Chamath favors measurable giving over the Giving Pledge

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 7:09

   So is 5% donation right before an IPO generous, or is it a brilliant way to get goodwill? I mean, I think it's none of those things. I think it's more, this is their philosophical. bent. And, you know, they're staying true to their word. I mean, the idea that when you start a company, you would give up 80% of the gains, even before you have an idea of what the terminal outcome is, is pretty incredible. So I think that these guys kind of walk the walk and talk the talk. I don't think that there's something nefarious there. I think they genuinely believe that what they're doing is the right thing. I think there's a different question, which is, if you just look at the history of these sorts of philanthropies and philanthropically-minded efforts, they generally don't turn out that well, absent of a few. And so I think the real question

2. 8:03

   is, what is their fail-safe to course-correct if this mean reverts and becomes what everything else in the world has overwhelmingly looked like when philanthropically-minded people give large sums of money away in big bursts, which is, you know, not a lot of quantifiable outcome. I think that's the really big question. You know, one of the critiques I have of the giving pledge is people are pledging half of their, are you a member of the giving pledge, by the way?

3. 8:46

   Oh, the giving pledge is bullshit. Okay, great. Thank you. I'm being direct, right? So people pledge to give away half their wealth while they're still alive, et cetera, et cetera. But the greatest, you know, the greatest ability you have is not just your wealth. It's your connections. It's what you do. I've always said there should be an impact pledge where people, you know, pledge their wealth in a measurable, impactful way and you monitor it and people make a difference. They came and they came and pitched me about the giving pledge a decade ago. And my takeaway was this thing is a scam. And the reason is, yeah, it's reputation washing because they had no, the only goal was to put my name on a list and to add my number to their number so that they could walk around with a bigger number. And I was like, this is the

4. 9:35

   stupidest thing I've ever seen. And I'm like, what do I get in return for all of this? And you know, it's like you get to go to a dinner. There's a weekend where there's like a get together weekend. And so look, I think that there's a lot of people that probably thought it was on the margins, the right thing to do. But it was pretty, pretty obvious to me that it was pretty stupid um yeah didn't uh warren buffett bail out of that recently too he signed up well just recently but he was he was right there at the front end kind of like and you know it's a big deal when you say no to these guys a decade ago Because, like, it looks like you're doing something wrong and they're doing everything right.

5. 10:13

   That's a sign of the times, actually. There was a lot of social pressure on many, many fronts that has since course corrected. But, yeah, that was one of the first very pure pressure, arm twisted. But if you said no, you get this negative reputation. I mean, here's what I don't understand. What I don't understand is, like, if you're capable of making incredible gains in society economically, What it probably says about you is that you are at a minimum clever because, you know, sometimes you can get lucky, but if you're unlucky afterwards, you kind of give it all back, you know.

6. 10:49

   So in order to sort of like make and sustain wealth, you have to be relatively clever, well-timed, well-read, well-reasoned. You make all of this progress. What it says about you is actually a fair amount. It says that, you know, you're you're quite a successful, evolved person. Doesn't mean that there aren't evolved people that don't have money. But it just but what I am saying is that the people, you know, that that typically tend to become hyper successful are functional people.

7. 11:19

   And then the idea that those functional, high-achieving people would all of a sudden just let some other person that they don't know to be smart or capable all of a sudden put a bunch of money to work sounds stupid. It's like, you're the smart one. You should put it to work. At a minimum, raise your kids because they're likely to be as smart as you. So there's all these ways in which you can probably think about philanthropy or give it away like Elon's doing, which you'll talk about, I'm sure, with the Trump accounts.

8. 11:49

   there's so many scaled ways to do it. This was the one that had nothing to do with actually achieving anything and everything to do with just peer pressure and reputation washing. Yeah, agreed. Your greatest gifts are not your money. It's your intelligence and your relationships and your ability to make difference in the world. Alex, what's your take on these public benefit