Failing in a good way is like giving it your all and then, okay, it doesn't work out. That kind of person has to chip on their shoulder for the next time. One area where stress comes from in startups is due to small sample size. If you have only 10 customers, one of them goes south, boom, 10% of your revenue done. Your revenue that was increasing last quarter, it's suddenly down. You suddenly, that's a material update. Every single one of your investors has to get that update. Now you might not be able to make payroll, you thought it was in the bag, actually the investor backs out, they're using this as a
Topics:
(5:53) - Start of Balaji Interview
(6:24) - How would you introduce yourself to a stranger?
(8:19) - Do you think of your work as “whatever it takes” to advance your ideology?
(10:05) - What would you like to see most achieved?
(13:14) - What are the things you believe you are the best at?
(20:52) - What are the ideas you are most confident telling others that you know for certain?
(30:22) - Balaji’s upbringing & growing up in an age before the internet
(1:03:35) - Have you always been like this? Was there an inflection point that made you who you are today?
(1:11:41) - Are there any formative media, movie or books that really had an impact on you growing up?
(1:19:15) - Doing math as a hobby & philosophical frameworks
(1:29:19) - The Feynman Lectures & Magic the Gathering
(1:51:29) - Were there any inspirations you looked to in your transition into entrepreneurship?
(1:56:45) - What do you consider your career or body of work?
(2:07:20) - Where have you seen some of the bigger obstacles in your career?
(2:25:57) - Wealth, Burn Rate, and feeling “free to speak your mind”
(2:38:40) - How are you spending time and resources to have an impact according to your mission?
(2:50:56) - Are you trying to start your own network state or help people start theirs?
(2:55:06) - What’s your process with getting up to speed on new technologies?
(3:00:23) - What do you think about the trade-off between focusing on learning vs. when to start doing?
(3:03:50) - Countries that impacted Balaji’s philosophy
(3:08:33) - Balaji’s predictions on what Eric chose to have in the book
(3:13:13) - What are the mental models or heuristics you use most often?
(3:19:21) - Eric’s Themes of Balaji’s work
(3:28:14) - What is your definition of technology?
(3:36:09) - Do you believe a startup is synonymous with a great new technology?
(3:37:20) - The co-evolution of technology and humanity & Youth-Extension
(3:43:34) - The long-term battle for Network systems
(3:45:50) - What do you envision transhumanism looking like?