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Good morning 👋
Marc Andreessen is one of the most influential people in the tech world, he went on Rogan last week, and he broke a lot people’s brains with some of the stuff he shared.
We try to break down the biggest takeaways and why it matters in today’s piece.
Let’s get into it.
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Today’s highlights
The Overton Window shifts
Breaking down the point of crypto
What’s an active user really?
Black Friday numbers are up 5% from last year
Do more, yap more
TOP
Andreessen goes on Rogan 🎙
Despite being an icon in the tech and venture world, Marc Andreessen is relatively under-the-radar.
He doesn’t do many speaking gigs, he does not write online as much as he once did, and his team has even put rules in place for how often he can tweet.
So when he went on JRE last week, we listened, and we broke it all down here so you can get the high-level takeaways.
Biggest takeaways: There is a lot to unpack in the three hour podcast, but here are a few of the things
Support and excitement for Trump: Andreessen, a former democrat, donated $2.5 million to a pro-Trump PAC. He was joined by hundreds of other “converted” people in tech who left the democratic party because they did not recognize the values of the party anymore.
The biggest criticism of Biden: He talked about the Biden administration trying to effectively "kill" crypto and AI, and that technology became "presumptively evil" under their leadership.
Government size and bloat: Andreessen advocated for reducing the size and scope of the federal government. We have averaged ~2 new federal agencies per year since the founding of America - think about how ridiculous that is. Hopefully that’s all going away soon which will allow businesses to operate smoothly again.
What is an “independent government agency”? You’re probably thinking that’s an oxymoron, and you’re right, but Andreessen shared examples of how these agencies are formed and policed by sitting bureaucrats to illegally enforce laws against citizens and companies.
Censorship as a political chess piece: He believes that criminal charges will come from some of the censorship actions taken over the past four years. This era is thankfully over.
Operation Choke Point 2.0: Andreessen lifted the curtain on what he called a privatized sanction regime targeting political opponents through the financial system. This de-banking has happened over the past four years to many founders, and the unveiling on the podcast led to a bunch of founders telling their stories on X after.
Why it matters: If you work in tech, venture, finance, or something similar, you know how progressive the industry has been over the past decade plus.
Two years ago, I wrote 50 brutally honest takeaways about working in venture. These two takeaways dominated my time working as an employee:
There are very few contrarians left in VC because almost everybody is scared to say what they actually think.
“Don’t talk politics” only applies if you have conservative values.
The Overton Window has shifted, the biggest names in tech aren’t scared to say what they think anymore at the fear of being cancelled, and the spillover effects from this alone will be a huge positive for the future of America.
Long America. Short Woke-ism.
Listen more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye8MOfxD5nU
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LINKS
🔐 What is the Point of this Crypto Stuff Anyway?: Get rid of the middle men
😇 The Uncomfortable Truth—a 3x Founder’s Guide to Intellectual Honesty: This 3-time founder says that being intellectually honest means being willing to understand the difference between noise and signal in the things that aren’t working in your business
🎁 Lenny’s Newsletter Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Ideas from art to wellness
🧑💻 What’s an Active User?: Mostly Metrics takes a closer look at that metric since getting it right is important to revenue forecasting
㉚ The 30 Life-Changing Books Everyone Must Read (According to Naval Ravikant): Guillermo Flor posts
TWEET
HEADLINES
Black Friday hits a record $74.4B in sales online, up 5% on last year (TechCrunch)
PE mega-funds make a comeback (Pitchbook)
Hong Kong follows US to propose crypto tax breaks (Pitchbook)
The Opportunities Costanoa Ventures Sees In Vertical AI (Crunchbase)
Y Combinator’s Demo Day is back in person (TechCrunch)
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POLL
Is woke-ism dead?
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- Clay
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