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Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

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Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#21

Post by sjg007 »

bko wrote: post #8
okareaman wrote: post #6

I've never heard Andreesen say anything I thought was particularly insightful or intelligent. He seems like a caricature of a Silicon Valley programmer who got lucky and made a bunch of money who now thinks that makes him a genius thought leader for the rest of his life. I hate his tagline "software is eating the world" If a homeless person standing outside a grocery store said these things you wouldn't listen becaus…

I would have some reverence for the man. This isn't someone who "just got lucky". We was working on the forefront of the internet with Netscape IPOing in 1995 and being bought by AOL for 4 billion in 1999. He then went on to found another company that had a $1.6 billion exit just 4 years after the AOL acquisition. He then ran a VC that went from 300mm to 2.7bn in three years. I would say he knows something about the…

A16Z podcasts are pretty good and I saw an interview on Bloomberg where he came across quite well. They had a clubhouse thing that seems to have stopped recently along with the clubhouse hype in general. It is hard to disambiguate the marketing and messaging around web3 vs the actual tech however. NFTs will mean a lot more in an object but not centered digital universe which we don't really have yet.

I enjoy listening to their opinions on technology and business. They also throw in stuff on leadership, history and have interesting takes on the VC industry.

All VCs have this problem of missing big bets which they seem to want to figure out how to avoid making.

Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#22

Post by morelisp »

RichardHeart wrote: post #9

He is talking about all time high levels of censorship if you count the number of humans being censored. I've been banned and unbanned 4 times (130k subs on youtube.) An ex president was removed everywhere. Tons of people are banned every single day, with no recourse but to go to empty alt-tech sites where no one watches. You are also at all time high surveillance. You're also at all time high freedom of movement res…

We are also at record numbers of humans speaking their mind freely, record numbers of humans keeping secrets, and (if we stop ca. pre-2020 or project current trends a year or two in the future) record numbers of humans moving between countries.

Maybe "number of humans" is not a good metric.

Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#23

Post by bogomipz »

My guess is that it could relate to state legislatures recently passing legislation that prohibits certain books from public schools in the US. It seems this could possibly be a new front in the on-going culture wars. See:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/05/politics/republican-states-bo...

and

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/04/07/book-ban...

Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#25

Post by bko »

okareaman wrote: post #14
bko wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have some reverence for the man. This isn't someone who "just got lucky". We was working on the forefront of the internet with Netscape IPOing in 1995 and being bought by AOL for 4 billion in 1999. He then went on to found another company that had a $1.6 billion exit just 4 years after the AOL acquisition. He then ran a VC that went from 300mm to 2.7bn in three years. I would say he knows something about the…

I was responding to OP's question about how to react to the statement "Buy physical copies of any book you plan to read in the future. Do it now." I don't think OP needs to worry about it because Andreessen likes to be a cool kid on Twitter. If I need a physical copy of a book to read it then I have bigger problems than figuring out a way to read a book. Btw - I made a bunch of money in the dotcom bubble of the late…

If you said he's purposely being obtuse because he wants to be a cool kid, I wouldn't have commented and probably would have agreed.

But re-read your original comment. It was an unnecessary personal attack on someone that has accomplished a lot and presumably knows a lot:

> He seems like a caricature of a Silicon Valley programmer who got lucky and made a bunch of money who now thinks that makes him a genius thought leader for the rest of his life.

Congrats on your success. There's a difference between "making money in early 2000's" and founding a hugely influential company that helped shaped the web in the 90s. His track record as a VC is also impressive. I think he's someone definitely worth listening to as he obviously sees things differently than others, otherwise he wouldn't have been such an outlier throughout his whole career.

Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#26

Post by drakonka »

sjg007 wrote: post #19
Krollifi wrote: post #7

He may be talking about Kindle not using an open format.

More that Amazon can take away your books. Don't need to burn them, just remotely remove them.

Then more applicable advice seems like it could've been "Everyone should go to their Kindle library and download their ebooks as soon as they purchase them."

Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#27

Post by RichardHeart »

morelisp wrote: post #22
RichardHeart wrote: post #9

He is talking about all time high levels of censorship if you count the number of humans being censored. I've been banned and unbanned 4 times (130k subs on youtube.) An ex president was removed everywhere. Tons of people are banned every single day, with no recourse but to go to empty alt-tech sites where no one watches. You are also at all time high surveillance. You're also at all time high freedom of movement res…

We are also at record numbers of humans speaking their mind freely, record numbers of humans keeping secrets, and (if we stop ca. pre-2020 or project current trends a year or two in the future) record numbers of humans moving between countries. Maybe "number of humans" is not a good metric.

As a person being surveilled, censored and my ability to travel impaired, how would you suggest I best frame the argument? While you're at it, I'm rather tired of the value of the money I saved being destroyed by lifetime high inflation rates. Thanks for helping me frame my arguments better.

Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#28

Post by [deleted] »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #13
okareaman wrote: post #6

I've never heard Andreesen say anything I thought was particularly insightful or intelligent. He seems like a caricature of a Silicon Valley programmer who got lucky and made a bunch of money who now thinks that makes him a genius thought leader for the rest of his life. I hate his tagline "software is eating the world" If a homeless person standing outside a grocery store said these things you wouldn't listen becaus…

> He seems like a caricature of a Silicon Valley programmer who got lucky and made a bunch of money who now thinks that makes him a genius … okareaman typed into a web browser, the very technology Andreesen became wealthy pioneering.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is Marc Andreessen talking about

#30

Post by webmaven »

RichardHeart wrote: post #27
morelisp wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are also at record numbers of humans speaking their mind freely, record numbers of humans keeping secrets, and (if we stop ca. pre-2020 or project current trends a year or two in the future) record numbers of humans moving between countries. Maybe "number of humans" is not a good metric.

As a person being surveilled, censored and my ability to travel impaired, how would you suggest I best frame the argument? While you're at it, I'm rather tired of the value of the money I saved being destroyed by lifetime high inflation rates. Thanks for helping me frame my arguments better.

Frame it as a percentage of the total population.
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