E1: Marc Andreessen on His Intellectual Journey the Past Ten Years

Marc Andreessen of a16z sits with Erik Torenberg to go deeper into his intellectual and political journey, and his quest to find out how the world works. Upstream with Erik Torenberg is part of the Turpentine podcast network. To learn more: turpentine.co. Check out Shopify: https://shopify.com/torenberg for a $1/month trial period -- TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (04:25) How much has Marc changed vs the world changed? (07:55) How much do ideas matter? Who drives society — the elite or the masses? (10:56) People respond to interests more than ideas (13:08) Mental models for the left and the right (15:45) Sponsors (Secureframe | Mercury | MarketerHire) (17:53) The road to hell is paved with good intentions (19:40) Master morality and slave morality (24:20) Unpacking Elon’s quote “Wokeness is the mind-virus” (27:00) Is classical liberalism sustainable and how it leads to wokeness (36:00) James Burnham’s worldview (43:50) How the left captured the institutions (46:20) Elon as the return to entrepreneurial capitalism (49:03) The experiments Elon is running (55:50) The billionaire mindset toward politics (58:30) We live in an oligarchy, not a democracy (01:07:00) Larry Page is the contrarian billionaire (01:08:30) Effective Altruism’s blind spots (01:11:36) Effective altruists think they can play god (01:12:16) SBF’s roll-the-dice philosophy (01:14:23) Aristocratic vs Meritocratic elite (01:22:48) Elites are insulated from the consequences of their policies (01:24:53) Why global governance is a nerd trap (01:28:16) Global governance is anti-diversity (01:31:42) Tech people are politically homeless (01:32:37) Elites can’t be removed, they can only be replaced (01:36:02) Advice for counter-elites (01:49:21) Reasons to be optimistic SOCIAL LINKS: Erik’s Twitter: @eriktorenberg Marc’s Twitter: @pmarca Podcast Twitter: @Upstream__Pod Erik’s Substack: Erik Torenberg Marc’s Substack: Marc Andreessen Please support our sponsors: Beehiiv | Shopify | Secureframe | Mercury  Head to Beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth, to power your own. Connect with premium brands, scale your audience, and deliver a beautiful UX that stands out in an inbox. 🐝to https://Beehiiv.com and use code "UPSTREAM" for 20% off your first three months -Shopify: https://shopify.com/torenberg for a $1/month trial period Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Shopify powers 10% of all ecommerce in the US. And Shopify's the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and 1,000,000s of other entrepreneurs across 175 countries. From their all-in-one ecommerce platform, to their in-person POS system – wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. Sign up for $1/month trial period: https://shopify.com/torenberg. - Secureframe: https://secureframe.com/ Secureframe is the leading all-in-one platform for security and privacy compliance. Get SOC-2 audit ready in weeks, not months. I believe in Secureframe so much that I invested in it, and I recommend it to all my portfolio companies. Sign up for a free demo and mention UPSTREAM during your demo to get 20% off your first year. - Mercury: https://mercury.com/ Now more than ever, startup founders need a safe place to put their cash. Mercury protects your money and also provides the streamlined user experience that great founders expect through partner banks and their sweep networks.Mercury offers up to $5 million in FDIC insurance, which is 20 times the per-bank limit. They also make it easy to invest any cash above the FDIC-insured amount in a money market fund, a hundred thousand startups trust Mercury with their finances. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and involve bank and trust members FDIC.