sari

We believe the opportunity cost of not building for interoperability will overshadow the net cost of doing so.

I think of philanthropy as a type of idea marketplace for public goods, funded by private capital. Like all idea marketplaces – startups, media, philosophy – it’s inherently pluralistic. We don’t have a single government-funded media channel, for example, but instead get our news, entertainment, and ideas from a multitude of sources.

Here, bike and scooter sharing is a cautionary tale. Both bike and scooter sharing and ultrafast delivery are capital-intensive industries with no customer loyalty, low switching costs, and limited network effects. The unit economics are unproven, and while optically high, growth could be short-lived.

Although we have the ability to access nearly all recorded music from our smartphones, we’ve sacrificed intimacy for urgency. Twitter and Instagram provide followers access to their favorite performers with the touch of a button, but there is no sense of real connection.

The fundamental challenge in these competitions is information. Agents want to choose the best partner to transact with, but they have incomplete information and limited time and energy to decide. From the outside it’s hard to know if a company is going to be able to deliver on their promises, just the same way it’s hard for a female peacock to... See more