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A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

frankzliu.com

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Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#61

Post by defrost »

EAtmULFO wrote: post #2

I'm not sure why the author takes such umbrage at A16Z promoting its own portfolio companies. It is their blog after all.

Bugger all umbrage:

    I have tremendous respect for a16z, a firm that helped pioneer the practice of working with and nurturing founders rather than forcing them out pre-IPO or minmaxing term sheets.
more a call to be more transparent and less submarine:

     but to do so under the guise of being helpful and impartial is just plain silly.

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#62

Post by ryanai »

airstrike wrote: post #56
ryanai wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since A16Z is famous, any bias advertisement can lead to monopolization and do damage to the production competition. Any kind of monopolization needs to get supervised.

I think you mean "unfair advantage" rather than "monopolization", and the existence of former is much harder to argue

Thanks for pointing out that. Yes, but these unfair advantages can accumulate to become monopolization

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#64

Post by lenerdenator »

henry2023 wrote: post #5

Not all of them are marketing. Some of them expose his belief system. After “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” it’s very hard for me to take him seriously again.

if there's one thing that we've learned over the last eight or nine years, it's that you don't have to be taken seriously by most people to have an impact.

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#65

Post by bkirkby »

dools wrote: post #39
pokstad wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What part is so bad? Care to quote?

I have never heard of it, but I just had a quick skim through and IMHO the bad parts are the parts that have anything to do with economics, because it exposes him as a totalitarian neofeudalist (although he might not think of himself that way ... most totalitarian neofeudalists don't, they just don't understand their own economics well enough to see where it leads).

how totalitarian? you have free markets (which the manifesto supports) or planned economies and planned economies are where totalitarianism works.

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#67

Post by bkirkby »

djangogitit wrote: post #40
henry2023 wrote: post #5

Not all of them are marketing. Some of them expose his belief system. After “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” it’s very hard for me to take him seriously again.

Yoiks I hadn’t seen that and just googled it It’s funny how the better way is never “end aristocracy” and secure equality of condition Just more feudalism with the rich never fighting just betting

did you mean to use a different word than "aristocracy?"

and what is "equality of condition" and how do you achieve it?

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#68

Post by Barrin92 »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #46
winter-day wrote: post #44

Most things in america are paid ads in disguise: these posts, blogs by mckinsey/bcg/big 4 accounting firms, news is often a paid ad/agenda in disguise. You're honestly better off spending time with your family and developing a small hobby. ~ musings from a late 30s guy

Or using all of this and becoming massively wealthy.

if you want to get massively wealthy get a good CS education or just get business experience in the real world, these a16z blogs and podcasts are for what's appropriately been labeled Veblenian entrepreneurship, that is consuming entrepreneurship as a sort of cosplay lifestyle.

Re: A16Z blogs are just glorified marketing

#70

Post by jrflowers »

margalabargala wrote: post #59
jrflowers wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good question. What differentiates his six thousand word manifesto from all of the totally normal six thousand word manifestos that are written by completely normal people on a daily basis?

Considering that "manifesto" just means "essay describing an opinion", I don't think your repetition of the word is the indictment you intended.

Exactly. Writing and publishing manifestos is a normal thing. Surely if you cannot link to your manifesto it is simply because you’ve yet to finish proofreading it
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