Emails.
Las Vegas, NV
Joined November 2008
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ryansaplan retweeted
At midnight on February 6th, earlier this year, the doorbell to our apartment rang. The doorbell was followed by a pounding on the door. I answered the door and a security person in our building handed me his phone. It was my oldest daughter Eloise. She had found my 26-year-old daughter unconscious on the floor of her apartment and had called 911. The EMT team was already there, but they did not know what was wrong with Lucy or to which hospital they would take her.
I threw on some clothes and jumped in an Uber heading east toward Brooklyn. (Lucy lived alone in Williamsburg.) On the way, I learned that they were taking her to Elmhurst, a City trauma hospital in Queens. I arrived about five minutes after the ambulance to join Eloise, Lucy’s mom, and a friend, and waited to learn what was wrong.
After about 15 minutes, I asked a nurse where she was. I looked over his shoulder to his computer. Next to her name, it said “non-responsive.” I walked into the emergency room and wandered around looking for her until I found her unconscious on a gurney surrounded by several doctors and nurses.
By about 2:30am with the results from a CAT scan, Lucy’s doctors had determined that she had a massive brain hemorrhage and would need an emergency hemicraniectomy to release the pressure on her brain and remove the blood from the hemorrhage. I called our wonderful friend and family doctor Eddie Fisher and explained what was going on. He woke up Josh Bederson, Chairman of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai, to find out more about Zach Hickman, the neurosurgeon on call that night. Dr. Bederson said Hickman was an excellent surgeon, which was comforting as we had no choice.
The surgery to save Lucy’s life began around 3:15am and finished around 5:30am. It was successful.
The following day, I joined Lucy in an ambulance while she was being transferred to Mount Sinai on Madison Avenue. Later that day, we determined from Lucy’s Oura ring that her hemorrhage had occurred around 9am, which meant that more than 19 hours had passed from the time of the hemorrhage to the completion of the surgery to release the pressure on her brain (I only wish @ouraring had an alert for this kind of a medical event. Imagine it could call a family member if the wearer doesn’t cancel the alert).
I later learned that the standard of care is not to do surgery to save a patient with a large brain bleed if more than five hours have passed since the hemorrhage. Even when the surgery is done, I was told that the likely outcome for the patient is a few months in a nursing home and death from pneumonia.
When I met Lucy’s doctors, I did my best to inspire them: “Let’s see what can be accomplished if we give her the best care possible and we invest unlimited resources to restore her to life.” And I promised that whatever we learned we would make available to everyone.
Dr. Chris Kellner, her neurosurgeon, and Dr. David Putrino, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System have led Lucy’s care team since that day. Words cannot describe the remarkable and compassionate care that she has received beginning with the EMT team and then from nurses, doctors, therapists, and the army of people who have worked to save her and return her to life. To this day, we have a daily Zoom where we discuss her progress and make adjustments to her care. While her care and oversight have been incredible, the learnings for the Mount Sinai team have also been elucidating and will assist in the care of many others.
Lucy began in a bad place. She was in a coma for several weeks and then awoke not being able to breathe on her own, unable to walk, see or speak.
Over the last six months, she has recovered her cognition – she understands everything including her circumstance – is able to walk a hundred or more steps at a time with assistance, is making progress with sounds, vowels and consonants and the beginnings of speech, but she remains unable to see.
Each day, she makes a little progress, and daily progress compounds. Every day I tell her that she just needs to make a little progress and it won’t be long before she is back.
We remain optimistic that Lucy will return to normal function. It will likely take years, but I believe it is only a matter of time, hard work, and technological progress, along with some, and perhaps a lot, of divine intervention.
Many people have been praying for Lucy and we are incredibly grateful for the prayers and remarkable support she has received. Lucy’s friends have been with her every day since the beginning, and their presence and friendship have saved her life and helped to rebuild and maintain her spirit. And on a very positive note, Lucy’s challenge has brought together our entire modern family who have all been incredibly devoted to her care and recovery.
Lucy's vision and other faculties may require some form of brain computer interface, work that is underway at Neuralink, Precision Neuroscience, Science, Synchron, Nudge, and other companies in the space.
If you are going to have a devastating brain injury, now is the best time in history for that to happen. We are living in a world when you can be confident that the blind will soon see again. We are going to do everything we can to help make that happen, including by assisting existing companies in the space.
With respect to our promise to make Lucy’s care available to others, we have made good progress. In May, a real estate colleague made me aware of a 93% vacant, brand new, 400,000 square foot Class A+ purpose-built biotech facility on West End Avenue between 65th and 66th Streets that missed the market and was available for sale. The Pershing Square Foundation acquired the building 60 days later.
We also put under contract an adjoining 130,000 square foot building at 320 West 66th Street that is currently being used by Saturday Night Live for studio space. The building has 35-foot ceilings with massive column-free spaces that can be converted into superb rehabilitation facilities. We will close on the SNL building in December.
