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AI ZEALOTRY

AI development is a transformative and fun evolution, similar to the advent of compilers, as it automates mundane tasks and allows devs to focus on strategic thinking.

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A16Z RAISED $15B

Andreessen Horowitz just raised $15B across six funds, capturing 18% of all venture capital allocated in the US last year. The thesis behind it is straightforward. It believes America's technological leadership is existential, and that leadership depends on winning the key architectures of the future, specifically AI and crypto. The funds span American Dynamism, Apps, Bio + Health, Infrastructure, and Growth. The bet is that applying these technologies to biology, defense, education, and entertainment is what generates the next century of human flourishing.

CLOUDED JUDGEMENT 1.9.26 - THE EDUCATION ADVANTAGE IN AI

Real education happens through experience. The process is slow, but unavoidable. The best AI companies design their products to accelerate learning. The ones that will win will teach the market how to build and then convince the market that their way is the right one.

HOW PERSONIO'S CRO BUILT AN AI-POWERED GO-TO-MARKET IN JUST 6 MONTHS

Personio is a $3B+ HR platform with 400 salespeople. In May 2024, it ran an "AI Surge Week" and felt good about adoption metrics. Then its CRO noticed that high usage isn't transformation. Six months later, it had 400+ AI assistants, cut SDR research time from 2 hours to 15 minutes, and booked 140 meetings in a week through an AI agent.

SALES PROBLEMS VS. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT PROBLEMS

If you misdiagnose a product-market fit problem as a sales problem, you'll hire a sales coach, and it won't help. The distinction comes down to force and fit. Force is demand that exists independently of your product. Is this customer actively trying to accomplish something, and are their existing options not good enough? Fit only matters after you've established force. The framework for diagnosing which problem you actually have is surprisingly simple once you see it.

JINBA

Jinba empowers you to instantly deploy your custom workflows as robust, scalable API endpoints. Build workflows through chat, edit manifests, and connect with MCP tools.

SOUTH PARK COMMONS FELLOWSHIP (APPLICATION)

SPC runs fellowship cohorts every Spring and Fall. Applications for Spring 2026 are open now. The cohort kicks off in late March in San Francisco.

WARBL

Generate perfect replies on X in one click. Warbl is an AI-powered Chrome extension with personalized voice profiles, smart web search, and image analysis.

MASTERING WILLINGNESS TO PAY

Almost 100% of founders undervalue themselves initially. You set your first price from desperation and then never touch it again because you're terrified everyone will leave. A lack of confidence is the default state.

THE AI REVOLUTION IS HERE. WILL THE ECONOMY SURVIVE THE TRANSITION?

The man who predicted the 2008 crash, an Anthropic co-founder, and a leading AI podcaster got in a Google Doc together to debate whether AI is real or a historic misallocation of capital. The discussion covers the infrastructure-to-application revenue gap, why enterprise AI adoption is actually falling, where value accrues in the supply chain, and what would change each of their minds.

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PRIORITIZE RELATIVELY

Look at whether a feature is more valuable than the work you are currently doing before deciding whether to implement it.

MAKE AND TAKE

A willingness to take responsibility is in short supply.

REFLECTING ON 14 MONTHS OF INDIE HACKING - BUILDING 7 PROJECTS AND LEARNING HARD LESSONS

This developer quit his job to build indie products 14 months ago - most projects failed financially, but he learned valuable lessons about building for broad audiences over niche tools.

TRAJECTORY

The edge now comes from the specific path and manner in which a tool is used to achieve an outcome.

CHINA-LINKED HACKERS EXPLOIT VMWARE ESXI ZERO-DAYS TO ESCAPE VIRTUAL MACHINES

Huntress observed Chinese-speaking threat actors exploiting three VMware ESXi zero-days (CVE-2025-22224, CVE-2025-22225, and CVE-2025-22226) to escape virtual machine isolation and gain full hypervisor control. Evidence suggests the exploit toolkit was developed as early as February 2024, over a year before Broadcom's March 2025 disclosure. The multi-stage attack chain used a compromised SonicWall VPN for initial access and deployed the VSOCKpuppet backdoor, which communicates over VSOCK to bypass traditional network monitoring entirely. Organizations should prioritize patching these vulnerabilities and monitor for unusual VMCI/VSOCK activity between guest VMs and hypervisors.

BREACHFORUMS HACKING FORUM DATABASE LEAKED, EXPOSING 324K ACCOUNTS

The latest version of the infamous BreachForums suffered a data breach that leaked a database of user accounts. The breached data includes display names, registration dates, IP addresses, and other internal information. Many of the breached users' IPs route to loop back, but over 70k records contain public IPs.

INSTAGRAM DATA LEAK EXPOSES SENSITIVE INFO OF 17.5M ACCOUNTS

Malwarebytes raised concerns about a trove of Instagram user information being sold on the dark web. The breached data includes usernames, emails, phone numbers, and partial location data. Instagram has stated that there was no data breach, but rather an issue that allowed external parties to send unrequested password reset emails.

