Juan Orbea

Existential issues are usually not the most efficient place to add your efforts, but efficiency isn’t a priority when the walls are crashing down around you. You should swarm to existential problems, but if a problem isn’t existential then you should be skeptical of adding your efforts where everyone’s already focused. Folks often chase... See more

Of these companies that become well financed we only need 15–25% of those to pan out to return 2–3x the fund. But this is all driven on the assumption that we didn’t write a $20 million check out of the gate, that we didn’t pay a $100 million pre-money valuation and that we took a meaningful ownership stake by making a very early bet on founders... See more

How big is the college? The bigger the college, the bigger the alumni network. The bigger the alumni network, the more weak ties you have, which are great for career, marriage, and a host of other life attributes. Harvard Business School has figured this out and has classes of 900 compared to Stanford and MIT Sloan of 400.How strong is the affinity... See more

It is not trying to justify network states using some abstract theory (eg. some Dunbar's number or concentrated-incentive argument that the optimal size of a political body is actually in the low tens of thousands). Rather, it is an argument that situates network states as a response to the particular political situation of the world at its current... See more

I find that the synthesis of psychology and philosophy produces advantages that neither one possesses on its own. It produces a hybridized mode of understanding that is at once intellectually acute and at the same time full of exuberance and human passion, and that can consequently provide a real entry into the greater depth of life.

Balaji outlines a few ideas for network states, which I will condense into two key directions: lifestyle immersion and pro-tech regulatory innovation.

The truly interesting stuff is the governance innovation: using network states to organize in ways that would actually not be possible under existing regulations.