Skip to content
Artwork for MTS
MTS · Yesterday · 29 min

The EA Panic Is Overblown | Noah Smith

Noah Smith discusses the anthropological history of San Francisco's tech culture, tracing its evolution from early 2000s "techno-hippies" to big tech corporate strivers, and evaluates how GDP metrics fail to capture technological shifts. He also breaks down the rise of effective altruism, rationalism, and why SF remains the undisputed cluster for the AI boom. Check out our sponsor Lovable: https://lovable.dev. Turn ideas into software people love. -- https://x.com/Noahpinion -- MTS is a live news and interview show covering technology, business, politics, and culture as it happens. Follow MTS: X | ⁠https://twitter.com/MTSlive⁠ YouTube | ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@mtsituation⁠ Spotify | ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4HUNNmV1pjV7CW6Lphm1rM⁠ Apple | ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mts/id1891088763⁠ Substack | ⁠https://mtslive.substack.com/⁠ Interested in sponsoring the show? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sponsors@mts.now⁠⁠ -- Brought to you by: Mongo DB - Anyone can prototype an agent. Learn how to get them into production on September 30th in New York - register at https://www.mongodb.com/events/mongodb-local/nyc Lovable - Turn ideas into software people love with Lovable. Start today at https://lovable.dev/ Larridin - Finally prove what your AI investment is worth. Head to https://larridin.com/ today to start measuring your AI’s bottom line. Neon (by Databricks) - Get up to $100K in credits for your startup at ⁠https://neon.com/mts⁠ ElevenLabs - AI that communicates at human level across every channel and modality. https://elevenlabs.io/mts Arena - Measuring AI performance in the real world. ⁠https://arena.ai/⁠ Kong - The AI connectivity platform. Connect APIs, LLMs, agents, and systems with serious security and governance. https://konghq.com Today’s stream is sponsored by VCX, the public ticker for private tech. Head over to http://getvcx.com to learn more Blitzy - Autonomous software development for enterprise codebases. Ship 5x faster. https://blitzy.com AdQuick - Make your brand a billboard. Out-of-home advertising as easy to scale as digital. https://adquick.com Chargebee - Billing and monetization infrastructure for the AI era. https://www.chargebee.com/ -- Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (00:54) History Of SF Tech (04:17) Twitter Culture And Addiction (07:59) Corporate Era Tech Collapse (14:10) Reality Of The AI Boom (16:15) Tech Impact On GDP Growth (19:06) Effective Altruism And Rationalists (25:37) Sci-Fi And Critique Of Engineers -- Note: This podcast is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies and securities discussed; do your own research before acting on anything you hear.

0:00-29:04

transcript

No transcript — this publisher did not publish one.

show notes

Noah Smith discusses the anthropological history of San Francisco's tech culture, tracing its evolution from early 2000s "techno-hippies" to big tech corporate strivers, and evaluates how GDP metrics fail to capture technological shifts. He also breaks down the rise of effective altruism, rationalism, and why SF remains the undisputed cluster for the AI boom. Check out our sponsor Lovable: https://lovable.dev. Turn ideas into software people love.

--

https://x.com/Noahpinion

--

MTS is a live news and interview show covering technology, business, politics, and culture as it happens.


Follow MTS: 

X | ⁠https://twitter.com/MTSlive⁠

YouTube | ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@mtsituation⁠

Spotify | ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4HUNNmV1pjV7CW6Lphm1rM⁠ 

Apple | ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mts/id1891088763⁠ 

Substack | ⁠https://mtslive.substack.com/⁠

Interested in sponsoring the show? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sponsors@mts.now⁠⁠

--

Brought to you by:

Mongo DB - Anyone can prototype an agent. Learn how to get them into production on September 30th in New York - register at https://www.mongodb.com/events/mongodb-local/nyc

Lovable - Turn ideas into software people love with Lovable. Start today at https://lovable.dev/

Larridin - Finally prove what your AI investment is worth. Head to https://larridin.com/ today to start measuring your AI’s bottom line.

Neon (by Databricks) - Get up to $100K in credits for your startup at ⁠https://neon.com/mts⁠

ElevenLabs -  AI that communicates at human level across every channel and modality. https://elevenlabs.io/mts

Arena - Measuring AI performance in the real world. ⁠https://arena.ai/⁠

Kong - The AI connectivity platform. Connect APIs, LLMs, agents, and systems with serious security and governance. https://konghq.com

Today’s stream is sponsored by VCX, the public ticker for private tech. Head over to http://getvcx.com  to learn more

Blitzy - Autonomous software development for enterprise codebases. Ship 5x faster. https://blitzy.com

AdQuick - Make your brand a billboard. Out-of-home advertising as easy to scale as digital. https://adquick.com

Chargebee - Billing and monetization infrastructure for the AI era. https://www.chargebee.com/

--

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:54) History Of SF Tech

(04:17) Twitter Culture And Addiction

(07:59) Corporate Era Tech Collapse

(14:10) Reality Of The AI Boom

(16:15) Tech Impact On GDP Growth

(19:06) Effective Altruism And Rationalists

(25:37) Sci-Fi And Critique Of Engineers

--

Note: This podcast is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies and securities discussed; do your own research before acting on anything you hear.

links21