Jan 12, 2023 · 1h 19m · a16z
Building for Tomorrow with Jason Feifer
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of The a16z Podcast, host Steph Smith interviews Entrepreneur Magazine Editor-in-Chief Jason Feifer to explore six analytical frameworks that explain why society resists innovation and how individuals and business leaders can cultivate true adaptability during periods of rapid technological change.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The host holds 28.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The host as informed peer 3.0 Guest teaching 3.0 Guest disagreement 0.6 The host pushing back 1.0
speaking balance: gold is the host, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 49:20 Critique of traditional media tech coverage
Jason forcefully criticizes a New York Times investigation into LinkedIn A/B testing, calling the reporting absurd and pointing out media ignorance surrounding basic tech operations.
Hardest push from the host ▶ 55:11 Challenge on technological abstractionSteph pushes back on Jason's stance against oversimplification, pointing out that modern tech is so abstracted and complex that non-experts have no other practical framework to make sense of it.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 45:43 The 1907 teddy bear moral crisisJason educates the host with a vivid historical anecdote explaining how a 1907 preacher campaigned against teddy bears because of anxieties over women's evolving social roles.
The host holds their own ▶ 24:36 Archival phone and computer skepticism quotesSteph demonstrates impressive preparation and domain familiarity by citing historical quotes from an 1865 newspaper editor dismissing wire voice transmission and Ken Olsen doubting home computers.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The host as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The host pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legal Disclaimer Slate | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Introductory segment containing the podcast legal disclaimer and light initial chit-chat about technical difficulties. The dynamic is polite and conversational. | |
| Why Adaptability Matters in Life and Business | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Steph asks why adaptability is the defining trait for success. Jason shares insights from interviewing top entrepreneurs, and Steph builds on his point by distinguishing micro and macro adaptability. | |
| Framework #1: We Fundamentally Do Not Believe in Our Own Adaptability | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Jason introduces Framework #1 about fear of loss and historical tech panics (e.g., John Philip Sousa's anti-phonograph campaign). Steph contributes Douglas Adams' quote on generational views of technology and discusses changing definitions of intelligence. | |
| Framework #2: We Don't Often Know What Things Are For | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Jason details Framework #2 on misunderstanding the purpose of new tools, using media content and relationship building as an example. Steph displays strong prep by citing an 1865 newspaper editor on the telephone and Ken Olsen on home computers. | |
| Framework #3: Innovators Don't Always Build a Bridge | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Jason presents Framework #3 on building a bridge of familiarity rather than insulting existing habits (horseless carriages, protein chips, elevator voices). Steph relates this to modern EV sound design and Web3 adoption. | |
| Framework #4: We Mistake a 1% Problem for a Worse Problem | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Jason explains Framework #4 using the 19th-century waltz health scare to illustrate mistaking environmental factors for core technology flaws. Steph connects this to digital data tracking, Pareto principles, and early cell phone radiation fears versus modern digital issues. | |
| Framework #5: We Imbue Our Innovations with Our Own Cultural Anxieties | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Jason discusses Framework #5, showing how societal panics (like the 1907 teddy bear scare) project deeper cultural anxieties. He offers mild media critique regarding tech coverage, while Steph adds nuance about institutional self-preservation and protecting established investments. | |
| Framework #6: We Oversimplify Problems | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Jason covers Framework #6 on oversimplifying multi-layered issues, detailing historical foreign election interference and Kodak's downfall via photo-sharing platforms rather than digital cameras. Steph pushes back constructively, questioning whether technological abstraction makes oversimplification unavoidable for average consumers. | |
| Recapping the Six Frameworks of Change | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Steph hosts a historical headline guessing game featuring past panics over mirrors, cameras, and airplanes. Jason identifies which of his frameworks apply to each quote in a highly collaborative exchange. | |
| Modern Technology Pushback Game: Remote Work, AR/VR, Biohacking | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Steph rapid-fires contemporary tech topics (remote work, AR/VR, biohacking) for Jason to categorize. The tone is lively and fast-paced, with Jason providing quick framework diagnoses. |
Statements from this episode (21)
Feifer: Solving operational crises yields more goodwill than smooth, disruption-free operations
“When something breaks, it gives you an opportunity to Fix it or to do something nice. And then people are kind of more grateful to you than if you had just been a normal person and things worked fine.”
Feifer: Repeated questions from others reveal what they value in you
“If you listen to the questions that people ask you discover that what they're really doing is telling you what they think your value is to them.”
