Slinging URLs for your Thanksgiving* Week reading (*where applicable 🙂 )

Strong Capitalism: Playing Entrepreneur on Hard Mode [Philip Rosedale, Entrepreneur] – Philip continues to pull forward the Kapor/LongNow/StewartBrand/HomebrewComputerClub ethos of early SV, here encouraging a host of values that have inspired me. It’s comedy/tragedy that he has to brand this “Hard Mode” but I get where’s he coming from – the shortcuts, shirking of responsibility, getting yours at others’ expense *does* feel like lazy, soft, uninspired building. Philip names a bunch of Operating Principles for Hard Mode – you should read the whole list. But let share his full opening paragraph to give you a sense of where he’s going.

The strong capitalist recognizes that free markets are the best way to create opportunity, innovation, and economic prosperity, while simultaneously acknowledging that in the absence of any other operating principles, capitalism leads to non-meritocratic wealth inequality, monopoly, resource depletion, and extraction. The strong capitalist demonstrates and upholds a set of additional behaviors which maximize the health, prosperity, and longevity of the free markets, even when those behaviors make their own success more difficult – AKA – “hard mode”. The strong capitalist is an honorable competitor, a source of inspiration to others, and deserving of their returns.

I Worked All Over Silicon Valley. This is How it Lost Its Spine [Aaron Zamost/New York Times] –

“For tech companies, courage doesn’t scale.” Gutshot and he’s not wrong. I had the pleasure of working with Aaron at YouTube (he later went on to executive roles at Square and others) – he’s not a cynic by default – Aaron has put his sweat and reputation into these companies. He believes in the empowering potential of technology. But maybe no longer is as confident in the technologists.

For years, Silicon Valley symbolized progress. Its retreat from its core values leaves no clear heir — no other industry fights for the future in the same way. When tech is the villain instead of the hero, the future feels leaderless. And a country that stops believing its innovators can make the world better stops believing in much else, too.

don’t take the bait. vice signaling is eating silicon valley. [Jasmine Sun/@jasmi.news] – Ok so this is the *third* link in a row that notices the gaping fissures in our community. But let me tell you why I’m encouraged, rather than depressed – these are all practitioners, not just pundits. These are people who have done – and continue to do – real work of value. These are people looking to help remodel the house, not just criticize the architecture.

I also worry that Silicon Valley now punishes outward earnestness or virtue; young technologists have expressed fears of appearing soft—or worse—woke. I don’t want these vice-signalers to represent the industry, giving credence to already budding distrust of tech. If the bubble pops, or if an SBF-style scandal erupts, or if we get evidence mapping social crises directly to AI, the public will not be kind to those who got rich bragging on the way.

New Stack, Same Game. Why the AI Native Era Feels Different Yet Familiar [Ashley Smith/Vermilion Cliffs Ventures] – Author credibility check…. ok, Ashley had marketing leadership roles at Twilio, Parse/Meta, Gitlab, Github. Verdict: Credible. Now she’s full-time on her own venture firm, Vermilion Cliffs. Here she challenges one prevailing take: “There is a common assumption that someone like an OpenAI will simply build everything. The same assumptions appeared about AWS, GitHub, and Atlassian in their key eras. But every time the platform layer stabilizes, specialization accelerates.”

Importantly she’s not just writing her beliefs, she’s funding them.

How Screendoor became a key signal for emerging VC talent [Allie Garfinkle/Fortune – $] – Screendoor backs founders who are building venture firms. It’s often like backing seed stage companies – you need an eye for talent, stay close to the ground, and be willing to commit before others believe. Here Allie takes note that our portfolio is quite remarkable; that we’re often the first institutional LP to sign on to fund; and that when we invest, other LPs fast follow. Lots of work to do but proud of what Lisa and team are building.

Enjoy!