Travis Chen (@TravisMChen) header
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🌎

SEA | LAX | EWR
Joined August 2011
Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)Photo by Travis Chen (@TravisMChen)
Travis Chen retweeted
From @WSJopinion: Taiwan is the key to AI dominance. The island is much more than a bargaining chip. It’s the center of the world’s most important tech stack, write @alexanderbenard and David Feith. on.wsj.com/4uMTCOv
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Travis Chen retweeted
Jeff Bezos just explained the “AI bubble” better than anyone. At Italian Tech Week 2025, Bezos didn’t deny the hype, he embraced it. “Yes, there’s a bubble. But AI is real and it’s going to transform every single industry.” He called it an industrial bubble, not a financial one. That’s a crucial difference: •A financial bubble (like 2008) destroys value and leaves nothing behind. •An industrial bubble (like AI, the internet, or fiber optics) creates massive value, even if investors get crushed. “Even when those companies went bankrupt, the fiber stayed in the ground. Society got the infrastructure. That’s what we’ll see with AI.” Bezos says right now we’re in the “chaotic, beautiful” phase of overfunding, where every wild idea gets money. Investors can’t tell the good ideas from the bad ones. But that’s exactly how big shifts happen. He compared it to Amazon’s early days: “Our stock went from $113 to $6, while every internal metric improved. The market and the reality had completely diverged.” His point: bubbles distort prices, not progress. AI valuations might crash, but the technology won’t. “This is not a mirage. This is a horizontal technology, like electricity and it will touch everything.” Bezos isn’t predicting an apocalypse. He’s predicting a reset, where the hype burns off, and the real builders remain. AI isn’t a bubble, it’s a boom disguised as one.
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There is no substitute for a strong internal drive to do things, everything else is built on this foundation.
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The smartest people I know: 1. Obsessively read books 2. Pursue new mental models 3. Enjoy intelligent discourse 4. Quickly admit when they're wrong 5. Comfortable changing their opinion 6. Surround themselves w/ intelligence 7. Seek to understand every perspective on a topic
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How to spot high agency people
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Jeff Bezos has unique insights on handling stress.
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Best career advice I ever received: "You can't build a reputation on what you say you're going to do. Only on what you actually get done." This applies to everything.
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Travis Chen retweeted
with tiktok temporarily closed, maybe it’s time to rethink how we use the internet. imagine if instagram shut down at 9 pm, like a grocery store, or X closed at 11 pm (open late, but not 24/7). we might all feel a little less pressure—to read, to post, to exist online all the time. maybe we’d sleep better, feel calmer, even be happier. a digital commons with operating hours, enforcing temporal boundaries. it would disrupt the dopamine factory, recalibrate the rhythm of online life, & impose artificial scarcity to make digital engagement feel intentional, not compulsive.
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Travis Chen retweeted
We talked to the cofounder of Watch Duty, which has become an essential app in LA for tracking the wildfires: - It's a 501(c)(3) nonprofit largely supported by volunteers - Has had 100% uptime (and no mistaken evac notices vs the local gov sending THREE accidentally) - Over 1m downloads this week with plans to expand to more of the US/oversees - “We view what we are doing as a public service.”
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Travis Chen retweeted
Become a ghost for 6 months. Make everything your fault. Find the beast within you. Throw yourself into pain. Cut out all the excuses. Go all in on yourself. Train like a warrior. Work like a robot. Eat like a king. Reject vices. Transform. Upgrade. Create. Thrive. Win.
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Don’t call yourself lucky. You’ve failed more than most people have ever tried.
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Travis Chen retweeted
I solved the puzzle of running a business with 0 employees:
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Travis Chen retweeted
Why is Tokyo so fashionable? Some theories. đź§µ
Probably a cold take but IMO Tokyo is the male fashion capital of the world: whether it’s western wear, suits, street wear the aesthetic is refined to the highest possible level From the salaryman to the rebel teen they are impeccably dressed It also helps no one is fat
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Travis Chen retweeted
Whenever I come across someone who’s been successful financially despite the fact that they’re objectively not very intelligent, they always have a rigid routine. These are your wake up at 5am types who are obsessed with the gym and every 3rd word out of their mouth is “discipline.” They’ve genuinely just bulldozed their way to wealth. Who cares if they’re high IQ or not? They’re getting what they want out of life. Always grateful af too. Simply too dumb to overthink. Push-ups. Action. Steak. Push-ups. Action. Steak.
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How you are perceived at work is how you will be treated. People will treat you based on what they think about you and your work. I am not saying this is right, just that it is the way it is.
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Travis Chen retweeted
The biggest tell of someone’s character is how they treat you before and after they know what you do for a living.
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Feed your childlike curiosity that has been starving for too long
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Compounding is magic. Embrace it
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