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The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future
How do you thrive in an unknown future?
When you can’t see past the world we have now, look to visionaries like Balaji Srinivasan. His ideas show us how to build a healthier, brighter, and more technologically-advanced humanity.
In The Anthology of A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future, Eric Jorgenson curates a collection of Balaji’s wisdom from his entire career. In “Technology” you will see how technology shapes our world today and the ways it could shape our future. In “Truth” you learn how to think for yourself through the constant clamor of information and media. Finally, in “Building the Future,” you will learn how to wield Technology and Truth to change your life, change your community, and—maybe—change the future of our species.
This guide will help you pick the next great investment, start a billion-dollar company, or even a new country. The Anthology of Balaji helps you visualize and build your brightest future.
When you can’t see past the world we have now, look to visionaries like Balaji Srinivasan. His ideas show us how to build a healthier, brighter, and more technologically-advanced humanity.
In The Anthology of A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future, Eric Jorgenson curates a collection of Balaji’s wisdom from his entire career. In “Technology” you will see how technology shapes our world today and the ways it could shape our future. In “Truth” you learn how to think for yourself through the constant clamor of information and media. Finally, in “Building the Future,” you will learn how to wield Technology and Truth to change your life, change your community, and—maybe—change the future of our species.
This guide will help you pick the next great investment, start a billion-dollar company, or even a new country. The Anthology of Balaji helps you visualize and build your brightest future.
273 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2023
256 people are currently reading
2,166 people want to read
About the author
Eric Jorgenson
13 books565 followersEric Jorgenson is an entrepreneur, writer, and investor. He is on the founding team of Zaarly, and has been publishing online since 2014. His blog has educated and entertained over a million readers.
Eric is on a quest to create (and eat) the perfect sandwich. He tweets at @ericjorgenson and publishes new pieces and projects on ejorgenson.com/blog
Eric is on a quest to create (and eat) the perfect sandwich. He tweets at @ericjorgenson and publishes new pieces and projects on ejorgenson.com/blog
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
August 29, 2024
It's not a "standard" book. Just like in the case of "Almanac ..." (Jorgenson's previous book), it's a collection of thoughts, statements, and rationale shared with the world by an interesting individual. Previously it was Naval Ravikant, now it's Balaji Srinivasan.
Eric's input is mostly: collecting, filtering, editing (where needed), adding some illustrations (not many), and grouping all this up in more-or-less-coherent chapters.
If you don't know who Balaji is, there's probably zero point in reaching out for this book. If you've heard about him, you most likely follow him on Twitter/X or maybe you've read his own book - "Network State". In such a case, you're probably familiar with the most of the stuff you can find here - but it still makes sense to reach out for "The Anthology ..." as it nicely collects all the scattered stuff in 1 place and the PDF edition is available for free (so you don't have the impression you have been scammed).
Aaaaaanyway, what about the content?
Balaji being Balaji. Super-optimistic about what he believes in (so he ignores all the warning signs & risks), hyper-enthusiastic about crypto, and a dedicated enemy of regulation. He likes to "philosophize" a lot - his ideas are frequently half-baked and very far from actionable. So yes, maybe he sometimes sounds a bit crazy, but ... there's a specific sort of brilliance in this craziness (the meme: "Balaji was right" wasn't made for no reason ...). Even if I disagree with him (which happens VERY frequently), I love challenging his thoughts, just because they are so daring, bold, and unorthodox.
So, in the end - fun fact - even if I reject so many thesis from this book (and "Network State" as well), I've made tons of notes out of this book, for sure more than from any other book in the last 12 months.
Recommended - great food for thought. Maybe not as good as Almanack, but still worthy.
P.S. The chapter on the truth is pure gold.
Eric's input is mostly: collecting, filtering, editing (where needed), adding some illustrations (not many), and grouping all this up in more-or-less-coherent chapters.
If you don't know who Balaji is, there's probably zero point in reaching out for this book. If you've heard about him, you most likely follow him on Twitter/X or maybe you've read his own book - "Network State". In such a case, you're probably familiar with the most of the stuff you can find here - but it still makes sense to reach out for "The Anthology ..." as it nicely collects all the scattered stuff in 1 place and the PDF edition is available for free (so you don't have the impression you have been scammed).
Aaaaaanyway, what about the content?
Balaji being Balaji. Super-optimistic about what he believes in (so he ignores all the warning signs & risks), hyper-enthusiastic about crypto, and a dedicated enemy of regulation. He likes to "philosophize" a lot - his ideas are frequently half-baked and very far from actionable. So yes, maybe he sometimes sounds a bit crazy, but ... there's a specific sort of brilliance in this craziness (the meme: "Balaji was right" wasn't made for no reason ...). Even if I disagree with him (which happens VERY frequently), I love challenging his thoughts, just because they are so daring, bold, and unorthodox.
So, in the end - fun fact - even if I reject so many thesis from this book (and "Network State" as well), I've made tons of notes out of this book, for sure more than from any other book in the last 12 months.
Recommended - great food for thought. Maybe not as good as Almanack, but still worthy.
