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Month: October 2025

Halloween Lessons for Founders

Halloween Lessons for Founders

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 We are still struggling with a broken right thumb, or boo-boo, considering that Halloween is upon us. Scary that it’ll take a few more weeks to heal, and speaking of scary, we decided to consider what lessons Halloween might have for founders.

First, a bit of history. “Some say the festival has its origins in pre-Christian traditions that mark the changing of the seasons,” according to MSN. “The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, was also a pagan religious tradition that welcomed the end of summer harvest, and the changing of seasons… The Celts reportedly believed that around this time of the year, the veil between the living and the dead was thinner, and spirits could walk the earth. This is where the costumes came in, worn as disguises by festival-goers so they could “avoid being terrorized by all the evil spirits walking the Earth during Samhain.”

“Halloween just has that open world magic that you don’t get any other time of year. It’s this one day where everyone is encouraged to dress up as whatever wild thing they want, and go walking around town together while other groups of kids/teens do the same thing. It’s this wonderful, connected community that doesn’t exist for anything else,” a fan on Reddit commented. Read More...

AI and the Easy Answer/Quick Fix Era

AI and the Easy Answer/Quick Fix Era

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Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

This week, a personal anecdote, with a lesson.

We were in LA last week for LA Tech Week, where we moderated our Investor Insights panel. Just before we left, we hurt the thumb of our dominant hand, and by ‘hurt,’ we mean broke the small bone at the tip of the digit. Which makes using a computer problematic and in attempting to maneuver everyday activities, we have a newfound empathy for those who are left-handed. Many tools are not made with them in mind.

Everyone we’d encountered dispensed advice: wrap it, splint it, take aspirin for the pain, ask AI. Or, see a doctor, which was the right advice and the way our life works, upon arrival at the hotel, our group assembled in the lobby. We were introduced to someone who was on the health panel that followed ours. We fist-bumped rather than shook hands, which roused his curiosity. We explained the issue. He asked if he could examine the finger and after identifying himself as being an orthopedic surgeon, yes, and what are the chances!!! He didn’t have an x-ray machine but had seen this injury often enough to know which bone was broken. He recommended naproxen over acetylsalicylic acid, and it would take about two months to fully heal. No splinting or wrapping it., as AI et al had recommended: that would inhibit the healing process and cause more damage than good. For the record, aspirin was counter-advised. It would take months to fully recover. Read More...

The Digital ID Issue No One Is Talking About

The Digital ID Issue No One Is Talking About

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Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

“Dozens of organizations had data stolen in Oracle-linked hacks,” TechCrunch reported. “Google said in a corresponding blog post that the hacking campaign targeting Oracle customers dates back to at least July 10, some three months before the hacks were first detected. Oracle conceded this week that the hackers behind the extortion campaign were still abusing its software to steal personal information about corporate executives and their companies. Days earlier, Oracle’s chief security officer claimed in the same post — since scrubbed — that the extortion campaign was linked to previously identified vulnerabilities that Oracle patched in July, suggesting the hacks were over.”

For the record, this hack “can be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password.”

The Discord Hack Is Every Users Worse Nightmare. “Around 70,000 users’ personal data at risk. Hackers targeted a third-party company…in an effort to extort a ‘ransom,’ Discord said,” noted The Independent.  Both users ID photos and data were stolen. Read More...