{"id":9735,"date":"2021-06-15T20:47:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T20:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chartercitiesinstitute.org\/?p=9735"},"modified":"2022-06-15T20:57:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T20:57:42","slug":"the-new-yorker-does-tech-need-a-new-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chartercitiesinstitute.org\/media-appearances\/the-new-yorker-does-tech-need-a-new-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Yorker: Does Tech Need a New Narrative?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"9735\" class=\"elementor elementor-9735\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2cbb6d96 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"2cbb6d96\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;_ha_eqh_enable&quot;:false}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-3c9a0a64\" data-id=\"3c9a0a64\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3c2213fa elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"3c2213fa\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.21.0 - 25-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>See the original article in the New Yorker <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/letter-from-silicon-valley\/does-tech-need-a-new-narrative\">here<\/a><\/span>.<\/p><p>In 2009, Marc Andreessen\u2014a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and angel investor best known for cofounding Netscape, in 1994, at the age of twenty-two\u2014announced that he would be starting a venture-capital firm. \u201cI\u2019m crossing over into the dark side,\u201d he said, jokingly, to the PBS talk-show host Charlie Rose. Andreessen explained that he would be starting the firm with a longtime colleague, Ben Horowitz, and that Andreessen Horowitz would be \u201cby entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.\u201d Over the next decade, the firm would help fund Facebook, Skype, Lyft, Pinterest, Airbnb, Slack, Stripe, and Coinbase. Its assets would be worth more than sixteen billion dollars, and it would be regarded as one of the premier V.C. firms in Silicon Valley.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">The firm, modelled after Michael Ovitz\u2019s Creative Artists Agency, had a new approach to venture capital. Partners at Andreessen Horowitz, all of whom were considered area specialists, supported entrepreneurs as if they were Hollywood talent, pitching in with research and recruiting. The company also had a new angle on the media. Andreessen had been booked on \u201cCharlie Rose\u201d thanks to Margit Wennmachers, the co-founder of an influential Silicon Valley P.R. shop called OutCast; Wennmachers soon joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner. At the time, most startups saw marketing and publicity as an afterthought. Similarly, at most media outlets, tech coverage tended toward dry business reporting, product-release announcements, and reviews of new gadgets. But Wennmachers made P.R. a priority for Andreessen Horowitz and the companies it funded. At her brightly decorated home, she hosted exclusive, off-the-record parties during which tech journalists could mingle with startup executives and founders over\u00a0<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/news\/article\/Marketing-guru-Margit-Wennmachers-new-venture-4833221.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/news\/article\/Marketing-guru-Margit-Wennmachers-new-venture-4833221.php\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/news\/article\/Marketing-guru-Margit-Wennmachers-new-venture-4833221.php&quot;}\" data-uri=\"8b5263f7b563fa597844997007e0986b\">food and cocktails<\/a>. Where venture capitalists had traditionally avoided publicity, Wennmachers encouraged Andreessen and Horowitz to invite media attention.<\/p><div class=\"NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper-grcsXl jsMxNh newsletter-subscribe-form\" data-testid=\"NewsletterSubscribeFormWrapper\"><div class=\"NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper-dmNqRG iflVyN\" data-testid=\"NewsletterSubscribeFormHedDekWrapper\"><p class=\"paywall\">As consumer technologies evolved, so did tech coverage. In the aughts, a slate of tech-focussed blogs sprang up, and the readership for tech coverage expanded. In a study called \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cjr.org\/tow_center_reports\/constructive_technology_criticism.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.cjr.org\/tow_center_reports\/constructive_technology_criticism.php\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.cjr.org\/tow_center_reports\/constructive_technology_criticism.php&quot;}\" data-uri=\"01b85d2ea8f1ee8ef50b7854544c3ad6\">Toward a Constructive Technology Criticism<\/a>,\u201d published in 2016 by the\u00a0<em>Columbia Journalism Review<\/em>, the writer and critic Sara M. Watson identified the release of the iPhone, in 2007, as a turning point in the way journalists talked about tech. As smartphones reached market saturation in the United States, tech coverage became increasingly entangled with culture, economics, politics, labor, and media. Ordinary people \u201cwere now a little closer to technology\u201d in their daily lives, Watson wrote, and \u201cleading technology commentators celebrated tech\u2019s \u201cpotential for advancing democracy and empowering people.