P.S. The chapter on the truth is pure gold.
December 4, 2023
A compilation of tweets and hot takes from prominent VC and crypto promoter Balaji.
The book is thematically focused on opinion pieces on the virtues of technological progress, rebellion against established systems and criticism of traditional media and the nature of truth.
Term learned from the book: A “scissor statement” is something that is obviously true to one party and obviously false to the other. Media and social media companies are constantly searching for and selecting scissor statements because they’re enraging, and therefore engaging.
A hot take: “Your email inbox is a to-do list other people write for you.”
An interesting thought: “Content is as important as engineering nowadays. Every new company could have a founding influencer on par with the founding engineer.”
A confounding statement (wait wut): “If the purpose of technology is to reduce scarcity, then the ultimate purpose of technology is to eliminate mortality.”
The book is thematically focused on opinion pieces on the virtues of technological progress, rebellion against established systems and criticism of traditional media and the nature of truth.
Term learned from the book: A “scissor statement” is something that is obviously true to one party and obviously false to the other. Media and social media companies are constantly searching for and selecting scissor statements because they’re enraging, and therefore engaging.
A hot take: “Your email inbox is a to-do list other people write for you.”
An interesting thought: “Content is as important as engineering nowadays. Every new company could have a founding influencer on par with the founding engineer.”
A confounding statement (wait wut): “If the purpose of technology is to reduce scarcity, then the ultimate purpose of technology is to eliminate mortality.”
February 3, 2024
Not a book, but an impressive collection of provoking insights and mental models by an unorthodox thinker, Balaji Srinivasan. Very similar to Naval Ravikant’s Almanack by the same author (i.e. editor), Eric Jorgenson. Balaji places a lot of value on maths and hence reasoning his way through problems and how he views the world.
March 4, 2025
immutable money, infinite frontier, eternal life
December 31, 2023
Great introduction to Balaji Srinivasan! This is the second most annotated book I've read, right after "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant." It introduced me to some new ideas and changed my outlook on others, like crypto. Highly recommended!
October 20, 2024
4 out or 5 really liked it.
I read this book to familiarize with the person of Balaji that I had had only heard about. Even though the book is "just" an anthology of thoughts / tweets it shows various points of view B has. I'm somewhat amazed by the breadth and the depth of them. From my previous understanding he was into new tech, crypto and the network state, but this book delivers much more coherent view, aligned with a healthspan, longevity and general building of products and companies for the future. EACC like.
If you know already Balaji, I'm not sure if you'll find more in this book. I you don't and you want to meet an interesting and future oriented person, this might be it.
I read this book to familiarize with the person of Balaji that I had had only heard about. Even though the book is "just" an anthology of thoughts / tweets it shows various points of view B has. I'm somewhat amazed by the breadth and the depth of them. From my previous understanding he was into new tech, crypto and the network state, but this book delivers much more coherent view, aligned with a healthspan, longevity and general building of products and companies for the future. EACC like.
If you know already Balaji, I'm not sure if you'll find more in this book. I you don't and you want to meet an interesting and future oriented person, this might be it.
March 2, 2024
Agree or not with the content itself, this provocative book allows you to improve the quality of your ideas. Good way to update you operating system to the e/acc utopic version of the future.
August 27, 2024
Massive highlights. So much value; almost no fluff or "story example" books like much of the current trash on shelves.
October 19, 2024
Summary
Intro:
• My favorite books give me a new type of X-ray vision.
• this book is actually a guide to think for yourself.
• Our future is born anew every day. Use your powers well.
• Create a product. Solve a problem. Build.
Background
• I learned early on that you’ve got to stand up for yourself
• Knowing what I was weak at allowed me to become strong
• In venture capital and content creation, originality is really, really valued. Whether you call it originality, being disobedient, or being contrarian—the combination of being analytical and not fully obedient has been important.
Part 1: Tech
- Putting in a lot of labor doesn’t necessarily generate value.Putting in the right technology often does
- We have to start talking more about our values than our val-
uations. Money is only a tool. What really matters is building
something you can’t buy.
- The reason speed has value is because
time has value; the reason time has value is because human
life spans are finite.
- You can’t invent planes without test pilots. We have to have Early adopters.
Being too conservative on safety actually leads to systemic risk. Systemic risk happens when you stop taking risks and get stuck with a system that no longer improves.
- Everything technology is doing means more upside, more downside. That’s my one-liner for the future: more upside, more downside.
- The last era was big data. The next era is verifiable data
- Our physical future- Knowing the joules required to build something would give us a ratio-scale measure of the cost of production.
Part 2: truth
- Many things that are true are unpopular;many things that are popular are untrue.
- Determining the type of evidence people accept is as important as knowing their incentives.
- The form of science today is a peer-reviewed journal paper. But the substance of science is independent replication.
- Only trust as scientific truth what can
be independently verified.
- Technological history is the history of what works; political history is the history of what works to retain power.
- Everybody has strong opinions about people they’ve never met based on tales told by people they do not know
- How to change the world:
1. Discover true facts.
2. Acquire sufficient distribution.
- You need to learn how to make media clips and movies, write, publish, direct, encapsulate, build relation-ships, and build political coalitions; you need to learn how to fight.
