The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 11 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Choksi: Trying to engage interactive social communities is a strategic mistake
“I think a lot of people kid themselves into thinking like, oh, we're going to interact with our community and grow it this way and that way, and I actually think that's a real mistake because then you don't prioritize or know where to prioritize your effort be…”
Choksi: Edit podcasts by balancing energy, content, expertise, examples, and stories
“The key, and I always tell like our folks at A-Six and Z-II when we're working on editing and how to think about it, is you have like five levers. You have energy, You have content, you have expertise, you have examples, you have personal narratives and storie…”
Choksi: Explainer articles succeed because of built-in arguments, not the format
“It's not the explainer that worked well. It's a fact that it was an explainer with an argument built in.”
Choksi: a16z continuously records podcast guests from arrival to prevent stiffness
“And one of the things we do is we start the recorder before they even enter, and we don't turn it off until they leave. And of course, we're not putting things on without their permission, but you're absolutely right. That's exactly what happens. The minute yo…”
Choksi: Connie Chan's a16z WeChat piece won a 2015 Sydney Award
“In the New York Times, David Brooks does these annual Sydney Awards, and it was chosen in the 2015 Sydney Awards as one of the best pieces of long-form writing, and the best part is, it was the first time a non-media outlet had been included in it”
Choksi: Content strategies fail by getting trapped in the 'dead zone' middle
“We want to be starting the conversation. And if we're not starting the conversation, then we want to be the one adding a lot of really good value to the conversation. What we don't want to do is being the middle where it's noisy, and no one's listening to each…”
Choksi: Argument pieces must include a nut graph by the third paragraph
“And for argument pieces, I really strongly believe you need an argument nut graph. Like the argument is not conveyed by having a very provocative headline and just assuming people are going to read. And I like to have a rule of thumb that I like the nut graph …”
Choksi: Data-driven narratives are the biggest untapped startup content opportunity
“We always counsel people this, to think about data, and data narratives as a great place to start. It's, A, it's instant differentiation, because you have data that uniquely no one else does, and that makes, it forces you to make sure you're having different t…”
Hoover: Andreessen Horowitz preemptively led Product Hunt's Series A during YC
“We raised a million before, like, going into YC before demo day, when we were targeting, like, 400 K, but we got great people around us, and then fast forward through demo day Marc Andreessen reached out kind of in the middle, and he'd been following it, and w…”
Chokshi: Precise terminology and definitions demystify tech innovation
“Definitions and terminology go a really long way in our case, because we're talking a lot about new technologies and new innovations, and so you'd be surprised at how people obviously don't agree on definitions, and so getting people to ground themselves about…”