I’m currently exploring tech’s growing social and political influence and the underlying values driving its behavior.

I became interested in this topic after noticing a marked shift among friends in tech in the 2020s: from primarily building and funding startups, to building movements and engaging with public institutions. I wanted to understand why this was happening from a systems perspective; key events that drove this change; and also how tech’s story rhymes with prior historical industry wealth booms.

This project was initially funded thanks to an Emergent Ventures grant, with additional sponsors along the way.

Writing

• Remembering GitHub’s Office, a Monument to Tech Culture // Wired; May 28, 2023, about lavish startup offices of the 2010s and what they stood for
• Silicon Valley’s Civil War // Tablet Magazine; May 14, 2023, about the clash between tech’s “counterelites” and existing social institutions
• Explaining tech’s notion of talent scarcity // April 25, 2023, about how tech companies define talent differently from other companies
• A Bank of One’s Own // March 11, 2023, about the Silicon Valley Bank crisis and what SVB means to tech
• Silicon or Carbon? // The Point; Feb 22, 2023, about Balaji Srinivasan’s network state and the American spirit
• Early stage funding markets for science - an analysis // Jan 23, 2023, a deep dive into three new science funding mechanisms, driven primarily by tech and crypto funders
• Mapping out the tribes of climate // Nov 30, 2022, about how the climate movement is fragmenting into distinct tribes, and where they overlap with tech culture
• Idea machines // May 12, 2022, about the limitations of effective altruism, and why philanthropic foundations are less fashionable than movement building in tech
• Out of the valley // March 16, 2022, about how tech is transforming from business industry to a system of values
• Understanding science funding in tech, 2011-2021 // March 2, 2022, about how tech funders think about science philanthropy

Podcasts

• “Silicon Valley’s Civil War with Nadia Asparouhova” // Moment of Zen, June 10, 2023 (Spotify, Apple)
• “Nadia Asparouhova - Tech Elites, Democracy, Open Source, & Philanthropy” // Dwarkesh Podcast, December 15, 2022 (YouTube, Spotify, Apple)
• “Mapping Digital Tribes with Nadia Asparouhova” // Green Pill, April 11, 2023 (YouTube, Spotify, Apple)
• “Nadia Asparouhova: on public goods & peer production” // Into the Bytecode, August 31, 2022 (YouTube, Spotify, Apple)
• “Nadia Asparouhova: Future Of Philanthropy, Science Funding, Creator Economy, Family Stories” // Ben Yeoh Chats, June 13, 2022 (Spotify, website)
• “Exploring how technology collides with politics, culture and society” // Thoughts in Between, March 21, 2022 (Spotify, Apple)