Episode · a16z Podcast · 2022-11-15
Books mentioned on Balaji Srinivasan on The Network State
In this episode, we’ll explore the concept of The Network State with Balaji Srinivasan. As the world becomes more digital, it also becomes more distributed.
Erik Torenberg discussed The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan. Balaji Srinivasan discussed Force and freedom by Jacob Burckhardt, Against Elections by David Van Reybrouck, The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher, and How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F. Walter.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Network State
The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan presents a blueprint for how online communities and social networks can leverage cryptocurrency to build independent economic structures and ultimately establish new sovereign entities that bypass traditional democratic states and medical regulations.
Discussed“I also read your book recently which is what we're going to be talking about today this idea of the network State”
Where to get it
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Force and freedom
Discussed“and it was actually gratifying I have this passage in there in one of the footnotes by a guy named Jacob Burkhart from force and freedom did you see that passage”
Where to get it
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Against Elections
Discussed“like the ancient Greeks thought democracy uh there's a great book called uh against elections the case for democracy it's a hilarious title and it basically says that the ancient Greeks they use a mechanism called sortition rather than elections”
Where to get it
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The Benedict Option
The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher is a conservative Christian book that argues for the intentional withdrawal of believers from mainstream secular culture to build resilient, traditional communities.
Discussed“I mean the obvious stuff is like language communities you know like religious communities you know you're going to have uh for example like Rod draher has this book called The Benedict option right if you want to be a religious Christian guess what”
Where to get it
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How Civil Wars Start
How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F.
Discussed“it's like Yugoslavia where that primary identity was a national but now it's a sub-national identity it's kind of actually there's this book um by I think it's by Barbara Walter okay it's called like how Civil Wars start she talks about how in Iraq”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (6) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“and today we brought him in to discuss his best-selling book the network state”
“it's like in this nether Zone this is a book called invisible countries what I'm getting at is once you distinguish the nation the state”
“and that is considered the pros and cons but what it does is it basically says again no plane crashes no plans I mean there's another there's a book called The CRC Handbook of chemistry and physics here”
“and that is considered the pros and cons but what it does is it basically says again no plane crashes no plans I mean there's another there's a book called The CRC Handbook of chemistry and physics here”
“in fact there's this really here's a here's something this is going in V2 of the book this is a new content okay ready for new content take a look at this pretty cool uh video”
“if people are interested they can go to what the networkstate.com and um also tutor.com so it's free online and you can also get it on Kindle”