\u201d As technology became more accessible, diffuse, and pervasive, technological optimism itself\u2014<em class=\"small\">ted<\/em>\u00a0Talks, thought leadership\u2014became a product.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">In 2011, Andreessen published an essay in the\u00a0<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0titled \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/a16z.com\/2011\/08\/20\/why-software-is-eating-the-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/a16z.com\/2011\/08\/20\/why-software-is-eating-the-world\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/a16z.com\/2011\/08\/20\/why-software-is-eating-the-world\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"a36926d5dfdbc96a0ec43a96a4108f60\">Why Software Is Eating the World<\/a>.\u201d \u201cMy own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIn some industries, particularly those with a heavy real-world component such as oil and gas, the software revolution is primarily an opportunity for incumbents. But in many industries, new software ideas will result in the rise of new Silicon Valley-style start-ups that invade existing industries with impunity.\u201d Andreessen predicted that the decade to come would see \u201cepic\u201d battles between \u201cincumbents and software-powered insurgents.\u201d The op-ed, which was both a prognostication and an investment thesis, was widely read and bolstered Andreessen\u2019s reputation as one of Silicon Valley\u2019s intellectuals\u2014not merely a middleman but a man of ideas. Among other things, this reputation was useful for \u201cdeal flow\u201d: it made Andreessen more attractive to both startup founders and investors.<\/p><p>In May, 2012,\u00a0<em>Forbes<\/em>\u00a0dubbed Andreessen and Horowitz \u201cVenture Capital\u2019s New Bad Boys.\u201d That same month, Andreessen graced the cover of\u00a0<em>Wired<\/em>, under the headline \u201cThe Man Who Makes the Future.\u201d Meanwhile, other V.C. firms were hiring their own communications and marketing teams. Later that year, an article in the\u00a0<em>Times\u2014<\/em>\u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/07\/23\/business\/venture-capital-firms-once-discreet-learn-the-promotional-game.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/07\/23\/business\/venture-capital-firms-once-discreet-learn-the-promotional-game.html\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/07\/23\/business\/venture-capital-firms-once-discreet-learn-the-promotional-game.html&quot;}\" data-uri=\"f47532fa95ac4847a2ed4c82e35e2953\">Venture Capital Firms, Once Discreet, Learn the Promotional Game<\/a>\u201d\u2014considered the trend in the context of a consolidating, hypercompetitive venture industry. There were fewer active venture firms than during the dot-com bubble, and over-all returns were low. Institutional investors wanted to work with only the top firms, and venture capitalists had to sell themselves to entrepreneurs, rather than the other way around. Still, the article\u2019s author, Nicole Perlroth, wrote, \u201cthe biggest catalyst for the attention-seeking atmosphere, venture capitalists say, has been the rise of Andreessen Horowitz.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">If the tech industry was selling itself, journalists on the tech beat were among its enthusiastic buyers. Tech coverage tended to be written from the perspective of the consumer; this worked for gadget reviews but was inadequate for contextualizing the ambitions of companies like Lyft and Airbnb. In a 2020 paper, \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3668606\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3668606\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3668606&quot;}\" data-uri=\"f6a1ed3271d075e47017d7ecea648728\">Words Matter: How Tech Media Helped Write Gig Companies Into Existence<\/a>,\u201d the San Francisco-based reporter Sam Harnett noted that tech coverage in the twenty-tens was characterized partly by the unquestioning adoption of industry rhetoric to describe companies offering on-demand services and transportation. Acquiescing to the terms set by the industry, Harnett argued\u2014\u201cdisruption,\u201d \u201csharing economy,\u201d \u201cplatform,\u201d \u201cinnovation,\u201d even \u201cstartup\u201d\u2014also helped \u201cpave the way for a handful of companies that represent a tiny fraction of the economy to have an outsized impact on law, mainstream corporate practices, and the way we think about work.\u201d By aligning with consumers, rather than software engineers or gig workers, the coverage also elided the question of whether companies like TaskRabbit and Uber were ultimately in the business of technology as such.