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A basic confusion has wrought so much destruction in American life.
A lot of venture capitalists tricked themselves, and then others, into thinking that they are thinkers.
A lot of venture capitalists tricked themselves, and then others, into thinking that they are thinkers.
They are literally just people who hear pitches from startups wanting money, and decide which ones to give the money to.
But somehow they became confused and started writing books, giving talks, styling themselves as futurists, becoming Thought Leaders, hosting podcasts.
But somehow they became confused and started writing books, giving talks, styling themselves as futurists, becoming Thought Leaders, hosting podcasts.
Generally, what all of this pseudo-thinking amounts to is the laundering of their self-interested hopes into into something nobler-seeming, less obviously tied to their financial interests: Big Ideas.
It’s important to understand this laundering.
When rich people advocate for social arrangements that would make them richer, it comes with a huge asterisk. People smell it.
Acquiring the glow of a thinker, like acquiring the glow of a philanthropist, is crucial for VCs.
When rich people advocate for social arrangements that would make them richer, it comes with a huge asterisk. People smell it.
Acquiring the glow of a thinker, like acquiring the glow of a philanthropist, is crucial for VCs.
In @winnerstakeall, I try to dissect the central move of VC Thought Leadership: prophecy as advocacy.
VCs TEDsplain big thoughts about the future, disguising their lobbying for a particular kind of future that would benefit them with the language of prediction.
VCs TEDsplain big thoughts about the future, disguising their lobbying for a particular kind of future that would benefit them with the language of prediction.
I share this to help explain why some VCs are so terrified of someone like @TaylorLorenz.
Someone who actually thinks reveals their intellectual nudity.
Someone who pursues the truthful description of the world is incomprehensible to them, because to them ideas are power grabs.
Someone who actually thinks reveals their intellectual nudity.
Someone who pursues the truthful description of the world is incomprehensible to them, because to them ideas are power grabs.
They are the uncles who corner you at family get-togethers and always have a Theory. Except, unlike your uncle, in all probability, they have $50 million or $500 million or a few billion banked. Money being a great multiplier of unaccountably confident, theorizing avuncularity.
And now, your moment of Zen to follow.
Thinkers don’t hide.
If you want a little more on the VC pose, I found an old, free, un-paywalled excerpt for you. https://unherd.com/2019/02/all-at-sea-with-the-altruists/
This VC discussion just reminded me that I wrote an unpublished chapter of @winnerstakeall in which, no joke, some VCs and some @Stanford AI grad students sat around eating pizza and letting me witness their discussion about how to “replace all the writers” with their algorithms.
