Marc Andreessen of a16z sits with Erik Torenberg to go deeper into his intellectual and political journey, and his quest to find out how the world works. Upstream with Erik Torenberg is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: turpentine.co. Check out Shopify: https://shopify.com/torenberg for a $1/month trial period

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro

(04:25) How much has Marc changed vs the world changed?

(07:55) How much do ideas matter? Who drives society — the elite or the masses?

(10:56) People respond to interests more than ideas

(13:08) Mental models for the left and the right

(17:53) The road to hell is paved with good intentions

(19:40) Master morality and slave morality

(24:20) Unpacking Elon’s quote “Wokeness is the mind-virus”

(27:00) Is classical liberalism sustainable and how it leads to wokeness

(36:00) James Burnham’s worldview

(43:50) How the left captured the institutions

(46:20) Elon as the return to entrepreneurial capitalism

(49:03) The experiments Elon is running

(55:50) The billionaire mindset toward politics

(58:30) We live in an oligarchy, not a democracy

(01:07:00) Larry Page is the contrarian billionaire

(01:08:30) Effective Altruism’s blind spots

(01:11:36) Effective altruists think they can play god

(01:12:16) SBF’s roll-the-dice philosophy

(01:14:23) Aristocratic vs Meritocratic elite

(01:22:48) Elites are insulated from the consequences of their policies

(01:24:53) Why global governance is a nerd trap

(01:28:16) Global governance is anti-diversity

(01:31:42) Tech people are politically homeless

(01:32:37) Elites can’t be removed, they can only be replaced

(01:36:02) Advice for counter-elites

(01:49:21) Reasons to be optimistic

SOCIAL LINKS:

Erik’s Twitter: @eriktorenberg

Marc’s Twitter: @pmarca

Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod

Erik’s Substack: Erik Torenberg

Marc’s Substack: Marc Andreessen