#63 We're back + The Techno Optimist Manifesto
There is too much knowledge to not share
So, we’re back. This might be totally out of the blue, but hear us out - every time we come across a super interesting article, a new business term or a mental model that we thought everyone must know about, one thing stood out: we totally missed sending that information out to you.
And it reminded us what we were all about, here’s a recap if you’ve forgotten too:
About BNFK
Knowledge is at the heart of being. To be more, we must know more.
BNFK distills the latest, most interesting, Business News 📰 and Technology Happenings.. to an emoji filled, ultra informative, and fun Newsletter for Kids. Delivered every Sunday. Revisit previous editions here.
We want to be able to continue to share this knowledge. There’s just way too much of it not to 🤷♂️.
But we’ll do it in a slightly more feasible way 😅. Instead of a newsletter with 7 sections that took hours on end to write.. and possibly to read🤣.. we’ll be moving to a focussed snippet format. It will essentially talk about ONE topic that we think we MUST share. And because of this we may not send an update every week or send updates more than once a week. Rest assured, our focus remains on learning new things, gaining ultra useful knowledge and keeping it fun 🙂.
If you’d still remain keen, please follow along; and if not, hit the Unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email with 0 guilt 🙏.
So without further ado, here is Snippet 1.
The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
Marc Andreessen, a partner at Venture Capital Firm Andreessen Horowitz (also called a16z) released this note: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.
It essentially argues why we, as humans, need to be wildly optimistic about Technology than be regressively pessimistic. For example, it argues that benefits of Artificial Intelligence, with its potential to save millions of lives, far outweighs the possibility of it annihilating us. 🤪
Please read and watch with parental supervision: https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/
Marc was also the co-founder of Netscape - one of the first internet browsers released way back in 1994; and one that captured nearly 3/4th of the browser market (basically think of it as today’s Google Chrome). a16z is also one of the largest venture capital firms by Assets Under Management (AUM).Wait, what is..
Venture Capital: A firm that invests money in early stage private companies in exchange for equity (stock ownership).
Assets Under Management (AUM): A venture capital fund raises money from investors and uses this money to further invest in startup companies. From a simplistic view AUM is the total money they raise from such investors; but more accurately, AUM is the “current value” of all the money they raise. Discuss with a big person. Ask them to read this and explain.
P.S. Just as we are about to send this, there is a mega update: The United States issued an Executive Order detailing new standards for AI safety and security. More on that next week.
Pro Tip: The magic of learning is in curiosity. Don’t shy away from clicking those hyperlinked texts to read and learn more. We mostly hyperlink to text we have read ourselves to make sure it is safe, but please be aware that comments and ads shown on these pages are beyond our control. We recommend using a kids friendly browser to view the links. Please read all Disclaimers.
Take care. See you soon. We’re glad to be back. 🙏