Jack Yeh

Passport, an Orange DAO project

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 22:08:31 +0000

Orange DAO, YC's alumni DAO first created a membership NFT to scratch their own itch.

In late 2021, Orange DAO ran a Discord server but discovered that they needed a better way to grant automatic access to YC alumni. The solution needed to work with Discord, as well as other token-gated applications that were coming online.

A small team of engineers got together and created “Alumni Gem”, the first membership NFT — a non-transferable (Soulbound), revokable NFT that represented a member’s YC alumni status on the Polygon blockchain.

These Alumni Gems gated access to Orange DAO's Discord (via Collab.land), Notion (via Charmverse), as well as other internal applications, such as the member’s section of orangedao.xyz. Over 1,000 people have already claimed their membership NFT and successfully onboarded into Orange DAO.

Passport is a public goods project by Orange DAO that productised Alumni Gem to make it accessible to everyone. Using Passport, anyone can create their own membership NFTs in a few clicks — all without code!

We believe NFTs are important for the internet because they make identity portable across platforms, and they’re composable by nature, meaning people can build on top of their data permissionlessly.

By making it easier to create and share membership NFTs, we want to encourage more builders of all stripes to experiment with NFTs so we can create a more open and permissionless internet.

The Renaissance of Open Protocols

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 14:42:23 +0000

Open protocols are not new. While crypto has renewed interest in open protocols, they actually form the backbone of the internet. Picking from the least obscure acronyms, we have TCP/IP to connect the internet; HTTP to power the web; SMTP, POP, and IMAP to deliver emails; and RSS to transmit blogs.

In a bygone era of the web, enterprising developers were able to build businesses like Google by indexing the open web. But over time, only a few of these protocols survived, while others were replaced by closed protocols or walled-garden equivalents like Twitter, Facebook, and Slack.

Visions, not Goals

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 05:42:00 +0000

#019

What computer pioneer, Alan Kay, calls "The power of the context" or "Point of view is worth 80 IQ points" is the idea that your social and intellectual environment exerts an invisible yet powerful influence on your thoughts and dreams.

When you infuse the right conditions and context into a group of talented creatives—whether artists, authors, philosophers, or engineers—you get progress in leaps and bounds.

In art, the French impressionists regularly painted together in the countryside and held discussions in the Café Guerbois in Paris. Their collaboration created an entire movement that would shape the aesthetic sensibilities for generations to come.

A Problem for Future Homer

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 04:55:00 +0000

#018

We're in the midst of a disturbing psychometric experiment on an unprecedented global scale. This was the observation made by economist, Tyler Cowen. He asks us to observe whether the pandemic has boosted or decimated our productivity (for those of us knowledge workers lucky enough to work from home), and to pose this question to those around us, and to our institutions and society more broadly.

The way each of us respond to stress can reveal a lot about our character. Between the new quarantine TikTok memes and the free pornography for those in lockdown, how do you respond? Do you take the expedient way out, or the path that alleviates stress in the short-term but is ultimately less meaningful? Cowen proffers the hypothesis that our response to this crisis is one interesting measure for how we handle stress. He cites the example of the now-cancelled Candidates 2020 chess tournament, where the winner earns the right to challenge the defending world champion, Magnus Carlsen.

We Live in a Romantic Era

Tue, 24 Mar 2020 23:22:00 +0000

#017

We live in a Romantic era. I first discovered this heterodox view, oddly enough, from a Periscope live-stream of Eric Weinstein:

"This is a romantic era. If you think this is Armageddon, then you're living in a romantic era. If you think this is nothing, ...you're still living in incredibly exciting times. There's no possible way that you could be in a situation that is anything other than an incredibly romantic era."

We're not living in 18th century Europe, clearly. This is 2020. Yet there are many parallels that we can draw from a bygone era, to learn to live more courageously today.

The Hedgehog vs. the Fox

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 23:59:00 +0000

#016

The Greek poet Archilochus wrote, "the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." In the modern world, is it better to be a hedgehog or a fox?

