The Tim Ferriss Show #827 · September 15, 2025 · 2h 32m

Pablos Holman — One of the Scariest Hackers I've Ever Met

Pablos Holman — hacker, inventor, futurist. Built mosquito-killing lasers, brain surgery tools, worked on Blue Origin. Self-taught on an Apple II in Alaska. His investment thesis: look for 10x improvements in trillion-dollar industries that Silicon Valley ignores.

Highlights

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The hacker mindset: 'What can I make this do?'

Hackers view technology as puzzles to reimagine, not tools to use as intended.

Claude ChatGPT Gemini

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10x improvements in ignored industries

The biggest opportunities are in industries Silicon Valley won't touch.

Claude ChatGPT Gemini

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T-shaped expertise

Deep in one domain, broad across many.

Claude ChatGPT Gemini

Misc

✧Self-taught computing on an Apple II growing up isolated in Alaska

✧Built HackerBot — a robot that reveals Wi-Fi password vulnerabilities

✧A hacker named Sammy manipulated Google Maps traffic data to ease his commute

✧Projects span Blue Origin, Intellectual Ventures Lab brain surgery tools, and mosquito-killing lasers

✧The biggest challenge in deep tech isn't invention — it's bringing transformative tech to market