<\/p><div class=\"inline-recirc-wrapper inline-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monitor-anchor\" data-attr-viewport-monitor=\"inline-recirc\" data-event-boundary=\"click\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;InlineRecirc&quot;}\" data-include-experiments=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div><p class=\"paywall\">In the media and the imagination, certain narratives became pervasive. Silicon Valley was the epicenter of innovation, home to stewards of the future. Tech entrepreneurs were iconoclastic young underdogs motivated by personal hardships, social consciousness, and sheer ingenuity. Startups were not just businesses but mission-driven organizations that could upend the status quo, connect and liberate humanity, and change the world for the better. An earlier Silicon Valley mythology of post-counterculture nerds in electronics-cluttered garages grew sleeker, slimmer, and better capitalized. The scrappy, Steve Jobs-like obsessive with a taste for high design was repackaged for post-recession millennials. Claims of \u201cdemocratization\u201d abounded. Mark Zuckerberg became an archetype. Workplace perks and relaxed corporate mores were treated as metonyms for ethics and ideals. Despite a growing body of criticism from academics and writers at Valleywag, the\u00a0<em>Baffler<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Dissent<\/em>, the Awl, and elsewhere, stories of benevolent disruption were reproduced and reified. Software was eating the world, and the world was going to love it.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">Silicon Valley is a future-oriented place. In their early phases, startups often look implausible (home rentals), minor (online payments), frivolous (social media), or risky (ride-hailing). A well-crafted narrative about innovative underdogs and counterintuitive but inevitable success was legitimizing. The role played by venture capital itself rarely figured: widespread adoption was seen as a reflection of merit, rather than a function of a funding model that used cash reserves to create new monopolies. By the mid-twenty-tens, Andreessen Horowitz\u2019s marketing strategy had evolved into something like mythology. As late as 2014,\u00a0<em>Wired<\/em>\u00a0was still referring to Andreessen, then forty-two years old, as a \u201cwunderkind.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"has-dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading paywall\">The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2019\/09\/23\/edward-snowden-and-the-rise-of-whistle-blower-culture\" data-uri=\"ad8720e108b130fe32da2c0043a664be\">Edward Snowden revelations<\/a>, in 2013, increased awareness of the social and political implications of consumer technologies. But John Carreyrou\u2019s reporting on the blood-diagnostics company Theranos, published in the\u00a0<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0beginning in 2015, was an even more direct hit to Silicon Valley mythologizing. Elizabeth Holmes, the company\u2019s founder, dressed like and had been hailed as \u201cthe next Steve Jobs\u201d; a young Stanford dropout, she had appeared on the cover of\u00a0<em>T Magazine<\/em>\u00a0for a story written by Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Marc Andreessen\u2019s wife. Theranos was the beneficiary of hundreds of millions of dollars in venture funding and an abundance of glowing tech coverage.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2014\/12\/15\/blood-simpler\" data-uri=\"a6826152b3a4d05f69832488a2b28f84\">In a profile published in\u00a0<em>The New Yorker<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in 2014, Holmes offered an explanation of Theranos\u2019s technology: \u201cA chemistry is performed so that a chemical reaction occurs and generates a signal from the chemical interaction with the sample, which is translated into a result, which is then reviewed by certified laboratory personnel,\u201d she said. Carreyrou found that, in fact, the proprietary blood-testing machines that Theranos claimed to have built were a farce; the company was using traditional medical devices and was a fraud.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">Then came the 2016 Presidential election, in which an outlier candidate, mirroring the rhetorical habits of ironic and inflammatory message-board culture, leveraged social media and targeted advertising to spread misinformation and galvanize his base. The news media began to exhibit a diminished appetite for triumphalist storytelling about tech. New terms, such as \u201csurveillance capitalism,\u201d filtered into the conversation, along with useful concepts (online radicalization) and suggestive shorthand (\u201cthe algorithm\u201d). There were still column inches for tales of young upstarts, but they were reduced to make room for reporting on fraud, exploitation, privacy violations, security breaches, polarization, inequity, and discrimination. Many of the new stories relied on employee and worker accounts. In her article for\u00a0<em>CJR<\/em>, Watson had identified some tics of tech writing: moral panic, technological determinism, the pathologizing of consumer behavior, and the appeal to readerly anxiety. The new wave of tech criticism exhibited these tendencies, too. To some, the media\u2019s intensified scrutiny was well deserved and overdue; to others, even investigative reporting looked like personally motivated backlash.<\/p><div class=\"Container-imGeBO ftlPuP\" data-event-boundary=\"click\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;CNEInterludeEmbed&quot;}\" data-in-view=\"{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;CNEInterludeEmbed&quot;}\" data-include-experiments=\"true\"><p class=\"paywall\">Toward the end of the twenty-tens, it became unclear whether the world had been eaten by software or simply paved over. Many of Silicon Valley\u2019s most highly valued companies were platforms that aggregated transactions. Often, this meant that they\u2019d built private, high-margin layers atop real-world processes while externalizing the risks. In 2018, a flattering profile of Wennmachers, published in\u00a0<em>Wired<\/em>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/margit-wennmachers-is-andreessen-horowitzs-secret-weapon\/\" data-uri=\"ccdf843b3eb97c09f6decdd7945bb748\">suggested<\/a>\u00a0that she faced a \u201cnew and critical challenge: crafting a revamped image of the techie of the future, one that embraces the great responsibility that arrives with newfound great power.