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This problem has permeated everywhere. Nobody can predict the future. Even VCs can’t and yet I’ll get a weekly email with a confident narrative about the future
by enos_feedler 26d ago
This problem has permeated everywhere. Nobody can predict the future. Even VCs can’t and yet I’ll get a weekly email with a confident narrative about the future. Looking at a16z. CEOs do this as well. Listen to Satya talk about how AI will transform things. We’ve trained everyone else to casually state what the future will look like on timelines. As if it’s knowable at all.
- psychoslave 26d agoWhat is a16z please?
- VectorLock 26d agoAndreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm.
- Terr_ 25d agoThe name has always made me think it was a bunch of corporate lawyers. I suppose the difference is increasingly academic.
- johnvanommen 25d agoA16Z stands for the first and last letters of their names, 16 is the number of characters in between.
- Terr_ 25d agoI know, I'm talking about the full name. The subtext is: "maybe they're pushing the abbreviated brand because they want to sound less like a law firm."
- ErrantX 26d agoI mean a big part of a -growth- CEOs literal job is to guess on what the future holds and effectively bet on it. Big-co CEOs are naturally expected to share their bets - and they aren't going to couch it with a "oh well no one could know for sure but..", that would totally undermine their existence! On top of that; sometimes just saying a thing can make it happen. So it's never not worth that shot... This has always been true. Your selecting a group of people (CEOs and VCs) who have always made and lost money on confidently predicting the future. See also wall street bankers and politicians. There are winners and losers in any boom - this happened in Cloud, DotCom, computing and hell probably tractors, industrial revolution, etc
- enos_feedler 23d agoYou can be vague and right about the future broadly. You can talk specifically about what your company is doing directionally on those lines. But, when I hear people talking in detail about how the future is going to work I just roll my eyes. Not because I disagree but just because nobody knows. and chances are it won't work that way.