#827: Pablos Holman — One of The Scariest Hackers I’ve Ever Met

What It Covers

Hacker and inventor Pablos Holman discusses transitioning from computer security exploits to deep tech solutions, including autonomous sailing cargo ships, borehole nuclear reactors, and space solar power, while explaining why energy infrastructure determines humanity's technological future.

Key Questions Answered

• •Hacker Mindset Applied Beyond Software: Hackers ask "what can I make this do" rather than "what does this do," enabling off-label innovation. This approach transfers to physical systems like skateboarding (Rodney Mullen inventing street skating tricks) and can solve problems in trillion-dollar industries outside the 2% of GDP that software represents.
• •Deep Tech Investment Strategy: Target technologies offering 10x improvements over state-of-the-art in century-old industries. Technical risk exists upfront, but market risk disappears once proven—unlike software startups with perpetual market uncertainty. Deep tech companies graduate from venture capital earlier using project financing and debt for scaling proven technologies.
• •Energy as Primary Infrastructure Lever: Nuclear fission reactors must deploy first before other solutions work efficiently. Recycling currently burns more gas than creating fresh plastic. Carbon capture at 400 parts per million means finding 400 needles in a million-piece haystack. Solve energy with cheap nuclear power, then tackle secondary problems with available abundant energy.
• •Regulatory Environment Transformation: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission shifted from blocking to enabling nuclear deployment. Deep Fission's borehole reactor (Toyota-sized, buried one mile deep, gravity-cooled) accelerated from 2029 commercial deployment target to July 2025 launch. Hyperscalers (Meta, Microsoft, Google) driving nuclear renaissance because AI chips require massive energy, potentially saving civilization through infrastructure investment.
• •Geographic and Temporal Arbitrage: Microsoft imported global hacker talent to Seattle in early 2000s, creating critical mass for innovation. Extend planning horizons to 100 years to identify obvious solutions (self-sailing cargo ships versus bunker oil), then compress execution to 10 years to align with venture fund timelines and career commitments. Apollo program, Space Shuttle, Hoover Dam all completed under 10 years.