#178 with Balaji - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto

So, basically you're pursuing truth, health, and wealth in that order. And I think that's actually the right priority order. So, learn truth—determine what is true. Pursue health because without that, you have really nothing else. And then wealth is important, but it's third. And it's important to have that third. You never want to do something that's untrue to make money or to sacrifice your long-term health for wealth. I mean, whatever, losing sleep one day, okay, it may not be the end of world. For a year, it's going to affect your long-term health.

Nowadays... if somebody is choosing San Francisco for a startup, I crinkle my eyebrows ... Before the pandemic, I said it was like choosing Java—proven but kind of kind of sucks ... But now, it's like choosing Oracle for a new company ... Basically, you're just getting locked into this horrible cost structure of declining product when far better options are available. I question their judgment.

First, skills-wise, I'd get really good at computer science and statistics... The reason is that every domain has algorithms and data structures which means that computer science and stats are valuable anywhere.

Instagram is for people who go outside; Twitter is for depressed intellectuals.

One thing people don't get is that crypto is not just the next Wall Street; it's also the next Silicon Valley... But even less obviously, it's the next Yale law and Columbia School of Journalism and Kennedy School of Government.

I do think that, within five to ten years, in addition to email and text message, your ENS name... or let's say crypto name will become the third most popular communication channel.

A lot of time online, as we know, is just being wasted ... The sheer number of hours when we really think about the millions or billions of hours that are used on social networks—I think it was a necessary step to get people online ... But I think one issue is that social networks were invented and scaled 10 years, 7 yearsish before cryptocurrency. And, so, because of that, you can only transfer status online and not value.

My one-liner on this is 2000s were the tech companies, 2010s: crypto protocols, 2020s: startup cities, 2030s: network states.

People are running on scripts that they don't even realize they're running on because media scripts humans, just as code scripts machines.

I am an investor, and I think I've done I'm fairly well at it and so on. I invest on an ideological basis. I invest in the world that I want to build. And there are probably things which are good financial investments that... I'm not interested in something if it's just making money. I can sort of force myself to be in that headspace, but I have to force myself.