Nadia Asparouhova — Tech elites, democracy, open source, & philanthropy

Nadia Asparouhova is currently researching what the new tech elite will look like at nadia.xyz. She is also the author of Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software. We talk about how: * American philanthropy has changed from Rockefeller to Effective Altruism * SBF represented the Davos elite rather than the Silicon Valley elite, * Open source software reveals the limitations of democratic participation, * & much more. 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒 * Transcript: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/nadia-asparouhova * Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3VZy8wX * Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3V080AD 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:26 - SBF was Davos elite 00:09:38 - Gender sociology of philanthropy 00:16:30 - Was Shakespeare an open source project? 00:22:00 - Need for charismatic leaders 00:33:55 - Political reform 00:40:30 - Why didn’t previous wealth booms lead to new philanthropic movements? 00:53:35 - Creating a 10,000 year endowment 00:57:27 - Why do institutions become left wing? 01:02:27 - Impact of billionaire intellectual funding 01:04:12 - Value of intellectuals 01:08:53 - Climate, AI, & Doomerism 01:18:04 - Religious philanthropy

Nadia AsparouhovaguestDwarkesh Patelhost

Dec 15, 20221h 22mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: December 15, 2022
Duration: 1h 22m
Channel: Dwarkesh Podcast
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Nadia Asparouhova is currently researching what the new tech elite will look like at nadia.xyz. She is also the author of Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software. We talk about how:
American philanthropy has changed from Rockefeller to Effective Altruism
SBF represented the Davos elite rather than the Silicon Valley elite,
Open source software reveals the limitations of democratic participation,
& much more.
𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒
Transcript: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/nadia-asparouhova
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3VZy8wX
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3V080AD
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:26 - SBF was Davos elite 00:09:38 - Gender sociology of philanthropy 00:16:30 - Was Shakespeare an open source project? 00:22:00 - Need for charismatic leaders 00:33:55 - Political reform 00:40:30 - Why didn’t previous wealth booms lead to new philanthropic movements? 00:53:35 - Creating a 10,000 year endowment 00:57:27 - Why do institutions become left wing? 01:02:27 - Impact of billionaire intellectual funding 01:04:12 - Value of intellectuals 01:08:53 - Climate, AI, & Doomerism 01:18:04 - Religious philanthropy

SPEAKERS

Nadia Asparouhova
guest
Dwarkesh Patel
host

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dwarkesh Podcast, featuring Nadia Asparouhova and Dwarkesh Patel, Nadia Asparouhova — Tech elites, democracy, open source, & philanthropy explores tech elites, philanthropy, and why meritocracies drift into aristocracies Nadia Asparouhova and Dwarkesh Patel discuss how different elite cultures—Wall Street, Silicon Valley startups, and crypto—shape philanthropy, media influence, and governance. Nadia argues that effective altruism and figures like SBF are closer to quantitative, globalist finance elites than to founder‑driven startup culture, and worries that today’s meritocratic tech billionaires will calcify into tomorrow’s aristocracy.

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