Friedberg

And it basically becomes a race around synthetic information and synthetic data, which is a cost problem. Meaning if you're going to invent synthetic data, you're going to have to spend money to do it. And the large companies, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, have effectively infinite money compared to any startup. Hmm.

And then the fourth, which is the most quizzical one, is what does the human capital thing tell you about what's going on? It reads a little bit like a telenovela. I have not in my time in Silicon Valley ever seen a company that's supposedly on such a straight line to a rocket ship have so much high-level churn. But I've also never seen a company have this much liquidity.

And then the fourth, which is the most quizzical one, is what does the human capital thing tell you about what's going on? It reads a little bit like a telenovela. I have not in my time in Silicon Valley ever seen a company that's supposedly on such a straight line to a rocket ship have so much high-level churn. But I've also never seen a company have this much liquidity.

And so how are people deciding to leave if they think it's going to be a trillion dollar company? And why, when things are just starting to cook, would you leave if you are technically enamored with what you're building? So if you had to construct the Barrett case, I think those would be the four things. Open source, front door competition.

And so how are people deciding to leave if they think it's going to be a trillion dollar company? And why, when things are just starting to cook, would you leave if you are technically enamored with what you're building? So if you had to construct the Barrett case, I think those would be the four things. Open source, front door competition.

The move to synthetic data and all of the executive turnover would be sort of why you would say maybe there's a fire where there's all this smoke.

The move to synthetic data and all of the executive turnover would be sort of why you would say maybe there's a fire where there's all this smoke.

We're seeing it in real time. In 80-90, what I'll tell you is what Sacks said is totally right. There's so many companies that have very complicated processes that are a combination of well-trained and well-meaning people and bad software. And what I mean by bad software is that

We're seeing it in real time. In 80-90, what I'll tell you is what Sacks said is totally right. There's so many companies that have very complicated processes that are a combination of well-trained and well-meaning people and bad software. And what I mean by bad software is that

Some other third party came in, listened to what your business process was, and then wrote this clunky deterministic code, usually on top of some system of record, charged you tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for it, and then left and will support it only if you keep paying them millions of dollars a year.

Some other third party came in, listened to what your business process was, and then wrote this clunky deterministic code, usually on top of some system of record, charged you tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for it, and then left and will support it only if you keep paying them millions of dollars a year.

That whole thing is so nuts because the ability for people to do work, I think, has been very much constrained. And it's constrained by people trying to do the right thing using really, really terrible software. And all of that will go away. The radical idea that I would put out there is I think that systems of record no longer exist because they don't need to.

That whole thing is so nuts because the ability for people to do work, I think, has been very much constrained. And it's constrained by people trying to do the right thing using really, really terrible software. And all of that will go away. The radical idea that I would put out there is I think that systems of record no longer exist because they don't need to.

And the reason is because all you have is data and you have a pipeline of information. Can you level set and just explain to people what system of record is? So inside of a company, you'll have a handful of systems that people would say are the single source of truth. They're the things that are used for reporting compliance. An example would be for your general ledger.

And the reason is because all you have is data and you have a pipeline of information. Can you level set and just explain to people what system of record is? So inside of a company, you'll have a handful of systems that people would say are the single source of truth. They're the things that are used for reporting compliance. An example would be for your general ledger.

So to record your revenues, you'd use NetSuite or you'd use Oracle GL or you'd use Workday Financials. then you'd have a different system of record for all of your revenue generating activities. So who are all of the people you sell to? How are sales going? What is the pipeline? So there's companies like Salesforce or HubSpot, SugarCRM.

So to record your revenues, you'd use NetSuite or you'd use Oracle GL or you'd use Workday Financials. then you'd have a different system of record for all of your revenue generating activities. So who are all of the people you sell to? How are sales going? What is the pipeline? So there's companies like Salesforce or HubSpot, SugarCRM.

Then there's a system of record for all the employees that work for you, all the benefits they have, what is their salary? This is HRIS. So the point is that

Then there's a system of record for all the employees that work for you, all the benefits they have, what is their salary? This is HRIS. So the point is that

The software economy over the last 20 years, and this is trillions of dollars of market cap and hundreds of billions of revenue, have been built on this premise that we will create the system of record, you will build apps on top of the system of record, and the knowledge workers will come in and that's how they will get work done. And I think that Sachs is right.