- The media you consume changes the decisions you make. The technology you have changes the decisions
you can make
- For any technology we want to drive forward, we must own the D iscourse. An “important feed” will be very different from the “news feed.” What is important often is not new, and what is new often is not important
Become a citizen journalist
- Own a media corporation or be owned by one.
- Platforms like Substack, Patreon, and Ghost allow writers to optimize for dollowers.
- “Dollowers” (dollar-weighted followers) are an important part of the future.
Part 3 - Building the Future
- To get lucky, you must first take a chance
- The less money you need, the less dependent you are.
- I spend my money on being able
to work harder.
- Don’t argue about anything; just build an alternative. Don’t argue with words. Build products based on truths many people can’t grasp
- Works in practice, not in theory
- This is where historical perspective and market research is Key. A strong new plan for navigating the idea maze usually requires an obsession with the market and a unique insight others have not had.
- Look for the areas technology has not moved into yet. That’s where the opportunities will be
- From a founding and investing standpoint, you have to con-sider strategic questions. What kinds of platforms are there? What new platforms cure such a pain point that people get on it? Then what else can be deployed on that platform?
- The best entrepreneurs are logical enough to think of unpopular truths and then social enough to make those truths popular.
- If the goal is full stack, always talk to executives in the field early on. A few words can save years of work to identify key cost centers and hard parts. You can start all of these as “just” a new clinic/restaurant/ accountant/architect/ law firm. Think big, start small. Prove, then scale.Staging is key for full-stack startups
- A demo is worth a thousand decks
The 6 Ps are a useful checklist.
Product—What are you selling?
Person—To whom?
Purpose—Why are they buying it?
Pricing—At what price?
Priority—Why now?
Prestige—And why from you?
- You can quantify the quality of a user interface by the number, type, and duration of user inputs required to achieve a result.
- Bounded commitment.List your options, choose your best one, and commit for a predetermined period of time—like a week or a month. Then
Revisit. The key is thinking of your
time as a resource to quantitatively allocate, like capital.
- SaaS first, code second, hire last.
- A new product can never be superior to an incumbent in all respects. Launch means criticism.
- The rapid growth phase is where startups are most unpopular—and most at risk
- “Hire people who are hungry and can teach us something.” When you give
somebody the biggest opportunity they’ve ever had, they’re hungry.
Then there’s the other bit, ”and can teach us something.” I look for people who can communicate their knowledge effectively.
- To be effective, pull key information to the beginning and communicate it in the head-line. Then you should communicate it again in the subtitle, communicate it again in a slightly different way in the opening sentence, and expand on it in the opening paragraph.That’s how you should write internal memos.
- hire people who are better Than you
- A good company works on conditional love—you have to deliver.
- Before candidates join your company, have them write out what they would consider success, mediocrity, and failure: bull, base, and bear. Where do they want to be in a year or Four years?
Use the same technique for dividing up labor between a manager and an employee. Do a two-by-two table with four quadrants: What does the manager expect from themself? What does the manager expect from the employee? What does the employee expect from themself? What does the employee expect from the manager?
- Distribution is about connections.
- If you focus on growing users, pay close attention to churn. Pairing a second measure of quality with a metric of growth is very, very important.
- Executing - The execution mindset means doing the next thing on the to-do list at all times. Rewrite the list every day or every week in Response to progress.
- Doing things as fast as you can often means doing them one at a time
- list, rank, iterate: page 234
- It’s not the idea; it’s the execution
Nobody cares - by Ben Horowitz
“Nobody cares, just coach your team” might be the best CEO advice ever. Because, you see, nobody cares. When things go wrong in your company, nobody cares. The press doesn’t care, your investors don’t care, your board doesn’t care, your employees don’t care, even your mama doesn’t care. Nobody cares.
And they are right not to care. A great reason for failing won’t preserve one dollar for your investors, won’t save one employee’s job, or get you one new customer. It especially won’t make you feel one bit better when you shut down your company and declare bankruptcy.
All the mental energy you use to elaborate your misery would be far better used trying to find the one seemingly impossible way out of your current mess. It’s best to spend zero time on what you could have done and all of your time on what you might do. Because in the end, nobody cares, just run your company.
Evolving
- The productivity handbook:
- write out your Goals.
- I lie awake at night and think, Okay, here’s what I’ve learned today. How does that fit into my broad collection of ideas? Where are the contradictions, overlaps, and so on?
- Economist and philosopher John Maynard Keynes said, “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” Meaning, if you don’t know what intellectual soft-
ware you’re running, you’re running something subconsciously.
- Your email inbox is a to-do list other people write For you. Task length and importance are not related to recently received.
- Don’t just focus on economics alone, because you can overoptimize and distort financial metrics at the expense of health
- What you choose to load into your brain first thing in the morning is the most precious, precious space.
- Hard work is a competitive advantage.
- The newest technical papers and the oldest books are the best sources of arbitrage.
