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- Thursday, September 11, 2025
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Today marks the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, and we remember the thousands who lost their lives.
In today’s digest, checking in on the school smartphone ban, Empire AI success, and a deep dive into vibe coding.
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To honor the lives lost on 9/11 24 years ago, the Tribute in Light will illuminate the New York City sky — where 88 xenon lightbulbs will project twin beams four miles high into the night sky from the 9/11 Memorial to represent the Twin Towers. You’ll be able to spot the Tribute in Light from up to 60 miles away. (PIX 11)
To help reflect, this newsletter by John Ellis gathers a selection of writings on what happened on the day in 2001.
NYC students are one week into the statewide smartphone ban, and reporters at Gothamist checked in with teens across the city to see how students are adjusting to the policy. (Gothamist)
“Most people are just walking around the hall, because there's not really much else to do,” said one student at Union Square Academy. "Some people are talking a bit more, which I guess was the goal.” 📵
There’s the interactive Central Park Foliage map, and for those leaf peepers willing to venture a bit outside of NYC, the New York State fall foliage map is also officially live. 🍂🍁 (Secret NYC)
In other reading:
Move over, syntax sticklers: “vibe coding” is having a moment. A new wave of developers is embracing a more intuitive, less rigid approach to writing software. 🧑💻
Vibe coding, the fast-growing trend of using AI to write code that “feels right,” is surprisingly being led by seasoned developers.
💡 Why it matters: As AI tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT increasingly co-write code, developers are shifting from precision-focused craftsmanship to broader problem-solving and architectural thinking.
A recent Fastly study found that senior engineers are writing 2.5 times the rate of AI-generated code than their junior peers, which may explain why many are relying more on instincts and experience, and less on nitpicking every line.
😎 The vibe shift:
“Code vibes” over clean lines: Developers say they now “feel out” a solution, letting AI generate options and then tweaking them until something just clicks.
Speed > polish: With tight deadlines and AI speeding up output, the priority is shipping working code, fast.
Veterans lead the way: The Fastly study found older, more experienced devs were more comfortable relying on intuition, and more likely to see AI as a helpful partner rather than a threat.
Yes, but: There’s a growing unease about over-reliance on AI coding. Some companies worry that vibe coding without rigorous review could lead to security risks or unreadable spaghetti code down the line. 🍝
Still, nearly 80% of developers say AI tools make coding more enjoyable.
Plus, vibe coding presents a lower barrier to entry for software development, and can increase the talent pool and serve as a catalyst for innovation.
🗽 The NYC angle: With NYC’s 40,000+ AI-skilled workers and 2,000+ AI startups, the city is a hotspot for this shift in development culture. As local startups adopt AI tools to build faster and scale leaner, expect vibe coding to become more commonplace.
Be part of the convo: On September 19, VCs can join a vibe coding crash course to learn how to design, build, and deploy an AI-powered MVP tailored to your work. Register with promo code TECHNYC100 for $100 off here.
In other reading:
This is AI’s biggest barrier to success at work — and the fix (Forbes)
After selling to Spotify, Anchor’s co-founders are back with Oboe, an AI-powered app for learning (TechCrunch)
Another wave of return-to-office crackdowns is coming (Washington Post)
Optain, an NYC-based provider of eye-disease detection and cardiovascular-disease risk assessment, raised $26 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led, joined by Memorial Hermann, Northwell Health, Novant Health, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and UPMC Enterprises.
Spiral, an NYC-based database startup, raised $22 million in seed and Series A funding from General Catalyst and Amplify Partners.
September 15-18: The 11th annual Fast Company Innovation Festival, convening thousands of business leaders, makers, and innovators for four days of inspired conversations, purposeful networking, engaging activations, and concrete takeaways. Register here.
September 17: Startup Brand Strategy + Design Workshop, giving you the end-to-end brand strategy to guide decisions, from fundraising to go-to-market, content, and beyond. Register here.
September 17: Travel Tech's NYC Start-Up Founder Happy Hour, a chance to meet fellow founders and innovators, and plug into the NYC travel tech community. Register here.
September 18: NYC AI Demos, featuring live demos from OpenAI, Priceline, Daydream, Tabs, Lumos, Northflank, and AngelList. Register here.
September 18: Brderless’ September Founder Breakfast, a private breakfast for a curated group of early-stage founders, especially those who are scaling and looking for international hiring. Register here.
September 18-20: The Atlantic Festival relocates to NYC with its screenings, book talks, and more with influential thinkers including Scott Galloway, Keri Russell, Mark Cuban, H.R. McMaster, Robert Downey Jr., Richard Ayoade, David Letterman, Dr. Becky Kennedy, Tom Hanks, and others. Register with promo code TECHNYC20 for 20% off one-day passes here.
September 19: Vibe Coding for VCs, a crash course for venture investors to move from talking about AI to building with it. Register with promo code TECHNYC100 for $100 off here.
September 23: Deep Tech Forum + Startup Showcase in NYC, bringing together deep tech startups from across the globe alongside corporate innovation leaders, investors, and ecosystem partners. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 20% discount here.
September 24: The First 10 Breakfast Series, bringing together founders, VCs, and operators for candid, unfiltered conversations about the first 10 hires, customers, decisions, and lessons that make or break a company. Register here.
September 25: 11th Annual Bloomberg-Columbia Machine Learning in Finance Conference 2025, with talks by international practitioners and academics on AI applications in finance including asset pricing models, neural SDEs, market sentiment analysis, and fairness in financial ML. Register here.
September 25: NYC Climate Week — Scaling Solutions with Fortune 100, exploring how Fortune 500 companies are aligning climate goals with business strategy, leveraging data to drive accountability, and empowering next-gen solutions to scale through meaningful partnerships. Register here.
September 29: From Demos to Durable AI: A Fireside Chat with Arize’s Aman Khan, who will share how to turn AI experiments into dependable products. Register here.
October 7: Information Security Summit, for public sector leaders, cybersecurity pros, and tech experts committed to safeguarding New York’s state and local government operations. Register with promo code TECHNYC for a 25% discount here.
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