Numerous smart and successful people have spoken about this topic. Whether as frogs and birds, or generalists and specialists. But as with most apparently simple questions that require complex answers, it depends.

This week, I distill some of the best ideas I found:

The Perils of the Millennial Aesthetic

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:10:00 +0000

#015

It's been 7 months since my last visit to Melbourne. What struck me quite vividly this time around was just how much Melbourne cafes were alike: the same indoor plants; the same exposed brick walls; the same Scandinavian furniture; and the same organic, GMO-free, fair-trade menus.

It's not just cafes, this "millennial aesthetic" has taken over billboards, mattresses, open floor plan offices, and are threatening to take over the rest of our material lives.

Learning to See Buildings

Tue, 03 Mar 2020 00:34:00 +0000

#014

I recently picked up a book about buildings by Stewart Brand.

Not sure what exactly pulled me in to an interest in buildings; I have no plans to get into real estate yet (fun fact: the "real" in "real estate" derives from re-al meaning "royal"), nor do I have a deep interest in the building preservation movement. I'm barely halfway through the book, but it's already profoundly changed the way I view and interact with buildings.

Productivity, via Negativa

Sun, 16 Feb 2020 02:04:00 +0000

Via negativa, Latin for "negative way," describes knowledge obtained by negation. This method of description is rather counter-intuitive. Since an early age, we're taught to describe objects and ideas in the "positive" way (via positiva), using traits or characteristics that help define the subject. For the vast majority of cases, via positiva describes objects and ideas in a straightforward and succinct manner ("that car is red," or "this book is a space opera"). In more abstract cases, or cases where the set of possible traits is too big, via negativa can be more useful instead. This is particularly so when trying to describe the limitless.

An Over-simplified Tour of Rocketry Beginnings

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 00:51:16 +0000

In part I, we traced satellites from its science fiction beginnings to technical feasibility. All that was missing was a way to get into orbit (and how to pay for it).

The precursor to rocketry can be traced all the way back to ancient China in 300BC, in the form of gunpowder. Its discovery is not well documented, but the first recorded use of the earliest form of solid rocket fuel was in religious ceremonies. In a tradition that continues to this day, bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder were cast into ceremonial fires to produce a deafening racket, in hopes of warding off evil spirits.

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) Chrome Extension

Tue, 08 Oct 2019 16:58:18 +0000

Download it from the Chrome Web Store.

In NASA’s Budget Request for each year, there’s always a section dedicated to “education.” This number changes according to the priorities set from administration to administration. Recently, as much as $119M was allocated towards education in 2015, before getting cut entirely for 2019 and 2020, as funds are redirected to “NASA’s core mission of exploration” in response to the Trump administration’s directive to return to the Moon by 2024.

The Satellite Genesis: In the Beginning was Science Fiction

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 19:39:08 +0000

Satellites are an invisible yet integral part of modernity. In meteorology, communications, logistics, agriculture, and defence, to name just a few applications, the satellite industry generated $261 billion in revenues in 2016.^[1] Despite its present value, its path from science-fiction to market maturation was fortuitous and far from a “sure thing.” From the mysterious radio signals detected on U.S. soil during WWII, to the misinterpretation of KGB intelligence, this essay series looks at the key events and milestones of satellite (and by extension rocketry) development. To what extent were satellites inevitable? Was satellite innovation a case of top-down, directed research, or was it more serendipitous?

Surprising Feats of Speed

Tue, 01 Oct 2019 19:37:33 +0000

No, not velocity.

This list compiles examples of aerospace technology that was developed in a surprising amount of time (whether surprisingly long or short).

(1927) The Spirit of Saint Louis

The Spirit of Saint Louis is the custom-built, single engine monoplane flown by Charles Lindbergh on the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from Long Island, New York, to Paris in May 1927. It was designed by Donald A. Hall of Ryan Airlines and Lindbergh in 60 days for $10,580.