- You are What you read
- Learn to learn fast. To learn technical content fast, I just start doing problems. Start, then learn
You can understand any mathematical concept in six ways:
verbal, visual, algebraic, numerical, computational, and
historical.
1. Verbal—explain in words
2. Visual—make a graph
3. Algebraic—write the equation
4. Numerical—do a numerical example
5. Computational—code a solver or algorithm
6. Historical—tell where it came from
- At each stage of life, I used my current skill and applied it in a new domain to learn another skill. I never started completely at zero; I was always building from a previous skill.
- The ideal is you are a full-stack engineer and full-stack creator
- Establish your broad skill and knowledge foundation, then find
an area you want to work in. To choose your specific domain, pick an area you really care about for some reason
- Invest in the Future you want to see - Build your wealth, then help others build theirs.
- A startup should be exceptional in at least one dimension. It can’t be “pretty good” at all different things. At least one dimension needs to be 10 times better and amazing to bet on.
- Found it, fund it, or join it. We’ll have to work to create the future we want.
Book recommendations:
- The Princeton Companion to Mathematics by Timothy Gowers
- Schaum’s Outlines by Joel Lerner and James Cashin
- The Great CEO Within by Matt Mochary
- Where Is My Flying Car? by Josh Storrs Hall
VisualizeValue.com.
Intro:
• My favorite books give me a new type of X-ray vision.
• this book is actually a guide to think for yourself.
• Our future is born anew every day. Use your powers well.
• Create a product. Solve a problem. Build.
Background
• I learned early on that you’ve got to stand up for yourself
• Knowing what I was weak at allowed me to become strong
• In venture capital and content creation, originality is really, really valued. Whether you call it originality, being disobedient, or being contrarian—the combination of being analytical and not fully obedient has been important.
Part 1: Tech
- Putting in a lot of labor doesn’t necessarily generate value.Putting in the right technology often does
- We have to start talking more about our values than our val-
uations. Money is only a tool. What really matters is building
something you can’t buy.
- The reason speed has value is because
time has value; the reason time has value is because human
life spans are finite.
- You can’t invent planes without test pilots. We have to have Early adopters.
Being too conservative on safety actually leads to systemic risk. Systemic risk happens when you stop taking risks and get stuck with a system that no longer improves.
- Everything technology is doing means more upside, more downside. That’s my one-liner for the future: more upside, more downside.
- The last era was big data. The next era is verifiable data
- Our physical future- Knowing the joules required to build something would give us a ratio-scale measure of the cost of production.
Part 2: truth
- Many things that are true are unpopular;many things that are popular are untrue.
- Determining the type of evidence people accept is as important as knowing their incentives.
- The form of science today is a peer-reviewed journal paper. But the substance of science is independent replication.
- Only trust as scientific truth what can
be independently verified.
- Technological history is the history of what works; political history is the history of what works to retain power.
- Everybody has strong opinions about people they’ve never met based on tales told by people they do not know
- How to change the world:
1. Discover true facts.
2. Acquire sufficient distribution.
- You need to learn how to make media clips and movies, write, publish, direct, encapsulate, build relation-ships, and build political coalitions; you need to learn how to fight.
- The media you consume changes the decisions you make. The technology you have changes the decisions
you can make
- For any technology we want to drive forward, we must own the D iscourse. An “important feed” will be very different from the “news feed.” What is important often is not new, and what is new often is not important
Become a citizen journalist
- Own a media corporation or be owned by one.
- Platforms like Substack, Patreon, and Ghost allow writers to optimize for dollowers.
- “Dollowers” (dollar-weighted followers) are an important part of the future.
Part 3 - Building the Future
- To get lucky, you must first take a chance
- The less money you need, the less dependent you are.
- I spend my money on being able
to work harder.
- Don’t argue about anything; just build an alternative. Don’t argue with words. Build products based on truths many people can’t grasp
- Works in practice, not in theory
- This is where historical perspective and market research is Key. A strong new plan for navigating the idea maze usually requires an obsession with the market and a unique insight others have not had.
- Look for the areas technology has not moved into yet. That’s where the opportunities will be
- From a founding and investing standpoint, you have to con-sider strategic questions. What kinds of platforms are there? What new platforms cure such a pain point that people get on it? Then what else can be deployed on that platform?
- The best entrepreneurs are logical enough to think of unpopular truths and then social enough to make those truths popular.
- If the goal is full stack, always talk to executives in the field early on. A few words can save years of work to identify key cost centers and hard parts. You can start all of these as “just” a new clinic/restaurant/ accountant/architect/ law firm. Think big, start small. Prove, then scale.Staging is key for full-stack startups
- A demo is worth a thousand decks
The 6 Ps are a useful checklist.
Product—What are you selling?
Person—To whom?
Purpose—Why are they buying it?
Pricing—At what price?
Priority—Why now?
Prestige—And why from you?
- You can quantify the quality of a user interface by the number, type, and duration of user inputs required to achieve a result.
- Bounded commitment.List your options, choose your best one, and commit for a predetermined period of time—like a week or a month. Then
Revisit. The key is thinking of your
time as a resource to quantitatively allocate, like capital.
