Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp

Venkatesh Rao ☀️

@vgr

259 Following
12316 Followers
Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
"Thinking decentralized" is a real skill. Economics is the first and so far only discipline that has mastered a narrow version of it. Computer science is starting to get close (both AI and non-AI versions). Neuroscience (rogue neuron theories) only started getting there very recently.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
“Can tech be governed?” is a question that rhymes eerily with the “can the economy be governed” question during the ZIRP era with all those discussions of zero lower bound, negative interest rates, and the discovery of QE as a dangerous (chemotherapy for cancer?) control mechanism with bad side effects later.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I realized what bothers me about @vitalik.eth d/acc essay. Even though it is optimistic, it shares with the pessimist side a presumption that technology, as an evolutionary process, *can* be governed according to some notion of human intent. “Tech can/cannot be governed” is a bigger divide than optimism/pessimism
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Watching A Haunting in Venice.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
It's hard to distinguish between getting steadily dumber with age, and steadily more impatient about being made to think hard for things not worth thinking about at all with age. Self-serving attribution is 0%, 100%. More accurate attribution is probably 100%, 0%. Everything is worth thinking hard about.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Though I share some skepticism of some of the components, instant bozobit for anyone using the acronym TESCREAL
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Merriam-Webster is losing it. Wtf “authentic”?? Is this 2008? Word of the year is clearly FAFO. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/27/world/merriam-websters-2023-word-scli-intl/index.html
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
So they’re saying there’s a bug in their strategy https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/27/business/volkswagen-brand-no-longer-competitive/index.html
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Iran-backed Yemeni rebels fire missiles at U.S. ship trying to rescue an Israeli merchant vessel from Somali pirates while nearby Chinese anti-piracy ships sit around doing nothing. This is getting too complex for me. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/27/politics/us-destroyer-missiles-distress-call-tanker-intl-hnk/index.html
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I “read” @vitalik.eth’s huge article 🫠https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/11/27/techno_optimism.html
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I’ve at least mastered the look and feel of vada in my air fried version. Still comes out relatively tough rather than fluffy. Hard to stop it from drying out.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Sometimes I think "Web3" is defined not so much by crypto tech under the hood, but an unusual tolerance for bad UXes. It's an adverse selection mechanism for UX mascohists, who then discover as a side effect that they also like cool crypto tech.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Devconnect debrief at @yak distributed systems study group (we meet mondays at 8am pacific) https://www.youtube.com/live/_r249pznCOg?si=wkS0JBZgvFlebtNF
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
I’d love to see a summer of protocols project next year focused on researching “the burden of administrative participation” How do cities and nations of far larger scale and complexity manage? Is there no way there besides centralization and delegation? https://warpcast.com/rafa/0x25644add
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Out of context self-quote from a DM conversation: “Give a man a maze and he’ll be lost for a day. Teach a man to maze and he’ll be lost for a lifetime :)”
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Building stops where it stops being fun. Usage starts where it starts to be easier than not using. The gap between the two is the vast hellscape of abandoneware
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Time horizons: Employees, contractors: 1 year (budgets, raises) Entrepreneurs: 18 mo (~ capital cycle) Politicians: 2-6y depending on election cycle Academics: 4-6y (getting tenure, graduating a PhD, grants) Consultants: 4-6 mo (median gig) “Creators”: 1 week (media production) HNWIs: 7y (life project)
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Seems clear that if/when we exit this crypto winter, the next book will be full of “risk-free staking” scams. Is there a way to get ahead of the expected scams profile with prophylactic measures? Crypto seasons are like flu seasons. Need flu vaccines distributed ahead of time.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
There seems to be no good solution to putting a conventional book online in a self-hosted way for reading in a browser. Gitbook is close but isn't self-hosted. Best solution atm seems to be just a series of html chapter files with prev/up-to-toc/next links. SSGs, weird md drivers all too much work
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Start building your reality tunnels now. Default reality is going to last another year at most.
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