Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.
The Manifesto. I’ve called myself a techno-optimist before. Now I have a reason to write about Marc Andreessen’s pronouncements again in a few months. He published the Techno-Optimist Manifesto. While I agree with many of the points, the tone reads more like a Twitter thread than an essay of 5,000+ words. The language is general, but my guess is regulation of AI is the salient example and the current dispute. Read it for a celebration of markets, technology and human ingenuity. Read it for optimism that technology is “the only perpetual source of growth,” “drives wages up, not down” and is the “solution to environmental degradation and crisis.” Tell me if you agree that “scores of common causes of death…can be fixed with AI, from car crashes to pandemics to wartime friendly fire” or “our planet is dramatically underpopulated.” If rhetoric requires an enemy in the essay, I’m glad it is ideas not people. You will likely find some ideas you like on his list of enemies. Maybe he means that these ideas are misused to harm us? The manifesto barely touches on a positive role for government or civil society. I believe not everything that is allowed by laws of physics should be legal. Not all legal and profitable things are ethical. And not all tech that can be built should be built. Compared to this essay, I’m more open to ideas about improving and channeling capitalism. Do you think it’s possible to have the benefits of technology and capitalism and curb some of the downsides?
Starting the Upward Spiral. I agree with Andreessen that many people rose from extreme poverty through the power of markets. Yet today 600M+ people live in extreme poverty and cannot afford their most basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter. There is more to do! Markets work best when participants have starting capital. For example, Give Directly stands for the notion that we can catalyze the upward spiral with grants. We can build tech, grow our wealth, provide opportunity and also help more directly now.
Age and Startups. Did you read the manifesto and wonder if it is too late for you to create a tech startup? Then check out the research on startup founder ages. And feel free to ignore it if you know it is time for you to start something. From HBR: “Our evidence points to entrepreneurial performance rising sharply with age before cresting in the late fifties…In part, the dominance of middle-aged founders in starting the highest-growth companies reflects the propensity of middle-aged people to start ventures. Middle-aged people take many more bites at the apple.” If you want to challenge your other stereotypes about successful founders, check out the book Superfounders.
Until next time,
Miles