Weekend Reading
Writing worth reading - 16th/17th March 2024
YC's latest Request for Startups by Dalton Caldwell
“The RFS is a YC tradition you can find examples going back as far as 2009. Each one offers up ideas we’d want to see made real, in spaces that we believe will be important in the coming decades. The world is full of founders with expertise that could be tapped into something new and great; our hope is that this list inspires some of those people to do so or if they’re already building, to apply to YC.…”
Peter Thiel’s Religion by David Perell
“Rene Girard was a French historian and literary critic. He’s famous for Mimetic Theory, which forms the bedrock of Thiel’s worldview. Thiel studied under Girard as an undergraduate at Stanford in the late 1980s. Their relationship stretched beyond the walls of Palo Alto classrooms and became a lifelong friendship. When Girard died, Thiel spoke at the memorial service…”
Pursuing ‘American Dynamism,’ Andreessen Horowitz Ups Its Game in DC by Anna Edgerton and Lizette Chapman
“Andreessen has been a significant political donor for decades, giving money to candidates and groups affiliated with both parties. Over the past two years he’s been hosting private dinners that have drawn prominent guests, including former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other members of Congress, according to people who’ve attended. This election cycle, all of a16z’s partners have committed to write checks to candidates who align with the Techno-Optimist worldview. The firm has also hired its first lobbyists, according to public filings, including two former Republican congressional staffers. A spokeswoman for Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment further on the firm’s political activity.…”
Opinion How Trump pushed Silicon Valley off the rails by Kara Swisher
“My first call was to one of the potentates who was sometimes testy, often funny and always accessible. Of everyone I had covered, I could count on Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, to engage with me on a semihuman basis. While Musk would morph later into a troll-king-at-scale on Twitter, which he would rename X, he was among the few tech titans who did not fall back on practiced talking points, even if he might have been the one who most should have.…”
Upcoming meals with 9others
Wednesday 27th March — London — details and signup here.
Tuesday 9th April — Manchester — details and signup here.
Wednesday 24 April — London — details and signup here.