The following captures a series of tweets I posted today about a recent post on the Andreessen Horowitz blog, outlining a manifesto for techno optimism. It was jaw dropping to read, a parody of all the things problematic about how Silicon Valley thinks about human progress. …

Reconciling Milton Friedman with corporate social responsibility In September 1970, The New York Times Magazine published an op-ed by economist Milton Friedman entitled “A Friedman doctrine — The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.“ The article sowed the seeds of neoliberalism, the dominant theory driving corporate decision…

Last week, Burning Man launched an auction with Sotheby’s called Boundless Space: The Possibilities of Burning Man. First and foremost, the auction is an effort to raise funds for the organization, which is unsurprisingly facing financial challenges after cancelling its flagship event two years in a row. …

Early in the pandemic, I began organizing a weekly salon for a handful of intellectually curious friends. …

The heart and soul of Dent, a growing community that I steward, is the civil discourse that takes place twice a week in the Dent Forum. Our inquiry focuses on the values and incentives that underlie our economic, political, and cultural institutions. In many ways, Dent is modeled after The…

Twice a week, I host a conversation called the Dent Forum. I liken it to a grad school seminar meets a live podcast, where we explore important topics such as capitalism and inequality, universal basic income, and social media and democracy. It started in June with me organizing a few…

I learned a two important lessons about inclusive leadership this past week; the first obvious, the second less so. Last Thursday, I hosted a spirited panel discussion about Free Speech and Content Moderation on Social Media as part of the Dent Forum I organize twice a week on Clubhouse. There…

On the interdependency of economic, political, and cultural institutions Born out of a movement of individualism, capitalism is ingenious in many ways. Through labor specialization, private ownership, and the pursuit of self interest — markets coordinate production and consumption for billions of people around the world. Capitalism is an enabler…

What does real reform look like, and how can the pandemic entrench it? It appears that we’ve reached a tipping point in the shift towards stakeholder capitalism. …