a16z, AI and Investing in the new era (ft. Packy McCormick)

Marc Andreessen (0:00)

What virtually everybody finds, including Elon Musk, is the real world is just really, really big and really, really messy.

Packy McCormick (0:06)

Yeah, I think it's so interesting, right? Because from a technology perspective, it feels like you can build products pretty immediately that are going to win.

Ben Horowitz (0:11)

Our entire way of doing everything as humans, we think is going to change. We reinvented the computer, and the new computer is far better than the one that we have been building on for the last 50 or so years.

Marc Andreessen (0:24)

The purpose of building the dominant venture brand was precisely to be able to have the companies be able to borrow that at the most critical place in their development so that the companies can kind of use our force in the world as a slingshot to basically build their own force.

Ben Horowitz (0:34)

You cannot join the firm unless you sign the culture document.

Packy McCormick (0:38)

If you had to pick a thing, what are you compounding?

Ben Horowitz (0:40)

Reputation.

Marc Andreessen (0:43)

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So, Packy, I want to start by saying thank you for the amazing piece. Like, it's incredible. Like, absolutely incredible. So, we just like really appreciate all the work that you put into it, because that was a big one.

Packy McCormick (1:21)

Thank you. I mean, I appreciate being able to tell this story. It's such a cool one, and I appreciate getting to work with you guys on it.

And thank you for the colorful emotions. I think made the whole... As soon as I heard that, I was like, I know what the whole piece looks like now.

Marc Andreessen (1:34)

I remember thinking, I really shouldn't be doing this in front of a New Yorker reporter. But I view that piece... Actually, I view that New Yorker piece as my last hurrah. That was the last chance to be fully honest with somebody from the mainstream press. That was like the very last moment. It was like, what, 2015? It was like right before everything tilted and became super hostile.

Packy McCormick (1:53)

Did you know that at the time?

Marc Andreessen (1:55)

No, I had no idea. I had no idea.

Ben Horowitz (1:57)

You know, I think that because it was a cultural change, they just had no idea what they were doing.

Marc Andreessen (2:03)

Yeah.

Ben Horowitz (2:03)

You know, it was like you're writing about your... And particularly the business publications. It's like, who reads about business that hates business? People who like business don't read about this, Hussie. They're basically ruining your own audience.

Marc Andreessen (2:22)

Yeah. So, Packy, the full story on that is, so we did that story and then I went to the... So, I had been on the Facebook board since 2007 And so, I was experiencing a lot of this through basically everything that's hit at Facebook really are really kind of upfront, kind of on the leading edge, including in every aspect of all the stuff that happened in the 2010s. And so, we used to hold an annual media party where we would buy all the reporters and publishers and editors and see them and get them liquored up and do the whole thing. It was a really good time, we always really enjoyed it. But then the one, after that piece came out, we did the one. And I remember three reporters who I had known, three business reporters and tech reporters to Ben's point, who I had known for a long time, like literally cornered me in the party and started just like tearing it at me because Facebook was not censoring enough political content. And they were just like absolutely furious that I had to like get to Zuckerberg and tell him that he had to implement like a much, much stiffer censorship regime to prevent people from talking about the wrong topics. And I remember, you know, I'm like a GenX, you know, I'm like a classic innocent GenX, kind of classical liberal, and I'm like, you know, but freedom of speech, you know, the First Amendment. And they got like super fucking mad at me and they're like, no, no, no, no, people cannot be allowed to talk about this.