ORM LEAKING MORE THAN YOU JOINED FOR

ORM Leak vulnerabilities extend beyond susceptible ORMs such as Django and Prisma to any application that implements robust filtering capabilities. This article details practical examples, including Harbor CVE-2025-30086 (Beego ORM) and authentication bypasses via Prisma operator injection via type coercion, and discusses multiple techniques for bypassing naive protections, including exploiting Beego's broken expression parsing, where non-relational fields in filter expressions are overwritten by subsequent fields. Semgrep detection rules for Django, Prisma, Beego, and Entity Framework ORMs have been published to help identify these commonly overlooked vulnerabilities.

TWO CVES, ZERO EGO: A MAILPIT STORY

Mailpit is a lightweight email testing tool used in development that recently had two notable security issues uncovered: a server-side request forgery (SSRF) and a cross-site WebSocket hijacking (CSWSH) flaw. The SSRF bug allowed attackers to abuse a proxy endpoint to access internal services such as cloud metadata, while the WebSocket issue allowed any website to connect and stream all captured emails without authentication. The maintainer quickly fixed both issues in new releases and coordinated CVEs, showing how respectful communication, GitHub Security Advisories, and low-ego collaboration between researchers and developers lead to fast, effective vulnerability remediation.

ATTACKERS LOVE YOUR GITHUB ACTIONS TOO

GitHub ranks as the second most used CI/CD tool, but it also exposes a large attack surface to attackers. GitHub Actions can unintentionally expose secrets or overprovision tokens. Actions are vulnerable to supply chain compromise via poisoned dependencies and injection attacks.

TAILSNITCH

Tailsnitch is a security auditing tool for Tailscale configurations that scans tailnets for 50+ misconfigurations, overly permissive access controls, and security best practice violations across seven categories, including ACLs, authentication keys, and network exposure. The tool supports severity filtering, interactive remediation mode, JSON export for CI/CD integration, and SOC 2 evidence generation with Common Criteria control mappings. Checks range from critical issues like default allow-all policies and overly broad tagOwners to informational items covering logging and DNS settings.

GIXY-NEXT

Gixy-Next (Gixy) is an open-source NGINX configuration security scanner and hardening tool that statically analyzes nginx.conf files to detect security misconfigurations, hardening gaps, and common performance pitfalls before they reach production. It is an actively maintained fork of Yandex's Gixy.

BINYARS

BinYars is a Binary Ninja plugin that integrates YARA-X into Binary Ninja.

MUDDYWATER LAUNCHES RUSTYWATER RAT VIA SPEAR-PHISHING ACROSS MIDDLE EAST SECTORS

Iranian threat actor MuddyWater has been attributed to spear-phishing campaigns targeting diplomatic, maritime, financial, and telecom entities in the Middle East using a new Rust-based implant called RustyWater (also known as Archer RAT/RUSTRIC). The malware, delivered via malicious Word documents with VBA macros, establishes registry persistence and supports asynchronous C2 communication for file operations and command execution. This marks MuddyWater's continued evolution away from PowerShell and VBS loaders toward more structured, modular RAT capabilities.

EUROPOL ARRESTS 34 BLACK AXE MEMBERS IN SPAIN OVER €5.9M FRAUD AND ORGANIZED CRIME

Europol and Spanish police have dismantled a major Black Axe cell in Spain, arresting 34 suspects across Seville, Madrid, Málaga, and Barcelona for cyber-enabled fraud and violent organized crime. Authorities link the Nigerian-origin syndicate to scams like business email compromise and romance fraud, with losses over €5.93 million, and report cash and bank account seizures alongside prior global crackdowns on the group.

CYBERSECURITY CHANGES I EXPECT IN 2026

The primary cybersecurity question of 2026 will be whether an attacker's or defender's AI is more effective. Agentic security will encourage teams to build products rather than buy them, devalue junior employees, and lead to workplace upheaval. AI will also improve the efficacy of common security program weak points, such as secure code training and asset management.

ANTHROPIC: VIRAL CLAUDE "BANNED AND REPORTED TO AUTHORITIES" MESSAGE ISN'T REAL

Anthropic confirmed that a viral screenshot claiming Claude permanently banned a user and reported them to authorities is fake, noting the recurring hoax doesn't match any actual system messages.

MICROSOFT MAY SOON ALLOW IT ADMINS TO UNINSTALL COPILOT

Microsoft is testing a new RemoveMicrosoftCopilotApp group policy in Windows 11 Insider builds that allows IT administrators to uninstall the Copilot app on managed devices via Intune or SCCM.