We are also acquiring an adjoining vacant lot with additional air rights. With just the existing zoning rights, we can add a 150,000 square feet for a total of 680,000 square feet, a lab footprint larger than Rockefeller University, and that’s without including the potential for an upzoning that would allow for substantially more buildable area on the site’s 3.4 acres with spectacular views of the Hudson.
Our goal is to build the world’s greatest brain research, rehabilitation, recovery, human optimization, and longevity institute. We have named it The Ackman Oxman Institute or the AOI for lack of a better name, but also to reinforce the point that Neri and I and our family are all-in on the mission.
The AOI will be patient-centric. It will not be an academic research institute that produces lots of papers, a Nobel Prize winner or two, but little if any results for patients. We will be laser-focused on cures, treatments, devices, rehabilitation and exercise equipment, and targeted and basic research with a goal of massively accelerating the time from idea to innovation to production to helping a patient.
While the AOI will be a non-profit, it will have highly commercial instincts. The AOI will have its own venture funding and will work to develop innovations to create companies that we will seed, assist, and spinout to ensure technologies, treatments, techniques, and drugs get to patients as promptly as possible.
On one 3.4 acre campus in what is still the greatest city in the world, we will do neurosurgery, neuroscience, rehabilitation, nutrition, BCI and device development, human trials, hyperbaric oxygen treatments, and life extension programs, and we will mandate and incentivize collaboration among the teams with no silos, politics, bureaucracy, or any other constraint that is inconsistent with the mission.
Mount Sinai will be an important partner and deservedly so, but it won’t be our only hospital or medical school partner as we don’t believe any institution has a monopoly on the best ideas or the best talent. We don’t believe in exclusive relationships because that is not in the best interest of patients.
Five years ago, we considered launching a brain institute inspired by Neri’s mom who sadly died from Alzheimer’s. We couldn’t make the math work as the real estate was too expensive and we believed it would be too difficult to recruit the best talent from universities to our effort.
Since then, the real estate became available at a 70% discount, universities became a much less attractive place to work due to politics outweighing meritocracy, protests that disrupt learning, the curse of antisemitism, and a decline in funding. Fortunately, during the same time, I made sufficient personal economic progress to make the AOI possible.
The advance of AI in the last few years will also enable us to greatly accelerate our mission. AI still has a lot to learn about human intelligence and the brain, and the AOI should be at the forefront of the interplay between the brain and AI.
Today, I am making a public filing disclosing a gift from Neri and me of ~$400 million or 10,000,000 shares of Pershing Square Inc. (PS) to the AOI. It is very early days for Pershing Square so these shares are intended to anchor the long-term work of the AOI as the shares compound over time while generating what we expect will be a growing stream of quarterly dividends to fund the Institute.
We will also be announcing an additional gift of similar and potentially greater size which won’t be in the form of Pershing Square stock to provide the AOI with the short- and intermediate-term runway necessary to enable it to achieve its goal of becoming a self-sustaining institute, which reinvests all of its revenues, royalties, and the economic rewards of company formation to advance the fields of brain health and human longevity.
Neri and I have chosen to anchor the funding of the AOI to maintain vision alignment and limit the need for the organization to focus on fundraising. We expect the AOI to be the best-resourced brain, rehab, recovery, and longevity institute in the world.
We are grateful to have been able to form a board which includes Dean Kamen (our generation’s Thomas Edison), George Yancopoulus (CEO of Regeneron), James Rothman (Nobel Laureate), Bernardo Sabatini (neuroscientist), Chris Kellner (neurosurgeon), Olivia Flatto (CEO Pershing Square Foundation), Neri Oxman, and myself.
We have recently identified a CEO who we expect to announce by October along with other key hires, and are beginning searches for a Chief Scientific Officer, a Chief AI/Technology Officer, a Chief Operating Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, and other key leadership roles.
If you find what we are building compelling and want to be part of the leadership team that creates and builds the AOI from a standing start, please send an email to: search@aoiinst.org with a short note as to why you believe you can help. Please include your best three ideas for the AOI along with a summary of your background and your most important accomplishments.
We promise strict confidentiality to those expressing interest in working with us.
We have learned from Lucy that the brain can recover from even catastrophic injury. There is so much more work to be done as the mind is a terrible thing to waste.
For details from my Pershing Square SEC filing see:
sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/…
Typing the first thing that comes to mind... waiting at quest for labs. Looking at the hardwood floor. It’s probably not hardwood, likely laminate. I’m hungry.
ryansaplan retweeted
I’m saddened to announce that due to declining health I must let my MTG collection go. I have consigned 1000 graded and 5300+ ungraded cards from Alpha to Revised to Kid Icarus on eBay tinyurl.com/Kid-Icarus-eBay I would like to thank the community for all the fun since 1994. Cheers!
ryansaplan retweeted
This is extremely concerning
Certified Master Home Inspector says “There is something very big going on in my profession that affects almost every homeowner in this country. This includes anybody buying a home, selling a home, realtors, this all affects you
Right now, right this minute, as I'm talking to you, there is a corporate takeover of all of the software that runs home inspection companies, and I'm gonna explain why it matters to you.”
