Continuations

In the startup world we sometimes talk about the difference between being a peacetime CEO and a wartime CEO (cf this famous essay by Ben Horowitz). While some people may be turned off by this martial metaphor, it is profoundly relevant to the government’s failure to properly deal with the COVID crisis. We must take a close look at this, if we want to stand a real chance of fighting the climate crisis, which is substantially more difficult to address. I am writing this in late in 2021, essenti...

After many years of writing in public, I am super thrilled to finally announce that my book The World After Capital is now available in print. The digital version will remain online for free and the content continues to be creative commons licensed. There is no subtitle and the back cover is free of annoying blurbs (just a beautiful blue). All four of those points are meaningful to me and yet every publisher I talked to insisted that those are terrible ideas and they wouldn’t publish the book...

A bit over a decade ago, Susan and I stumbled over a piece in the New York Times that announced plans for a “Free Global University That Will Be Online Only.” We reached out to Shai Reshef, the entrepreneur who had announced this audacious idea, and have been supporters ever since. “Talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not” is a great summary of the problem that University of the People is helping to address. And from those early days when it was really just a glimmer in the eyes of ...

The first time I came to the United States was in 1983 for a one-year host family stay in Rochester, Minnesota. Before leaving Germany, there was a weekend long preparation meeting. We were told we would feel homesick, that we might feel alienated and even experience culture shock. Throughout the weekend the instructors mentioned at least a dozen of times “whatever you do, don’t walk around the house naked.” OK, something to pay attention to I noted to myself. I arrived in Rochester after a v...

There are dozens of credible active layer 1 chains, with more being developed. So declaring victory for any one of them seems wildly premature. But there is another question that one can discuss more readily. When the protocol innovation sprint is over and the dust starts to settle, how many L1s will remain? Will there be one chain to rule them all? I highly doubt that outcome because there are now – and for reasons of mathematics (i.e. not something that can be circumvented by some better id...

Many years ago I was debating whether or not to finish my PhD dissertation. One of the people I talked to about this decision was Prof. Thomas Malone, whose office was next to the oversized closet that I shared with one other graduate student. I brought up the sunk cost fallacy and Tom looked deeply at me before saying something to the following effect: “When evaluating life choices don’t treat them on the basis of financial principles. Your time and effort are something deeply personal and n...

I am obviously late to the party on Ted Lasso, as I try not to start any series at all due to what my therapist calls “completion compunction” (and yes I binge watched the entire first season on two consecutive evenings not that long ago but have had the good sense of not starting season two). If you haven’t seen the show, the central character is an American football coach who winds up coaching a British soccer club and winning over (nearly) everyone with his kindness. The level of kindness ...

I have missed writing (my last post was at the beginning of September). Well writing publicly. I have started to keep a journal which takes a bit of time every day. I have also been ridiculously busy with both existing and new investments as well as several projects, such as finally wrapping up work on my book The World After Capital. But I have a lot of thoughts rattling around my brain and I find that only writing has the power to help sort through them. So here are some of the topics I pla...

Texas law SB8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, has gone into effect banning abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy, which is often before someone knows that they are pregnant. I have to admit that I feel stunned by the degree to which parts of the United States are backsliding on what I believe are basic accomplishments of social and political progress. And to add more damage to the mix, the right of action here is vested in individuals as opposed to in the state, thus deputizing a minor...

I am super excited to share that my book The World After Capital is nearly finished. What is on the web site is more or less complete, with maybe a bit more copy editing coming. If you read the book now and find a typo please let me know or even better, make a pull request to fix it. A huge thanks to everyone who has contributed over the years, including everyone named in the acknowledgments. A special shoutout for Mona, who has been crucial in getting to the finish line. Now for everyone who...