but have failed to do that, then we have lost. Winning is nothing.

http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.fr/2012/03/eight-years-today.ht...

I understand why you might arrive at that conclusion, but think about another level: What did Jessica Livingston lose or miss out on by not promoting herself to the public?

I would argue that she missed out on nothing that matters.

> In fact, the real moral of the story is that the tech press is almost entirely bullshit, and that is mostly to be avoided.

Any interaction I've had with the tech press from the "written about" side of things (or reading about close friends) has given me less and less faith in what I read about those I don't know.

I was close to deleting my Facebook account when I discovered the News Feed Eradicator[1]. This way I can still use messages, groups, events, etc. without having to experience the dreaded news feed. It really improved my quality of life.

Another major step I took was to stop posting. That way I had no expectations of feedback and logged in far less in general.

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...

This is one of my favorite boards to go out on, whether I'm in Hawaii or Florida - it's really good quality.

I never gave it much thought, so it's very cool to learn the business story behind it.

Definitely possible. And you guessed it - American.

Is health insurance the only thing to worry about? Any other reasons to save up a lot of money, or something to insure for?

For example, if a medical issue arises, insurance covers treatment, but if it's now difficult to sustain myself, am I now dependent on unemployment/social services (or savings)?

I lead a minimalist/nomadic lifestyle now, and always wondering if at some point the music has to stop and I have to integrate into the system as I get older (any kids, family aside).

That part I'm sold on. I'm wondering about, as another comment mentioned, what happens if you discover one day you're not self sufficient, even temporarily (significant illness, chronic illness, major injury - or something I'm not considering). If I don't want to be a burden on anyone on the grid, but don't want to depend on social services, how do I factor that in?

The comments here are really thought provoking. I feel like I'm missing something - is there some kind of unmentioned catch, like don't get sick, or you have to have really good workers/health/disability insurance - to make this work safely long term?

I love the contrarian thinking but want to make sure I'm accounting for legitimate cases my young mind might not conceive of. Or am I overthinking it?

This is so absolutely true. After a long day of using my left brain the only thing I feel like doing is playing some guitar. I've only learned a few chords and bought a cheap one off Amazon, but it is simply wonderful.

I would add to your metaphors and say, it feels like walking downhill after a long day of walking up hill - totally different muscles - all in my brain.

Generalizing, dogmatic attitudes, some of which are religious - and some of which are expressed in your comment - are harmful.

It's just as silly - and intellectually easy - to blindly condemn culture and religion as it is to blindly follow them.

There's a wonderfully epic two-part South Park episode that makes this point:

http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s10e12-go-god-go http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s10e13-go-god-go-xii

I'm in a similar situation and I've decided that while I won't live there, it's worth visiting my friends and contacts once in a while to catch up and learn about what they're doing.

I've been told by many friends in the Bay Area that day-to-day, it doesn't feel to them like there's enormous networking because everyone is in their own routines. They advised me that a huge percentage of networking can be accomplished by telling people you're "visiting for two weeks".

However, living there long-term and having your personal network double as your professional network is a different order of magnitude benefits. My perception is, from the outside and from visiting, the reason specific companies get bought or partnered with is often because they were more closely socially connected and geographically nearby (more likely to hear about one another, have friends in common, etc.)

I believe it's not something that happens overnight, but over time as an investment in the community and being there long-term.

I've recently made a conscious decision to put other priorities in life (where I really want to live, and my life outside tech) on equal or greater footing. For those for whom that's no conflict, I'm sure it's fantastic to live there.

Does anyone know how common it is to finance high-risk startup companies with the kinds of debt described above?

Risky ventures and investors losing money aren't news, but I'm trying to understand if this story is unique because of the type of financing.

EDIT: ...other than, of course, the dishonesty.

I found my remote job through my personal network. There's a great site recently launched called http://remoteok.io that may be helpful.

I hope to still be a beginner at something.

If the thought leadership revolves around the journey, learning, and transparency then I respect a company CEO who shares thoughts independently of the short-term ups and downs of the company.

Makes you appreciate the power of startups to drive innovation - without FundersClub launching half a year ago it's unlikely Angellist would have seen this as anything but a crazy idea full of legal thorns, with no pressure to innovate past their success.

Either way, fantastic to see innovators benefit all around from more access to more capital.

Good point. But it is the world's best opportunity to get leading investors on the platform to make an investment or two to give it a level of credibility others have not reached. That itself is a mini network effect problem but having them all in one room makes it much easier.

Having the world's leading angel investors on the platform would be one of the keys to establishing a successful two-sided network.

The team behind it - these guys have each built multiple successful companies with exits or massive profits - together with the YC spotlight. You're right that being in YC alone won't cut it but as we've seen it definitely amplifies the power of a great team.

The YC spotlight is particularly perfect for this concept because of demo day. They might be the only startup that can get all their most important and prominent target customers (and thought leaders) in one room, very shortly after launching.

I'm with you. I feel the same way about startup porn. It's just that when I saw Wasswa's email it hit me most programmers don't work closely with good marketers and understand this. It's an unnecessary lost opportunity. I also figured there's many hard working people like him that just needed to be told marketing (or any skill in that set) is learnable that got me motivated up to write something.

Amazing summary. I've bookmarked this comment. Thank you. It would be great if you'd elaborate on each one in a post with one story that may have led you to realize this - to make it more memorable. Heck this could probably be a textbook but a short post would get the most eyeballs. And when you post it, i'd like to be the first to know.

It's [almost] like a checklist when working on any marketing project to get inspiration from and make sure you're doing a complete job.

So true. You have a massive advantage to learn quickly because you have complete freedom to iterate as you please without waiting on anyone.

Also sort of true. @bretpiatt nailed the administrative side, but @macspoofing you are right in that we also wanted to free up equity to attract talent. It made more sense that the first equity to be set aside for employees shouldn't dilute active founders and investors if possible.

Tal here, I wrote the post and google image searched my way to that photo. Some images on the web are so ridiculous you don't believe they're real or think about them as you would if you saw them in a news context.

I reverse imaged searched to discover it's a real picture of a drunk driver killing a man and injuring 10 in Monterrey, Mexico in 2008. I apologize for those of you who had to see it, and thanks Toan for acting quickly to remove it.

can't disagree with any of that...

Free from the consequences of my actions? How do you know how I voted in the last election?

If anytime you travelled abroad you were treated like a hard-core Iraq ware supporter and Halliburton board member you'd get sick of it too. Or if every time your country vaguely became a topic for discussion things immediately devolved to view you and your nationality as not much except native american murderers and subjugators and ask you to answer for everyone else's actions in the history of your country. And when you have a well articulated answer explaining that it's more complicated than an archetypical narrative, or anything slightly well-written, they dismiss you as a highly-trained PR spokesperson lurking on forums instead of a human being with an opinion.

Yeah, it gets tiring.

As a result, you don't really want to get into details because it doesn't really sound like anyone's too open to hearing what you have to say, just looking for a fight. And then people pre-empt you by saying "stop calling me an anti-semite" and "I'm sick of you people saying ___ " while at the same time completely ignoring other important human rights abuses going on in the world, you begin to wonder why you bother engaging anyone, and instead just resort to asking to talk about it elsewhere, not when you're trying to read Hacker News.

And yes, snarky one-liners that gloss over the entire region's history evoke all of this.