\u201d The myth had been distorted; the idealistic, aspirational narratives had not borne out. The industry needed a new story.<\/p><p>What might a new narrative for the tech industry look like? In April of last year, as\u00a0<em class=\"small\">covid<\/em>-19 cases spiked across the country, Andreessen published a blog post to his firm\u2019s Web site, titled \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/a16z.com\/2020\/04\/18\/its-time-to-build\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/a16z.com\/2020\/04\/18\/its-time-to-build\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/a16z.com\/2020\/04\/18\/its-time-to-build\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"8104bea24a74e21b24732917ca983aaa\">IT\u2019S TIME TO BUILD<\/a>.\u201d \u201cEvery Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings,\u201d Andreessen wrote. He went on to argue that certain shameful facts about\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2021\/01\/04\/the-plague-year\" data-uri=\"5dfc658b1c702fa8fbf56fca7c348a79\">the response to the coronavirus<\/a>\u2014shortages of swabs, reagents, gowns, and surgical masks; the absence of a vaccine or treatment; insufficient and inaccessible bailout funds\u2014were not just failures of action and imagination but evidence of regulatory capture, \u201cinertia,\u201d and a \u201cwidespread inability to\u00a0<em>build<\/em>.\u201d The consequences of this inability could be seen elsewhere\u2014in housing development, education, manufacturing, and transportation. \u201cYou don\u2019t just see this smug complacency, this satisfaction with the status quo and the unwillingness to build, in the pandemic, or in healthcare generally,\u201d he wrote. \u201cYou see it throughout Western life, and specifically throughout American life.\u201d For many readers, the essay was a sequel to \u201cWhy Software Is Eating the World\u201d: both a diagnosis and a mission statement.<\/p><div class=\"GridWrapper-vNBSO jMumET grid grid-margins grid-items-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-kRgPDq DBpfE grid-layout--adrail narrow wide-adrail\"><div class=\"GridItem-buSdEM PibmB grid--item grid-layout__content\"><div class=\"BodyWrapper-ctnerm irSTVw body body__container article__body\" data-journey-hook=\"client-content\" data-testid=\"BodyWrapper\"><div class=\"body__inner-container\"><p class=\"paywall\">Among Andreessen\u2019s own suggestions for what to build were scalable universities, digital tutoring platforms, and automated domestic factories. \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we building Elon Musk\u2019s \u2018alien dreadnoughts\u2019\u2014giant, gleaming, state of the art factories producing every conceivable kind of product, at the highest possible quality and lowest possible cost\u2014all throughout our country?\u201d he asked. (On a 2016 earnings call, Musk had told analysts that \u201calien dreadnought\u201d was his vision for the next Gigafactory, a high-speed, automated facility for manufacturing the Model 3.) \u201cWhere are the supersonic aircraft? Where are the millions of delivery drones? Where are the high speed trains, the soaring monorails, the hyperloops, and yes, the flying cars?\u201d<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">A strain of wishful, ahistorical thinking pervaded the essay, which ran beneath a stock image of a futuristic, fictional city with gleaming skyscrapers, a blue, unpolluted sky, and no people. Andreessen ignored the role the tech industry had played in accelerating the erosion of some American institutions; his insistence that building should be separated from politics was strange, given that America\u2019s failures in the face of the coronavirus did not occur in the absence of political will. But \u201cIT\u2019S TIME TO BUILD\u201d also articulated certain undeniable realities. The housing crisis in the Bay Area is as Andreessen described\u2014a nightmare, created by archaic zoning ordinances,\u00a0<em class=\"small\">nimby<\/em>ism, an irresponsible tax system, and political gridlock, which has forced many longtime renters out, and makes it \u201cnearly impossible for regular people to move in and take the jobs of the future,\u201d or any job. Andreessen was correct, too, to criticize the federal government for distributing relief funds through paper checks, rather than a digital system. At the heart of Andreessen\u2019s essay was an uncontroversial truth: from housing and education to mass transportation, people deserved better. (\u201cIs the problem money?\u201d Andreessen asked. \u201cThat seems hard to believe when we have the money to wage endless wars in the Middle East and repeatedly bail out incumbent banks, airlines, and carmakers.\u201d)<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">\u201cIT\u2019S TIME TO BUILD\u201d went viral in tech circles, spawning a small and robust corpus of open letters, Substack dispatches, Hacker News comments, Reddit threads, and tweets. Some readers heralded it as an \u201cinstant classic,\u201d \u201cera-defining,\u201d and \u201ca potent call to arms.