- SaaS first, code second, hire last.
- A new product can never be superior to an incumbent in all respects. Launch means criticism.
- The rapid growth phase is where startups are most unpopular—and most at risk
- “Hire people who are hungry and can teach us something.” When you give
somebody the biggest opportunity they’ve ever had, they’re hungry.
Then there’s the other bit, ”and can teach us something.” I look for people who can communicate their knowledge effectively.
- To be effective, pull key information to the beginning and communicate it in the head-line. Then you should communicate it again in the subtitle, communicate it again in a slightly different way in the opening sentence, and expand on it in the opening paragraph.That’s how you should write internal memos.
- hire people who are better Than you
- A good company works on conditional love—you have to deliver.
- Before candidates join your company, have them write out what they would consider success, mediocrity, and failure: bull, base, and bear. Where do they want to be in a year or Four years?
Use the same technique for dividing up labor between a manager and an employee. Do a two-by-two table with four quadrants: What does the manager expect from themself? What does the manager expect from the employee? What does the employee expect from themself? What does the employee expect from the manager?
- Distribution is about connections.
- If you focus on growing users, pay close attention to churn. Pairing a second measure of quality with a metric of growth is very, very important.
- Executing - The execution mindset means doing the next thing on the to-do list at all times. Rewrite the list every day or every week in Response to progress.
- Doing things as fast as you can often means doing them one at a time
- list, rank, iterate: page 234
- It’s not the idea; it’s the execution
Nobody cares - by Ben Horowitz
“Nobody cares, just coach your team” might be the best CEO advice ever. Because, you see, nobody cares. When things go wrong in your company, nobody cares. The press doesn’t care, your investors don’t care, your board doesn’t care, your employees don’t care, even your mama doesn’t care. Nobody cares.
And they are right not to care. A great reason for failing won’t preserve one dollar for your investors, won’t save one employee’s job, or get you one new customer. It especially won’t make you feel one bit better when you shut down your company and declare bankruptcy.
All the mental energy you use to elaborate your misery would be far better used trying to find the one seemingly impossible way out of your current mess. It’s best to spend zero time on what you could have done and all of your time on what you might do. Because in the end, nobody cares, just run your company.
Evolving
- The productivity handbook:
- write out your Goals.
- I lie awake at night and think, Okay, here’s what I’ve learned today. How does that fit into my broad collection of ideas? Where are the contradictions, overlaps, and so on?
- Economist and philosopher John Maynard Keynes said, “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” Meaning, if you don’t know what intellectual soft-
ware you’re running, you’re running something subconsciously.
- Your email inbox is a to-do list other people write For you. Task length and importance are not related to recently received.
- Don’t just focus on economics alone, because you can overoptimize and distort financial metrics at the expense of health
- What you choose to load into your brain first thing in the morning is the most precious, precious space.
- Hard work is a competitive advantage.
- The newest technical papers and the oldest books are the best sources of arbitrage.
- You are What you read
- Learn to learn fast. To learn technical content fast, I just start doing problems. Start, then learn
You can understand any mathematical concept in six ways:
verbal, visual, algebraic, numerical, computational, and
historical.
1. Verbal—explain in words
2. Visual—make a graph
3. Algebraic—write the equation
4. Numerical—do a numerical example
5. Computational—code a solver or algorithm
6. Historical—tell where it came from
- At each stage of life, I used my current skill and applied it in a new domain to learn another skill. I never started completely at zero; I was always building from a previous skill.
- The ideal is you are a full-stack engineer and full-stack creator
- Establish your broad skill and knowledge foundation, then find
an area you want to work in. To choose your specific domain, pick an area you really care about for some reason
- Invest in the Future you want to see - Build your wealth, then help others build theirs.
- A startup should be exceptional in at least one dimension. It can’t be “pretty good” at all different things. At least one dimension needs to be 10 times better and amazing to bet on.
- Found it, fund it, or join it. We’ll have to work to create the future we want.
Book recommendations:
- The Princeton Companion to Mathematics by Timothy Gowers
- Schaum’s Outlines by Joel Lerner and James Cashin
- The Great CEO Within by Matt Mochary
- Where Is My Flying Car? by Josh Storrs Hall
VisualizeValue.com.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2024
I love that this book was not overstretched. This was an easy and enjoyable read with a-lot of nuggets but also strongly opinionated. While i believe technology solves alot of problems and ushers us into new frontiers it will not magically solve all problems. Some problems can be solved with common sense while considering social factors.
January 17, 2024
While I couldn’t agree with all of the ideas since humans still are emotional creatures, but the concepts of purpose-driven life and realigning media for readers are great future goals that we can strive for.
November 3, 2023
The first few chapters were extremely bullish on the future of cryptocurrency and the blockchain. I only have an elementary understanding of these technologies so this is something I need to spend further time on.
There was some insights on politics, power and media that were extremely punchy and aligned to my world view.
I enjoyed this book and definitely garnered a few insights. Probably not as earth shattering as the Almanack of Naval Ravikant but the book is still worth the 5* review on the balance of it.
