E43: Ideas from Balaji and Curtis That Changed Our Minds

"Moment of Zen"

Dan Romero and Erik Torenberg talk about their intellectual evolution, why San Francisco is back, and the ideas finding new momentum because of the thorny politics in tech the last few years. If you’re looking for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR or HIPAA compliance, head to Vanta for $1000 off: https://www.vanta.com/zen

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SELECT LINKS:

• Dan’s reference: the most interesting new city project in San Francisco: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/land-purchases-solano-county.html
• James Portnoy, Founder of Barstool, going on the offensive against a Washington Post reporter writing a hit piece: https://deadline.com/2023/09/barstool-sports-owner-dave-portnoy-confronts-washington-post-reporter-1235554436/
• Most important blog: Scott Alexander’s https://slatestarcodex.com/ which is now Astral Codex Ten https://www.astralcodexten.com/
• Curtis Yarvin: https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/, https://graymirror.substack.com/

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X / TWITTER:

@dwr (Dan)

@eriktorenberg (Erik Torenberg)

@moz_podcast

@TurpentineMedia

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Episode Preview

(05:00) Why San Francisco’s Network Effects, like Twitter, is futile to leave (Network Effects are a bitch)

(13:40) Tech reclaiming a political voice

(15:30) Sponsors: Vanta | NetSuite

(17:40) Media losing ground after taking too many shots during the last administration

(20:35) Mood affiliation & social justice policies in tech companies

(23:05) In this economy?

(30:41) Balaji Srinivasan

(34:25)The Borg

(39:10) Social Supply Chain

(40:21) Curtis Yarvin

(59:40) Bring your whole self to work

(01:03:00) The clear pill: winning by losing

(01:10:00) Good ideas, bad UI

(01:16:35) Newspapers are a mood affiliation business

(01:19:24) Right and Left wing, who loses in the long arc of history?

(01:26:30) Dan’s thinking around the next successful candidate

(01:33:05) Threshold for changing your thinking