\u201d Others expressed skepticism and disgust, or published granular rebuttals. Responses spanned the ideological spectrum. Colin McAuliffe and Jason Ganz, at the progressive think tank Data for Progress, suggested building by enabling more public research and development. Scott Berkun, a writer and early Microsoft employee, wrote a blog post proposing free Internet for all, universal basic health care, and a stronger social safety net. In Exponents, an online magazine dedicated to neoliberal thought, Steven Buss, a software engineer and\u00a0<em class=\"small\">yimby<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cYes in My Backyard\u201d) activist, argued for an end to occupational licensing and commercial land-use restrictions, subsidies for vocational-training programs, and a revamp of the F.D.A., so that it is \u201cpermissive by default.\u201d On a panel about the essay, hosted by the Lincoln Network, a libertarian nonprofit that aims to connect Silicon Valley technologists and D.C. policymakers, Mark Lutter, the director of the Charter Cities Institute, said that building would be more likely to happen if \u201cpolicy entrepreneurs\u201d were held in the same high regard as startup founders. \u201cIf we think about the success of what might be called the builder movement, that looks like two or three people from Silicon Valley getting Cabinet or Cabinet-level positions,\u201d Lutter said. \u201cWhy isn\u2019t Marc Andreessen Secretary of Commerce or something?\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"GridItem-buSdEM gKfJBS grid--item grid-layout__aside\"><aside class=\"PersistentAsideWrapper-OTtoN iRwLFv persistent-aside\" data-testid=\"PersistentAsideWrapper\"><div class=\"StickyBoxWrapper-euhCxU hyXuto sticky-box\"><div class=\"StickyBoxPrimary-fEgDcn dFVkFO sticky-box__primary\"><div class=\"AdWrapper-fFweuL dIvDeZ ad ad--rail\"><div class=\"ad__slot ad__slot--rail\" data-node-id=\"tw2riq\"><div id=\"cns-ads-slot-type-rail-0\" class=\"cns-ads-stage cns-ads-slot-type-rail cns-ads-slot-type-rail-0 cns-ads-slot-state-filled cns-ads-slot-size-300x600\" data-name=\"rail_0\" data-slot-type=\"rail\"><div id=\"rail_0\" class=\"cns-ads-container\" data-node-id=\"tw2riq\" data-google-query-id=\"CK-Do9GrsPgCFVPWhwodlFMInA\"><div id=\"google_ads_iframe_3379\/conde.newyorker\/rail\/news\/article\/1_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_3379\/conde.newyorker\/rail\/news\/article\/1_0\" tabindex=\"0\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" role=\"region\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_3379\/conde.newyorker\/rail\/news\/article\/1_0\" width=\"300\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Advertisement\" data-google-container-id=\"b\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ConsumerMarketingUnitThemedWrapper-kkMeXf hBFNZw consumer-marketing-unit consumer-marketing-unit--display-rail\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><div class=\"consumer-marketing-unit__slot consumer-marketing-unit__slot--display-rail\">\u00a0<\/div><div class=\"journey-unit\">\u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"StickyBoxPlaceholder-jNQMsI laMCLq\">\u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/aside><\/div><\/div><div class=\"RowWrapper-egDQBE hVsKfd full-bleed-ad row-mid-content-ad\"><div class=\"AdWrapper-fFweuL dIvDeZ ad ad--mid-content\"><span class=\"ad-label\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><div class=\"ad__slot ad__slot--mid-content\" data-node-id=\"geubvm\"><div id=\"cns-ads-slot-type-mid-content-0\" class=\"cns-ads-stage cns-ads-slot-type-mid-content cns-ads-slot-type-mid-content-0 cns-ads-slot-state-filled cns-ads-slot-size-970x250\" data-name=\"mid_content_0\" data-slot-type=\"mid_content\"><div id=\"mid_content_0\" class=\"cns-ads-container\" data-node-id=\"geubvm\" data-google-query-id=\"CIqO69ersPgCFQwLhwodPFwF3w\"><div id=\"google_ads_iframe_3379\/conde.newyorker\/mid-content\/news\/article\/1_0__container__\"><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_3379\/conde.newyorker\/mid-content\/news\/article\/1_0\" tabindex=\"0\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" role=\"region\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_3379\/conde.newyorker\/mid-content\/news\/article\/1_0\" width=\"1060\" height=\"610\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Advertisement\" data-google-container-id=\"c\" data-integralas-id-d3479c79-4c2f-1608-d16e-93a42f83b39a=\"\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"GridWrapper-vNBSO jMumET grid grid-margins grid-items-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-kRgPDq DBpfE grid-layout--adrail narrow wide-adrail\"><div class=\"GridItem-buSdEM PibmB grid--item grid-layout__content\"><div class=\"BodyWrapper-ctnerm irSTVw body body__container article__body\" data-journey-hook=\"client-content\" data-testid=\"BodyWrapper\"><div class=\"body__inner-container\"><p class=\"paywall\">Between the alien dreadnoughts and debates about occupational licensing, the discourse around \u201cIT\u2019S TIME TO BUILD\u201d looked markedly different from the idealistic, founder-focussed chatter of the twenty-tens. Taken seriously, the essay seemed to be suggesting an entirely new version of Silicon Valley: a movement away from making software to support existing institutions, and toward creating the institutions themselves. If Andreessen\u2019s exhortation to build was a call for \u201caggressive investment in new products, in new industries, in new factories, in new science, in big leaps forward,\u201d it was also a call to power. The era of the builder may also be the era of the Silicon Valley political actor. At the same time, \u201cIT\u2019S TIME TO BUILD\u201d revealed a certain impotence. The sorts of projects Andreessen proposed don\u2019t really make sense under the venture model; they\u2019re unlikely to be as profitable as the products that have come out of Silicon Valley since the popularization of the commercial Internet. Building may need a different set of incentives, investment models, and values. Of course, it could all just be talk.