There was some insights on politics, power and media that were extremely punchy and aligned to my world view.
I enjoyed this book and definitely garnered a few insights. Probably not as earth shattering as the Almanack of Naval Ravikant but the book is still worth the 5* review on the balance of it.
November 2, 2023
If you’re looking for another Almanack of Naval - this is not the same (which I like). That being said, this book stands on its own as a great introduction and guide through Balaji’s mindset on technology, the future, and being a founder. Succinct, easy to digest and worth your time if the topics interest you. I really like Eric’s format when it comes to these books, and it works great to parse a lot of information quickly. Can easily be read in a day.
November 5, 2023
Read prior to attending the Network State Conference. I think the book is well written and organized and an easy read. I thought the third chapter was really novel in terms of content I hadn’t seen so well organized and things that are directly applicable to many readers. Other than that, more of the same content as TNS book, although I guess that was the point.
February 14, 2024
Easy read. Excellent ideas - actionable insights.
Balaji like Naval Ravikant is a serious deep thinker and master of first principles. Enjoyed the book. Jorgensen has done a great job as usual.
Balaji like Naval Ravikant is a serious deep thinker and master of first principles. Enjoyed the book. Jorgensen has done a great job as usual.
April 29, 2024
Considering the author's track record with the book "Almanack of Naval Ravikant," which I have yet to read but have heard much about, I had high expectations for this one. And I must say, it surpassed my expectations.
This book is a gold mine for those who love to ponder, especially about the future. It delves deep into how deeply the technologies discussed by Balaji will impact our lives.
The language isn't overly technical, which might lead some to dismiss it as another piece of tech talk. However, we can't ignore the automation and digital revolution we're undergoing. If we deny that we're in the early stages of the next big revolution, we're deceiving ourselves.
Topics like AI with robotics and blockchain with its countless potential applications across industries will leave you amazed if you have the patience to read and research (not everything is covered in this book, sorry). However, you'll gain the mindset and insights about the approaching future.
Balaji is highly optimistic about Bitcoin and pessimistic about government and MNC control over regulation, money, and technology. While I personally see a shift toward a multipolar world with no single currency replacing the dollar, I don't fully agree with his stance on Bitcoin. Yet, that's the beauty of it— the author acknowledges that readers may disagree with many of his thoughts, and he's open to that.
We're not just spectators of the future; we're actively shaping it. Everyone will contribute to and influence the future, so we can't predict exactly what will happen. However, the insightful discussion of current scenarios and upcoming technologies in this book will undoubtedly help us understand many aspects, if not all, of the future we're heading towards.
The future is not only about tech but also about the health, manufacturing, Agriculture, Space and many more unexplored, unexpected areas yet to be discovered. This book provides you with the glimpse for the same which put you over the age than many others who are going forward without proper knowledge. That's why it's best pick for everyone who really wants to be part of building better future for themselves.
This book is a gold mine for those who love to ponder, especially about the future. It delves deep into how deeply the technologies discussed by Balaji will impact our lives.
The language isn't overly technical, which might lead some to dismiss it as another piece of tech talk. However, we can't ignore the automation and digital revolution we're undergoing. If we deny that we're in the early stages of the next big revolution, we're deceiving ourselves.
Topics like AI with robotics and blockchain with its countless potential applications across industries will leave you amazed if you have the patience to read and research (not everything is covered in this book, sorry). However, you'll gain the mindset and insights about the approaching future.
Balaji is highly optimistic about Bitcoin and pessimistic about government and MNC control over regulation, money, and technology. While I personally see a shift toward a multipolar world with no single currency replacing the dollar, I don't fully agree with his stance on Bitcoin. Yet, that's the beauty of it— the author acknowledges that readers may disagree with many of his thoughts, and he's open to that.
We're not just spectators of the future; we're actively shaping it. Everyone will contribute to and influence the future, so we can't predict exactly what will happen. However, the insightful discussion of current scenarios and upcoming technologies in this book will undoubtedly help us understand many aspects, if not all, of the future we're heading towards.
The future is not only about tech but also about the health, manufacturing, Agriculture, Space and many more unexplored, unexpected areas yet to be discovered. This book provides you with the glimpse for the same which put you over the age than many others who are going forward without proper knowledge. That's why it's best pick for everyone who really wants to be part of building better future for themselves.
February 24, 2024
Technology is what makes us human.
It's what distinguishes man from animal.
Fire arguably made us human.
The invention of fire allowed humans to outsource some of our metabolism to the fire and allocate more scarce calories for brain development.
Truth and technology go hand-in-hand.
Technology is birthed everytime we discover a non-obvious truth.
A truth either about humans or the world.
Build products based on truths other people can't grasp.
If it works, they will buy it. Their confusion is your advantage.
Unlock unseen value.
It requires more empathy and more imagination to think about value that isn't seen.
You can see a skyscraper. You can't see what could've been built but wasn't.
(find my notes in booksense app. Link in bio)
If the internet was programmable communication, crypto is programmable money.
Before the internet, you needed a deal with a telecom company to deploy information-transferring code.
