Giovanni D'Antonio

Lots of evals flying around these days. Decision makers make decisions with numbers they do not truly understand. Here’s a short starting guide to the science of benchmarking, so you can tell which numbers actually mean something!

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_lots-of-evals-flying-around-these-days-decision-activity-7493448036279382016-ahR_Aug 12, 2026

Linkedin is a very different platform from X. Time to break the third wall, so you all know what is happening there. 🫡 👏 👍 🙏

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_linkedin-is-a-very-different-platform-from-activity-7490126928004177920-4VpzAug 3, 2026

It might sound a bit cheesy, but as a new grad, life feels completely full of opportunity. Compared to where I was a few years ago, I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position where I’m no longer just optimizing for "survival." My focus is gradually shifting from working just to get by, to finding true meaning in my daily life and career. I’ll be writing a longer piece on this reflection soon, but in the meantime, here is a look at what I’ve been working on at Thinking Machines Lab

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_it-might-sound-a-bit-cheesy-but-as-a-new-activity-7481403778605174784-x-FWJul 10, 2026

All roads lead back to Google! https://lnkd.in/gxaSQ3JE

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_thinking-machines-expands-use-of-google-cloud-activity-7453134632591564800-5updApr 23, 2026

I spent a long time being jealous of people who had it easy. You know the type. The people who had the perfect internships handed to them. The ones who never seemed to struggle with rent or car trouble. The ones with the "smooth start." But lately, I’m cheering my past. I see it every day: people who were protected from every minor fire while they were growing up. Because they never had to deal with small problems, they have no tools to deal with big ones. Now that they're in the real world, the first sign of a crisis feels like the end of the world. 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘸

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_i-spent-a-long-time-being-jealous-of-people-activity-7440434447197478912-bEINMar 19, 2026

Hire people who give a sh*t because there is something beautiful in working for work's sake. Growing up, I really struggled with this concept. Outside of this platform and outside of the bubble, most people are just trying to get to the end of the month. They want to minimize how much work they do. They try to spend as little time as possible in this thing called "work" so they can move on to that thing they call "life." The big change in my perspective came when I stopped seeing work as a way to survive and started seeing it as a way to live. Being free to leave a mark on the world through

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_hire-people-who-give-a-sht-because-there-activity-7439347267280510976-uHmWMar 16, 2026

A bit of a late (but BIG) life update: I officially joined Thinking Machines Lab as Member of Technical Staff! The energy here is surreal and I have met some of the kindest and most talented human beings. We’re focused on taste and human-AI collaboration, not just raw scale. A lot is coming up, but it definitely feels that life (and my learning) is accelerating at unprecedented pace. Scary to not be in the classroom this semester, but deep down I was done and needed the challenge. Thank you to Mianna, Hannah, Erika, Soumith and Mira for making it happen. Time to get to work. Attached a p

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_a-bit-of-a-late-but-big-life-update-i-activity-7437521288409145345-1KiKMar 11, 2026

Just move to silicon valley, please. The only case why you should not, is if you hate being surrounded by kids with massive dreams, pulling night shifts not because a boss told them to, but because they can’t sleep until they see their idea come to life. It’s easy to be cynical about tech, but the inventions that came out of this 50-mile radius changed the trajectory of my life. And probably yours, too. Thank you to the people who are building the future. There is this wild, shared delusion here that we can actually fix things. That if enough smart people get in a room, the world might act

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_just-move-to-silicon-valley-please-the-activity-7435017039183917056-JQlbMar 4, 2026

Young people need a framework of how to achieve “learning”. Everyone who's done anything meaningful in life tells young people some version of the same thing: at first, go where you'll learn the most. And it's good advice. But it's also strangely useless and not actionable. So I spent some time defining a framework to clearly decide which choices to make in order to maximize learning.

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_young-people-need-a-framework-of-how-to-achieve-activity-7432491191708831744-gG7WFeb 25, 2026

Maybe you're one of the lucky few who knew their passion at five years old. I wasn't, and took me a while to realize it was ok. I created my own server, started making money from it, and wanted to become the best gamer ever. I was 100 percent convinced my future was either going pro or becoming a YouTuber. But here’s the thing. I didn't actually have some "divine calling" for those things. I just really liked playing the game. If I had followed that feeling without building any real world skills, I’

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_maybe-youre-one-of-the-lucky-few-who-knew-activity-7427396504702627841-wa4sFeb 11, 2026

I finished 70 marathons in 2025. I am a big fan of consistency because I am not good enough to do things all at once. When people hear "70 marathons" , it sounds like a massive, athletic feat. But the reality is much more mundane: I just walked 10,000 steps a day. My professor of software engineering taught me an important lesson. 𝗜𝗳 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮𝗻 “𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗶𝗰” 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁, 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. In a perfect, smooth game, no one should have to be a hero. Most people think success comes from a single "heroic" effort or

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_i-finished-70-marathons-in-2025-i-am-a-big-activity-7424133755440869376-mb8knotedFeb 2, 2026

For many, going home is a happy rite of passage. But for people who abruptly changed everything about their lives, it is a weird sensation. Rationality is not a choice anymore. Journaling becomes your only real home. I used to hate Naples. I actually told other kids I wasn't from there. I remember hiding in a closet just to avoid the subtle racism implied in the division between North and South. That adolescent boy wanted to change everything. His body, his mind, his heart. Then, I learned to love Naples. I learned to love the good sides and be realistic about the bad ones. Then, I became

linkedin.com/posts/giovanni-dantonio_for-many-going-home-is-a-happy-rite-of-passage-activity-7421953979774988288-P47UJan 27, 2026