<\/p><p class=\"has-dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading paywall\">Media is an institution, too, and one way to change the media narrative about tech is to build a new media. Over the past two years, Andreessen Horowitz has led substantial funding rounds for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2021\/01\/04\/is-substack-the-media-future-we-want\" data-uri=\"4ac2fbddd69cc03dc8f5d19dcdbc74f7\">Substack<\/a>, the e-mail newsletter platform, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/letter-from-silicon-valley\/in-the-clubhouse\" data-uri=\"6da75ff019e19f3610e36ff15fe12801\">Clubhouse<\/a>, the audio-based social network. When users sign up for Clubhouse, they are given a list of recommended accounts to follow, which tends to include several Andreessen Horowitz partners; Andreessen himself has five million followers on the app. The firm has about a dozen Clubhouse shows of its own, including \u201cOne on One with A and Z,\u201d hosted by Andreessen and Horowitz, and \u201c4B with Margit,\u201d hosted by Wennmachers. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg and Musk both made appearances on \u201cThe Good Time Show,\u201d a talk show on Clubhouse; one of its hosts, Sriram Krishnan, recently joined Andreessen Horowitz as a partner.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">In January, Wennmachers published a blog post on the Andreessen Horowitz Web site, announcing the creation of a new in-house publication. \u201cWe are building a new and separate media property about the future that makes sense of technology, innovation, and where things are going,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe want to be\u00a0<em>the<\/em>\u00a0go-to place for understanding and building the future, for anyone who is building, making, or curious about tech.\u201d The publication, she went on, would practice \u201crational optimism about technology and the future\u201d; job listings for its editorial roles explained that Andreessen Horowitz aimed to be part of \u201cthe future of media.\u201d<\/p><div class=\"inline-recirc-wrapper inline-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monitor-anchor\" data-attr-viewport-monitor=\"inline-recirc\" data-event-boundary=\"click\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;pattern&quot;:&quot;InlineRecirc&quot;}\" data-include-experiments=\"true\">\u00a0<\/div><p class=\"paywall\">Andreessen Horowitz has long maintained a robust content-marketing operation, with substantial blog posts, reports, interviews, videos, and a regular podcast. The firm\u2019s content is often of high quality; it is also\u2014because it is marketing\u2014boosterish, biased, and unaccountable. In the tech industry, brand-owned publications are nothing new. Stripe publishes\u00a0<em>Increment<\/em>\u00a0magazine, Snapchat funds Real Life, and Dollar Shave Club, Casper, Airbnb, Away, and Uber have all run in-house publications with varying degrees of success. Still, some journalists reacted to Wennmachers\u2019s announcement as if Andreessen Horowitz were a new competitor. \u201cAndreessen\u2019s editorial expansion reflects the notion in some Silicon Valley circles that the news media and technology companies are pitted against each other in competition,\u201d read an article in the Information. \u201cThis is not a good idea,\u201d tweeted Geoffrey Fowler, a Washington\u00a0<em>Post<\/em>\u00a0technology columnist. \u201cTo grow and improve its products, the tech industry needs to be open to more independent views, not more sycophancy.\u201d Eric Newcomer, an independent journalist who publishes a Substack newsletter about venture capital,\u00a0<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newcomer.co\/p\/the-unauthorized-story-of-andreessen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.newcomer.co\/p\/the-unauthorized-story-of-andreessen\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.newcomer.co\/p\/the-unauthorized-story-of-andreessen&quot;}\" data-uri=\"62f33905c0d6cf7639140177f2541475\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0that the strategy had \u201cdramatic implications for the future of media and the venture capital industry.\u201d A couple weeks later, the entrepreneur and angel investor Balaji Srinivasan tweeted, \u201cOver the last year, tech built a Clubhouse-based media outlet that gets interviews legacy media can\u2019t get, and a Substack-based media empire that recruits writers legacy media can\u2019t keep. That\u2019s what competition looks like. Don\u2019t expect competitors to be happy about it!