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Balaji Srinivasan, author of The Network State and co-founder of Counsyl, talks to Erik Torenberg about his past and future predictions, the future of the left and right, and why tech will never be able to escape politics.
Balaji Srinivasan, author of The Network State and co-founder of Counsyl, talks to Erik Torenberg about his past and future predictions, the future of the left and right, and why tech will never be able to escape politics. Upstream with Erik Torenberg is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: Turpentine.co. If you’re looking for an ERP platform, check out our sponsor, NetSuite: http://netsuite.com/UPSTREAM
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Run the Numbers is a weekly podcast about financial metrics and business models, designed for ambitious people operating tech startups. It's a collection of things host CJ Gustafson (CFO at Partstech and writer of Mostly Metrics) has learned and thought about in the trenches as a tech CFO. Subscribe to listen on the platform of your choice: https://link.chtbl.com/runthenumbers
TIMESTAMPS:
(00:00) Preview of episode
(02:30) Why are the scariest words in the English language “Balaji was right”
(07:06) When to reform vs start a new institution
(09:50) Are ideas weapons?
(13:31) Sponsors
(15:30) You don’t start with a tech company anymore, you start with a tech community
(18:58) Internet nationalism
(22:06) What "political" means
(26:20 ) Activist movements are like “pump and dumps”
(29:40) What the sovereign individual misses
(41:03) Bitcoin is still the flag of technology
(45:38) Democrats will move to the right on immigration
(57:20) Tech America vs Woke America
(58:00) Why are tech people so woke?
(1:03:39) The left will flip on diversity
(1:05:00) The left is shifting from wokeism to statism
(1:15:17) Bitcoiners will take over the right wing party
(1:21:28) Elon
SOCIAL LINKS:
Erik’s Twitter: @eriktorenberg
Balaji’s Twitter: @balajis
Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod
Erik’s Substack: eriktorenberg.substack.com
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