Identity
topic on 7 shows · 19 statements across 16 episodes
In Depth 
More or Less 
the Knowledge Project 
BigDeal 
My First Million 
Invest Like the Best 
the a16z Podcast
19 statements about Identity, every show
Chesky: Airbnb's future bedrock will be authenticated identity, not just home rentals.
“The bedrock of Airbnb is gonna be identity, Profile. The person's preferences. I want to develop the most authenticated identity on the internet.”
Sanchez: Tangible action shifts personal identity faster than positive affirmations
“Lots of studies show That when you have evidence, it changes your identity faster than if you talk positively to yourself in the mirror.”
Clear: Clinging Tightly to an Identity Makes Growth Harder
“The tighter you cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.”
Seidman Becker: Identity is contextual across different settings and permission levels
“Identity is completely contextual. I'm always Karen, but when I check in at the doctor's office, I'm Karen with UnitedHealth, with an ex copay, with a medical record, that by the way, I should own, and have access to, and be able to share anywhere I want.”
Song: Identity startups face execution risk, not market risk
“Like I always tell whenever someone new joins, I never tell them like, oh, we have a market risk, like just identity is not a market risk company. It's fundamentally really an execution risk and it's a very high Execution risk because the idea is just so obvio…”
Song: Most early identity verification startups ended up verticalized in fintech
“Cause like a lot of identity prior to this is very verticalized. You'd have all sorts of businesses who are all like, you know, they all have this idea of we're going to build this universal thing, but in reality, it oftentimes just a vertical, like, Hey, we g…”
Lessin: Unmoderated platforms make real identity and trust networks the only solution
“If you don't moderate, you put more and more pressure on having real identity in a way that can be like, oh, that's this person. And like, I trust this person. Networks of trust. Like, that's the only solution.”
Sam Parr: Adopting intentional identity labels is vital for behavioral change
“And I think labeling yourself as a good person, a loyal person, as a business builder, as a force of nature, as a fitness freak, I think those labels are incredibly important because it makes sure that you recreate your identity, and I like to tell people that…”
Shankar: Anchoring Identity to 'Why' Creates a More Resilient Sense of Self
“The challenge becomes, though, when you anchor yourself to something that is precarious in some way, and that's what I found with the violin. What I strive to do, because it's very much a works in progress, but I hope this resonates for your listeners, is to a…”
Shankar: Cultivating Layered Identities Protects Self-Worth Against Career Disruptions
“What I'm proposing is having multifaceted identities. So you have multiple layers of abstraction when it comes to where you derive meaning and how you define yourself. And so at one level, you can absolutely say, okay, I'm a lawyer, I'm a doctor, a stay at hom…”
Kennedy: Separating Identity From Behavior Enables True Personal Responsibility
“And when we're able to separate who we are from what we do, we're actually remarkably able to take responsibility for our behavior because it's no longer an indication of our identity.”
Children lack personal identity until roughly age seven and a half
“Our concept of me and myself and stuff is a lot of times carried out and formed before the age of eight. Now, a child has no concept of me. They don't even, they don't think of themselves as having an identity until around seven and a half when the frontal lob…”
Formulating distinct missions for specific life roles beats having one overarching mission
“And that goes to the power of isolating our identity. If I say like, Hey, what's your, what Todd, what's your mission as a coach? Todd, what's your mission as a CEO? What's your mission? And then at the end, when I maybe write out these eight different mission…”
Gurner: Tying identity solely to business leaves founders vulnerable to collapse
“If you have only one leg of a stool, it's easy to kick out, right? So, like, if you say, hey, everything that I am is my business, and you put your identity in that, it's when your business does poorly or it collapses, it just, it shakes you. If you have multi…”
Burgis: Human identity is fundamentally mimetic and formed through relationships
“Identity is absolutely mimetic. We're relational creatures highly relational, and our identity is really formed in and through relationships. I don't form my identity on my own.”
Adam Grant: Identity should be anchored in values rather than beliefs
“I think that for me, an identity is not about what you believe, it's about what you value. And so I want to have a set of principles. For me, my highest values are generosity, excellence, integrity, and freedom. And I am completely flexible on the best ways to…”
Personal identity should be anchored in core values, not static beliefs
“I think that, for me, an identity is not about what you believe, it's about what you value.”
Heen: Difficult conversations are driven by perceived threats to personal identity
“If a conversation feels difficult, there's often something about identity, something the situation suggests about you that raises the stakes on the whole conversation. And so that's part of the anxiety that then drives the intensity of the feelings.”
Ali Yahya: Blockchains Lack Effective Reputation and Identity Infrastructure
“The one that is still missing is that of social signals. There's still no real good mechanism for reputation or for identity on the blockchain, and that's one of the things that many people are working on, and that's a building block that will be needed going …”