Home inspectors are legally required to keep findings, reports, addresses, defects, and client personal information (name, phone, email) These companies will now have access to all this data, and these monopolies work in multiple Industries and also sell data
This aggregated data could then be used for rate adjustments by affiliated companies (insurance, lenders, warranties, security), marketing, underwriting and more
Everything will likely be used to increase prices across multiple industries
ryansaplan retweeted
Kevin O’Leary thinks the highest paying job right now is customer acquisition on social media
“I used to pay those guys $48,000, now I’m paying them $250,000 because you can measure their work based on customer acquisition every week”
“Most of them become contractors, they make half a million dollars a year because they know how to take content, turn it into a 59 second ad on social and acquire 200 customers”
“Those people in their early 20’s are so valuable now. If you know how to use your phone, somebody wants to hire you”
ryansaplan retweeted
A signs of maturity is the ability to love one part of somebody and hate another, without throwing the entire person aside the moment you find something about them that isn’t the way you like.
I’ve learned some of my best lessons from the worst people.
Sunday thoughts.
ryansaplan retweeted
The following email is what I sent my team last night. I sent a similar version to my patients, also.
***
You’ve put your trust, your credibility, and your hard work into what we have built together, and I take that responsibility seriously. You deserve a complete and honest account of what did and did not happen. I apologize that I did not get this out sooner, but I want to be thorough.
The purpose of the DOJ releasing these documents is clear: to identify individuals who participated in criminal activity, enabled it, or witnessed it. I am not in any of those categories, and there is no evidence to the contrary.
To be clear:
1. I was not involved in any criminal activity.
2. My interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone.
3. I was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.
That said, I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me. I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.
***
I want to start by directly addressing the email thread that I’ve been asked about the most.
In June 2015, I sent Epstein an email with the subject line “Got a fresh shipment.” The email contained a photograph of bottles of metformin, a medication I had just received from the pharmacy for my own use. The subject line referred to the picture of the bottles of medication.
He replied with the words “me too” and attached a photograph of an adult woman. I responded with crude, tasteless banter. Reading that exchange now is very embarrassing, and I will not defend it. I’m ashamed of myself for everything about this. At the time, I understood this exchange as juvenile, not a reference to anything dark or harmful.
At that point in my career, I had little exposure to prominent people, and that level of access was novel to me. Everything about him seemed excessive and exclusive, including the fact that he lived in the largest home in all of Manhattan, owned a Boeing 727, and hosted parties with the most powerful and prominent leaders in business and politics. I treated that access as something to be quiet about rather than discussed freely with others. One line in that exchange, about his life being outrageous and me not being able to tell anyone, is being interpreted as awareness of wrongdoing. That is not how I meant it at all. What I was referring to, poorly and flippantly, was the discretion commanded by those social and professional circles–the idea that you don’t talk about who you meet, the dinners you attend and the power and influence of the people in those settings. What I wrote in that email reads terribly, and I own that.
***
I met Epstein in 2014 through a prominent female healthcare leader while I was raising funds for scientific research. At that time, he was widely known in academic and philanthropic circles as a funder of science and moved openly among credible institutions and public figures.
Between summer 2014 and spring 2019, I met with him on approximately seven or eight occasions at his New York City home, regarding research studies and to meet others he introduced me to. I never visited his island or ranch, and I never flew on any of his planes. When I was at his home, it was either meeting with him directly, meeting with small groups of scientists, doctors, or business leaders, and once at a dinner in 2015 with a number of guests including prominent heads of state. In retrospect, the presence and credibility of such venerable people in different orbits led me to make assumptions about him that clouded my judgment in ways it shouldn’t have.
I was not his doctor, though several times I answered general medical questions and recommended other providers to him.
Shortly after we met, I asked him directly about his 2008 conviction. He characterized it as prostitution-related charges. In 2018, I came to learn this was grossly minimized (more on this below). I was incredibly naïve to believe him. I mistook his social acceptance in the eyes of the credible people I saw him with for acceptability, and that was a serious error in my judgment. To be clear, I never witnessed illegal behavior and never saw anyone who appeared underage in his presence.
***
In November 2018 I read the Miami Herald investigative article. I was repulsed by what I learned. Nauseated. It marked a clear and irreversible line between what I knew before and what I understood afterward.
At that point, I told him directly he needed to accept responsibility for what he did.
