Doug Breitbart

Key Insight: Tab Groups as Tab Emancipation

Doug shared a "life-changing" personal discovery of browser tab groups that freed him from overwhelming tab overload, connected to his broader philosophy about human potential.

The Discovery

Context: At 69 years old, as an ADD person, "my executive function is finally fully matured"

Result: "Huge expansion of capacity capability to grapple with things and play with things, and do things, and use things" that were "opaque and impenetrable and unusable before"

The Tab Problem

Before:

4-5 browser windows across 3 monitors
45-50 tabs per window
Total: ~250 tabs
Tabs so small they couldn't be differentiated
"Emotionally, they're there. They exist."
Approaching computer in morning: "overwhelming crap. Like, what do I do now?"

Discovery Process:

Knew the capability had to exist
Saw something flash
Noticed "Tab Groups" in a menu
"Okay, I think this is my path to emancipation, to tab emancipation"

Implementation:

Because of "newly vested executive function," able to learn it quickly
Sorted and bucketed 250 tabs into groups
Closed the groups
Closed browser windows
Freed up computer resources
"My poor little laptop that could" - was asking "mini-computer demands" of it
Now: "only have the one or two tab groups up that were relevant in that moment"

Impact: "This is life-changing for someone like me"

The Bigger Picture: Zooming Way Out

Core Belief: "Every human being has value to add and contribute"

Three Key Inquiries:

Foundational: Every human has value to contribute (if you buy this...)
Operational: "What do each one of those individuals need in order to be enabled to contribute?"
Systemic: "How do we meet everyone's needs?"

Everything Else: "If it is not germane to those inquiries is substantially irrelevant"

Personal Impact

What Tab Groups Unleashed:

"Flood tide of capacity"
Organizing
Moving into action
"Unleashing the hounds in all sorts of ways"

OGM Connection

Projects Coalescing: Touching ~12 projects, 60% have OGM in common

Pattern:

Two completely independent projects connect
They start talking
Doug has awareness of both
Doug sees how they complement and fit into larger context

Hat Tip to Jerry: "For being the energetic center of gravity out of which a lot of these things, for me, were connected with and met, and now coalesceable in some fashion that I have yet to think through completely, but that I'm working on."

Chat Contributions

Direct Message with Pete:

Pete mentioned agentic AI work
Doug: "Count me in on that invite. Would love to try my hand and see yours."
Arranged to meet for an hour the following week

Financial Discussion:

Mentioned Michael Burry (from The Big Short) has a fund set up to short the tech sector
"If you want to go straight Contra, he'd be happy to take your money"

Related Concepts

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