Keen On

Earlier this week, I visited the offices of Floodgate Partners in Menlo Park to talk with its co-founding partner Mike Maples. As an early investor in Twitter, Twitch.tv and many other successful start-ups, Maples is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected venture capitalists. He is, to borrow the title of his new book, an investor in “Pattern Breakers” - entrepreneurs whose radical innovations challenge preexisting conventions and, quite literally, change the future. But, as he explained, while pattern breakers might sometimes have to be disagreeable, that doesn’t justify what he calls the “jerks “who all-too-often do a disservice to the business of building the future. Mike Maples is a co-founding Partner at Floodgate.  He has been on the Forbes Midas List eight times in the last decade and was also named a “Rising Star” by FORTUNE and profiled by Harvard Business School for his lifetime contributions to entrepreneurship. Before becoming a full-time investor, Mike was involved as a founder and operating exec

In episode 2022, That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare and I violently disagreed about the current AI boom. Keith, the eternal techno-optimist, thinks AI is about to radically change everything; as the perennial techno-pessimist, I argued that much of the current Wall St AI insanity is a 21st version of 17th century Dutch tulip mania. But if we were to split the baby and come up with a more carefully reasoned & reasonable analysis of the current AI boom, we would probably morph into Jeremy Kahn, the AI editor of Fortune. Kahn’s new book, Mastering AI: A Survival Guide to Our Superpowered Future, is a extremely nuanced and well researched analysis of current & future realities of the AI revolution. And Kahn himself, in contrast with Keith or I, is neither an ideological techno-optimist or pessimist and, in my conversation with him, offers about as fair & balanced an interpretation of AI as you can get in our surreally manichaean times.Jeremy Kahn is Fortune's AI Editor, spearheading the publica

The seductive promise of microfinance might have conveniently died in the Western media, but Muhammad Yunis’ alluring economic idea has actually wreaked unintentional havoc around the world. Mara Kardas-Nelson’s important new book, We Are Not Able to Live in the Sky, reveals the damage done by microfinance loans in developing world countries like Sierra Leone and Bangladesh because their predatory interest rates. As too often with supposedly democratizing “innovations” like microfinance or cryptocurrency, Kardas-Nelson reminds us, it’s poor people, particularly women, who ultimately get saddled with the techno-utopian bill. Mara Kardas-Nelson is an independent journalist focusing on international development and inequality. Her award-winning work has been supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation, Investigative Editors and Reporters, the Richard J. Margolis Award and others and has appeared in the New York Times, the Nation, the Guardian, on NPR, and elsewhere. Mara has also spent years working

Last week, That Was The Week publisher Keith Teare and I discussed whether Silicon Valley has an AI Bubble Problem. And we return to the same subject today, comparing today’s AI driven Wall Street techno-mania with the automotive centric Wall Street madness of the roaring 1920s. As usual, Keith is the optimistic, arguing that stock market booms are always founded on some new technological reality. And, as always, I’m the pessimist, fearing that the current Big Tech AI driven Wall Street boom will end in a similar kind of economic catastrophe to the Great Crash. Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine,

Memoirs are usually morally uplifting reads with happy endings. But Phil Elwood’s new memoir, All the Worst Humans, is a confession of how Elwood, as a top DC based PR operative, created what he calls a “counter-narrative” for Assad, Gaddafi and the Qataris. Elwood isn’t proud about any of this. As he confessed to me, he still sleeps poorly and often wakes up at 3.00 am regretting the morally poor choices he’s made in his life. The sad thing is that there are still many other highly paid PR execs doing the dirty narrative work for dictators, tycoons and corrupt politicians. Let’s hope they pick up All the Worst Humans at the airport on their next trip to Saudi Arabia or Russia.Phil Elwood is a public relations operative. He was born in New York City, grew up in Idaho, and moved to Washington, DC at age twenty to intern for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He completed his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, and his graduate studies at the London School of Economics before starting his career at a

