Reid Hoffman

I am a strong believer in capitalism and business as a force for good. Lately, there has been chatter about some Silicon Valley business leaders endorsing Trump, partly because he is “better for business.”

I couldn’t reject this assertion more forcefully.

Having Trump in the White House will be bad for our prosperity, our democratic institutions, and ultimately our place in the world.

You can read my arguments outlined in The Economist.

And if you agree, please share widely:

I'm often asked if I've had any mentors in my life. The truth is I've had a hundred of them. And they've all been awesome. The secret?

Most of them have been friends. It may seem counterintuitive – because people typically envision mentors as being older, more experienced, and more accomplished than they are –  but for me, friendship has always been the path to learning and self-improvement.

Our friendships are where we thrive and how we move forward and upward. They're how we figure out hard choices, help each other grow, and feel like we're a part of something bigger.

So when Vanderbilt University asked me to give a Graduates Day address, I didn't speak about entrepreneurism, technological innovation, or career-planning.

I spoke about friendship. Here's what I shared with the Class of 2022 about the best way I know to have a meaningful and productive life:

In my first startup, I was told “no” by almost every VC I pitched.

How did I get beyond that? How do you become relentlessly resourceful in your career?

On the fourth episode of the Startup of You Podcast, Ben Casnocha and I share lessons from Airbnb, Chris Sacca, and other companies to show how to be stubbornly persistent, how to get creative when necessary, and how to cultivate serendipity.
 
Listen here - https://lnkd.in/gSvrvPsG
 
If you like what you hear, please subscribe and let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

Years before Diane Greene became Google’s Cloud Chief, she laid the foundations of cloud computing as the Co-founder of VMware. She was more passionate about the idea than the business. That’s often how scalable ideas start.

Listen free on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/2AyA1HF

In The Startup of You, Ben Casnocha and I talk about being in permanent beta: making a lifelong commitment to continuous learning and personal growth. At the Masters of Scale Summit, Disruption Advisors CEO Whitney Johnson presented another way to think of this when she spoke about the S Curve of Learning.

The S Curve helps us understand how we learn, and why we experience the “slow, fast, slow” trajectory of growth. Here’s how each part of the curve breaks down:

The bottom of the S. At the outset, starting something new is hard and you move more slowly. Your predictions are inaccurate, so you don't get dopamine hits.

The upswing of the S. In the sweet spot of mastering a new skill or workflow, the accuracy of your predictions increases, and your dopamine spikes.

The top of the S. Once you hit a level of mastery, your predictions are accurate—but there’s a little dopamine because you’re now doing what is easy. Growth is slow. This is where you have an opportunity to start anew, and begin a new S Curve. 
 
So if you're getting dismayed while learning a new skill or feel as if you're not growing quickly enough, take a beat. Assess where you are on the S Curve and whether you need a new challenge or if growth is waiting just around the corner on the upswing.
 
As always, if you like what you hear, please subscribe to The Startup of You newsletter and let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

My digital twin—Reid AI—has been busy, from judging competitions to chatting with reporters to translating speeches. Some memorable moments from Reid AI's first few months of public appearances include:
- Appearing in interviews with Andrew Ross Sorkin on CNBC and Bloomberg’s Emily Chang
- Joining Allie K. Miller and me for an AI agent experiment
- Helping me deliver my University of Perugia commencement speech in 10 languages
- Discussing avatars' futures with actress / Simpson Street founder Kerry Washington, chef Massimo Bottura, and The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson on the Possible podcast (https://lnkd.in/emENZKhA)
- Judging a business plan competition with me at Stanford

The list goes on...

Aria Finger joined me to reflect on what Reid AI has been up to. So far, its superpowers include fluency in many languages and encyclopedic knowledge of my articles, books, and podcasts. Weaknesses: Not always responding intelligibly in real-time or giving the most nuanced advice (working on that...). I'm curious to continue exploring more applications of avatars, especially as they become increasingly easy to generate.

I’m also starting to think there's a case to be made for Reid AI getting an executive assistant for all this work—AI, of course.

What applications of avatars are you most excited about?

Today, take a refresh on the lessons from Masters of Scale episode Learn From Every 'No'. tristan walker shares his tips for scaling your business. http://apple.co/2o

Every great company is built on great storytelling. Why? Because storytelling is in our DNA, it's how we process information and dream. And great, authentic storytelling creates a loop that feeds into people's desires to share. They'll open up their networks, and your company's story will spreads. And then scale.

As a leader, you have to be an expert storyteller – it's how you'll galvanize your team, it's how you'll persuade investors, it's how you'll excite your customers. And you'll do that all by telling genuine, authentic, completely true stories.

As scott harrison says in Day 25 of the first course in the Masters of Scale Courses app: “We have these sayings at the organization, 'Hope, not guilt.' 'Invitation, inspiration.' The images would be people getting clean water, 1,000 people surrounding the drilling rig, getting wet, water falling from the sky. They're clapping, they're dancing, they're laughing. Who wouldn't want to come along?“

There’s a fun exercise for you & your team in the Masters of Scale Courses app. I highly recommend you check it out.

One of the riskiest things you can do in your career is to try to eliminate risk entirely. It’s not only impossible, but also unadvisable. 
 
On the sixth episode of the Startup of You Podcast, Ben Casnocha and I discuss how to conceptualize, navigate, and endure risk.

Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gdHRy9ih

If you like what you hear, please subscribe and let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

Some conversations have a way of turning everyday certainties into open questions. My interview with Tanay Kothari, founder of Wispr Flow, was one of those moments. Because once you hear Tanay ask, “Why are we still stuck with keyboards?” it becomes impossible to unsee just how bizarre our current computing paradigm really is.

My reflections on my conversation with the voicepilled CEO of Wispr Flow:

Please join me in stepping up for our community and donate to Second Harvest of Silicon Valley. If we can raise $1M for Second Harvest, Vinod Khosla and I will triple the amount.

With devastating SNAP cuts and food insecurity near record levels in Silicon Valley, many are facing a harder reality this holiday season – choosing between food and rent, utilities, or medical care.

You can help by donating here: https://shfb.online/reid

Your donation helps ensure Second Harvest can continue to serve nearly 500,000 people every month. As one of the nation’s largest food banks, it distributes food via a vast network of nearly 400 partners at 900+ sites across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

Compute sovereignty will decide much of who wins the AI race. Right now, the United States is losing the race, not because we can’t build the datacenters, but because we aren’t on pace to generate the energy needed to power them. Here’s how we can narrow the gap: