'How I Built This' podcast

[RichardGibbons]

There  is nothing special about government, we would still have a global network some number of years after the first two computers where networked together in a lab somewhere, we would still have flat surfaces and bridges to drive on if the government didn't fund these things.  In fact we may have had flying cars by now if they didn't.

 

Ah, right. Like healthcare.  Everyone wants their family to have reasonable healthcare at a reasonable cost, and not have people they love die or be  bankrupted because they caught some random disease. That's why the market has provided low cost healthcare to everyone who needs it.

 

Oh wait.  It didn't.

 

I mean, you can assert that all these things would exist without government--and maybe some of them would--but generally, that argument completely falls apart with even a modicum of thought.

 

For some reason, your comment reminds me of a critique of the Trump supporters John Scalzi  made today in the LA Times:

 

Jeez, haven’t any of these followers ever read a dystopian novel? Don’t they get what they’re signing up for?

 

Actually, I suspect they have read one but didn’t realize it was a dystopian novel: “Atlas Shrugged,” by Ayn Rand, in which global civilization is actively destroyed by a sociopathic engineer and his chief executive friends because they feel underappreciated by the masses. The problem is Rand makes the sociopathic engineer the hero of her novel, and the readers root for the collapse of civilization and the inevitable death of billions. The way she writes it, it sounds like fun. I imagine the overlap of fans of that novel and the fans of a CEO candidate with “tear it all down” rhetoric and contempt for the actual democratic process of a civilized society is not insignificant.

 

[Kapitalust]

I think these lines from B.O. from the Frontiers Conference last month are relevant to the conversation on the "you didn't build it" discussion:

 

The final thing I’ll say is that government will never run the way Silicon Valley runs because, by definition, democracy is messy. This is a big, diverse country with a lot of interests and a lot of disparate points of view. And part of government’s job, by the way, is dealing with problems that nobody else wants to deal with.

 

So sometimes I talk to CEOs, they come in and they start telling me about leadership, and here’s how we do things. And I say, well, if all I was doing was making a widget or producing an app, and I didn’t have to worry about whether poor people could afford the widget, or I didn’t have to worry about whether the app had some unintended consequences – setting aside my Syria and Yemen portfolio – then I think those suggestions are terrific. That’s not, by the way, to say that there aren’t huge efficiencies and improvements that have to be made.

 

But the reason I say this is sometimes we get, I think, in the scientific community, the tech community, the entrepreneurial community, the sense of we just have to blow up the system, or create this parallel society and culture because government is inherently wrecked. No, it’s not inherently wrecked; it’s just government has to care for, for example, veterans who come home. That’s not on your balance sheet, that’s on our collective balance sheet, because we have a sacred duty to take care of those veterans. And that’s hard and it’s messy, and we’re building up legacy systems that we can’t just blow up.

[VAL9000]

Not to derail a thread that has taken an exciting turn into politics, but I really loved the first two podcasts in this series.

 

I especially enjoyed the "a-ha" moments where you can tie back the current state of the business to that one insight.  Almost like the business itself huddles around this core idea for warmth and nurturing.

 

Can't wait to get to the rest.

 

Also this politicized debate you are having sounds a lot like destiny vs. free will.

[rkbabang]

Not to derail a thread that has taken an exciting turn into politics, but I really loved the first two podcasts in this series.

 

I especially enjoyed the "a-ha" moments where you can tie back the current state of the business to that one insight.  Almost like the business itself huddles around this core idea for warmth and nurturing.

 

Can't wait to get to the rest.

 

Also this politicized debate you are having sounds a lot like destiny vs. free will.

 

I listened to the first few this morning.  Excellent!

[Liberty]

Glad you liked them.

 

For the person who asked, I indeed discovered the podcast on John Huber's blog.

[Gardener]

Thanks for sharing the blog; going through all of them while riding the bike to work and like them very much!

 

I enjoyed the podcast with John Koch a lot. From going to Harvard & working at BCG to plunging into (craft) brewing sure would have looked like a weird choice at that time!

[Grenville]

thumbs up! Thank you for posting this.

[Liberty]

Thanks for sharing the blog; going through all of them while riding the bike to work and like them very much!

 

I enjoyed the podcast with John Koch a lot. From going to Harvard & working at BCG to plunging into (craft) brewing sure would have looked like a weird choice at that time!

 

I just listened to the Sam Adams episode on my walk today and it was excellent. I've liked them all so far. I hope this podcast keeps going for many years, there are so many entrepreneurial stories that have never been heard.

[DCG]

There are so many entrepreneur interview podcasts out there. This one is pretty good, but I could do without the background music.

[DonFanucci]

There are so many entrepreneur interview podcasts out there. This one is pretty good, but I could do without the background music.

 

What are some other good ones?

[Liberty]

There are so many entrepreneur interview podcasts out there. This one is pretty good, but I could do without the background music.

 

What are some other good ones?

 

I would also be interested in some suggestions. Thank you.