Ben Putano 📚
@BenjaminPutano
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Technology and business book publisher | Founder of @Damngrav Book Company | Writing tech's morning newsletter ➡️ https://t.co/cVpakpPqay
Chicago
Joined December 2010
Here's an interesting trend I've noticed among non-fiction authors: The Direct Pre-Order. Instead of doing pre-orders through Amazon, B&N, and other major marketplaces, you sell your books directly through your own (or your publisher's) online store. Why do this? There are
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What is the future of reading -- and for books -- in the age of AI?. It's something I grapple with daily. Last night I read a New Yorker article that helped me to imagine both hopeful and tragic scenarios for our world. First, the hopeful:. Maybe AI will play a positive role in
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Calvin French-Owen called OpenAI “perhaps the most frighteningly ambitious org I've ever seen.” . French-Owen recently left OpenAI after roughly a year, where he mainly worked on Codex, the startup’s new AI code editor. Yesterday, he shared a long list of reflections on the
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Big news for Windsurf employees: The startup has been acquired by Cognition, the AI software engineer startup recently valued at $4 billion. What a roller coaster for the Windsurf team:. - Friday morning: The OpenAI acquisition of Windsurf was called off due to disagreement
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Looking for a Chicago photographer and videographer for @MikeShannonMJS's launch party next week!
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Sometimes publishing a daily newsletter is not moving fast enough.
Cognition has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Windsurf. The acquisition includes Windsurf’s IP, product, trademark and brand, and strong business. Above all, it includes Windsurf’s world-class people, whom we’re privileged to welcome to our team. We are also honoring
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Big news this weekend: Windsurf (formerly Codeium) gutted by Google acqui-hire. The implications span far beyond the AI talent war… it threatens the very fabric of the startup-employee pact.
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We take employee equity in startups for granted, but it was THE key innovation that jumpstarted the VC-driven technology industry. It was Arthur Rock himself who designed it. If the Windsurf deal with Google is as bad as it seems -- where founders/key investors make bank and
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Sam was feeling himself when he hired Jony Ive. All it did was piss off the big boys
OpenAI @sama is pretty fucked right about now . > lost half of their top talent over the past two weeks .> basically all of their leadership over the past two years.> sama told microsoft can’t get access to windsurf’s IP .> microsoft paused negotiations with @sama.> openai
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RSVP #100 just checked in! . @MikeShannonMJS's book launch party is gonna be a PARTY. Looking for sponsors who want to get in front of Chicago's best and brightest entrepreneurs. @DrayDrayW we ready for this??
Chicago Tech Week is right around the corner! . Tim Huelskamp, CEO of 1440 Media, is joining @MikeShannonMJS and me to talk about building in Chicago and Mike's new book, Sweaty Equity. Space is limited now, so RSVP to save your spot
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When I was a kid, I thought the Guinness Book of World Records was the pinnacle of human achievement. Kinda miss those days.
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I love riding @michaelmiraflor's viral coattails.
@michaelmiraflor Yeah but they should work as ticketing agents!.
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Excited to finish my first FULL week of writing The Daily Grind!. I had a hypothesis that writing a daily newsletter would actually be easier than a weekly newsletter… at least for me. I am much more consistent when I build something into my daily routine. So far, so good. If
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I feel so dumb. why can't I just click the @readwise Chrome Extension and save an article? Why does it take me to my Readwise home page?. I must be missing something.
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I don't know why but I hate scrolling through substack. Feels like Twitter that's trying way to hard not to be. idk I can't exactly put my finger on the feeling. I miss when it was all long form.
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I wrote about Bill McKibben's new book in The Daily Grind today:.
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The US government is trying to stop renewable energy, but it might be too late. Solar, in particular, just reached a tipping point without anyone realizing. Author Bill McKibben shared numerous data points in an excerpt from his new book. Here are the first four:. 1. It took
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The best part of writing The Daily Grind is that I'm WRITING every day again. The irony of building a book publisher is that I have less time to write and read. TDG brings me back to the thing I love most.
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Chicago Tech Week is right around the corner! . Tim Huelskamp, CEO of 1440 Media, is joining @MikeShannonMJS and me to talk about building in Chicago and Mike's new book, Sweaty Equity. Space is limited now, so RSVP to save your spot
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