Ask Mario: AI vs. NFTs, looking foolish, and VC lessons
In this edition of Ask Mario, we talk about underappreciated technologies, the superpower of enduring embarrassment, and more.
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Friends,
I’m excited to share our latest edition of Ask Mario, the series in which I answer reader questions about tech, venture capital, the future, and beyond. We cover a lot this time around, including:
Why I learned more making burritos than at grad school
What games are worth playing
My view on AI accelerationism
How surviving embarrassment is a competitive advantage
A great article about cloning John von Neumann
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What are the most compelling “games to play” or “mountains to climb,” so to speak, that are in some way “low status” and therefore not pursued as frequently as logic may infer? - Anon
I really love this question, Anon. I have been turning it over in my head quite a bit without finding its edges.
Though it is “cooler” than it used to be, entrepreneurship is still seen as a low-status endeavor in many circles. From an early age, most of us are conditioned to think of our professions as knowable, linear, and predictable. We are taught the importance of listening, following instructions, and efficiently solving the problems we are given. We are usually not taught to find entirely new problem spaces, question accepted wisdom (certainly not with real, uncomfortable gusto), or create something wholly original. For most of our upbringing, our job is to ingest information, operate within existing systems, and output work that adheres to a given criteria.
There are plenty of benefits to this structure, but one of the drawbacks is that even well-educated people in permissive societies, those with every incentive to take a risk, are often afraid to do so. This might not manifest explicitly, but you can see it in our workforce’s choices. Exceptional talent continues to migrate toward safety and solved problems. In many cases, these people know and understand the tech sector and the world of entrepreneurship. They may have friends who have built successful businesses and secretly harbor the desire to build something themselves. But something in their upbringing, in the socialized boundaries of our society, tethers them to positions in law, finance, and the like.