Spent two hours with Marc Andreessen, who gave me a masterclass on how to think, learn, read, research, and write. Here's what I learned: 1. Read, read, read... then read some more. 2. Many of your best ideas will emerge in fits of rage or frustration. Channel the fury. Smash the keyboard. Lean into the passion. Torch the page with your energy. 3. Marc doesn't have much of a formal writing process. He thinks and thinks, and when epiphany strikes, he hammers out an outline as fast as possible to get his ideas on paper. Then, he turns it into a full article. 4. Marc's motto for writing and thinking: "Strong views, weakly held." Put yourself out there, but stay on the hunt for dissenting opinions from smart and respectful people. 5. Online writing tolerates and even encourages stylistic idiosyncrasies that traditional publishing would not accommodate. Lean into them. 6. The world is awash in bad content. You need to punch through. Snappy one-liners and genuine conviction are two ways to do that. 7. Marc's been reading online for as long as anybody on the planet, and the biggest thing that's surprised him is how political the Internet's become. Something changed between ~2013-2015. The Internet was once an escape from political debates. Now it's a hotbed of them. 8. Writing software is halfway between writing a novel and building a bridge. 9. Play around with communication tools. Push the limits. Doesn't matter what the rules are. When Marc felt constrained by Twitter's 140-character limit, he started replying to his own tweets and invented the Twitter thread. 10. On the quest for good ideas, surround yourself with "lateral thinkers" who can't help but come up with variant perspectives on everything they see. They won't always be right, but they always challenge your thinking. 11. Media formats are cyclical. Nietzsche wrote in aphorisms and Twitter is aphorisms-as-a-service. Hip-hop brought back poetry. Montaigne pioneered the essay format and blogs brought them back into vogue. 12. People should write more manifestos. 13. Marc's nomination for the best living American novelist: James Ellroy. 14. GPT has revealed how much writing is pure pablum. Bland, lifeless, uninsightful, unoffensive, and not worth the price of the ink it was printed with. 15. "With GPT, every writer now has a writing partner who can do an infinite amount of grunt work without complaining." 16. "ChatGPT plagiarism is a complete non-issue. If you can't out-write a machine, what are you doing writing?" 17. Marc writes from the heart. He doesn't do much editing and likes to provide reading recommendations instead of directly citing his sources. 18. The person who writes down the plan in an organization has tremendous power. If you want to find the up-and-comers at a tech company, look into who's writing the plan. Though they may not be coming up with all the ideas, you'll know they have the energy, motivation, and skills to organize and communicate ideas in a written form. 19. Marc uses a barbell approach to consume information. He focuses on what's happening right now while also reading a lot of things that were written 10+ years ago. The content is either timely or timeless, with almost nothing in between. If there was an Olympic category for most insights per minute, Marc Andreessen would be a guaranteed medalist. writeofpassage.school/how-i-write/
Worth the listen, useful summary. "11. Media formats are cyclical." They're invented by genius, then transformed into proliferating undead by mediocrity.
I'm only a few minutes in but I love interviews that dive deep on a single topic instead of another generalist interview that we've heard before. Bravo
24:10 what’s the name of the philosopher in residence? Ben something? I just can’t get the spelling right. **Edit**: it's Venkatesh Rao. Thank you @danielskipperrasmussen161 for pointing it out!
I cannot believe I just discovered this channel yesterday. What the heck! Where have I been?? This channel is one of the best things on the entire Internet! 🫵🔥
Like Musk, Andreessen shares a ‘master of the universe’ ego. Success in Silicon Valley doesn’t qualify you to run the world, especially when you have a limited appreciation for democracy.
Before watching this (never watched anything from this channel), I just want to give a shoutout to the A) thumbnail designer and B) the producers of this show. Bravo, one of the best thumbnails I've ever seen. Excited for this ep, thanks guys.
I also follow on the basis of single tweet and block on the basis of single tweet 😅 Brilliant Podcast, so many probing questions to extract all information and Marc being Marc !!!
