Live conversation with Larry Summers
I really appreciated Larry joining me for an hour long candid conversation on the state of Harvard and higher education today (and the path forward). The event was extremely well attended by 1636forum members, and a host of highly involved Harvard & higher-education leaders and I appreciate all the positive feedback. Honestly, if you are interested the whole convo is worth a listen (at 2x maybe) —
For me the parts that stand out the most were:
- The discussion about free speech at universities as an input to the academic mission / excellence vs. being a right in and of itself.
- The discussion of the role of strong leadership / and how much failures can be understood as tactical issues of management vs. leadership and decision making.
- The discussion of the role of the academic ‘ivory tower’ in society and how when academia steps into politics, politics steps into academia.
Larry makes a lot of other really interesting points about antisemitism on campus, the double-edged sword of institutional neutrality, etc. so again - if you got 30 min do it at 2x.
More or Less
’DOGE’ (lol), Bitcoin, and Government ‘Internships’ — of course this was the topic of the week… how could it not be. Think what you will of Elon, but DOGE is pretty hilarious… and at least my perspective is that it is time to withhold judgement and be optimistic — yes, some appointments are crazy, yes there are huge risks to the moment… but there are also huge opportunities for positive change. Let’s see what happens (I am sure we will be talking about it for years) …
Some Other Hot Takes:
- Free Diversification for the Tech Bros When You Join the Government? someone correct me, but I think there is a deal that at some level of seniority when you join the government — the deal is you need to sell all your assets but the big asterisks is that you get to do it tax free (or is it tax deferred?) — I remember the wall street people half-jokingly/ half seriously talking about this as a tax-free diversification strategy… tech bros next?
- Solana Flipping ETH — more good news for those Solana bulls out there… SOL has flipped ETH on a whole series of key indicators — when will the price and attention flip? who knows… but the winds are there…
- You can make meritocracy better… but fairer? Hmmm.... — I was prepared to hate this article by David Brooks — but I actually don’t …I do think that to the extent our society is a vibrant engaging game with winners and losers, the rules need to be clear and fair.
- Zoom Call Drop, But No Missed Context? — has anyone else noticed this? I was on a few zooms this week that froze for 5-10 second+ and when you get back on like zero actual context has been missed… no issue — it makes me think people don’t say much per-second….
- Post Election ‘Outrage’ is a Business Model— keep thinking about this — the reality is that commentary is cheap and reporting is expensive… and it is easy to convert people to pay you on outrage / it is just good marketing…. When you see publications doing this, just realize it is 100% financially driven — they are giving the people what ‘sells’ (damn the long-term equity they destroy) — they will stop doing it when it stops working…
- Narrative / Storytelling is Everything — I really loved reading Harrari’s Unstoppable Us books to my eldest— I think his kids books might be better than his adult books / forced distillation is great. The big story — is that what makes humans special is STORYTELLING — when you frame it that simply, we live at one of the most most interesting times in history — you change the patterns of storytelling / which stories work, etc. and you change humanity. You can’t fight it — you have to understand it and use it… the reality, Elon, Trump, etc. are unbelievably good storytellers who understand modern distribution.
- Blockchain > Metaverse > AI > TRUMP? — follow the bros… in terms of storytelling I honestly feel like the AI story is going to subside because the bros have moved on to infrastructure, America, DOGE, etc…. People really really need a story / narrative to get out of bed about the future — there has been a HUGE HUNT for that story for years and years now (honestly ever since the internet) / for something that mattered… as AI yield flattens ... it seems like it is now all about America.
Sam
P.S. Last week was happy 75K bitcoin… this week happy 93K… I am not complaining.
P.P.S. IV drips… I woke up Tuesday as sick as I can remember feeling, dizzy, nauseous, the whole nine yards — but I needed to be alive for this larry thing — so after moaning in bed all day I went and got a medispa IV drip of anti-nausea medication + hydration + whatever else they put in a bag and dripped into me… honestly, fabulous.
sam lessin | @lessin | want to talk | podcast | stop | to get added to the mailing list email [email protected]