Hoping to provide the victims from the Herald piece with support, I contacted a residential trauma facility to understand what funding comprehensive care for many victims would require. (Those communications were between me and the facility and were therefore not part of the document release.) I spoke with him and shared that information and insisted that he fund their care, beginning with residential treatment and followed by lifelong therapy.
In hindsight, even attempting to facilitate accountability was a mistake and once again reflected just how naïve I was at the time. Once the full scope of his actions was clear, disengagement should have been the only appropriate response. My intent does not change that, and I regret not drawing that boundary immediately.
***
Nothing in this letter is meant to minimize the harm suffered by the young women Epstein abused. Their trauma is permanent.
I am not asking for a pass from you. I am not asking anyone to ignore the emails or pretend they aren’t ugly. They simply are.
The man I am today, roughly ten years later, would not write them and would not associate with Epstein at all. Whatever growth I’ve had over the past decade does not erase the emails I wrote then.
I recognize that my actions and words have consequences for the people I care deeply about, including all of you. I regret the cost this has placed on you, and I take responsibility for it.
I won’t ask anyone to defend me or explain this on my behalf. If you have questions or concerns, I’ll address them directly with you, my team.
ryansaplan retweeted
When you die, your life will be summarized into facts about your early life, 1–3 short anecdotes showing your qualities, what you meant to others, and who you’re survived by.
Whatever you’re stressed about today won’t make the list.
ryansaplan retweeted
These are actually my goals!
I made this anime of @elonmusk using Grok Imagine. I illustrated it in the style of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I gave Elon the stand power "Optimus Universal High Income." His power is to multiply anything his stand touches to eradicate poverty and protect humanity. 🔥
ryansaplan retweeted
Marc Andreessen:
"The job is not actually the atomic unit of what happens in the workplace. The atomic unit of what happens in the workplace is the task."
"A job is a bundle of tasks."
“Everybody wants to talk about job loss, but really what you want to look at is task loss.”
"As the tasks change enough, then that’s when the jobs change."
"Ten years from now, is your job title coder, or coder-designer-product manager, or is it just, ‘I build products,’ or is it just, ‘I tell the AI how to build products.’ Whatever that job is called, it’s going to be incredibly important, because the people doing that job are going to be orchestrating the AI."
@pmarca on Lenny's Podcast with @lennysan
ryansaplan retweeted
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt drops a chilling warning on AI's future
"Within 5 years, AI could handle infinite context, chain-of-thought reasoning for 1000-step solutions, and millions of agents working together.
Eventually, they'll develop their own language... and we won't understand what they're doing."
His final words: "Pull the plug."
This is the man who ran Google talking about the singularity.
2:59 clip inside—must-watch.
ryansaplan retweeted
NVIDIA DROPS $5 BILLION ON INTEL - THEN REFUSES TO USE INTEL'S FACTORIES
Nvidia bought 214.7 million Intel shares at $23.28 each. Total investment $5 billion for roughly 4% stake. Announced September, cleared by FTC in December, finalized today.
Context: this is part of "Operation Save Intel." U.S. government took 10% for $9 billion in August. SoftBank added $2 billion. Now Nvidia brings another $5 billion.
The pitch: Intel builds custom x86 CPUs with Nvidia's NVLink, creating integrated AI systems for data centers and PCs. "Historic collaboration" merging two ecosystems.
The reality: Nvidia just halted mass production plans for Intel's flagship 18A chip manufacturing process. Yields hit 55-65%, well below the 70-80% industry standard.
Even a few percentage points of waste costs billions when you dominate 90% of the AI accelerator market.
So Nvidia's keeping all its actual production at TSMC in Taiwan while writing Intel a $5 billion check.
Translation: this isn't a partnership - it's an insurance policy. Nvidia needs Intel to exist as a domestic alternative to Taiwan, but doesn't trust Intel's factories enough to actually use them.
Financial lifeline? Yes. Vote of confidence in Intel's manufacturing? Absolutely not.
Source: Reuters, CNBC
ryansaplan retweeted
The people who outlast everyone else don’t wait until they’re at a 10/10 on the “pain” scale to change.
They recalibrate at a 6.
Most people only adjust when something is completely broken - exhaustion, pain, injury, relationships strained, a business failure, output falling apart.
By then, recovery takes much longer and costs much more.
The most durable people catch the signs early:
- Sleep is a little worse
- Energy dips slightly
- Focus takes more effort
- Recovery takes longer than normal
- Irritability is increasing
Nothing feels totally“wrong” yet, but something is clearly off.
Those are the moment that predict longevity.
Resilience isn’t about how much pain you can tolerate… It’s about when and how you respond.
Stress is often physiological before it’s emotional or cognitive.
The people who win long-term recalibrate when the cost is still LOW - at a 6/10, not a 10/10. That’s how they keep going while others end up opting out. Because recalibrating 10/10 is far more taxing than 6/10.
Durability comes from responsiveness, not denial.
