Hating the Player and the Game

We dig into Claude Duet, Meta’s Muse and the rest of the new assistants that suggest before you ask, why Muse’s retention numbers look shaky, and what happens to businesses built on friction, from Chase’s no-yield checking to Amazon’s purchase insurance pop-ups. The conversation turns to what gets lost when you get the answer without asking the question, from the mathematicians reeling after OpenAI’s proof drop to Ethan Mollick’s dark factory vs. twilight factory framing in his new book. Plus: Semafor at four, Boston.com goes paid and the dwindling of free ad-supported news, and the virtues of a distinctive accent in a flattened world. * Watch us on YouTube * Troy Young’s People vs Algorithms newsletter * Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting newsletter * Alex Schleifer’s Human Computer * Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter * Join our community - PvA Field Notes Chapters: * 00:52 Rackets and Reality * 04:35 Answers Without Questions * 18:45 Frictionless Future Concerns * 33:47 Cointelligence and Delegation * 35:42 Slop vs Skill Building * 40:09 Paywalls and Platform Wins * 45:15 Modern Media Models * 55:51 Good Product * 01:03:19 Credits

An anonymous developer used Claude to ship open-source clones of Adobe’s big five, then Word, Excel, Keynote, AutoCAD and Figma within days, and the lesson is that software is a business of pure margin with less moat than anyone thought. Packaged software is going the way of packaged media, and the mathematicians are finding out what that feels like.Plus: Alexandr Wang as Zuckerberg’s main character, Silicon Valley’s perennial claim that AI will kill advertising, Netflix cutting HR and legal, friction and the fate of Regina, Apple’s $300 home hub, and deodorant. * Watch us on YouTube * Troy Young’s People vs Algorithms newsletter * Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting newsletter * Alex Schleifer’s Human Computer * Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter * Join our community - PvA Field Notes Chapters: * 00:47 The Car Is Back * 04:01 Claude vs ChatGPT Personalities * 06:45 ArtCraft and the SaaS Apocalypse * 20:01 Headless Software and Moats * 37:39 Meta Cheeky Pint * 45:41 Friction Kills Towns * 52:44 Good Product * 01:00:58 Credits

This week we dig into how much of the economy is built on friction, and what happens when AI agents start removing it. Also: why students are so gloomy about AI, Vanity Fair’s New Establishment list and who gets to confer legitimacy on tech, a vibe-coded Adobe replacement, the race for the new home page, and Troy comes around on Kia. * Watch us on YouTube * Troy Young’s People vs Algorithms newsletter * Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting newsletter * Alex Schleifer’s Human Computer * Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter * Join our community - PvA Field Notes Chapters: * 01:25 Vanity Fair and Tech Legitimacy * 07:46 Students Fear the AI Future * 27:28 Software Moats and Copycat Culture * 34:28 Friction Economy Disrupted * 41:37 One Agent New Homepage * 49:28 Distillation China * 54:48 Good Product

Brian, Troy and Alex debate who will control the interface to your life, whether convenience will steamroll privacy concerns, and how the winner gets to collect a toll on everything you buy. Plus: Silicon Valley’s makeover of government, what comes next for Condé Nast, and why other industries are about to find out what being a publisher feels like. * Watch us on YouTube * Troy Young’s People vs Algorithms newsletter * Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting newsletter * Alex Schleifer’s Human Computer * Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter * Join our community - PvA Field Notes Chapters: * 00:48 Meet Linda the AI * 04:53 America.gov Launch * 15:55 Agents Negotiate Calls * 20:21 Personal Agents Arms Race * 36:28 Interface Shift and Business Models * 57:18 Publishers and Condé Shakeup * 01:07:49 Good Product * 01:09:53 Field Notes Corner

Brian and Troy dig into Muse, Meta’s push to make AI assistants mainstream, and why the next big platform battle is over the interface itself. They also look at what this shift means for publishers, commerce and media companies that increasingly risk becoming commodity suppliers to someone else’s agent. Later, Breaker's Lachlan Cartwright joins to sell $60 hats and talk CNN, CBS News, Puck, RedBird and what consolidation looks like when the old media business is being forced to adapt to a very different distribution system. * Watch us on YouTube * Troy Young’s People vs Algorithms newsletter * Brian Morrissey’s The Rebooting newsletter * Alex Schleifer’s Human Computer * Follow Alex, Brian and Troy on Twitter * Join our community - PvA Field Notes Chapters: * 01:24 Boston Globe Viral Win * 05:01 Field Notes Media Lab Build * 09:28 Muse and Agentic Future * 29:20 People Become Data Providers * 45:05 Go Big Media Merger * 51:42 Redbird Buys Puck * 01:10:39 Good Product * 01:19:09 Credits