Idea · carried by 1 source
Silicon Valley as Consensus Society
San Francisco and Beijing are the two most consensus-driven societies in the world — and that is both Silicon Valley's greatest asset and its most dangerous blind spot.
Where it comes from
William Hockey, drawing on Dan Wang's observations, in highlights/william-hockey-bet-on-yourself (~5:00): “The two most consensus societies he's ever been to is San Francisco and Beijing. And I think that's like quite accurate... San Francisco is probably the most consensus place I've ever been to.”
How it works
- Asset side: A consensus environment lets you pursue outlandish ideas (AI, stablecoins) that San Francisco believes in but the rest of the world doesn't yet. You can build in a “very safe way” while being far ahead of the curve.
- Blind spot: San Francisco has “completely lost touch with how the rest of the world operates, or even like everyday American operates.” This has “smacked us in the face over the past decade or two.”
- Elite-driven: SF is “an elite dominated society... probably more akin to Wall Street of the 1990s than it is to... a research lab in Cambridge in like the 1950s.”
- Elites build for elites: “Elites end up building software for elites.” This creates products that don't resonate outside the bubble.
- AI is a consensus problem: Research labs win at AI because it's a consensus-oriented problem — take smart people, share ideas, iterate. But applicability to everyday lives is at a low point.
Silicon Valley's consensus culture enables rapid progress on consensus topics (AI research), but actively harms the ability to build products for everyone else. The founders who figure this out — and actively seek outside perspectives — do really well.