INSTAGRAM SAYS IT FIXED THE ISSUE THAT LET SOMEONE SEND ALL THOSE PASSWORD RESET EMAILS

Instagram acknowledges that an external party exploited a flaw to trigger mass password reset emails, but insists there was no breach and that accounts remain secure, advising users to ignore the notifications

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GOOGLE: DON'T MAKE “BITE-SIZED” CONTENT FOR LLMS IF YOU CARE ABOUT SEARCH RANK

Google is pushing back on the growing SEO practice of “content chunking”. Breaking articles into ultra-short sections to appeal to LLMs can hurt long-term search performance. Google representatives say these tactics are based on false assumptions about how Gemini and other AI systems influence rankings. Google does not reward bite-sized formatting designed for bots, and continues to rely heavily on human behavior signals like clicks and engagement to determine relevance.

7 DIGITAL MARKETING TRENDS TO WATCH FOR IN 2026

Short-form video dominates attention across platforms. AR glasses and interactive experiences are becoming more common. Threads is growing as a real-time discussion hub, while Reddit faces saturation, and teen-focused apps are emerging. AI-generated content may reduce sharing, and algorithm opt-outs could reshape engagement.

5 PRICING IDEAS TO DRIVE UPGRADES

Quarterly billing works better for products that require setup because it filters for serious buyers and reduces early churn. Removing seat limits and pricing on usage metrics increases adoption and speeds monetization when collaboration drives value. Raising prices across all plans while increasing entry tiers more, i.e., a ~27% increase vs. ~12% on higher tiers, pushes customers toward upgrades.

GUIDE TO CREATOR-LED GROWTH: ZERO COST AND NO PITCHING

Most companies ask creators to share content and get ignored. The ones that win supply the benchmarks, frameworks, and original research that creators need for their audiences. This give-first approach turns brands into upstream sources that get cited without pitching, which brings warmer leads, lower acquisition costs, and shorter sales cycles. It works only with consistent value over months.

QUERY FAN-OUT: WHAT 60,000+ SEARCHES FROM CHATGPT & GOOGLE SHOW (WEBINAR)

Chris Long (Nectiv) and Josh Spilker (AirOps) will discuss how LLMs retrieve content from searches via fan outs and share real-world examples of how content changes can increase LLM mentions and citations in this free event on January 14 at 1 PM ET.

FREE N8N COURSE (59 MINUTE VIDEO)

This course walks through how to build an LLM workflow, a low-autonomy AI agent, and an autonomous agent from scratch using n8n, a combined workflow automation and agent-building platform that can handle use cases like competitor monitoring, chatbot-style assistants, inbox workers, and multi-agent research systems.

SHOULD LINKS BE UNDERLINED? IT'S WORTH A/B TESTING

Underlining links improves usability and accessibility, even if it affects visual appeal. Google's tests showed that removing underlines reduced clicks, slowed interaction, and lowered revenue. Hover underlines had little impact and were shipped for competitive reasons. Details matter because hover states and larger targets can help recognition, while color-only links hurt performance. Accessibility standards warn against relying on color alone, since many users are colorblind and hover cues fail on touch devices.

INSTAGRAM IS BETTING ON THE MOMENTUM, NOT THE REACTION

Instagram argues that a “raw aesthetic” preserves authenticity, but AI already mimics those cues through UGC generators and AI influencers with large followings. As AI realism improves, audiences are growing more skeptical. Surveys show discomfort and declining trust in AI-generated content.

STREAMING WIDENS SPORTS MARKETING FIELD

Streaming is expanding sports marketing reach by bringing in younger viewers and boosting engagement beyond linear TV. Traditional broadcasts still deliver scale, with football driving a 20% lift in broadcast viewership and the Super Bowl reaching 127M viewers, but streaming skews younger. On Tubi, 26.2% of Super Bowl viewers were 18 to 34. Sports documentaries add momentum, with viewing minutes rising from 4.7B in 2021 to 16.9B in 2024.

WHAT METRICS SHOULD YOU USE FOR SEO/AEO?

SEO and AEO should be measured primarily by revenue, not rankings, clicks, or traffic volume.

SOCIAL MEDIA SLANG ISN'T FOR EVERY BRAND

Most brands should avoid slang unless it naturally fits their voice and audience.

6 NEEDED SKILLS TO MOVE FROM CONTENT MARKETING TO HEAD OF MARKETING

Master the funnel, goals, messaging, marketing ops, and team building.

MUSK'S XAI BURNS ALMOST $8 BILLION IN CASH, REVEALS OPTIMUS PLAN

xAI's losses are mounting as it spends to build data centers, recruit talent, and develop software that will eventually power humanoid robots. The company reported that it spent $7.8 billion in cash in the first nine months of last year. Its revenue nearly doubled quarter-over-quarter to $107 million for the three-month period ending in September. xAI expects to do more deals soon to continue building out its Colossus data center site in Memphis, Tennessee.

THE MAN WHO COULD BE APPLE'S NEXT CEO

John Ternus, Apple's head of hardware engineering, could be next in line to replace Tim Cook as CEO if he steps aside. Ternus, who joined Apple in 2001, is known for his attention to detail and knowledge of Apple's vast supply network. Apple began accelerating planning for Cook's succession last year after Cook told senior leaders he would like to reduce his workload. Cook will likely become the chairman of Apple's board should he step down as CEO.