Katherine Boyle

Shyam Sankar × Katherine Boyle × Erik Torenberg

Shyam Sankar argues that restoring deterrence requires reconnecting commercial R&D and manufacturing with national security after defense-only companies rose from 6% to 86% of major-weapons spending.His AI thesis favors infrastructure and “ontology” layers as models commoditize, while alpha software expressing customer-specific advantage may endure better than standardized beta SaaS vulnerable to vibe coding.AI-enabled reindustrialization could raise worker productivity 50 to 100 times and reunite production with innovation, but institutional competence, national will, and unresolved day-two maintenance remain critical risks.

Katherine Boyle × Scott Kupor × Greg Barbaccia

OPM expects the civilian federal workforce to shrink from about 2.4 million to around 2.1 million by year-end, largely through voluntary deferred-resignation programs.Grade inflation—only 0.3% below “meets expectations”—is driving limits on top ratings and a shift toward measurable merit.The execution test is whether “measured risk,” technical hiring and distributed AI adoption can lower rework and operating costs without compromising national security or benefit delivery.

Erik Torenberg × Chris Best × Katherine Boyle × Andrew Chen

Substack is building a “new economic engine for culture” where creators retain editorial control, export their email lists, and use subscriptions to override engagement algorithms and take risks that legacy platforms might bury.Its $100 million round funds a network beyond newsletters, aiming to make discovery lead to deeper engagement and payment rather than screen time, as trusted curation becomes more valuable amid abundant content and the competing threat of AI-generated “goon bots.”