In 2011, Simon Reynolds is one of the world’s most prolific music journalists, came on KEEN ON to explain why the Internet has been bad for both musical artists and fans. Back then it took a brave man like Reynolds to argue against the supposedly cornucopian cultural potential of the Web 2 revolution. Today, in contrast, most mainstream cultural critics see the internet, and particularly the AI revolution, as a catastrophe for artists and fans. And yet Reynolds, often the cultural zigger when everyone else zags, has cheered up. In a new collection of essays, Futuromania, his first book in eight years, Reynolds is cautiously optimistic about electronic dreams, desiring machines, and tomorrow's AI revolution. AI isn’t going to destroy culture, Reynolds reassures us. It might even lead to a new renaissance of creativity, akin to punk or even the glory years of Sixties popular music. Simon Reynolds is the author of Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Blissed Out: The Raptures of Rock, T

Our second July 4 interview features Diane McLain Smith, author of Remaking the Space Between Us: How Citizens Can Work Together to Build a Better Future For All. The problem with America, McLain Smith believes, is that “we the people have become the problem” with our endlessly divisive tribalism. But just as we are the problem, we can also be the solution if we join her citizen network and work together to remake the space between us. McLain Smith’s background is as a business consultant and there’s an annoyingly apolitical utilitarianism to her “thought leadership”. But in an America riven by angry factionalism, I guess even a power-point solution is better than nothing. Diana M. Smith is a renowned thought leader who has led change efforts for 35 years in some of America's most iconic businesses and cutting-edge nonprofits. Her Leading Through Relationships (LTR) approach has been used around the world to covert debilitating intergroup conflict into a constructive force for change. Her newest book is Remak

As the former Assistant Attorney General for Maryland, one would expect Debbie Hines to be a strong supporter of the American criminal justice system. But the Baltimore based veteran trial lawyer is unambiguously critical in her new memoir, GET OFF MY NECK, of what she sees as the structural racism of a “conveyer belt” American legal system which sends so many African-American people to jail. Hines’ critique should make particularly resonant viewing on July 4, the day that Americans celebrate their “freedom”. Happy Independence Day everyone!Former Baltimore prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General for the State of Maryland, and trial attorney Debbie Hines is an advocate for racial equity in the criminal justice system. She maintains a private law practice focused on civil and criminal litigation in Washington, DC. A leading voice in the discourse of criminal justice and race, Hines is often called on by media networks for legal commentary.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen

Last week’s horror show debate woke up a lot of progressive Americans. For Celeste Marcus, managing editor of Liberties Quarterly, Biden’s dismal performance was akin to the shock of the January 6th insurrection. In contrast with Jan 6, however, Marcus is calling for a political insurrection amongst progressives that will trigger a generational shift in power. Both American democracy and liberalism are in generational crisis, Marcus argues in her latest online Liberties piece, Our Liberalism. And to make American liberalism really ours, she argues, geriatric Democratic politicians like Biden, Pelosi and Feinstein must hand over power to a younger generation of progressive leaders.Celeste Marcus is the managing editor of Liberties. She is writing a biography of Chaim Soutine.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He i

Over the last couple of years we’ve had multiple guests questioning the economic and moral value of a college education. But Daniel R. Porterfield, the Aspen Institute CEO and former President of Franklin and Marshall College, strongly disagrees. In his new book, MINDSET MATTERS, Porterfield argues that in our age of rapid technological change, the college experience is particularly valuable, especially to young people from less privileged backgrounds. At a time when it’s become fashionable to bash American universities, Porterfield’s argument is a timely reminder of the personal and civic value of a college degree.Daniel R. Porterfield is President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. He has been recognized as a visionary strategist, transformational leader, devoted educator, and passionate advocate for justice and opportunity. At the Aspen Institute, Porterfield has worked to build upon the organization’s legacy of societ

