3 ms·

Yep, if anything good comes from this open letter it will be from people in his own demographic (investors) reading, internalizing, and acting on it.

jekoeoe9njdjr 7y ago
I’d rather he cram this letter up his arse and lead by example with a letter announcing deep investment in infra Otherwise this is just someone with the freedom to sit around rambling at length trying to look woke The model of investing he got rich on is part of the problem Is he actually going to change that or peddle warm fuzzies and never follow up? Academia knows where the problems are States know where the problems are Pay taxes and they can get on it right away What is it with rich guys who think they’ve suddenly figured out exactly what societies already well known problems are? What is it with sycophantic men who kowtow to rich daddy types? The professional world I live in is pretty disgusting with its reverence for wealth stolen from workers who do the actual manual labor to enable his creature comforted up the arse life
- ausbah 7y ago
  success in one sphere subconsciously molds people to believing their opinion matters in other spheres - even if they are completely disjoint?
  - jekoeoe9njdjr 7y ago
    Yes See Trump & Kushner Math models show financial success is luck and government collusion Limbic brain function takes on a habit of connecting to facts from past success stores in the cortex, to convince the person that their literal agency will always lead to success And society continually rewards past success even in the face of nothing but failure in other endeavors Again, see Trump and all the CEOs and hedge funds that keep being bailed out
  - Wistar 7y ago
    Absolutely. Even when the first success was largely luck. I know a lot of early Microsoft employees who became successful (read: wealthy) very quickly and many of them harbored a belief that they were capable of success at anything and that their advice was of a superior caliber. This belief has, through the subsequent years, proven to not be all that true.
- sanderjd 7y ago
  I share your cynicism, but the letter could be a statement of changed purpose which front runs exactly the kind of announcements you're looking for. And it may encourage others to start thinking along those same lines. If that is the case, then it may be a good thing. But I agree, if we look back at this letter in six months to a year and find that he's still driving investments in more lucrative but less useful things, then yeah I agree, he can cram it up his arse. I also think actual money-where-your-mouth-is actions like the investment in capacity to produce vaccines that Bill Gates is making are way more useful for people with these big megaphones and wallets (but apparently it also makes you a target for the currently in power political faction because the leader of that faction is actually a spineless follower of society's worst impulses, but I digress). But maybe a statement of purpose like this open letter is better than nothing...
- derangedHorse 7y ago
  I agree that he should put his money where his mouth is, but it seems like most of your criticism here is on capitalism and wealthy individuals rather than the points he was making in the article
boltzmannbrain 7y ago
They won't :( They'll retweet to get more follows. They'll +1 and forget about this. They'll brag about some lab-grown meat investment that is really 0.01% of their portfolio that's chock full of productivity apps and luxury home goods. They'll broadcast "we invest in the boldest founders changing the world with science and tech innovation", then back yet another consumer goods startup that literally perpetuates the economic challenges this article suggests to fight.
- Eridrus 7y ago
  One interesting funding mechanisms in this space is Emergent Ventures / Fast Grants. It functions more as a non-profit than a VC entity, including recently organizing $10m in funding for Covid-19 research, including from a bunch of names we would recognize (though not Marc Andreessen): > I very much wish to thank John Collison, Patrick Collison, Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Fiona McKean and Tobias Lütke, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Chris and Crystal Sacca for their generous support of this initiative https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fast-grants-against-covid-19-an-extension-of-emergent-ventures.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fa... In the intervening week, $7m in funding was distributed: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fast-grants-a-project-of-emergent-ventures-against-covid-19-status-update.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fa... It will be interesting to see what returns society gets on this $7m. But in general, I don't think we should be expecting VCs to fund innovation, it is hard to capture most of the value of most innovations, so you end up with VCs writing about how you need to seek monopolies. Funding innovation is something we should be asking more of our government.

jekoeoe9njdjr 7y ago

I’d rather he cram this letter up his arse and lead by example with a letter announcing deep investment in infra Otherwise this is just someone with the freedom to sit around rambling at length trying to look woke The model of investing he got rich on is part of the problem Is he actually going to change that or peddle warm fuzzies and never follow up? Academia knows where the problems are States know where the problems are Pay taxes and they can get on it right away What is it with rich guys who think they’ve suddenly figured out exactly what societies already well known problems are? What is it with sycophantic men who kowtow to rich daddy types? The professional world I live in is pretty disgusting with its reverence for wealth stolen from workers who do the actual manual labor to enable his creature comforted up the arse life

ausbah 7y ago
success in one sphere subconsciously molds people to believing their opinion matters in other spheres - even if they are completely disjoint?
- jekoeoe9njdjr 7y ago
  Yes See Trump & Kushner Math models show financial success is luck and government collusion Limbic brain function takes on a habit of connecting to facts from past success stores in the cortex, to convince the person that their literal agency will always lead to success And society continually rewards past success even in the face of nothing but failure in other endeavors Again, see Trump and all the CEOs and hedge funds that keep being bailed out
- Wistar 7y ago
  Absolutely. Even when the first success was largely luck. I know a lot of early Microsoft employees who became successful (read: wealthy) very quickly and many of them harbored a belief that they were capable of success at anything and that their advice was of a superior caliber. This belief has, through the subsequent years, proven to not be all that true.
sanderjd 7y ago
I share your cynicism, but the letter could be a statement of changed purpose which front runs exactly the kind of announcements you're looking for. And it may encourage others to start thinking along those same lines. If that is the case, then it may be a good thing. But I agree, if we look back at this letter in six months to a year and find that he's still driving investments in more lucrative but less useful things, then yeah I agree, he can cram it up his arse. I also think actual money-where-your-mouth-is actions like the investment in capacity to produce vaccines that Bill Gates is making are way more useful for people with these big megaphones and wallets (but apparently it also makes you a target for the currently in power political faction because the leader of that faction is actually a spineless follower of society's worst impulses, but I digress). But maybe a statement of purpose like this open letter is better than nothing...
derangedHorse 7y ago
I agree that he should put his money where his mouth is, but it seems like most of your criticism here is on capitalism and wealthy individuals rather than the points he was making in the article

boltzmannbrain 7y ago

They won't :( They'll retweet to get more follows. They'll +1 and forget about this. They'll brag about some lab-grown meat investment that is really 0.01% of their portfolio that's chock full of productivity apps and luxury home goods. They'll broadcast "we invest in the boldest founders changing the world with science and tech innovation", then back yet another consumer goods startup that literally perpetuates the economic challenges this article suggests to fight.

Eridrus 7y ago
One interesting funding mechanisms in this space is Emergent Ventures / Fast Grants. It functions more as a non-profit than a VC entity, including recently organizing $10m in funding for Covid-19 research, including from a bunch of names we would recognize (though not Marc Andreessen): > I very much wish to thank John Collison, Patrick Collison, Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman, Fiona McKean and Tobias Lütke, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Chris and Crystal Sacca for their generous support of this initiative https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fast-grants-against-covid-19-an-extension-of-emergent-ventures.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fa... In the intervening week, $7m in funding was distributed: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fast-grants-a-project-of-emergent-ventures-against-covid-19-status-update.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fa... It will be interesting to see what returns society gets on this $7m. But in general, I don't think we should be expecting VCs to fund innovation, it is hard to capture most of the value of most innovations, so you end up with VCs writing about how you need to seek monopolies. Funding innovation is something we should be asking more of our government.