Benedict Evans

And it's the same when you see lots and lots of startups like, oh, that's why he's made himself chint.

Oh, no, that's why this is bollocks.

Like we get 10 minutes in and I've got another 45 minutes.

I've got to pretend to be interested and polite.

So the founder has a good experience.

It's seeing that contrast and texture and seeing what good looks like, seeing what worked, what didn't work, what people tend to say, how this tend to work, pattern recognition as much as anything else.

You also get there's a whole all sorts of other kind of cultural context you get around.

You know, Silicon Valley is can be very high school.

You know, I was used to say it's an industry term.

And I was used to say it was like being a college town where there's one subject.

So everybody you meet is doing the same thing.

And so in some ways, that's very powerful.

You know, everybody around you is doing a PhD.

You want to do a PhD?

Everyone around you is doing a PhD.

Here's the world expert on the subject.

Of course you are.

It's like being a middle class kid.

Of course you're going to university.

What do you mean you're not going to university?