35 korrents from this recording
Every claim below is a statement made in this recording, quoted word for word and linked to the second it was said, so you can hear it rather than take our word for it. The wording comes from the transcript published alongside the recording; the sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording.
0:01:07 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
People who dwell on the past get stuck in it, and that is a real problem at work and at home.
Their wordsI've just found people who dwell on the past get stuck in the past. It's just, it's a real problem and it's a problem at work and it's a problem at home.
0:02:42 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsSo a lot of the best founders are, I think, like 0% neuroticism. They just don't get emotionally fazed by things that happen, which is a superpower when you're an entrepreneur. But having said that, some of the great entrepreneurs are fact, very neurotic.
0:06:19 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsJust because, like I said, I don't think external impact is enough to keep people going. Or at least I've seen way too many people who had a high level of external impact and then at some point they just stopped.
0:07:21 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsBut we just have this like fundamental view that technology is like on balance an enormously powerful force in the world. And basically that the big problem with the world is that there's, you know, there's not enough technology, there's not enough information, there's not enough intelligence.
0:07:46 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnd so, you know, when I look at the world, I'm just like, okay, this is just like, this is a very— the world we live in is just a very primitive and crude place as compared to what it should be and what it could be.
0:08:08 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsOverall, the world, especially the Western world, is just stagnant. Like, you know, the overall kind of theme of things is just everything is stagnant. stagnated.
0:09:04 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnybody can, anybody can, you know, start, build a product, start a company, you know, start even trying to be a VC. Like it's— these are all completely open fields. And it's just, it's shocking to me how few people actually give it a shot.
0:10:35 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
The founder is the core engine of progress in the world, and that is more true now than ever.
Their wordsBut yeah, no, the core thesis was kind of the startup, the entrepreneur, you know, the founder is going to be the core, the core engine of progress in the world. And I think that, you know, I think that's more true than ever.
0:11:32 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
Throughout history, most great things have been built by charismatic, will-to-power founder types.
Their wordsthroughout history, most of the great things that have been built have been built by this kind of super charismatic founder type, you know, will to power founder type
0:15:24 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
When things change, the manager personality type does not know how to deal with the change.
Their wordsBut the minute things change, the manager personality type, because it's not the founder personality type, it doesn't know how to deal with change.
0:17:07 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsBut yeah, so this maybe is like the core thesis behind our firm, which is you're much more likely to build something important in the 21st century if you start with the founder and train them on management than you are to start with the manager and try to train them on being a founder, on creating new things.
0:17:23 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsbecause what's happening is all the old edifices, all the old incumbent institutions of the last 100 years that are run by managers, they're all in some state of fundamental collapse. They're all collapsing in like trust and credibility because they can't adapt.
0:24:05 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
Great founders can work at the strategic, conceptual level and the practical level at the same time.
Their wordsone of my theories of like the great founders is they tend to be able to operate at kind of the strategic conceptual level and then the practical level at the same time.
0:27:26 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnd so our, our theory of it was what we call death of the middle, or we sometimes, the negative way to frame it is death of the middle. The positive way is the barbell, which is what's happened in all these other industries, which is basically the, the industry gets stretched apart like taffy.
0:37:11 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsand the thing a manager never does unless they're under duress is reconsider fundamental assumptions. Like, they hate that.
0:37:43 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
Industry after industry carries embedded assumptions that made sense decades ago and no longer do.
Their wordsAnd what we found in just industry, I mean, this is what our founders do every day, is just in industry after industry after industry, there's all these embedded assumptions that made sense in 1970 or 1930 or 1880 that just don't make sense anymore.
0:38:48 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnd again, that may be a cheat code, but yeah, if you've been the customer, obviously this all becomes a lot more obvious.
0:39:56 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsIt was, no, they're, they're really good at executing against this particular playbook. So, and by the way, that's why it's okay. Like, if we're going to do this, we need to be playing by a different playbook.
0:40:17 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsthe idea of a partnership of equals or even a hierarchical partnership, like, it just breaks at some point because there's just too much internal dissension. It is too hard to coordinate.
0:44:46 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsBecause, right, the winning AI companies are raising, you know, billions, tens of billions, in some cases, hundreds of billions of dollars, right? The old world of $10 million or $30 million or $50 million checks, you know, where VCs tap out, it's just not a relevant, relevant thing anymore.
1:04:18 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
For everyone to be connected to the internet, it had to have businesses, commerce and advertising.
Their wordsObviously, everybody should have access to this. Obviously, we need to connect everybody to this. Obviously, to do that, we need— these, these need to be businesses. There needs to be commerce. There needs to be advertising.
1:06:25 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
Putting a new product in front of ordinary people shows its makers how much of a bubble they are in.
Their wordsTake whatever amazing new thing you have and just put it in a, put it in a room with like normal people and let them try to use it. And you just like learn so much about how much of a bubble that you're in.
1:11:14 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsSo it basically turns out every new technology is greeted with what they call a moral panic, right? So, and a moral panic basically is whatever this new technology is or this new form of media is, it's going to ruin everything.
1:16:08 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnd I'll also say, by the way, in fairness, like it's not that society doesn't change. Like, you know, many of the technologies that we just described did cause society to change.
1:21:14 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
A fountain of creativity alone cannot build anything big, and management alone does nothing new.
Their wordsBecause just the fountain of creativity, you can't build anything big just with that. Just the management, you don't do any new things.
1:21:51 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
Elon Musk is maybe the greatest manager of this era, though nobody thinks of him that way.
Their wordsHe's maybe the greatest manager of our era, despite the fact that nobody thinks of him that way.
1:24:48 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnd in fact, the people who invent the technology are often like the least qualified people to understand the long-term implications because they're just, they're too, they're too buried in the specifics of the here and now.
1:29:32 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
The leader of a large organization cannot change the plan every day without burning everyone out.
Their wordsLike, you can't change the plan every day. Like, you just can't. You'll just, you'll destroy every, you'll burn everybody out.
1:29:56 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsBut like AI, there will probably be more. There'll probably be more like single-person companies, you know, from, from here on out.
1:30:39 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordseither what you need in in that case, to get kind of the holy grail of the large-scale organization that's still innovating, either you need 2 people involved who are able to balance each other.
1:35:51 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsBut when that happens 2 or 3 times, the lies compound. That happens 6 times, the lies really compound. If that happens 12 times, the CEO has no idea what's happening, like absolutely no clue what's going on in the company, which was the state of play that IBM had.
1:37:17 · watch on youtube.com↗
Our reading
When there is a problem, the source of truth is the engineer who actually knows what is going on.
Their wordsAnd so when there's an issue, I am going to go straight to the source of truth. And the source of truth is the engineer who actually knows what's going on.
1:38:53 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnd then any given week, there's, there's in any production process, there's always a bottleneck. So there's there's always a, there's always the thing that is slowing down the process the most.
1:42:26 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsAnd so he just has this like incredible positive selection where like the smartest people in the world want to work for him. And then anybody who can't cut it gets fired.
1:48:59 · watch on youtube.com↗
Their wordsUm, and so it, it, it's a formula that captures both sides of it. And it, it, it may be like the least studied and understood thing I know of in the world right now.