Elan JournoMarc Andreessen, the influential Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has lit up social media with his essay on the pandemic, “It’s Time to Build.” He writes:
Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade, but it’s not too early to ask why, and what we need to do about it.
Why are we here? Andreessen argues that we’re in this situation because of a “widespread inability to build.”
The essay offers some powerful observations. But what has stood in the way of building? And is Andreessen right about “the need to separate the imperative to build … from ideology and politics”? To explore these and related questions, we’ve invited two special guests to join New Ideal Live on Monday, April 20, 11am Pacific:
- Tal Tsfany, CEO of the Ayn Rand Institute, who joined ARI after a career as a tech entrepreneur, and
- Jason Crawford, a writer and co-founder of several tech startups. Jason runs the Roots of Progress site, a blog about “the history of technology and industry, and more generally the story of human progress.” (Jason’s response to Andreessen’s article.)
Join us for the live broadcast on Monday, 11am Pacific. Go to https://zoom.us/join and use Meeting ID: 812-506-718.
Or catch the livestream or recordings on YouTube or Facebook.
Reinier Schuur