24:37 What are the names of the people he says at this point in the interview? I recognize Peter Thiel's name, but I can understand the other two names he says.
according to the comments I must be really weird for watching this on 1.25x speed. andreessen writing a fictional narrative of his experiences would be legendary
![State of Play | September 24, 2024 [ENGLISH]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fVs0suPHAX8/mqdefault.jpg)
Spent two hours with Marc Andreessen, who gave me a masterclass on how to think, learn, read, research, and write.
Here's what I learned:
1. Read, read, read... then read some more.
2. Many of your best ideas will emerge in fits of rage or frustration. Channel the fury. Smash the keyboard. Lean into the passion. Torch the page with your energy.
3. Marc doesn't have much of a formal writing process. He thinks and thinks, and when epiphany strikes, he hammers out an outline as fast as possible to get his ideas on paper. Then, he turns it into a full article.
4. Marc's motto for writing and thinking: "Strong views, weakly held." Put yourself out there, but stay on the hunt for dissenting opinions from smart and respectful people.
5. Online writing tolerates and even encourages stylistic idiosyncrasies that traditional publishing would not accommodate. Lean into them.
6. The world is awash in bad content. You need to punch through. Snappy one-liners and genuine conviction are two ways to do that.
7. Marc's been reading online for as long as anybody on the planet, and the biggest thing that's surprised him is how political the Internet's become. Something changed between ~2013-2015. The Internet was once an escape from political debates. Now it's a hotbed of them.
8. Writing software is halfway between writing a novel and building a bridge.
9. Play around with communication tools. Push the limits. Doesn't matter what the rules are. When Marc felt constrained by Twitter's 140-character limit, he started replying to his own tweets and invented the Twitter thread.
10. On the quest for good ideas, surround yourself with "lateral thinkers" who can't help but come up with variant perspectives on everything they see. They won't always be right, but they always challenge your thinking.
11. Media formats are cyclical. Nietzsche wrote in aphorisms and Twitter is aphorisms-as-a-service. Hip-hop brought back poetry. Montaigne pioneered the essay format and blogs brought them back into vogue.
12. People should write more manifestos.
13. Marc's nomination for the best living American novelist: James Ellroy.
14. GPT has revealed how much writing is pure pablum. Bland, lifeless, uninsightful, unoffensive, and not worth the price of the ink it was printed with.
15. "With GPT, every writer now has a writing partner who can do an infinite amount of grunt work without complaining."
16. "ChatGPT plagiarism is a complete non-issue. If you can't out-write a machine, what are you doing writing?"
17. Marc writes from the heart. He doesn't do much editing and likes to provide reading recommendations instead of directly citing his sources.
18. The person who writes down the plan in an organization has tremendous power. If you want to find the up-and-comers at a tech company, look into who's writing the plan. Though they may not be coming up with all the ideas, you'll know they have the energy, motivation, and skills to organize and communicate ideas in a written form.
19. Marc uses a barbell approach to consume information. He focuses on what's happening right now while also reading a lot of things that were written 10+ years ago. The content is either timely or timeless, with almost nothing in between.
If there was an Olympic category for most insights per minute, Marc Andreessen would be a guaranteed medalist.
writeofpassage.school/how-i-write/
and that masterclass is now viewed by all of us! THANK YOU to both!
Worth the listen, useful summary.
"11. Media formats are cyclical." They're invented by genius, then transformed into proliferating undead by mediocrity.
Marc Andreessen was born with x2 playback speed
Was serious work to process everything in real time! The density of insight is off the charts
I thought I was slow. Thanks for clearing that up
Which I very much appreciate. I’d love to have a personal conversation with Marc. I find him very fascinating as a human.
1.5x maybe 1.75
Yes, he’s the one person I can’t follow at 2x speed.
I'm only a few minutes in but I love interviews that dive deep on a single topic instead of another generalist interview that we've heard before. Bravo
Thanks! That’s exactly the goal of this show
Great questions and demeanor bro - subd!
This was a great interview! One of the best by Marc. Well done David!
Dig it!
Great interview! Had a wonderful chat with Marc today.
