Who: Ambitious OptimistsWhen: TBDWhere: On A Lake in Michigan Featuring: Utopic Debates Instead of panel discussions or speeches, our main events are competitive debates. Rules: Lincoln—Douglas debates. One hour per topic. One on One. Debaters TBD Three Days to Change the World — And Your Life New Ideas Every Hour No slide decks or polishedContinue reading “Utopic Live”
Author Archives: Neil Thanedar
The Most Important Job in the World
Best Quotes from the Becoming Warren Buffett Documentary
Notes: This HBO documentary covers the life and work of Berkshire Hathaway Chairman & CEO Warren Buffett, largely through his own quotes. We also hear a lot from his business partner Charlie Munger and his first wife Suzie Buffett. Warren Buffett’s advice can teach us way more about life than just business. Most people callContinue reading “Best Quotes from the Becoming Warren Buffett Documentary”
Public Ventures
How Governments Can Run VC Funds The public should get equity in businesses that take government funding. No more free-money bailouts for billionaires. Public VC funds share in the upside when the startups they fund succeed. This incentivizes governments to invest more in earlier-stage startups. Public VC is a renewable economic resource. Successful investments inContinue reading “Public Ventures”
UMICH 2050
Replace Student Loans: 0% Interest ISAs for All Students. Reinvent Our Education: Get Ready for the Future of Work Now. College tuition has risen over 150% in the last twenty years. Tuition is the #1 fastest growing consumer expense in America. Tuition is growing over three times faster than inflation. Colleges are not preparing graduatesContinue reading “UMICH 2050”
Real Real GDP
Here’s a basic economics question: Question: What happens to GDP? According to economists, nothing changed because no new money changed hands. But I met that woman in Coldwater. She doesn’t want more money. She wants more time. Meeting her made me happy and sad and angry: She’s a hero and she deserves 26 more hoursContinue reading “Real Real GDP”
Hidden Ambition
We’re scared of losing, but we’re terrified of being called a loser. We grew up watching elementary school bullies pick on the “nerds”. If you’re like me, you were usually the target of the teasing. It’s easy to internalize the idea that being ambitious isn’t cool. Social media is full of bullies making fun ofContinue reading “Hidden Ambition”
You Have To Make Life Meaningful
They’ll summarize your life into a few words, sentences, or paragraphs. The family you created, the friends you made, the things you did. In those words are the meaning of your life. Life’s secret is that these words aren’t predetermined. We get to pick these words through our actions now. We have to make ourContinue reading “You Have To Make Life Meaningful”
Utopic Club
🌎 Changing the world. 🚀 Ideas for new inventions. 🧑🔬 Science that saves lives. 💸 Maximizing effective altruism. Examples: Platonic Academy, Bloomsbury Group, The Factory. What clubs like this exist now? It’s easy to predict that an ambitious project will fail. We choose to be optimistic not because it is easy, but because it isContinue reading “Utopic Club”
Ambitious Optimists
We need a new era of ambitious optimism. Summary: Idea: Convince more ambitious optimists to solve the World’s Biggest Problems. Problem: Too many people now think it’s “cool” to be cynical. Solution: Organize the world’s ambitious optimists! Why: Ambitious optimism is self-fulfilling. Mission: Make Life Utopic For All! History: Kennedy’s “We choose to go toContinue reading “Ambitious Optimists”