Nick Foley
@nhfoley
Infrastructure for the future @ newstealthco Solarpunk http://staymoonside.com Parent http://forager.school Ex: HW @Uber, Cofounder http://jumpbikes.com, 3DP Prefabs http://denizen.works
Seeking founding teacher for a pioneering elementary school on the California coast. Launch rockets, direct movies, build monumental sculpture, figure out how we’re all going to team up with technology to grow high agency, high achievement kids and the future of education. DM me!
The only true moat is caring about the problem more than anyone else:
Amazing to see a founder still so passionate about the product, years after JUMP was acquired. What both Ryan and @nhfoley created is transforming urban mobility atleast here in Europe.
1/ It's time to bring back "designed in California, made in California.” Today, at @reindsummit, @ashleevance and I introduced Solano Foundry, the largest advanced manufacturing park in America, an hour north of Silicon Valley. Built by @CAForever with @JLL. 🧵
Honestly wild that Reddit is so durable as the greatest infohazard of a generation: -> pick a deep question on a technical topic you know -> look it up on Reddit -> top comment is someone confidently & arrogantly stating the opposite of what's true what is the lesson here?
Call me crazy but I see a plan to finally unblock California High Speed Rail
has anyone looked into this
1/ America cannot compete with China without building America's Shenzen – a place to build drones, ships, robots, and everything else cutting edge. Where? On @CAForever's 100 square miles in Solano, 60 miles north of SF/Silicon Valley, where we invent that stuff. Here's why. 🧵
A modern grid could use ~2kV DC between buildings + semiconductor controls (SiC, GaN) which switch power off so fast that there would be less hazard than a standard 120VAC GFCI line. This would enable a safer grid & home electrification with ~1/8th the copper ( = $$$$). A…
An AC power grid made way more sense in the 20th century, but switching mode DC->DC converters have gotten *so* insanely cheap, small, and efficient, especially with GaN FETs. Would a DC power grid (say, ~20 kV distribution, ~300 volts in your house) make more sense in 2025?
Apparently someone went around DTLA and chopped down a bunch of trees last night. Somehow nobody saw or stopped them. (video from DTLA Insider)
Apparently someone went around DTLA and chopped down a bunch of trees last night. Somehow nobody saw or stopped them. (video from DTLA Insider)
Raising kids helps you see ~all of this~ as layers on top of the universal urge to build a contraption, and take it on a journey.
You will never run out of reasons to own an indestructible beater pickup truck with a lumber rack
So many read Chaotic Good "The Ministry for the Future" as a vision of our world, A lot of insight in understanding we're really on the Chaotic Neutral "Venomous Lumpsucker" timeline as envisioned by @NedBeauman
😐
1/ @CAForever is answering the call to propel American shipbuilding for the next century. With today’s @POTUS Executive Order and the bipartisan SHIPS Act, we’re offering 3 miles of our waterfront to build the Solano Shipyard, the largest shipbuilding complex in America. 🧵
The reality is that free markets & even heavy tariffs are powerless against China wielding capitalism to deploy trillions & win the strategic industries of the 21st century. Nothing Trump has done so far is changing that course. We need to invest in the future to win it.
I think the biggest impediment to us becoming a manufacturing power isn’t labor, it’s capital. Our VCs won’t fund it. Our banks don’t fund it. Wall St punishes capex investment. And our govt is a terrible allocator of capital. @chamath @rabois @shaunmmaguire and all the…
Days too beautiful to filter will soon become the thing we owe ourselves the most
What if this is how we rediscovered Fogbank:
Last night our youngest daughter was making “simple syrup” but fell asleep on the couch. I came downstairs to see what was up with the smoky smell and I found out that he had created carbon aerogel. It weighs almost nothing. 😂
If you gather up a few smart friends & commit to solving a problem with the kind of wild passion that makes others think you’re crazy, the future will be within your grasp, today.
JUMP bikes are still the gold standard. Lime’s bike business wouldn’t have scaled this fast, especially in London, without JUMP hardware. Thank you @ryrzny and @nhfoley 🙏
What we call "Engineering" is really the process of conquering the magical chaos of the universe into exquisitely controlled tools that shape reality to our will. When you understand magnetorheological finishing, you understand we can accomplish anything:
I did not dig into what is the exact polishing method at the time, and it is pretty mind blowing: it's called magnetorheological finishing, and it is used for big optics a lot more. It reduces damages because the particles in the slurry are aligned with a magnetic field, and the…