Chamath Palihapitiya took Facebook to 1 billion users, was the youngest ever Vice-President at AOL…and worked at Burger King as a 14-year-old to support his family. Here's what I've learned from him about online writing and media: 1. Start your writing in a punchy way. 2. End your writing in a useful way. 3. Why write in public? “The ability for smart, useful observations to get into the hands of people with fewer ideas but lots of capital has never been better. You can build both a reputation and balance sheet this way.” 4. Different mediums unlock different kinds of writing. Chamath turns to pen & paper when he wants to write analytically, and to Twitter and the Internet when he’s in a more fiery mood. 5. Building a culture of long-form writing is a way to depoliticize a company because prose rewards clear thinking via strong and logical arguments. 6. Give readers a definitive conclusion. Even if they disagree with it, they’ll consider it time well-spent if they walk away with something solid. The worst writing is ambiguous and wishy-washy. 7. Fame brings politician syndrome: Chamath says his writing has become more hedged and timid as his profile has grown, and his struggle as a writer now centers around regaining his early voice and spontaneity. 8. Reading is an effective way to learn, but it's much more effective when you pair it with writing. Whenever Chamath stumbles on a particularly important topic, he writes 1-2 pages about it. 9. When money gets into good ideas, they become good things in the world. The opposite happens when money gets into bad ideas. This is why people with good ideas have a moral responsibility to share them.

I can hardly believe what I'm hearing. The value in this podcast... my god David this is insane, thank you to you, your team, everyone involved this is such incredibly high quality insight into the future I want to experience, thank you for giving such high fidelity insight to us. For free.

This channel doesn't have nearly as many subscribers as it deserves -- yet. Great work, David!

probably my favourite episode in "How I Write Podcast" series so far, great work and thanks to chamath for coming on this.

I’d love to see you talk to Paul Graham

Oh, this channel is definitely going to explode. Congrats on the high quality work, I'm a podcaster myself and it's hard work, so well done!

This I gold. I found it just at the right time when I needed it.

Amazing work, David! Your guests, questions, production quality, etc. are superb!

Congrats on the big guests David!

I listened several times to this episode. So much insights, so much hard opinions to agree or not with. That is the value behind your opera, David.

All of the episodes of “How I Write” are so underrated. You deserve more views, David! Thanks for your dedication. 🩵

Every episode on How I Write is a goldmine, you're doing amazing work and asking great questions, thanks David!

Value Bomb, thanks for doing this.

Diving into this now & looking forward to more of your KZfaq content. Subscribed!

Great pod David!

This is so good! loved every minute:)

David you're a great interview. I'm really eager to see where this podcast is going.

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I remain skeptical of Chamath's understanding of Girard's work, given the lack of depth in his explanations. Genuine admirers of Girard wouldn't settle for nebulous phrases like 'high quality subjective prose'-such comments lack real insight. And where are these great examples of his writing? Furthermore, I see Warren Buffet not as an entrepreneurial visionary or builder, but purely as an investor. This distinction is crucial, and it's disappointing to see him often idolized beyond his actual role. Chamath's insights seem increasingly outdated, particularly in the rapidly evolving context of web 3.0, where he still appears to be navigating the nuances of the previous social media era. Over the years, my view of Chamath has diminished; his rhetoric, often elaborate, tends to obscure a lack of substantive thought. His admiration for celebrities like Taylor Swift and Mr. Beast, alcohol, gambling a partying lifestyle doesn't resonate with my values or preferences. He still seem low class no matter how many pretty sweaters he wears. While I can still find some value in Chamath's words, they generally seem to lack the unique insights I seek. -

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Who’s the Gerard they talk about at 38:28 ?

Facebook was kind of the opposite, we had a handful of dashboards because you know especially in my part of the business it was an extremely unapologetic, unemotional scientific approach to we're just going to go and dominate the world and we reduced that to growth and acquisition of people and building up network density and so we had an extremely scientific way of baselining the business

I published 124 books. How can I be interviewed on this podcast?

Good ideas like selling sugary water to people by making that ubiquitous with living.

Ps, who is that Gerard you and Chamath are talking about?

but that would still be retrogressive. because in the current system, the holders of capital keep on drinking their own kool-aid.

Who is Gerard?

THREATs HERe 🌎 cowRiGHTMyTeXTIZ GeSUS 💙

soo were all just gonna ignore the fact this guy is a known scammer?

THeNWe ❤ eNWE cowRiGHTMyTeXTIZ 👣

👣 o

BReAD 💙👁️iReAD cowRiGHTMyTeXTIZ 👣 GeSUS 😗

Chamat, just another scammer!!

This is a cheater..should not be on any shows..

How those SPACS go Chamath? How many people did you rip off with that? You are worse than nothing.

SPACs were terrible ideas but the mobster chamath made money off of that.