Jason Scharf
@Jason_A_Scharf
Life’s Work is Catalyzing Innovation | http://ecosysmetacognition.substack.com | Host of the Austin Next Podcast | Old handle @AustinNxPodcast
Can AI really 2X output and break legacy business models? Dru Armstrong (CEO, @affinipay) joins Austin Next to map how vertical fintech, generative AI, and faster development are transforming professional services. This is about more than automation. It's about compounding…
🧬 This week's Austin Bio & Health Roundup features a billion-dollar exit, peer-reviewed impact, fresh capital, major research milestones, & momentum across the Texas Bio Triangle. 🧬 💸 Venture Exits @Iodine_Software, the AI clinical intelligence startup, is being acquired by…
20s Paris echoes today in Austin. Surfacing my essay on the topic. ecosysmetacognition.substack.com/p/the-echoes-a…
Y’all thought we were joking about Austin being 1920s Paris. We’re just getting started.
This is my favorite project we started from day 1 of @JoinEdgeCity, the Edge City Fellowship. Full attendance, flights and accommodation covered for 6 talented folks under the age of 25. If you're young, curious and want to do something obscure and interesting in the world,…
Announcing: applications open for Edge City 2025 Fellowship, round 2 ✨ The next cohort will run at Edge City Patagonia (Oct 18 – Nov 15), our upcoming flagship popup village. Co-live and collaborate with frontier builders for a month - fully sponsored. Links below! ⬇️
“The billable hour is kind of the golden handcuffs lawyers have imposed on themselves.” - Dru Armstrong, CEO of @affinipay x.com/Jason_A_Scharf…
Can AI really 2X output and break legacy business models? Dru Armstrong (CEO, @affinipay) joins Austin Next to map how vertical fintech, generative AI, and faster development are transforming professional services. This is about more than automation. It's about compounding…
I have called Austin the Autonomy Capital for a bit now, but mostly I'm referencing self-driving cars, drones, & robots. Time to expand the definition to human autonomy as well. Check out the work @cosmos_inst & @mbrendan1 is doing at the intersection Philosophy & AI!
Need to make Austin the center of autonomy (especially human autonomy)
Agency & Autonomy vs Control & Drift, the fundamental tension in front of us. Either you bend AI & tech to your will and flourish or ride the invisible rails that someone else builds for you.
New essay: In defense of self-direction What Tocqueville, Aristotle, Humboldt, and Mill understood about human autonomy—and why the highest goods can’t be delivered, only pursued. 🧵
Little late to this and didn’t realize it was in Austin (🙏 @YIMBYLAND) Here’s to the storytellers. Austin is creating a new stack, technological, and cultural. 🤠🚀🦾
Hollywood doesn’t know what’s coming. The Billion-Dollar Opportunity Hiding In Plain Sight: Full memo linked in bio 🔗
"That spirit—the willingness to imagine taller, to plan bigger—is what sets a city in motion." - @RyanPuzycki Austin's belief in the future & the frontier is a driving force now & going forward. The Waterline has reached its final height, so it's time ask What's Next? 🤠🚀🦾
More on booms, busts, and the architecture of belief here: ryanpuzycki.com/p/the-last-sky…
I approve!! Also means Robotaxis come to my house. Game Changer!
Just saying, this might be a good way to expand the @Tesla @robotaxi service area next … another iconic shape that would be guaranteed to spark more conversation & I think @cybertruck might even approve!
🤝 We will reindustrialize together 🤠🏄🚀🦾
You’re 💯 right! That came across wrong. The key part of that sentence was “off some random freeway exit”, not the Texas part. What I meant is that people don’t want to work off a random freeway exit with two fast food joints, no community, and no fun around them — whether that’s…