Karp "criticizes Silicon Valley for prioritizing trivial consumer apps over serious technological innovation, yet his co-founder, Peter Thiel, helped bankroll the very social media revolution that led to that shift."
Weird to think that Facebook enabled Palantir, in that Thiel's returns from his early investment in Facebook allowed him is what allowed him to invest heavily in Palantir.
PayPal Exit —> Facebook Investment / Launch of Founders Fund —> Palantir Founding & Investment —> Early person to notice the shift in the Republican party —> JD Vance VP & Elon shadow cabinet member
The deepest irony of Karp is that his beloved venture ecosystem will be what creates the dystopia he envisions. POSIWID at its finest-if venture capitalists saw future tech and geopolitics as worthwhile investments, they'd throw money at it like everything else. Instead, we have software.
I remember seeing the Andreesen Horowitz crypto slides back in 2021. I wonder if they're still selling that product as the future of Earth or whether a certain trend has supplanted their portfolio.
A Goethian protagonist? That’s an interesting take! Karp does seem to share Faust’s intellectual restlessness and dissatisfaction with conventional wisdom. And like Faust, he seeks power beyond traditional means—though in his case, it’s through data rather than magic. The big question is: Has he made a Faustian bargain? He sees himself as a defender of Western values, but does his pursuit of technological supremacy come at a cost? I’d love to hear your thoughts—what do you think his "deal with the devil" might be?
Karp "criticizes Silicon Valley for prioritizing trivial consumer apps over serious technological innovation, yet his co-founder, Peter Thiel, helped bankroll the very social media revolution that led to that shift."
Weird to think that Facebook enabled Palantir, in that Thiel's returns from his early investment in Facebook allowed him is what allowed him to invest heavily in Palantir.
PayPal Exit —> Facebook Investment / Launch of Founders Fund —> Palantir Founding & Investment —> Early person to notice the shift in the Republican party —> JD Vance VP & Elon shadow cabinet member
Impressive career path. Even more impressive IRA https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/billionaire-investor-peter-thiel-has-5b-his-tax-free-retirement-n1272317
One of the top investors/polymaths of his era.
The deepest irony of Karp is that his beloved venture ecosystem will be what creates the dystopia he envisions. POSIWID at its finest-if venture capitalists saw future tech and geopolitics as worthwhile investments, they'd throw money at it like everything else. Instead, we have software.
I remember seeing the Andreesen Horowitz crypto slides back in 2021. I wonder if they're still selling that product as the future of Earth or whether a certain trend has supplanted their portfolio.
VC's invest in whatever they think is the new new thing.
Otherwise few have any real convictions.
Sure sounds appropriate for a 20-year time horizon to me.
it just needs to make enough sense to enough people
Given his graduation from Goethe University, might be even be a Goethian protagonist? Perhaps in the vein of Goethe's Faust?
"For this, all pleasure am I foregoing;
I do not pretend to aught worth knowing,
I do not pretend I could be a teacher
To help or convert a fellow-creature.
Then, too, I’ve neither lands nor gold,
Nor the world’s least pomp or honor hold—
No dog would endure such a curst existence!
Wherefore, from Magic I seek assistance,
That many a secret perchance I reach
Through spirit-power and spirit-speech,
And thus the bitter task forego
Of saying the things I do not know,—
That I may detect the inmost force
Which binds the world, and guides its course;
Its germs, productive powers explore,
And rummage in empty words no more!"
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14591/14591-h/14591-h.htm
A Goethian protagonist? That’s an interesting take! Karp does seem to share Faust’s intellectual restlessness and dissatisfaction with conventional wisdom. And like Faust, he seeks power beyond traditional means—though in his case, it’s through data rather than magic. The big question is: Has he made a Faustian bargain? He sees himself as a defender of Western values, but does his pursuit of technological supremacy come at a cost? I’d love to hear your thoughts—what do you think his "deal with the devil" might be?