# Nina Lu > Nina Lu builds things, invests in early-stage AI and infrastructure startups, hosts the First Commit podcast, and writes Near Futures and Things That Matter. Nina is based in San Francisco and is always up for meeting in person. ## Elsewhere - [X / Twitter](https://x.com/ninajlu) - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninajlu) - [First Commit on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@commitwithnina) - [Near Futures on Substack](https://nearfutures.substack.com/) - [Things That Matter on Medium](https://medium.com/@ninajlu) ## Projects - [Side Quests](http://realsidequests.com/): Pokemon go meets side quests! - [Language in Context](https://langincontext.fly.dev/): Chrome extension to learn languages - [OpenCures](https://opencures.fly.dev/): Cure all diseases! - [Second Dawn](https://seconddawn.ai/): Digital help for survivors - [CallAll](http://callall.fly.dev/): Call all the vendors! - [Practice Moss](http://practicemoss.com/): Easy PMS for wellness studios - [Surrender NPC](http://surrender.fly.dev/): Can't make decisions? - [Astroplane](https://astroplane.fly.dev/): An AI dream journal - [Polyglot AI](https://polyglotchatbot.com/): Learn languages via chat - [BattleWordle](https://battlewordle.com/): Competitive Wordle ## Podcast: First Commit Deep, technical conversations with the founders, builders, and researchers shaping AI, from reinforcement learning to MCP and everything in between. [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@commitwithnina). - [Mansoor Rahimat Khan, Founder, Beatoven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NqQbw8sfAk): The intersection of the arts and AI - [Markus Beissinger, Founder, Workforge](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT1clxpGPbE): Paths to more efficient model training - [Rishi Bhargava, Descope](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg_4qIfdzq4): Securing agent identity - [Mehdi Jamei, Veris AI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VYfApb-UiY): The state of agent training - [Kyle Morgenstein](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qmCHOKGMnM): The quest for Rosie Jetson - [Shashwat Goel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqoIJxkL7TM): Do AI models actually reason? - [Soren Larson, Crosshatch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9KrTneWIUk): Personalization in the AI era - [Sagar Batchu, CEO of Speakeasy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-68VsooWE0): Future of MCP + Tools and Servers - [Ted Nyman, CEO of Cased, fmr. CTO of GitHub](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPy4ReIqQeI): The future of AI + DevOps - [Jeremiah Lowin, Creator of FastMCP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVopa_3uZdo): MCP as a standardized handshake for the AI era ## Writing: Near Futures (Substack) Essays on where AI and technology are heading next. - [Surrendering to Vibe Coding](https://ninajlu.com/writing/surrendering-to-vibe-coding.md): 2025-02-20. In which Nina launches a 100% AI-generated app to the Apple App Store. - [Adventures in AI Agent Onboarding](https://ninajlu.com/writing/adventures-in-ai-agent-onboarding.md): 2024-12-12. We’ve seen a couple interesting launches over the last couple weeks circling around the question of how to onboard AI agents and give them access to the tools / data they need to do their jobs: - [On Personalization](https://ninajlu.com/writing/on-personalization.md): 2024-08-27. Personalization is an interesting thing because the end state of personalization is an n of 1 - which is the state of being perfectly and completely singular and alone. - [Near Futures](https://ninajlu.com/writing/near-futures.md): 2024-08-23. In which Nina discusses her motivations for writing ## Writing: Things That Matter (Medium) Personal essays on meaning, family, leadership and value. - [Energy-Based Leadership](https://ninajlu.com/writing/energy-based-leadership.md): 2022-08-25. “What do you think we should do about climate change?” This was the thought question I posed to my younger siblings… - [The Arbitrariness of Kinship](https://ninajlu.com/writing/the-arbitrariness-of-kinship.md): 2022-07-20. If belligerent aliens descended upon Earth tomorrow, as they do in many futuristic sci-fi movies, I have faith that… - [Thinking My Way Out of Nihilism](https://ninajlu.com/writing/thinking-my-way-out-of-nihilism.md): 2022-07-15. I went to visit my old boss in DC yesterday who I hadn’t seen in years. After recounting the year I had, she commented… - [Why Your Self-Esteem Matters to Others](https://ninajlu.com/writing/why-your-self-esteem-matters-to-others.md): 2022-07-12. I’ve been meaning to write these piece for a while because I grew up one of those self-hating Asians. It took me a… - [Mozart’s Imaginary Sister](https://ninajlu.com/writing/mozarts-imaginary-sister.md): 2022-07-07. I have been finding my way back to classical music recently and was pretty shocked to learn that just four classical… - [Adolescence](https://ninajlu.com/writing/adolescence.md): 2022-07-06. Would you re-live your adolescence if you could? Boundless hours of unstructured time — free from the worries of having… - [Defaulting to Positive](https://ninajlu.com/writing/defaulting-to-positive.md): 2022-07-05. On my current trip to Indonesia, Emily posed an interesting question which was whether or not when you thought, you… - [Essay on Value Creation](https://ninajlu.com/writing/essay-on-value-creation.md): 2022-06-30. I want to preface this piece by saying that I don’t have all the answers and I feel like my understanding of the world… - [Dangers of Founder Worship in Silicon Valley](https://ninajlu.com/writing/dangers-of-founder-worship-in-silicon-valley.md): 2022-06-17. I remember really vividly the first time I was in SF — I had come up to the city for a concert at America’s Cup Pavilion… - [Best Practices for Physical Therapy in the Age of Telehealth](https://ninajlu.com/writing/best-practices-for-physical-therapy-in-the-age-of-telehealth.md): 2022-01-11. Happy New Year! While I did not expect to enter 2022 hitting another peak in the COVID pandemic in the US, we are… ## Optional - [Every post in full](https://ninajlu.com/llms-full.txt)