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You've probably seen the (outstanding, of course) essay linked many times, but don't miss this excellent associated bibliography! Currently wondering how cultural products fit into a "build" mandate. Renaissance salons are interesting to ponder vs. "what are you building"?

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Marc Andreessen

@pmarca

· Apr 18, 2020

a16z.com/2020/04/18/its

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Some subset of these cultural products *are* a kind of building—a building of tacit knowledge, of systems, of lenses. Others are aesthetic products which are essential to human flourishing, but which seem otherwise orthogonal to the mandate.

1:26 AM · Apr 19, 2020Twitter Web App

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The ideal in my mind is for the aesthetic products to inspire the building and vice versa in an upward spiral

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

Apr 19, 2020

One cultural product of the salons was democracy (you could quibble about extent, but fair to say that it was a significant contributor). That's a kind of building. They also gave us belletrists—say, Proust. Not sure that's building, though arguably important for flourishing.