Source: Spirit of Saint Louis (September 2019). Wikipedia

RescueTime Mac Menu Bar App

Mon, 26 Aug 2019 21:21:06 +0000

Productivity (like knowledge and relationships) compounds. Given two people with similar abilities, one of whom delivers more work each day, the latter will deliver exponentially more than the former over the course of a career. To put it in numbers, even a 5% difference, over a 15 year period, will lead to over 200% difference in results. Of course, it doesn’t matter how fast you go if it’s in the wrong direction. Combining the two, productivity is simply a function of what you work on, and the speed at which you make progress.

To Infinity & Beyond: an Investigation into Space Innovation

Sun, 25 Aug 2019 05:30:13 +0000

The motivation for this project is to accelerate progress towards a space-faring civilization. I use a broad definition here to encompass progress in the technological, cultural, political, and moral spheres. This is a lofty goal, to be sure, but it is an important one to tackle. I am interested in this project because I believe technology—its development and its access—is the most important driver of growth in the industrialized world. I focus on space in particular, as I am inspired by the Apollo era techno-optimism of the 60s and early 70s, and the NewSpace renaissance of the current era.

Personal Principles for First-class Research: Part I

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 03:51:10 +0000

The internet is the biggest epistemic advantage we have over prior generations. It’s our generation’s superpower, and it’s fomenting a new wave of autodidacts. The internet enables instant access to knowledge and talent; and in our increasingly complex world, these are the perfect conditions for the savvy autodidact to thrive. Across all creative domains, important contributions—new ideas, insights, tools, and technologies—are increasingly coming from those on the outside. They don’t need the approval of gatekeepers, nor seek the status of traditional institutions. What they seek is to make important contributions to their creative domains and communities.

My Favorite Things

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 13:47:45 +0000

Whenever I’m asked “what’s your favorite X?” I often find myself fall prey to the recency effect, and end up listing the most recent X I was thinking about. This page is a running tally of books, podcasts, and articles that most influenced my worldview—the “view quakes” that shook me to the core.

Books

Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Charles Munger, Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
John Stuart Mill, Autobiography

Podcasts

I don’t follow any individual podcast religiously, as I find the quality of the episodes are highly correlated to the quality of the guests. Given the standard interview format of most podcasts I listen to, the quality of the content can therefore be hit-or-miss. This is why I follow specific guests rather than a specific podcast. Some guests that I highly recommend:

The Conscious Information Diet

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 13:47:26 +0000

To eat a healthy diet, I strive to consume an assortment of colorful produce and foods from each of the major groups. Depending on which camp you’re in, that statement may have triggered some form of disagreement or perhaps utter disgust. The degree to which our identities are intertwined with our diets has reached religious proportions. But what is arguably more important, is the conversation we’re not having: what is the impact of our information diet on our mental and cognitive health?

ClassDojo

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 13:11:00 +0000

Coming soon...

Why You Should Write Today

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 12:58:00 +0000

This essay is intended for both my future self and others who struggle to keep a regular writing habit. By sharing this publicly, I hope to heighten my commitment to publish regularly, and provide the occasional boost of motivation as I embark on this multi-decade project.

This essay is a collection of motivations for writing regularly, most of which are not obvious, particularly if your view on writing was motivated by grades (as I was). My goal is to update this piece as I learn more about the craft of writing.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hello! My name is Jack. I’m an engineer, product designer, and writer. The most important thing to me is improving well-being through progress in our systems, and through science and technology. I obsess over ideas in NewSpace, but also have varying interest in:

Systems engineering and incentive design
Decision psychology
Learning meta-learning skills with compounding returns (learning to learn, learning to read, learning techniques to augment working memory)
Nutrition, health, and fitness
Evolutionary biology
Art history
Architecture

These days, I work on designing and building decentralised systems of communication and coordination. Previously, I worked on designing systems to best align incentives around a child’s education at Outschool and ClassDojo. Prior to tech, I was an aerospace engineer at DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Munich, and was a co-founder of STEMN (Startmate, 2016), an open source network for science and engineering research.