Why the All-In Podcast Besties are full of shit.

When I discovered the All-In Podcast, I was amazed. Here were 4 guys who seemed to have figured it out. Leaders in tech who didn’t seem like dicks. Each came from humble beginnings, each brilliant, hardworking, thoughtful and now super rich — three of them billionaires. I was entranced, I dove into the backlog of episodes with excitement.

These men have been major leaders in the tech industry in the recent decades. They are demigods in the start-up culture, venture capital, even climate research. They are the modern captains of industry, perhaps not on the Henry Ford or Rockefeller or Elon Musk level — but one step removed. Prime movers and drivers of modern wealth in our generation.

Who are they — the besties, as they call themselves? Well, taking a tip from them I used BARD AI and got this:

· Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and venture capitalist — worth about 1.2 billion.

· Jason Calacanis, the founder of several tech companies and a popular startup podcaster - worth around 60 million (he’s the poor one)

· David Sacks, a venture capitalist and former COO of Yammer and Paypal — worth approximately 1.5 billion.

· David Friedberg, a former Googler and venture capitalist — worth about 1 billion.

If you dive deeper into their backgrounds — beyond just BARD — you see years of significant work and contributions to some of the more important trends and technologies of the 21st century. And there is no denying they have more than just monetary wealth, but a great deal of cognitive wealth. And while I knew I couldn’t be them (I didn’t want to be them) I did find myself interested in them. In how they thought. How they approached life. What made them so successful? I listened for weeks, enamored with it all.

Somewhere along the line my fascination began to falter. It began when one of the guys mentioned how he took a flight on Southwest airlines, and the rest poked fun at him for slumming it. One asked if there wasn’t room on someone else’s private jet for whatever event they were attending. Then they did an episode, or several, where one of them was in Italy, in the lake district, talking about the fine dining and minor inconveniences of being uber rich on Lago Maggiore or wherever he was. That tingled my spidey senses a bit more.

They would talk about Elon Musk, but never anything negative, as though Elon was a god among them, someone to be revered, idolized, never to be criticized. When Elon renamed Twitter, they didn’t miss a beat, all jumping to call it X without delay. When Elon’s rocket failed, all they had were excuses for him. This is how innovation worked. They claimed.

That one hit me. While Elon certainly has changed things for the better, he deserves at least some criticism. Perhaps a lot of cristicism. His handling of X has been universally noted as opening pathways for the far right to peddle hate and disinformation. His opinions about the war in Ukraine deeply flawed. The evidence clear he is stepping way outside of his area of expertise. Yet the Besties didn’t seem to care. Elon knows all.

Then came the ‘All-In’ summit. The announcement, the constant talking about it, the extreme costs, how they were almost immediately booked out — presumably by thousands of minions, all clamoring to be just like them. It began to feel like a grift.

And it hit me. These guys are full of shit.

If it’s not David Sacks whining about the Ukraine conflict, of which he initially had some good points, until I realized this man is tech guy who knows little about the world of international relations or hegemonic theory or appeasement of tyranny. Then it’s Chamath and Freidberg taking turns to see who can jerk off RFK Jr first, or Jason subtly hinting how much a resents his uber rich buddies.

Regardless, when you listen to it, I mean really listen to it, to these guys drone on and on and you start to see it for what it is: A weekly 90 minute mutual high-five and shared hand job fest where rich dudes, who seem to grow ever more disconnected from real life, congratualte themselves how smart they are and how if only they were in charge America would be righted.

But nevertheless, I listened — now and then they touch on interesting topics, when they weren’t talking about their fancy clothes or travel, or how much they totally understand what to invest in or what to avoid. Their ideas about AI and quantum computing were tops.

But then came the final straw — when they decided that presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (having dumped RFK Jr I guess) was indeed, the best one out there, for the moment. Why? Well, because he wants to cut the federal government by 75%.

Because of course he does. Vivek is cut from the same cloth as these guys — similar age, well, perhaps one generation younger, similar path to his wealth, similar hustle mentality. Hell, any of these guys (except for Jason) could see themselves in Vivek’s shoes. I’m positive David Sacks would love to run for president if he hadn’t been born in South Africa.

Of course these wealthy Tech VC bros have a natural instinct to hate the government. Never mind the over 2 million doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, secretaries, garbage men, you name it — most with families who are employed by the federal government. People who maybe aren’t willing to work 90-hour workweeks, grinding to be billionaires like them, but are willing to take lower pay, and still long work hours in service to America and something greater than just accumulating wealth.

These men don’t care about that. They think, well, as far as jobs go, these people should be willing to work in the corporate world, like they did. And the services? The free market will take care of it. For them the world the government helps provide in a modern country like ours can mostly be done by businesses or ‘innovators’ like them. Never mind these guys never need or think they need to use the services of the government. Never mind if those services were taken on by business it wouldn’t matter, they could afford it. Hell, perhaps they even convinced themselves they were never beneficiaries of the government. And now it can be assumed they live in gated communities, fly in private jets, send their kids to the best private schools, hangout with Elon Musk, interview leading politicians simply because they’re rich. All things that the federal government likes to stick its nose in as far as they’re concerned.

Here’s the thing. The federal government is bloated. And there are many federal employees and agencies who do not need to exist, where laziness and redundancy are rampant. Reform is needed. But to nod your head and say, ‘Vivek has my vote because he wants to cut the FED by 75%,’ without thought or concern for all the government does to make this country great. For all whom it employs. And for all it serves. Well, that’s a sign that these guys are in fact, full of shit.