\u201d<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">Other firms have announced plans to get into the storytelling game. In May, Brian Armstrong, the C.E.O. of Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange funded by Andreessen Horowitz\u2014it recently went public, at a valuation of eighty-five billion dollars\u2014announced that his company intended to launch a \u201cmedia arm.\u201d Coinbase\u2019s first initiative, Fact Check, is a blog which comments on mainstream coverage of both Coinbase and the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Its longer-term plans are unclear, but job listings suggest that the company aims to produce a variety of content for a general audience. Companies, Armstrong wrote, \u201ccan create accountability when misinformation is spread via other channels.\u201d He cited Amazon, which now produces and distributes films and television shows through Amazon Studios; Stripe Press, an eponymous, boutique book publisher run by the digital-payments company; and Andreessen Horowitz\u2019s publication. \u201cOver time, my prediction is that more and more companies will go direct, building their own media arm, while remaining focused on their primary goal of building great products,\u201d Armstrong concluded. \u201cThe tools for distribution have become democratized, and every company can become a source of truth.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">This week, Andreessen Horowitz launched its new media property, Future. The site, which has a minimalist design scheme, is billed as being \u201cby and for the people building the future\u201d and offers a newsletter, a small\u00a0<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/podcast-network\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/podcast-network\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/podcast-network\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"8f405e18109f3465a366d4f7536d7ae7\">podcast network<\/a>, and essays by analysts, investors, and entrepreneurs on topics ranging from\u00a0<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/beyond-the-meme-ever-given-supply-chains-and-the-physical-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/beyond-the-meme-ever-given-supply-chains-and-the-physical-world\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/beyond-the-meme-ever-given-supply-chains-and-the-physical-world\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"452a179d709fb239f5d4c644804f9ebe\">supply-chain logistics<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/fantasy-hollywood-crypto-and-community-owned-characters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/fantasy-hollywood-crypto-and-community-owned-characters\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/fantasy-hollywood-crypto-and-community-owned-characters\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"2a9ca242287df6661d21e6e1970af8a0\">blockchain-based fan communities<\/a>. Many of the contributors to Future have received venture funding from Andreessen Horowitz; these financial relationships are not secret, but they are also not disclosed alongside their pieces. The first batch of essays includes\u00a0<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/law-as-code\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/law-as-code\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/law-as-code\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"8e4b0734919137bf64f8da5a405c05bb\">an argument for scaling legal expertise through software<\/a>, written by the C.E.O. of a startup making \u201cthe world\u2019s first robot lawyer\u201d; an explainer of interactive educational platforms for \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/cohort-based-courses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/cohort-based-courses\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/cohort-based-courses\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"d2a895bad07b495461251100e4dda6f0\">cohort-based courses<\/a>,\u201d by the founder of a startup making \u201cthe first platform for cohort-based courses\u201d; an argument for restoring domestic computer-chip manufacturing; an optimistic treatment of economic bubbles titled \u201c<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/well-behaved-bubbles-history-innovation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/well-behaved-bubbles-history-innovation\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/well-behaved-bubbles-history-innovation\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"0630ec0230021823817eaf13ea6c3bbf\">Well-Behaved Bubbles Often Make History<\/a>\u201d; and a\u00a0<a class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/the-zoom-migration-impacts-housing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/the-zoom-migration-impacts-housing\/\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/future.a16z.com\/the-zoom-migration-impacts-housing\/&quot;}\" data-uri=\"b2388aa8d9eaddf35428a3429f48c3cc\">meditation on the relationships<\/a>\u00a0among remote work, migration out of cities, and housing prices, written by a partner at Andreessen Horowitz who specializes in financial services and real estate.