Eric's Newsletter -- August 2022

Holden Karnofsky is the co-founder and co-CEO of Open Philanthropy, which funds projects in the areas of Global Health and Well-Being as well as Longtermism. He's also the author of a blog series called "Most Important Century", in which he writes about why the ways AI may hasten the advancement of science and technology and the need to manage that transition well.Recently, he turned his attention to governance, asking:"What kind of governance system should you set up, if you're starting from scratch and can do it however you want? Here 'you' could be a company, a nonprofit, an informal association, or a country. And "governance system" means a Constitution, charter, and/or bylaws answering questions like: 'Who has the authority to make decisions (Congress, board of directors, etc.), and how are they selected, and what rules do they have to follow, and what's the process for changing those rules?'...One way of thinking about the 'ideal governance' question is: what kinds of designs could exist that aren't common today? And how should a new organization/country/etc. think about what design is going to be best for its purposes, beyond 'doing what's usually done? For any new institution, it seems like the stakes are potentially high - in some important sense, picking a governance system is a 'one-time thing' (any further changes have to be made using the rules of the existing system)."It's an open invitation to consider the possibilities, and the consequences of not considering them, too.Here are some recent job listings at companies as well as a few pieces about my work, and some of what I've been reading lately. I hope something will catch your eye on one or more fronts.[Hiring]Bubble, a no-code platform for building digital products, is looking for a Director of Partnerships, a Lead Product Manager for Growth, and an Account Executive.LTSE is looking for a Head of Software Engineering (Exchange), a Senior Software Engineer (Exchange), a Senior Systems Reliability Engineer (Exchange), an Equity Director of Sales (LTSE Equity), and a number of other roles.Zero Acre Farms, whose mission is to remove destructive vegetable oils from the food system, is looking for a VP of Business Development and Sales, and a Head of People Operations. [Conversations and Coverage]15 Best Business Books Every Entrepreneur Should ReadWhy you should Fail Fast, and often The Best Books on Leadership Every Entrepreneur Should ReadThe Complex Buying Process (Part III)12-Month MBA for PMs (Books for Product Managers)[Readings]The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong"Instead of emphasizing the role of popular innovation and amateur invention, the dominant myths in internet history focus on the trajectory of a single military-funded experiment in computer networking: the Arpanet. Though fascinating, the Arpanet story excludes the everyday culture of personal computing and grassroots internetworking. In truth, the histories of Arpanet and BBS networks were interwoven—socially and materially—as ideas, technologies, and people flowed between them."The Intellectual Obesity Crisis"We now live in an attention economy, where people are trying to draw our interest by any means possible. Since low-quality information is just as effective at satisfying our information-cravings as high-quality information, the most efficient way to get attention in the digital age is by mass-producing low-quality "junk info"— a kind of fast food for thought. Like fast food, junk info is cheap to produce and satisfying to consume, but high in additives and low in nutrition. It's also potentially addictive and, if consumed excessively, highly dangerous."Book Review: Slouching Towards Utopia"Slouching Toward Utopia is not a book that advances a central thesis; instead, it’s a book that encourages us to look at our recent past though a certain lens. DeLong narrates a set of events that most of us know well by now — European imperialism, the world wars, decolonization, globalization, the Great Recession, and so on. You will probably learn a few interesting historical tidbits from this book — DeLong has a frankly superhuman ability to remember and regurgitate endless fascinating little anecdotes and facts. But overall, the reason to read Slouching Toward Utopia is to re-frame your understanding of modern history — to see rapid economic growth as the unifying master narrative of the world since 1870."Commuting Is Evil "Considering what’s at stake, companies should drop their efforts to get people back into the office, until a time when commuting is truly zero emissions, which might take years. Corporate leaders who make weak-ass arguments about onsite brainstorming or the value of in-person learning should reexamine what is at stake: huge amounts of carbon being dumped into the atmosphere."