Great interview, Please share the reading list of the books and authors that he mentions. Thanks for the Pod.
This was really good! You asked some great questions. Both deep and fun/interesting.
Thanks for listening
Wow, I'm surprised on the quality of guests you get on the podcast. Great work.
24:10 what’s the name of the philosopher in residence? Ben something? I just can’t get the spelling right.
**Edit**: it's Venkatesh Rao. Thank you @danielskipperrasmussen161 for pointing it out!
It's Venkatesh Rao
What name does he say at 11:23? Tumer Karan? Edit it’s Timur Kuran
Does anyone has a transcript for this podcast?? I have been looking for it since so long!
superb interview, answered my curiosity for pmarca! thanks
That's true. I am currently writing to improve my ADHD, and I am able to do plenty of things.
GP of such a large fund and still uses Libgen. Nice.
I thought the questions were well researched, the host was clearly prepared.
If his goal was to be Marc's writing coach, this was a good shot on goal.
Hah! I wouldn’t say no to that…
Great.
What’s the group chat he is referring to
excellent interview
The paradox of abundance.
great interview, great brainfit with marc
BEST OF Marco
IDK BETWEEN 2 FERNS NEXT ?😂
I cannot believe I just discovered this channel yesterday. What the heck! Where have I been?? This channel is one of the best things on the entire Internet! 🫵🔥
wow holy shit
Did you end it by calling him Matt
Not trying to be impolite but its really resembles an egg.
What is marc drinking
Green tea
Marc has a cruel and ruthless ideology.
Like Musk, Andreessen shares a ‘master of the universe’ ego. Success in Silicon Valley doesn’t qualify you to run the world, especially when you have a limited appreciation for democracy.
Perpetual Lateral Thinkers (24:32) :
- Venkatesh Rao
- Balaji Srinivasan
- Peter Thiel
WTF even Marc Andreeson uses Libgen. Why?
😅
I had to slow down my normal 1.75x speed to 1.5x speed for this one 😅
Great production quality and great guests.
Thanks 🙌🏼
When timestamps?
When you make them.
Can you also bring Shaan Puri ?
Done!
marc on fire
Marc is thinking about LLM's all the time.
Before watching this (never watched anything from this channel), I just want to give a shoutout to the A) thumbnail designer and B) the producers of this show. Bravo, one of the best thumbnails I've ever seen. Excited for this ep, thanks guys.
Thank you… thank you
I’ll pass this along to the designer
I also follow on the basis of single tweet and block on the basis of single tweet 😅 Brilliant Podcast, so many probing questions to extract all information and Marc being Marc !!!
Marc looks like he is smelling something majestic in the thumbnail for this video.
-Like Ron Burgundy-level majestic.
Jesus. my brain would explode if I lived like does with the amount of consumption and no breaks and no walks lol
Your questions are great!
🙌🏼
The prisenter is so lovely nice person
24:37
What are the names of the people he says at this point in the interview? I recognize Peter Thiel's name, but I can understand the other two names he says.
3 names:
- Peter Thiel
- Balaji srinivasan
- Venkatesh Rao
Mark’s a well-rounded egghead 😂
Excited to listen!
according to the comments I must be really weird for watching this on 1.25x speed.
andreessen writing a fictional narrative of his experiences would be legendary
Best takeaway "I'm not going to cite." "Why?" "Because nobody cares" lmao
I loveee the font you use for captions! What's the type face?
Awesome
Honestly looking forward to that insane novel idea Marc
you need to do one with elon musk, or another cool vertical thinker
Good interview.. very stimulating.
OMG, where is his beard?
Read this as "how I white"
Very fun interview
this applies for both fiction & non-fiction
Watch at .75x
The amount of output and thoughts articulated per minute by Marc is unparalleled! Nobody comes even close!! 👏
imo Balaji Srinivasan and Naval Ravikant can compete ;)
They speak slower. 😅
This is fun
Amazing interview. A conversation with a philosopher-king by THE writing Sherpa … the GREAT David Perrell.
Thanks for this🎉