Skip to content
By using Twitter’s services you agree to our Cookies Use. We and our partners operate globally and use cookies, including for analytics, personalisation, and ads.

This is the legacy version of twitter.com. We will be shutting it down on June 1, 2020. Please switch to a supported browser, or disable the extension which masks your browser. You can see a list of supported browsers in our Help Center.

  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • About

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

This is my conversational account. For my work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

Tweets

  • © 2020 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Imprint
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      2/ I'm going to call Fallows' thesis the "Little Sky Country" optimist narrative, I think that label says more than the title of his upcoming book, "Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America"

      2 replies 2 retweets 6 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      3/ Fallows' thesis is one part Tocqueville (energetic travel criss-crossing America to get the "real America" story) and one part "Our Town" in a Thornton Wilder sense.

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      Show this thread
    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      4/ The headline "finding" as it were, is that the zeitgeist is much more positive at a local resolution than global. People are being more resourceful, agent-y, and pragmatic locally, on every subject from education and economic revitalization to race relations and immigration.

      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      5/ You get the sense that Fallows is trying to play Tocqueville to Trump's Andrew Jackson (it is interesting that Tocqueville visited and wrote (1831-35) during Jackson's tenure (1829-1837).

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
      Show this thread
    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      6/ It appears to be an attempt at an oblique counter-programming of Trumpism. But I'm not sure it entirely works, and the problem is the fact that this is a "Little Sky Country" thesis. America is "Big Sky Country" and 100,000 Little Skies don't add up to a Big Sky.

      1 reply 1 retweet 7 likes
      Show this thread
    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      7/ While Fallows doesn't deny the reality of the toxicity of national level discourse, he appears to think it either doesn't matter too much, or that Little Sky Country thriving will defeat it.

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
      Show this thread
    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      8/ Just two examples: venture capital and reverse migration trends, which Fallows treats as evidence for the potential of Little Sky Country.

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      Show this thread
    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      9/ Unfortunately, VC has not shown much potential for thriving at smaller-than-SV scales. It is a model that relies on scaled concentration of capital. Almost all attempts to replicate SV at smaller scale fail badly.

      2 replies 1 retweet 5 likes
      Show this thread
    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      10/ Similarly, reverse migration may be driven by high cost of living in coastal cities, but the fact that it is occurring due to economic pressure, doesn't mean that it is a good thing. In fact, I think it is not. Big cities need fixing.

      1 reply 0 retweets 9 likes
      Show this thread
    10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      11/ A strong case could be made that big, dense, urban cores are going to remain economic (and increasingly, climate-response) engines. Reverse migration driven by big-city problems actually delay the return of economic vitality and climate sustainability.

      1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
      Show this thread
      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      • Report NetzDG Violation

      12/ The deeper problem with Little Sky Country optimism is that it has Jeffersonian axioms, while the economy still has Hamiltonian axioms. Ie, the "Real America" today is NOT Little Sky Country at all, but the Big Sky part.

      10:56 AM - 30 Apr 2018
      • 1 Retweet
      • 3 Likes
      • brrr Seitz … Zhan Li 🇪🇺🇬🇧
      1 reply 1 retweet 3 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          13/ The Big Sky part is not just a bunch of toxic conversations and partisan discourses in DC and the media. It is not ephemera on top of the sum-of-little-towns populated by self-absorbed WHCD attendees.

          1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
          Show this thread
        3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          14/ This is where the analogy to 1831 breaks down. Trump = Jackson, Fallows = Tocqueville, but 1831 economy != 2018 economy. 1831 was peak Jefferson, trough Hamilton. 2018 is the exact opposite.

          1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
          Show this thread
        4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          15/ I laid out this thesis in my 2015 Aeon article, American Cloud. https://aeon.co/essays/america-still-has-a-heartland-it-s-just-an-artificial-one …

          1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
          Show this thread
        5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          16/ This means a) that the problems at Big Sky Country level are FAR more consequential than just some discourse toxicity, and b) Little Sky Country ain't gonna save us.

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
          Show this thread
        6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          17/ The core issue here is where you think American strength truly lies: in the romanticized Tocqueville small-town yeomanry with its storied highlight moments like the homesteading movement? (Jeffersonianism) Or the talent for scale? (Hamiltonianism)

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
          Show this thread
        7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          18/ I think the evidence of history is unequivocal. The *average* mediocre gold-rushing, land-grabbing, manifest-destinying American contributed far less to America's greatness than the Hamiltonian types who dreamed Big Sky dreams.

          2 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
          Show this thread
        8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          19/ From the mass manufacturing revolution at Springfield and Harper's Ferry, through the wartime mobilization, to the Internet and Apollo, America's great contributions have been, well, Big things involving massively large-scale collaboration. Not narcissistic homesteading.

          1 reply 1 retweet 8 likes
          Show this thread
        9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          20/ And perhaps no greater Big Sky project exists in America than the great coastal cities. The Interstate system of the human soul, if I may be forgiven a bit poetry.

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
          Show this thread
        10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          21/ I mean, I'm sympathetic to the plight of the little guy, seeking his (and it's mostly men) little homestead-scale American dream, and wish him all the best in carving out a little place to call his own in the emerging economic landscape...

          2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
          Show this thread
        11. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          22/ And certainly, as it always has in history, Little Sky country will serve as the source of Big Sky dreamers (like Robert Noyce from Iowa to SV), who have always left the "heartland" to migrate to places where Big Sky thinking is appreciated, enabled, and rewarded.

          3 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
          Show this thread
        12. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          23/ But I think it is dangerous to let this instinct of kindness towards small dreams lead us towards overstating the importance or history-shaping potential of that cultural force. America has simply never worked that way. It's just a comforting myth for a lot of Americans.

          1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes
          Show this thread
        13. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          24/ Obviously, I haven't read Fallows' book since it isn't out yet, and I'm totally behind the attempt to provide a healing, positive narrative of local agency and empowerment to a forgotten/ignored demographic.

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
          Show this thread
        14. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 30 Apr 2018
          • Report Tweet
          • Report NetzDG Violation

          25/ But bottomline: America isn't Little Sky country. 100,000 locally flourishing little Thornton Wilder tales don't add up to a new kind of American mass flourishing. The problem is with Big Sky country, and the solution needs to be found there.

          3 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
          Show this thread
        15. End of conversation

      Loading seems to be taking a while.

      Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

        Promoted Tweet

        false

        • © 2020 Twitter
        • About
        • Help Center
        • Terms
        • Privacy policy
        • Imprint
        • Cookies
        • Ads info