I started programming when I was in high school and helped pay my way through MIT by writing Fortran code in a research lab. I got a job writing software for a naval architecture firm right out of college, and then helped pay my way through grad school by doing some freelance coding gigs. When I got into VC in the mid 80s, I stopped writing code. Other than some UI/UX tweaking here and there, I have not written much code in almost forty years.
I started programming when I was in high school and helped pay my way through MIT by writing Fortran code in a research lab. I got a job writing software for a naval architecture firm right out of college, and then helped pay my way through grad school by doing some freelance coding gigs. When I got into VC in the mid 80s, I stopped writing code. Other than some UI/UX tweaking here and there, I have not written much code in almost forty years.
Like so many of us, the arrival of AI-assisted coding tools has made me a coder again. It's not really writing code, though. It's building stuff with code that is written by AI.
It's fun.
Over the weekend, I made two apps, both of which leverage my interest in music.
I used Claude Code, working in the Terminal app on my Mac, to build this web app that pulls all the music I have recently liked on SoundCloud and makes it available to listen on the web.
I also used our portfolio company Neynar's Studio app to build and deploy a mini-app in the Farcaster and Base mobile apps. My mini app is called Music Casts, and it pulls all of the music links from the people I follow on Farcaster and Base and puts them into a mini app that allows you to listen to them. It looks like this in Farcaster:
It is nice to make miniapps in Neynar Studio because Farcaster and Base offer the deployment surface and user base to give feedback. When I casted about Music Casts, I got a ton of suggestions, and I have added some of them already.
Coding in Claude Code in the Terminal app is more powerful, particularly when paired with a deployment tool. I used a deployment tool called Railway to get my web app live.
If you've always wanted to build software applications but have been held back by a lack of programming skills and/or time to learn, your time has come!
If you want to get started on Claude Code in the Terminal app,here are the instructions to get going.
If you want to build in Neynar Studio, go here.
I had dinner on Wednesday night with my friend Seth, who has been building products and companies since I met him over thirty years ago. He was expounding on his newfound ability to build products and companies all by himself with AI coding tools. His enthusiasm was off the charts, and I decided to pour some cold water on it and said, "yeah but it can't do stuff in the real world yet." And he said, "Like what?" And I said, "Like grow corn."
The next morning this landed in my text messages.
As Seth writes in the story tab of that website:
SETH: “I can do anything I want with software from my terminal.”
FRED: “That's not fire. You can't like grow corn.”
SETH: “I bet you I could. You know what I mean? I'm going to grow corn for you.”
FRED: “That'd be great. Thank you.”
SETH: “I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to show you. And that'll be our first vibe coding project together.”
FRED: “It's a physical thing.”
SETH: “I will buy fucking land with an API via my terminal and I will hire some service to plant corn.”
FRED: “Okay, well that's a little different... you're going to get somebody to grow corn for you. But that's not exactly what I'm talking about. Like, you can hire Jeff to come and make dinner for you, but like you can't make dinner.”
SETH: “No, but anything that could be done with technology, I can do now. Anything, which is insane.”
So now, Seth has roped me into his project that he calls Proof of Corn, and we are collaborating in a shared GitHub repo with a goal of growing corn.
He made his point and it landed with me:
Back in 2022, when Twitter was sold to Elon Musk, I tweeted this:
Twitter is too important to be owned and controlled by a single person. The opposite should be happening. Twitter should be decentralized as a protocol that powers an ecosystem of communication products and services.
So began my exodus from Twitter, which culminated in a complete departure in May 2024, when I wrote this post.
I've tried all of the decentralized social protocols, Lens, Bluesky, and Farcaster and have been most active on Farcaster, where USV is an investor.
Earlier today, Vitalik Buterin wrote this post using a decentralized social app called Firefly that sends its posts to Lens, Bluesky, Farcaster and Twitter. Vitalik started off his post with this observation:
If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools. We need mass communication tools that surface the best information and arguments and help people find points of agreement. We need mass communication tools that serve the user's long-term interest, not maximize short-term engagement. There is no simple trick that solves these problems. But there is one important place to start: more competition. Decentralization is the way to enable that: a shared data layer, with anyone being able to build their own client on top.
I could not agree more. I believe in social protocols like Lens, Bluesky, and Farcaster.
Both the Lens protocol and the Farcaster protocol have changed stewards this week.
Like so many of us, the arrival of AI-assisted coding tools has made me a coder again. It's not really writing code, though. It's building stuff with code that is written by AI.
It's fun.
Over the weekend, I made two apps, both of which leverage my interest in music.
I used Claude Code, working in the Terminal app on my Mac, to build this web app that pulls all the music I have recently liked on SoundCloud and makes it available to listen on the web.
I also used our portfolio company Neynar's Studio app to build and deploy a mini-app in the Farcaster and Base mobile apps. My mini app is called Music Casts, and it pulls all of the music links from the people I follow on Farcaster and Base and puts them into a mini app that allows you to listen to them. It looks like this in Farcaster:
It is nice to make miniapps in Neynar Studio because Farcaster and Base offer the deployment surface and user base to give feedback. When I casted about Music Casts, I got a ton of suggestions, and I have added some of them already.