Amongst the most bizarro thing about last week’s truly bizarre Presidential debate was how much Biden and Trump were in violent agreement on China. Trump certainly has won the ideological battle about the supposedly existential China threat and the two decrepit old men both celebrate American embroilment in a second Cold War. This is great news , of course, for the America’s sprawling military industrial complex with its unquenchable thirst for rearmament and military engagement overseas. I’m not sure that the DC based Dmitri Alperovitch is a card carrying member of that establishment, but he’s certainly a slick China hawk who fears that the world is on the brink of a major conflict over Taiwan with Xi’s supposedly “Marxist-Leninist” regime. Maybe, maybe not. But talking to him about “winning” what he calls the “Cold War II” is a surreal throwback to a Fifties paranoia about the supposed existential threat of the Marxist-Leninist Soviet Union. America “won” the first Cold War; I doubt it can afford to win the

In the wake of Biden’s pathetically dismal performance last week, it’s worth remembering that some progressive thinkers have been warning for months about this catastrophe. Back in May, the New York Times ran an op-ed by UC Berkeley political science professor M. Steven Fish entitled “Trump Knows Dominance Wins, Someone Tell Democrats”. Even though The Times functions as the Pravda of the Democratic Party, obviously nobody did tell the Dems, which explains why the dominantly dishonest Trump trounced the submissively honest Biden last week and pretty much guaranteed a second Trump term. Meanwhile, the prolific Steve Fish has a new book out, Comeback: Routing Trumpism, Reclaiming the Nation, and Restoring Democracy’s Edge. Let’s hope the apparatchiks in the Democratic party reads this essential warning and recognize that unless they purge old man Biden, all will be lost in November. One caveat on this conversation: I interviewed Steve in his UC Berkeley office earlier in June, so there’s no mention of the debat

Does Silicon Valley have an AI bubble problem? That Was the Week’s Keith Teare, usually the most bullish of tech bulls, acknowledges that Silicon Valley has an overvaluation issue with AI startups. But I wonder if the problem with AI goes deeper than the frothiness of its startup valuations. What, if anything, is AI search good for? asks a Vox piece that Keith links to this week. That could be rephrased. What, if anything, is AI good for? might be a better question amidst the ridiculous valuations and childish promises of Silicon Valley’s AI priesthood. And the current answer, I suspect, is: not very much. Keith Teare is the founder and CEO of SignalRank Corporation. Previously, he was executive chairman at Accelerated Digital Ventures Ltd., a U.K.-based global investment company focused on startups at all stages. Teare studied at the University of Kent and is the author of “The Easy Net Book” and “Under Siege.” He writes regularly for TechCrunch and publishes the “That Was The Week” newsletter.Named as one o

Imagine accosting a stranger in a grocery store because you mistook him to be your husband? That was the fate of the Washington Post science reporter, Sadie Dingfelder, who suffers from the bizarre condition of faceblindness. She explores this condition in DO I KNOW YOU?, her own journey into the strange science of sight, memory, and imagination. Dingfelder’s embrace of her own neurodiversity is both intriguing and delightful. This is a strongly recommended interview, one of my favorite of the summer so far. Sadie Dingfelder is a science journalist who is currently obsessed with hidden neurodiversity and science-based answers to the question: If you were beamed into the mind of another person or animal, what would that be like? Her debut book, “Do I Know you? A Faceblind Reporter’s Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory and Imagination,” comes out in June. She spent six years as a reporter for the Washington Post Express, where she focused on high-impact public service journalism, such as this review of e

If you liked Davy Chou’s excellent 2022 movie, Return to Seoul, then Tracy O’Neill’s new memoir, Woman of Interest, might be for you. Both movie and book are about an a female adoptee’s return to South Korea in search of their mysterious birth mother. Chou’s movie features a heartbreakingly lost Ji-Min Park wandering through life in the West and finally stumbling emptily onto the foggy truth of her Korean origins. O’Neill’s non-fictional quest for her mother, in contrast, contains more agency and her quest eventually resulted in what her publisher describes as “the priceless power of self-knowledge.” There’s is an awkwardness to my conversation with O’Neill which actually makes her appear more like the lost heroine in Return To Seoul than she might like to acknowledge. Or maybe, as some think, I’m just an aggressively insensitive interviewer. Tracy O’Neill is the author of the novels The Hopeful and Quotients. In 2015, she was named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, long-listed for the Center for