Before Bitcoin, you needed a deal with a bank to deploy value-transferring code.
Those saying, "Crypto is just another asset class" sound like those who said, "The internet is just another media outlet."
They didn't understand programmability, permissionless-ness, or peer-to-peer, and they overestimated the robustness of legacy institutions.
History repeats with crypto.
Balaji S. is a scientist, technologist, entrepreneur, and investor who was previously CTO of Coinbase and the author of a recently published book "The Network State: How to Start a New Country".
Eric Jorgenson writes and podcasts about technology, startups, and investing who previously published one of my favorite books: "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant".
Happy reading! 📙
It's what distinguishes man from animal.
Fire arguably made us human.
The invention of fire allowed humans to outsource some of our metabolism to the fire and allocate more scarce calories for brain development.
Truth and technology go hand-in-hand.
Technology is birthed everytime we discover a non-obvious truth.
A truth either about humans or the world.
Build products based on truths other people can't grasp.
If it works, they will buy it. Their confusion is your advantage.
Unlock unseen value.
It requires more empathy and more imagination to think about value that isn't seen.
You can see a skyscraper. You can't see what could've been built but wasn't.
(find my notes in booksense app. Link in bio)
If the internet was programmable communication, crypto is programmable money.
Before the internet, you needed a deal with a telecom company to deploy information-transferring code.
Before Bitcoin, you needed a deal with a bank to deploy value-transferring code.
Those saying, "Crypto is just another asset class" sound like those who said, "The internet is just another media outlet."
They didn't understand programmability, permissionless-ness, or peer-to-peer, and they overestimated the robustness of legacy institutions.
History repeats with crypto.
Balaji S. is a scientist, technologist, entrepreneur, and investor who was previously CTO of Coinbase and the author of a recently published book "The Network State: How to Start a New Country".
Eric Jorgenson writes and podcasts about technology, startups, and investing who previously published one of my favorite books: "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant".
Happy reading! 📙
May 1, 2024
Who knows what the future holds!
Guess who knows? This Book 📖
Anthology of Balaji is collection of Tweets from the one and only Balaji Srinivasan.
Who is Balaji Srinivasan?
Balaji Srinivasan is a prominent Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur, having served as the Chief Technology Officer of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
The book is a guide to future. Balaji reminds us that future is not something far-fetched but is build in the present. We are all part of the Tech History as it's being created every passing moment. We can either be a part of the change, or oppose it. Change will occur anyway.
The book highlights the wonders technology and Startups can and will do in creating things money can't buy. One can learn how to build value and innovate things that'll enhance Human Life.
So far the pace of development is hindered by regulations. Change seems scary and thus restraints have withheld the value technology can create. Balaji emphasis that there should be room for people to take risk to advance technology.
It's a practical guide for builders aka Entrepreneurs to change the World. The book will help you:
🔸Develop mindset to create personal wealth
🔸Learn to build media companies for future
🔸Find ideas for billion-dollar companies
As Eric Jorgenson wrote:
Our future is born every day. Use your powers well.
Create a product. Solve a problem. Build.
Guess who knows? This Book 📖
Anthology of Balaji is collection of Tweets from the one and only Balaji Srinivasan.
Who is Balaji Srinivasan?
Balaji Srinivasan is a prominent Silicon Valley investor and entrepreneur, having served as the Chief Technology Officer of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
The book is a guide to future. Balaji reminds us that future is not something far-fetched but is build in the present. We are all part of the Tech History as it's being created every passing moment. We can either be a part of the change, or oppose it. Change will occur anyway.
The book highlights the wonders technology and Startups can and will do in creating things money can't buy. One can learn how to build value and innovate things that'll enhance Human Life.
So far the pace of development is hindered by regulations. Change seems scary and thus restraints have withheld the value technology can create. Balaji emphasis that there should be room for people to take risk to advance technology.
It's a practical guide for builders aka Entrepreneurs to change the World. The book will help you:
🔸Develop mindset to create personal wealth
🔸Learn to build media companies for future
🔸Find ideas for billion-dollar companies
As Eric Jorgenson wrote:
Our future is born every day. Use your powers well.
Create a product. Solve a problem. Build.
March 26, 2025
Started with crypto preaching, faded into political cliche, and ended... actually on a higher note. Part III: Building The Future was the saving grace of the book. Most advices are unoriginal, but I am sure everyone can find something useful.
Have to give a shoutout to Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms. Was reading both books concurrently and it is so much superior in sophistication and in composition. It also warned against books like The Anthology: a future like this will come, but predicting it is useless if you do not tell us HOW it will get there.
I also cannot stand how Jorgenson shares the problem of most tech people: they believe that the world should be optimized. No. Humans have the right to make poor choices; to pursue short-term gratification at the expense of their future; to consume low-value media for mental satisfaction.
At least it has good moral. Some 1-star books do not.
Takeaways for me:
1. We go through cycles of centralization and decentralization.
2. Go into things with plans---anticipate trouble, change in industry, forces that cause the change, etc.
3. Start something, get stuck, then learn it (good advice for me to learn coding).
Have to give a shoutout to Shocks, Crises, and False Alarms. Was reading both books concurrently and it is so much superior in sophistication and in composition. It also warned against books like The Anthology: a future like this will come, but predicting it is useless if you do not tell us HOW it will get there.
