Long Enough To Matter

The Sound of Silence

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I've written before about the myriad of things that make up my internal source code:

"There are a few things that stick in my mind so much it feels like they're a fundamental part of my personal source code. Movies, songs, sayings, quotes, commercials for Campbell's chicken noodle soup."

A couple of those things came to mind today. The first? A rabbit named Thumper.

After being accosted by his mother for criticizing the young deer, Bambi himself, Thumper is reminded of counsel his Mom has given him before. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Easily dismissed as simply a refrain to be kind, this idea actually strikes of something about what is worth being said vs. what isn't.

The other thing thats coming to mind is a quote, supposedly from Mark Twain:

“I apologize for such a long letter - I didn't have time to write a short one.”

Again, this idea that something worth saying well, or succinctly, is worth taking the time to do so. I'm thinking about all these things because, like has happened several times, I have so much to say that I can't say anything at all.

It's not for lack of something to say. On the contrary, I keep a giant list of topics and references that intertwine, and encourage me to revisit pieces I've written before. But often these things can overwhelm me. I have so much to say, I can't say it succinctly, or even at all. Especially not in the way that I panic write every Saturday morning.

So, to help guide me, I thought I would do something I haven't done before. I'm just going to open up my messy interconnected brain, and attempt to share the things that have been on my mind. Then you tell me what you're interested in double-clicking on. That will be just the feedback loop I need to break the sound of silence I often feel in my head.

I've tried to clearly articulate a quick blurb on what these ideas are about, but feel free to interpret them in whatever way interests you, and then let me know. Whether its responding to this email, commenting below, DMing me or posting on Twitter. Whatever you prefer.

• Misinformation Is The New Malware: From content moderation to fake news and programmatic 24 hour news cycles, there is a disease in our information system.

• Intellectual Seatbelts: I've written before about Dave Chapelle's idea that "it shouldn't be this hard to talk. About anything." The more aversion there is to being called out, the less debate there is. Less debate leads to less progress.

• The Death of ESG & The Green Bubble 2.0: As people start to express their real concerns with ESG, does it mean we're looking at the second green bubble? Far from it. Here's why it's different this time.

• The Trough of Feedback: Contrary to popular belief, VCs are not incentivized to give meaningful feedback. They're most incentivized to keep as many options open to them as possible.

• Tastemakers: I've written about tastemakers vs. kingmakers before. This would be more so about the idea that as information explodes (particularly with generative AI) the value of curators and qualifiers has never been more valuable.

• The Puritans of Venture Capital: Venture used to be a cottage industry. Some firms are still practicing as if nothing really changed. Can they survive? Will capital agglomerators eat their lunch? Or can they co-exist?

• Death of a Startup: What does it look like when a company dies? As more and more of these happen, and even some startups get started to help with the shutdown process, its worth unpacking the ins and outs of the process

• Books 2.0: Books are the LEAST effective way for information transfer, yet they remain one of the most popular. There's got to be a better way to design systems of information.

• Every Company Should Have a Chief Evangelist: Increasingly, the most important thing for a company is articulating their vibes to an ever aware populace of potential users / customers / partners.

• Building Customer Cults: Similar idea; some companies have built borderline cults around their products and brands. Is that something to aspire to? And if so, what's the playbook?

• Every Company Should Have a Chief Risk Officer: Risk management is an under practiced dark art and EVERYONE should get better at it.

• Is Capital a Zero Sum Game?: There are some people that would say certain things shouldn't be funded. Others would say the market should get to decide what it wants. VCs play an important role based on where they fall along that philosophical spectrum.

• Opportunity Canvasing: Finding a startup worth building

• The Definition of People-Driven Investing: Venture funds often use this idea of being focused on exceptional people in their marketing, but their product offerings don't justify that.

• The Hit's Business: Startups and VC-fueled mania around massive outcomes threatens to do to startups what "the hits business" has done to movies.

• The One Person Unicorn: In the future, is it possible that one person could create a billion dollar company? I think yes, and here's why

• Shortage of Exceptional Founders: Always the question of whether there is a shortage of good ideas, or good founders, and Marc Andreessen believes its a shortage of good founders. I agree, and here's why.

There's just a taste of some of the things floating around in my head, so loud that the silence of my writing is deafening. So let me know which directions you'd like to see me paddle my thinking canoe.

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