24: Linus Lee - Engineering for Aliveness
Linus Lee (Website, X) is a builder, engineer, and writer who explores how software can amplify our abilities, humanity, and agency. He builds, researches, and advises on AI at Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm, and continues to write and hack on personal projects.Previously, Linus held research or engineering roles at Notion, Betaworks, Replit, and others, and has built over 100 personal projects on the side--including his own programming language and most of the tools he uses day to day. Most of his work, writing, and projects revolve around language, knowledge work, thinking tools, machine intelligence, and latent space for creativity.We begin with how technology can concentrate or distribute power and amplify our diminish our agency. Then he breaks down his framework around instrumental and engaged interfaces, why representation is so critical in tools, and talks through what 'tools for thought' actually means. We also discuss the state of LLM tools and how they can become more robust, as well as how latent space could be codified to help us understand more qualitative domains. This bleeds into his approach to and work at Thrive, which we discuss in detail.Linus is attuned to the ways technology can make us more or less human, and that's reflected throughout. Technology is not determined: the future we imagine and create is entirely up to us.
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Speaker A: Welcome to Dialectic, episode 24 with Linus Li. Linus works in the world of software, building, researching, engineering, designing, and exploring how technology and software can amplify us rather than diminish us. He hopes to create what he calls instruments for super agency, leaning into the notion that technology at its best should make everyone more human and more capable. These days he's focused on AI at Thrive Capital, a VC firm where he builds internal tools, researches, and advises. Before Thrive, Linus worked at Notion, Betaworks, and Replit across engineering, research, and AI.
And he's also prolific in his own time with over 100 personal software side projects and extensive writing, much of which is incredible. One of the most foundational things he explores in his work is how language and knowledge can be codified, explored, and expanded by way of software. We talk about all of this and more, including one of one of my favorite framings he has where he distinguishes between what he calls instrumental and engaged interfaces and why some tools just need to get the job done while others help us more deeply understand and move toward mastery.
Running through the conversation, as you might guess, is the state of LLMs and how they affect software. And we also talk extensively about his work at Thrive and how he thinks about bringing an engineering mindset there. I hope you notice it throughout, but we also end the conversation specifically talking about how humanity and technology don't need to be at odds and in fact how technology technology can help us dream and help us wander. I hope you enjoy the conversation and are as inspired as I was by Linus. If you enjoy this episode and you enjoy dialectic, please share it with a friend.
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