I also cannot stand how Jorgenson shares the problem of most tech people: they believe that the world should be optimized. No. Humans have the right to make poor choices; to pursue short-term gratification at the expense of their future; to consume low-value media for mental satisfaction.
At least it has good moral. Some 1-star books do not.
Takeaways for me:
1. We go through cycles of centralization and decentralization.
2. Go into things with plans---anticipate trouble, change in industry, forces that cause the change, etc.
3. Start something, get stuck, then learn it (good advice for me to learn coding).
December 22, 2024
I didn't have comparably many "aha" moments with The Anthology of Balaji as with The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness (this is a must-read). Still, Balaji's bold worldview is refreshing. Some of his ideas are boarding on craziness (read The Network State: How To Start a New Country, but this type of man can genuinely change the world.
December 9, 2024
Easy to read about techno-optimistic. Lots of good take-aways though not 5 stars for me since there seems to be just one side of argument without much caveat/ opposing forces. Anyway some good takes:
-Pursue Truth, Health, Wealth in this order
-Buid the thing money cannot buy
-Money isn't zero-sum game, while status is.
-Tech is driving force of history, being upstream of culture, hence politics
-Our future is our past
-Living forever is the way to make things cheaper (???)
-Very good essays abt media and what its future can/should be
-Popularity can be measured by likes. Truth can't be.
-Pursue Truth, Health, Wealth in this order
-Buid the thing money cannot buy
-Money isn't zero-sum game, while status is.
-Tech is driving force of history, being upstream of culture, hence politics
-Our future is our past
-Living forever is the way to make things cheaper (???)
-Very good essays abt media and what its future can/should be
-Popularity can be measured by likes. Truth can't be.
June 5, 2024
Just like the Almanak of Naval but a little more up to date. Blaji makes you rethink things both in life and in business. If you want to learn to think for yourself and be the wise , serene person in the conversation follow along with Belaji. Most of what he says in this book will make you go hmmmmm.... and then after thinking for a bit go ... Damn , you know he's right about that isn't he?
I used my pen and highlighter with this one and will return to it again. Just bought 5 copies for each of business partners.
I used my pen and highlighter with this one and will return to it again. Just bought 5 copies for each of business partners.
November 27, 2023
Me ha gustado bastante aunque reconozco que no concuerdo con Balaji en su fe inquebrantable de que la tecnología siempre nos hará ir a mejor. Sin duda nos abre ventanas a un mundo que está por venir y que en ocasiones ya está aquí.
Muy interesante como aborda la cuestión del papel de los medios de comunicación y como empresas, emprendedores e investigadores, son hoy, medios de comunicación en potencia.
Muy interesante como aborda la cuestión del papel de los medios de comunicación y como empresas, emprendedores e investigadores, son hoy, medios de comunicación en potencia.
June 28, 2024
Bite-sized storytelling with Concise life-approach insights, about one of the world's leading futurist investors in the AI/big data/human longevity space.
Provides lots of examples of Balaji's 'mental model' frameworks for how to think about & prepare for opportunity in various situations that we will encounter in work, self-management, and society.
Like Jorgenson's book on NAVAL --
I 100% suggest reading this in tandem with this book.
Provides lots of examples of Balaji's 'mental model' frameworks for how to think about & prepare for opportunity in various situations that we will encounter in work, self-management, and society.
Like Jorgenson's book on NAVAL --
I 100% suggest reading this in tandem with this book.
March 5, 2024
This is a collection of Balaji's ideas, quotes, wisdom, experiences wrt (as the title suggests) Technology, Truth and Building the future. I think, Eric has done a remarkable job of putting this all together in one book in order for it to be accessible to an average person or anyone looking for insight and inspiration. The content is good and I enjoyed it. I recommend this book.
January 19, 2024
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant left me with much more to ponder. A lot of the chapters iterate on the idea that increasing productivity is good. Which I agree with. The best part for me were the book recommendations at the end. YMMV.
July 23, 2024
Excellent summary of Balaji's thoughts, sourced from multiple podcast appearances, tweets and discussions.
I found the final section the most helpful personally but still read the entire book and will no doubt dig back into the chapters as needed.
I found the final section the most helpful personally but still read the entire book and will no doubt dig back into the chapters as needed.
October 13, 2024
Good one. Talks about 3 important things- Technology, Truth and The Future. Wonderful insights on each of them. Would like to have seen more of Balaji's personal examples rather than a generic framework. Regardless very motivating for a budding founder.
February 10, 2025
Hmm, well part 1 of the book seemed a bit too preachy towards Crypto and how we should be embracing it. But the remaining two parts of the book offered some very interesting insights into our relationship with the digital world, which were an eye opener for me. Would recommend a read.
October 28, 2023
An insightful and thought provoking exploration of Balaji and his thinking. Well worth a read for any entrepreneur or someone who is thinking about starting something.
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