The Ring Power Of The Next Token
There is math in feedback loops.
If you can tell someone if x Y or if a then B, and give the choice:
- do you want X
- or A
the feedback loop to compress here is time to decision.
Garry Tan, President and CEO of Y Combinator, on what agentic software teams can do today:
— Guillermo Flor (@guilleflorvs) August 16, 2026
"you can go from zero to 15 mil ARR in about four months with like two or three people and like hundreds of agents, like, you know, a few hundred skill files."
"building these agentic… https://t.co/C9iquXLsNJ pic.twitter.com/fSthmvdqJz
One startup today was ready to give up because their idea wasn't working. I suggested they just start over from scratch with a new idea and defer to the next demo day. I sent them to have lunch and mull over potential new ideas and come back at the end of office hours.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) August 14, 2026
in particular it is crazy to learn predictive accuracy from decades of intelligence in the field using vim and just building Naval level incompressible self productization
When they returned, the first new idea they mentioned was great. Even better than they realized. We only had to talk about it for 10 minutes. In 3 minutes more we found a good domain for less than $5000. So 15 minutes total and they walk out with a good idea and a good name.
— Paul Graham (@paulg) August 14, 2026
p.s. flying to Miami tomorrow be back shortly SF :)