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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      I suspect we’re about to see a zeitgeist-level design ethos swing from “ideas worth spreading” (TED, media lab etc) to “jankiness worth fixing” The specific sordid reasons the trend is reversing now are actually not that important. It would have happened even without scandals.

      6 replies 12 retweets 83 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      Not to overindex on my own theories, but this feels like a big part of the winds shifting from premium mediocre to domestic cozy

      1 reply 0 retweets 16 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      Even the maker movement which might seem like stealth/grassroots is actually kinda premium mediocre at present. Lots of 3D printing cuteness and crapjects and starter arduino “blinking LEDs” stuff on the margins while mainstream stuff gets more closed and less repairable.

      3 replies 1 retweet 30 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      The last “maker” thing I did was built a kit robot with a Stamp 2 microcontroller back in 2006, before the scene blew up. It was underwhelming and not as much fun as I’d hoped. I dumped the project after writing some hello worked programs like “go in circle, stop at obstacle”

      1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      All the things I’ve done since then has been “jankiness worth fixing” things. Messiest was replacing a broken motor in our litter robot. Extremely yucky/smelly repair job 😬 It’s all been basic repairs, jury-rigged workarounds etc. Stuff that’s 10% harder to do every year.

      2 replies 0 retweets 12 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      I feel kinda bad about drawing a very large circle around the media lab shitshow and tarring about a dozen other key institutions in the literary industrial complex with the same brush. They may not be infected, but they are vulnerable to the same kind of entryist exploitation.

      1 reply 2 retweets 12 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      Glamorous institution syndrome: — Prioritize intellectual-glamor branding — Manufacture a vision surplus — Overpromise/underdeliver — Overvalue PR as a KPI — Big on manifestos — Charisma engineering as core competency — Fear “boring” perceptions — Spotlight-driven funding

      4 replies 8 retweets 46 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      These are neither good, nor bad. They are just features that present a particular kind of attack surface to predators/parasites. Domestic cozy ethos is the opposite and has its own attack surface (often based on silent neglect and decay)

      1 reply 0 retweets 13 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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      The media lab events should serve as a warning for institutions cut from the same cloth. - Pivot the brand now - Swap out impresario leaders for quiet bureaucratic-heroes - Reduce funding reliance on PR - work on problems that are unsexy and hard not stunts - refactor > vision

      2:56 PM - 8 Sep 2019
      • 1 Retweet
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      • ian m hines Dan listens to the last days of the first days PH James 'Recovering Rationalist' Stuber Henk Sjaak Leon Markham jmz Rob Alexander Dom DeGaetano
      3 replies 1 retweet 29 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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          It is possible to overcorrect and overcompensate and end up with the opposite pathologies but let’s start the swing back

          1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
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        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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          As a general principle, you “brand values are my adverse selection pressure”. Just like “your margin is my opportunity” Your brand values will likely hide a brand premium that is attractive to those who can pay the premium but don’t share the signal values.

          2 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
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        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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          What is your weakness on flip side of strengths? Glamorous orgs = big marketing budgets = starved backoom ops. They are relatively inefficient fundraisers/spenders. Weakness: you need to raise $2 for every $1 a non-glamorous org does. Who do you think is willing to overpay 2x?

          0 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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        5. End of conversation
        1. New conversation
        2. Nick Pinkston  🌐‏ @NickPinkston 8 Sep 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          This seems like a plan to kill the Media Lab. It's supposed to be visionary, so you need a visionary leader, or one that's good at picking visionaries to lead labs. They need to double down on vision, but likely a new vision.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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          Replying to @NickPinkston

          Worth a long-bet. I think we're headed for a decade or two of "vision recession" where the initiative shifts to the opposite of "visionary" types.

          3 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
        4. Show replies
        1. New conversation
        2. John Greer‏ @JohnCGreer 8 Sep 2019
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          Replying to @vgr

          John Greer Retweeted John Greer

          Do you know the answer to this?https://twitter.com/johncgreer/status/1170817595907481601?s=21 …

          John Greer added,

          John Greer @JohnCGreer
          Does anyone know how productive the MIT Media Lab has actually been and how Ito leaving will affect that? Their list of research groups sounds like a hippie in Golden Gate Park was asked to brainstorm tech ideas... "Camera Culture"? "Lifelong Kindergarten"? "Poetic Justice"? pic.twitter.com/GZDdiPJxnU
          Show this thread
          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 8 Sep 2019
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          Replying to @JohnCGreer

          I asked the same question yesterday and got a few responses

          0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
        4. End of conversation

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