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">By publishing more editorial content, Andreessen Horowitz and others have an opportunity to introduce new terminology, new ideologies, new framing, and new ways for people in and around technology to conceptualize their work. On the other hand, Silicon Valley may have outgrown the utility of an overarching narrative. Categorically, the tech industry is unfocussed: venture-funded companies are as likely to sell microchips as skincare products, medical devices, underwear, new currencies, luggage, or on-demand videos recorded by celebrities. As the industry moves into its next act, tech coverage will likely change in response; the question is whether it will adopt and amplify the stories that venture-funded startups tell about themselves or chart its own path. It could focus less on the idea of building\u2014the storytelling, the sales pitch\u2014and more on what is actually being built. It could demystify the operational logic of emerging technologies and examine the value systems of those who create them; it could be more focussed and precise in its evaluations of how technologies intersect with political, economic, and social life. Watson, in her 2016 study, argued that constructive tech criticism \u201cneed not be synonymous with pessimism or opposition, and certainly not with nihilism,\u201d but could start from a foundation of curiosity, generosity, and optimism. She cited Bruno Latour, the French sociologist, who wrote that \u201cthe critic is not the one who debunks, but the one who assembles. The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the na\u00efve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in which to gather.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"has-dropcap has-dropcap__lead-standard-heading paywall\">There is some evidence that Andreessen Horowitz is investing not just in the \u201cbuild\u201d narrative but in actual building. In 2020 and 2021, following \u201cIT\u2019S TIME TO BUILD,\u201d the venture firm announced new investments in a slate of companies, including Maven, an online education platform for courses taught by \u201ccreators\u201d; Firstbase, which is responsible for the delivery (and, if need be, the removal) of corporate hardware for people working at home; Moov, which offers \u201copen source banking primitives-as-a-service\u201d; Dyno Therapeutics, a biotech startup applying machine learning to gene therapy; Alpha Health, a maker of revenue-cycle software for hospitals, which automates the insurance-claim process; and Tomorrow Health, a \u201cfull-stack, accredited provider that could own the end-to-end home health journey,\u201d co-founded by the former C.T.O. of Casper, the direct-to-consumer mattress company. Last July, Andreessen Horowitz expanded its investment in Anduril, a defense-technology startup that aims to compete with Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman by selling products such as the Ghost, a lightweight tactical drone, the Anvil, a quadcopter, and other offerings that the company claims leverage artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning. In October, 2020, Andreessen Horowitz announced additional investment in Applied Intuition, a startup making simulation software to safety-test self-driving vehicles.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">This year, so far, the firm has also put money into a host of workplace-software companies, along with Dapper Labs, a creator of blockchain games and collectibles; OpenSea, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens, or N.F.T.s; Eco, a cryptocurrency platform positioned as a banking alternative; Optimism, an application for making Ethereum transactions cheaper and faster; Carta, an equity-management platform; Chia Network, a blockchain platform; and Talos, which makes software that helps financial institutions participate in cryptocurrency trading. It is far too soon to tell whether Andreessen Horowitz\u2019s investment portfolio contains the institutions of the future, but if the Silicon Valley narrative pivots to emphasize \u201cbuilding\u201d\u2014and this is what building looks like\u2014then the future may be increasingly privatized, decentralized, financialized, and militarized. (Medical billing and remote work may also be simpler.) Andreessen Horowitz is now rumored to be raising a third cryptocurrency-focussed fund, with a target of two billion dollars.<\/p><p class=\"paywall\">For an ontologically\u2014perhaps pathologically\u2014future-facing industry, anything looks possible; it has to. Through networks of wealth and political power, or through storytelling, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors may actually succeed in ushering in a new era of transparent, trustworthy institutions and gleaming, functional infrastructure. And yet, amid the updated rhetoric, it can be easy to forget that venture-funded companies have always been trying to envision the banks, health-care systems, schools, postal systems, and newspapers of the future. To date, they have been only somewhat successful\u2014and sometimes destructive. \u201cBuilding\u201d would be a new story. But it might not be new enough.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Executive Director Mark Lutter was quoted in a New Yorker article on tech and building new cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[45],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The New Yorker: Does Tech Need a New Narrative?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Executive Director Mark Lutter was quoted in a New Yorker article on tech and building new cities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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