Marc Andreessen: It’s Time To Write

Marc Andreessen deserves a place on the Mount Rushmore of Silicon Valley. His presence in the tech space is unprecedented and he’s one of the most prolific investors. The world of online writing is in debt to him.

He co-founded Netscape, where he created the first web browser. He invented the tweetstorm, and has helped form the internet. He coined the idea “software is eating the world”, which has defined humanity’s evolution over the last decade.

Marc isn’t just a mad man creator. He’s a passionate historian and cultural critic too. Name the topic. Marc has an opinion.

This episode is a masterclass into a combination of tech and liberal arts in a way to fuel your writing. I came to chat with him about writing, but left with a PhD in obscure Silicon Valley history and a list of book recommendations large enough to fill The Library of Congress.

SPEAKER LINKS:
Website: https://www.a16z.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmarca

WRITE OF PASSAGE:
Want to learn more about the next class Write of Passage?
Click here: https://take.writeofpassage.school/writing-sprints

PODCAST LINKS:
Website: https://writeofpassage.school/how-i-write/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-write/id1700171470
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DjMSboniFAeGA8v9NpoPv

TIMESTAMPS:
00:37 It’s Time To Build
03:00 Editing
04:00 Frustration
05:00 Outline
06:30 Reading
08:00 Audiobooks & podcasts
10:00 Information intake
10:38 Groupchats
14:25 Writing
16:20 Twitter
16:50 Meme Lord & Software is eating the world
18:40 Distribution
19:50 Tweetstorm
23:30 Personal Blog
24:00 Lateral Thinkers (Venkatesh Rao, Balaji Srinivasan, Peter Thiel)
27:40 LLM
28:00 Software as a literary genre
33:30 Learning to code as a kid
34:45 Constraints
36:40 Roman a Clef
39:00 Writing at a16z
43:40 Hyperlinks
45:40 Comments
50:00 Reading
54:40 Science Fiction
58:00 Green Tea
58:30 Office
59:45 Music
1:01:00 Walking
1:01:20 Ben Horowitz
1:04:50 Manifesto
1:05:00 The Kanye of Blogs
1:09:30 Feedback
1:10:40 Critique
1:13:50 Twitter
1:16:00 Pmarca screenname

ABOUT THE HOST:
I’m David Perell and I’m a writer, teacher, and podcaster. I believe writing online is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. For the first time in human history, everybody can freely share their ideas with a global audience. I seek to help as many people publish their writing online as possible.

Take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.