The New York City based writer John Ganz appeared on episode 2099 talking about how American cracked up in the Nineties with the rise of neo-Nazis like David Duke. When it comes to national crack-ups, however, nothing much competes with Nazi Germany in the Thirties - and Ganz, as a grandson of German Jewish refugees from Nazism, recently travelled to Cologne to search for his family’s bookstore. This trip, which Ganz describes in a Harper’s piece, The Dead Admonish, is anything but cathartic. In contrast with other descendants of Jews returning to Germany like the British journalist John Kampfner, Ganz finds little reassuring about contemporary Germany. Strangely, the trip seems to have ignited a sense of Jewishness in the defiantly secular Ganz. The dead do, indeed, admonish. John Ganz is the author of When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s, which was published last month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Michael Lipkin assisted with translating source mater

Whatever one thinks of the creative potential of AI, it’s definitely been great for metaphor makers. Yesterday, we had Shannon Vallor explaining why AI is a mirror of our social and political values. Today, Madhumita Murgia, the Financial Times’ Artificial Intelligence editor and author of CODE DEPENDENT, suggests that we are all living in the shadow of the economic perils and inequities AI. The metaphors of shadows and mirrors return us, of course, to Plato’s cave and Socrates’ invention of metaphor to define justice. Rather than rely on dusty old metaphors, perhaps AI offers an opportunity to get out of our (metaphorical) cave and stare directly into the sun. That said, CODE DEPENDENT, already short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, is a valuable addition to the deluge of new books about AI. Madhumita Murgia is the first Artificial Intelligence Editor of the Financial Times and has been writing about AI, for Wired and the FT, for over a decade. Born and raised in India, she studied biology and i

According to Shannon Vallor, a self-styled AI “ethicist”, artificial intelligence is a mirror. When we interact with the latest algorithms from OpenAI or Anthropic, she says, we are actually observing our social and political values, prejudices and ideals. This all-too-human quality of AI makes it less of an existential threat to humanity and more of a reflection both of society’s flaws and a promise of its self-improvement. AI, like our own reflection in the mirror, is both everything and nothing. No wonder we need “ethicists” like Vallor to remind us of our flawed appearance. Shannon Vallor is a philosopher of AI and a writer of books about how new technologies reshape human character. Vallor grew up fascinated by the promise of computing, robotics, and space travel to allow us to shape a more humane future. Today that dream is drifting further away, as we lock ourselves into ever more unsustainable social and environmental patterns. Despite being marketed as the keys to our future, the AI technologies that

We are focusing on the impact of AI this week with interviews featuring Shannon Vallor, Matt Beane and Madhumita Murgia. First up Beane, who teaches Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara and has a new book out about how to save human ability in an age of intelligent machines. The book is called The Skill Code, but as Matt Beane explains, it’s really about a human code that will allow us to maintain our value in an age of intelligent machines. Matt has also been kind enough to provide KEEN ON subscribers with a link to chapter 1 of the book: keenon.theskillcodebook.comMatt Beane does field research on work involving robots and AI to uncover systematic positive exceptions that we use across the broader world of work. He has published in top management journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly and Harvard Business Review, and spoken on the Ted stage. He also took a two-year hiatus from his doctoral studies to help found and fund Humatics, an MIT-connected, full-stack IoT startup. Beane is an Assistan

Little has changed in America more dramatically over the last half century than the retail fashion industry. There was a time, Julie Satow tells us the mid 20th century, when the high fashion department stores on New York City’s Fifth Avenue were not only glamorous, but were actually run by women. This is the story of her new book, When Women Ran Fifth Avenue, a wistful, yet sociologically penetrating view of of the golden age of American department stores. What does the death of the high-end fashion department store tell us about the America of the 2020’s, I asked the New York City based Satow. And should we be nostalgic for department stores which excluded African-Americans and which seem to have compounded the economic and class divisions of American women?Julie Satow is the author of “The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel” and the forthcoming “When Women Ran Fifth Avenue: Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion,” to be published in June 2024 by Doubleday.Named as one of the "