Capital moves. The structures we’ve built move it toward return, toward liquidity, toward exit. Systems persist. Communities persist. The places where people live and work and build lives—these do not exit. They continue, with or without the capital that passes through. We have designed our financial structures for the movement. The venture fund with its
On Mechanistic Metaphors Systems thinkers love to talk about leverage points—those magical places where a small intervention supposedly yields outsized change. The image is always mechanical: a bar, a fulcrum, a decisive push. But that metaphor smuggles in an assumption: that the world behaves like a machine waiting for the right force in the right place.
On forecasting, portfolios, and futures On forecasting, portfolios, and futures “We need to spend more time on Horizon 2,” they both say. One is a program officer at a climate and nature philanthropy. The initiatives they’re funding risk being captured by the dominant political economy in the U.S. or co-opted by greenwashing actors who sound
“Narrative change” has become its own sphere in philanthropy and movement work, stories as culture, identity, and legitimacy. Narrative work is funded. Those with the best narratives attract funding. There’s even been a backlash against narrative-building, and last week I had a set of compelling conversations thanks to Julia Roig’s post on Judith Mil’s post,
Performing Economic Realities: Climate Week on Value, AI, and the Contest Over Contribution My worlds all collided at Climate Week, and it’s taken me another week to metabolize the bafflement of many and find the corners of coherence, trying to remember more than the variation of seating charts, convening experiences, and which rooms were set
A story about unimaginative visions for efficiency and who gets to decide what intelligence serves. The machines are learning. But not what you think. The machines are learning how to hollow out human work and pour the profits into distant accounts. The machines are learning the language of efficiency, which means “we don’t need
Snap MyAI: how does it monetize? Generative AI Snap chose to buy, not build, generative AI features through OpenAI’s enterprise Foundry program for an undisclosed amount. Business Models B:C Subscription: The company rolled out the MyAI feature to current Snapchat+ subscribers who pay for access to early features. TBD Advertising: The company intends to roll out
Bing AI: how does it monetize? Generative AI Microsoft invested in an exclusive deal to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT model within their Bing app, which they have named Sydney. Business Models B:C Advertising: The company is considering in-chatbot advertising suggestions after delivering response queries. B:B Per-API-Call: Microsoft is also charging per-API call fees for developers working with Bing
Netflix Flywheel Timeline Business Model Tear Down It’s hard to understand how tech giant business models work. We give companies like Netflix simple stories like “subscription” and leave it at that. Netflix indeed is one of the simplest of the top 10 tech companies in terms of having an open and fairly transparent business model.
We’re all peeled to our digital screens right now checking in on the world, our families, our colleagues, and then trying to predict what all of that means for our selves. What I’ve noticed are fights breaking out based on what comes down to math and mental models. It’s curves vs. lines. I know I’ve