optimist builder of things lover of adventure, debate, justice investor @ mighty capital, @rcrsvcapital, @villagecapital
San Francisco, CA
Joined July 2011
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Kavon retweeted
My AI agents found an unmapped Maya site in Mexico, using LiDAR data from a NASA dataset.
72 hours from a random thought on vacation to a reply from Mexico's national archaeology institute.
What a time to be alive…
Bhutan is unlike anywhere I’ve been
My fascination with it started in my AP Human Geography class in high school, twelve years ago. I had to select a country to focus a project on, and looking at a map, my eyes landed on Bhutan. I’d never heard of it, which is partly what drew me in. And I’ve wanted to visit ever since
I finally made it there via @JoinEdgeCity, knowing a bit about the country:
> Their fourth king introduced Gross National Happiness, the idea that a country’s success should be measured by more than economic growth
> They once installed a traffic light in Thimphu, but people complained that it was too impersonal, so they took it down
> It’s the world’s only carbon-negative country
> Their constitution requires at least 60% of the country to remain forested forever
> They have abundant hydropower and used it to mine Bitcoin since 2019
I was also inspired about what they’re building with @gmcbhutan. The idea is to build a city from first principles bringing together people, ideas, technology, and business from around the world. A special administrative region with its own laws and economic system, open to the world, but with human happiness and well being still at its core
Even knowing all this, I expected an old Buddhist kingdom, steeped in tradition, because of the mystique around Bhutan
Instead, I met highly educated, progressive, curious people building ambitious projects, who felt a lot like my friends back home
It is captivating to be in a place so rooted in its history, yet so ambitious in shaping its future and contributing to the world
I’m excited to return and would love to chat with anyone interested in going
Kavon retweeted
You don't need to write an essay; SF is tasteless because it's filled with staid business people and autistic engineers. It's not that complicated.
SF has no culture.
This statement is true, but why?
By all rights there are plenty of people there who are adorning themselves and their homes with objects of high taste.
But SF really does have no culture, how can this be and why is it so?
Culture is fundamentally connected to leisure and how one chooses to waste time.
But SF has no wasted time: there is no more breakfast there is coffee chat, there is no lunch there is founder meeting, there is no supper, there’s your investor dinner followed by your next event.
So it’s simple really:
a) culture is fundamentally about leisure, waste and the non-productive ways of spending time
and
b) SF has eliminated all non-productive time
therefore
c) having no non-productive time, SF has no culture.
No amount of things acquired can change this.
Finally
d) the great irony of this syllogism is that it is precisely the moments of non-productivity that are critical for spiritual refreshment and new inspiration and so ironically, they are among the most productive.
(SF knows this and it is why they flee to burning man, but this cannot cure the city)
A thought on capitalism/socialism/communism…
Human nature is the irreducible reality beneath every political, economic, and social system
No system can rise above the humanity of the people who run it. No matter how we organize society or distribute power, we can’t escape the fact that it’s ultimately people making the decisions
So we need to build better systems that help us become better people, and better people who make those systems work
Why are we still so attached to centuries old frameworks? Why aren’t we imagining something entirely new?
A nice quote from Karl Popper: “You cannot construct foolproof institutions, that is to say, institutions whose functioning does not very largely depend upon persons” archive.org/details/povertyo…
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Generational grifter
Chamath Palihapitiya admits his blind spot on America's broken two-tier economy
PALIHAPITIYA: "I got it totally totally totally wrong. I got it totally wong."
"I'll go through all the ways in which I got it wrong, but I just want to first acknowledge what my blind spot is. Like most people's blind spots, but I can just speak for myself, it is through the lens of my own lived experience and very narrowly what is in my best interests. And I think what we had was a move away from the culture wars that was very much in my best interest, but I think it was in everybody else's best interests as well. I don't think that was on the ballot. But what I don't think I understood clearly enough, and I think that this election has made extremely clear, is that since COVID, we have moved past political ideology. And I want to say this again: I do not think Democrats or Republicans matter. That is my real takeaway after this election. There is a central block of people that vote the prescient issues of our time."
"It was a gargantuan win for Biden, then it was a gargantuan win for Trump, and then it was a gargantuan win for the Democrats in these midterms. What are these people voting for? I think what they are shouting now—they were trying to signal and now they are shouting—is a broad-based belief that the economy has completely decoupled from reality and is broken. The economic reality in America is broken."
"There is a small percentage of people, the four of us on this pod and all of our friends, who are the asset owners of America. And we have benefited in every weather condition. When rates were zero, we benefited because we were able to build our businesses with very cheap capital. When rates were high, we benefited because we had pricing power. And in every condition in between, whether there were tariffs, whether there were not tariffs, whether there were subsidies, whether there were not subsidies, we've all managed to continue to accumulate and grow assets, but we are few and far between."
"And then there's everybody else who are wage earners, and the structural capacity of the American economy to support and grow wage earners is broken. It's clear. Why do I say that? I do not think, and I disagree with Freeberg, I don't think this has anything to do with socialism. I don't think the far left won particularly more than they were expected. I don't think the far right won particularly more than was expected. This is a complete and total repudiation about the state of the economy. The economy is broken. I have a few charts to support my point of view. Number one, if this was ideological and if ideology mattered, money in politics would have had a more direct impact on the election."
everything that’s wrong with football today in one post
🚨🎙️ | JJ Gabriel when asked to pick between Barcelona and Real Madrid:
“Obviously, Madrid… My dream is to win a Ballon d’Or.” [@marca]
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