Coding in Claude Code in the Terminal app is more powerful, particularly when paired with a deployment tool. I used a deployment tool called Railway to get my web app live.
If you've always wanted to build software applications but have been held back by a lack of programming skills and/or time to learn, your time has come!
If you want to get started on Claude Code in the Terminal app,here are the instructions to get going.
If you want to build in Neynar Studio, go here.
I had dinner on Wednesday night with my friend Seth, who has been building products and companies since I met him over thirty years ago. He was expounding on his newfound ability to build products and companies all by himself with AI coding tools. His enthusiasm was off the charts, and I decided to pour some cold water on it and said, "yeah but it can't do stuff in the real world yet." And he said, "Like what?" And I said, "Like grow corn."
The next morning this landed in my text messages.
As Seth writes in the story tab of that website:
SETH: “I can do anything I want with software from my terminal.”
FRED: “That's not fire. You can't like grow corn.”
SETH: “I bet you I could. You know what I mean? I'm going to grow corn for you.”
FRED: “That'd be great. Thank you.”
SETH: “I'm going to figure it out and I'm going to show you. And that'll be our first vibe coding project together.”
FRED: “It's a physical thing.”
SETH: “I will buy fucking land with an API via my terminal and I will hire some service to plant corn.”
FRED: “Okay, well that's a little different... you're going to get somebody to grow corn for you. But that's not exactly what I'm talking about. Like, you can hire Jeff to come and make dinner for you, but like you can't make dinner.”
SETH: “No, but anything that could be done with technology, I can do now. Anything, which is insane.”
So now, Seth has roped me into his project that he calls Proof of Corn, and we are collaborating in a shared GitHub repo with a goal of growing corn.
He made his point and it landed with me:
Back in 2022, when Twitter was sold to Elon Musk, I tweeted this:
Twitter is too important to be owned and controlled by a single person. The opposite should be happening. Twitter should be decentralized as a protocol that powers an ecosystem of communication products and services.
So began my exodus from Twitter, which culminated in a complete departure in May 2024, when I wrote this post.
I've tried all of the decentralized social protocols, Lens, Bluesky, and Farcaster and have been most active on Farcaster, where USV is an investor.
Earlier today, Vitalik Buterin wrote this post using a decentralized social app called Firefly that sends its posts to Lens, Bluesky, Farcaster and Twitter. Vitalik started off his post with this observation:
If we want a better society, we need better mass communication tools. We need mass communication tools that surface the best information and arguments and help people find points of agreement. We need mass communication tools that serve the user's long-term interest, not maximize short-term engagement. There is no simple trick that solves these problems. But there is one important place to start: more competition. Decentralization is the way to enable that: a shared data layer, with anyone being able to build their own client on top.
I could not agree more. I believe in social protocols like Lens, Bluesky, and Farcaster.
Both the Lens protocol and the Farcaster protocol have changed stewards this week.
This project isn't just about growing corn. It's about documenting what happens when you take AI seriously as a collaborator rather than a tool.
Every decision will be logged. Every API call documented. Every dollar tracked. When we harvest corn in October, we'll have a complete record of how an idea became a reality—with AI as the orchestration layer.
The Aave team, which founded Lens, has handed it over to the Mask team.
And today, the Farcaster founders announced that they are handing over stewardship of the Farcaster protocol (and app) to the Neynar team.
Some will look at these events and say that decentralized social has failed. However, I see it differently. Protocols don't die so easily. They are resilient. And as Vitalik said in his post:
decentralized social should be run by people who deeply believe in the "social" part, and are motivated first and foremost by solving the problems of social.
I don't know the Mask team but I do know the Neynar team. USV is an investor in Neynar, and we have worked with Rish and Manan for over a year now.
They are the kinds of people that Vitalik was talking about when he wrote that.
If you want to post to X and also decentralized social protocols at the same time, try using the Firefly app like Vitalik does.
This project isn't just about growing corn. It's about documenting what happens when you take AI seriously as a collaborator rather than a tool.
Every decision will be logged. Every API call documented. Every dollar tracked. When we harvest corn in October, we'll have a complete record of how an idea became a reality—with AI as the orchestration layer.
The Aave team, which founded Lens, has handed it over to the Mask team.
And today, the Farcaster founders announced that they are handing over stewardship of the Farcaster protocol (and app) to the Neynar team.
Some will look at these events and say that decentralized social has failed. However, I see it differently. Protocols don't die so easily. They are resilient. And as Vitalik said in his post:
decentralized social should be run by people who deeply believe in the "social" part, and are motivated first and foremost by solving the problems of social.
I don't know the Mask team but I do know the Neynar team. USV is an investor in Neynar, and we have worked with Rish and Manan for over a year now.
They are the kinds of people that Vitalik was talking about when he wrote that.
If you want to post to X and also decentralized social protocols at the same time, try using the Firefly app like Vitalik does.
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