Marc Andreessen of a16z sits with Erik Torenberg to go deeper into his intellectual and political journey, and his quest to find out how the world works.
PODCAST INFO:
Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/3z8TldL
Spotify: bit.ly/40letd0
Podcast website: bit.ly/40BAjbH
SOCIAL LINKS:
Erik’s Twitter: @eriktorenberg
Marc’s Twitter: @pmarca
Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod
Erik’s Substack: eriktorenberg.substack.com
Marc’s Substack: pmarca.substack.com
TIMESTAMPS:
(0:00) Intro
(3:25) How much has Marc changed vs the world changed?
(6:55) How much do ideas matter? Who drives society — the elite or the masses?
(09:56) People respond to interests more than ideas
(12:08) Mental models for the left and the right
(14:45) Sponsors (Secureframe | Mercury | MarketerHire)
(16:53) The road to hell is paved with good intentions
(18:40) Master morality and slave morality
(23:20) Unpacking Elon’s quote “Wokeness is the mind-virus”
(26:00) Is classical liberalism sustainable and how it leads to wokeness
(35:00) James Burnham’s worldview
(42:50) How the left captured the institutions
(45:20) Elon as the return to entrepreneurial capitalism
(48:03) The experiments Elon is running
(54:50) The billionaire mindset toward politics
(57:30) We live in an oligarchy, not a democracy
(1:06:00) Larry Page is the contrarian billionaire
(1:07:30) Effective Altruism’s blind spots
(1:10:36) Effective altruists think they can play god
(1:11:16) SBF’s roll-the-dice philosophy
(1:13:23) Aristocratic vs Meritocratic elite
(1:21:48) Elites are insulated from the consequences of their policies
(1:23:53) Why global governance is a nerd trap
(1:27:16) Global governance is anti-diversity
(1:30:42) Tech people are politically homeless
(1:31:37) Elites can’t be removed, they can only be replaced
(1:35:02) Advice for counter-elites
(1:47:21) Reasons to be optimistic
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Thanks to Marc Andreessen for being our first guest. Thank you to Molly Mielke, Avidan Rudansky, Natalie Toren, and Embassy and Third for editing and animated graphics.