Feifer: John Philip Sousa published 'The Menace of Mechanical Music' in 1906
“He wrote this piece called The Menace of Mechanical Music in 19 oh six, I think.”
Feifer: Everyday norms prove innovation wins despite initial opposition
“We really are the products of change, and we forget that. We, we're actually the argument for change because the things that we grew up with were the things that people had previously opposed.”
Feifer: Intelligence has shifted from memory retention to rapid information processing
“A sign of intelligence decades ago would be the ability to be able to easily retain information. So the ability to read something and retain it the quick recall of that information, that was a sign of intelligence. Now a sign of intelligence would be the abili…”
Feifer: Entrepreneur Magazine's print edition remains profitable today
“We do still make money on the print magazine. To be clear, it doesn't lose money. Just doesn't make the kind of money that it probably did 30 years ago.”
Feifer: Silicon Valley routinely fails to connect revolutionary products to familiar concepts
“I mean, I think that Silicon Valley is guilty of this all the time, of introducing very revolutionary ideas without doing the groundwork of connecting this new idea to something that people are already comfortable and familiar with.”
Feifer: Consumers reject net-new innovations in favor of better existing products
“People hate that because people hate new things. What they like is better versions of old things.”
Feifer: Rebranding 'chicken chips' to 'protein chips' unlocked a snack company's sales
“It did really well in taste tests. People really liked the product. Nobody was buying it. Because chicken chips sounds disgusting. So after a bunch of kind of consumer insights research, they changed from talking, from calling it chicken chips to protein chips…”
Feifer: Female voice prompts drove consumer adoption of automated elevators
“But anyway, you know, one of the ways that, one of the ways that the elevator industry found could get people inside the doors was by recognizing that what people needed wasn't necessarily a actual human. What they needed was the feeling that there was a human…”
Feifer: Evaluate innovation by whether its problems are better than old ones
“So the better question to ask is, is this new problem better than my old problem? Because once we start tracking progress through problems, one, we just create the space for problems, which are inevitable, and therefore, when a problem arises, it doesn't shock…”
Feifer: A Michigan priest sparked a national moral panic over teddy bears
“There was a national moral crisis over the teddy bear in 19 or seven. It started in Michigan with a Priest named Michael G. Esper, who had given this sermon about how damaging teddy bears are, and how dangerous they are.”
Feifer: Traditional media reports technology in an excessively alarmist manner
“I'm often deeply frustrated by the way in which I see traditional media cover technology. I, and, you know, the kind of alarmist look for the worst possible outcome and then report it as if it is as if it is you know, fact or at least certain outcome.”
Feifer: Russia has used the same election interference playbook for 100 years
“For 100 years, Russia had run the same exact playbook on American elections, and that was to utilize the dominant mode of communication at the time, which could either be newspapers, or radio, or television, or social media, to exacerbate existing tensions in …”
Feifer: Facebook, not the digital camera, ultimately killed Kodak
“What killed Kodak wasn't the digital camera. It was Facebook.”
Feifer: Society routinely mistakes 1% problems for 100% problems
“Number four, we mistake a one percent problem for a 100% problem.”
Smith: A headline claimed airplanes were a million years away in 1903
“I think I read another headline that said it would take over a million years for the airplane to be successful, only to which I believe the Wright brothers took flight two months later.”
Feifer: Commercial spaceflight currently lacks purpose but utility will emerge
“Right now you know, Richard Branson can send people into space, but there isn't really a point to it at this point, right? It's just a kind of joy ride for wealthy people. But it's very possible that at some point in the future, there will be a true purpose fo…”
Feifer: Early automobiles were dismissed because modern commuting did not exist yet
“When the car was introduced, people often didn't know what to do with it because the very idea of a commute didn't really exist. People didn't, they weren't commuting long distances, so they were mostly joyriding with these things, and a lot of people were say…”
Feifer: Cutting 'inefficient' meetings for four-day workweeks damages company culture
“How do you get to a four-day workweek? Well, what you do is that you eliminate meetings and colleague chit chat and basically anything that feels inefficient so that everyone's just focused on efficiency. But it turns out all those inefficiencies had a purpose…”
Jason Feifer: AR, VR, and metaverse lack a killer use case for mass adoption
“I don't think that the killer use case for AR VR or the metaverse has been introduced yet, and so what people are hearing is a lot of hype, and then if they get the oculus, I got an oculus, you know where it is? It's in my closet. And the reason is because I d…”