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Patrick Collison

CEO · Stripe

Claims
30
Episodes
3
Shows
2
Named items
0

Claim ledger

What Patrick said.

30 transcript-backed records

01 / evaluation

Whereas, in the standard university academic context, scientists would virtually always have to do that in-house. Because of the natural scale constraints on any given lab, that effectively circumscribes the ambition of a possible research program.

“Whereas, in the standard university academic context, scientists would virtually always have to do that in-house. Because of the natural scale constraints on any given lab, that effectively circumscribes the ambition of a possible research program.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

03 / belief

Stripe would be a less effective company without either of us. And I'm just meaning from a bandwidth standpoint, but I think we both bring different things to bear.

“Stripe would be a less effective company without either of us. And I'm just meaning from a bandwidth standpoint, but I think we both bring different things to bear.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

05 / belief

As we think about these ad valorem fees and figures, the place where there's even more change at the moment that we find ourselves thinking more about is the changing structure of global tax.

“As we think about these ad valorem fees and figures, the place where there's even more change at the moment that we find ourselves thinking more about is the changing structure of global tax.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

06 / belief

As I think about the funds flows on the internet and how all that's evolving and unfolding, I think changes in tax law are actually a much bigger deal than anything about the transactional economics.

“As I think about the funds flows on the internet and how all that's evolving and unfolding, I think changes in tax law are actually a much bigger deal than anything about the transactional economics.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

07 / belief

There's still an awful lot of low-hanging fruit in just asking some of these incredibly basic questions. So, when we think about the way in which Stripe will continue to grow in the future, in some sense, it will obviously involve a lot of big businesses.

“There's still an awful lot of low-hanging fruit in just asking some of these incredibly basic questions. So, when we think about the way in which Stripe will continue to grow in the future, in some sense, it will obviously involve a lot of big businesses.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

08 / belief

We would much prefer that Stripe plugged into every existing system, rail, domestic organization, rather than that we tried to come along and supplant them. And this has been Stripe's strategy very deliberately from the beginning, where there were lots of companies, when Stripe started out, that were trying to do their own thing and go their own way, whereas our belief was: you get these classic Metcalfe's law stuff — by enhancing the capabilities of an existing ecosystem, you create quite a bit more value.

“We would much prefer that Stripe plugged into every existing system, rail, domestic organization, rather than that we tried to come along and supplant them. And this has been Stripe's strategy very deliberately from the beginning, where there were lots of companies, when Stripe started out, that were trying to do their own thing and go their own way, whereas our belief was: you get these classic Metcalfe's law stuff — by enhancing the capabilities of an existing ecosystem, you create quite a bit more value.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

09 / belief

None of this sounds like rocket science, but defining what it is, that we care about, and then building automated measuring systems to measure to what degree it's happening in practice, to then try to figure out the cases where we're not living up to that, and determine what is the reason, then to actually intervene and improve the system, so that that's not happening, then importantly, to build secondary controls, that detect instances of deviation long before they cause a production problem, but where we understand the behavior of the system in sufficient detail, so that we can instrument it in some upstream way — most of what I said there was well understood by production engineers in 1930s.

“None of this sounds like rocket science, but defining what it is, that we care about, and then building automated measuring systems to measure to what degree it's happening in practice, to then try to figure out the cases where we're not living up to that, and determine what is the reason, then to actually intervene and improve the system, so that that's not happening, then importantly, to build secondary controls, that detect instances of deviation long before they cause a production problem, but where we understand the behavior of the system in sufficient detail, so that we can instrument it in some upstream way — most of what I said there was well understood by production engineers in 1930s.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

12 / commitment

You could look at it multiple ways, but many people would consider Stripe to be on the wrong side of the interchange cost equation, in the sense that we're giving away the interchange revenue to other companies. So I don't think I'm structurally biased in favor of interchange, and yet, I will say it's pretty interesting what interchange made possible.

“You could look at it multiple ways, but many people would consider Stripe to be on the wrong side of the interchange cost equation, in the sense that we're giving away the interchange revenue to other companies. So I don't think I'm structurally biased in favor of interchange, and yet, I will say it's pretty interesting what interchange made possible.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

15 / recommendation

Anyway, I don't presume to know what people should do with their lives. But in as much as I was trying to give advice, especially if they're reading my advice and not someone else's, maybe they're thinking about career paths that look directionally like mine, I think my advice might be: "Maybe you should do something like what I did or I'm trying to do.

“Anyway, I don't presume to know what people should do with their lives. But in as much as I was trying to give advice, especially if they're reading my advice and not someone else's, maybe they're thinking about career paths that look directionally like mine, I think my advice might be: "Maybe you should do something like what I did or I'm trying to do.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

16 / evaluation

Whereas for Stripe, people are, on some level, purchasing our architecture or purchasing their ability to do certain things rather than some different set of things, because of what our architecture makes easy and possible.

“Whereas for Stripe, people are, on some level, purchasing our architecture or purchasing their ability to do certain things rather than some different set of things, because of what our architecture makes easy and possible.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

19 / evaluation

There are a lot of practical applied questions, but I think what you're saying around these autonomous transactions conceivably being an important dimension, is very true and real and is one of the interesting ways in which the economy might change and expand over the next decade.

“There are a lot of practical applied questions, but I think what you're saying around these autonomous transactions conceivably being an important dimension, is very true and real and is one of the interesting ways in which the economy might change and expand over the next decade.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

21 / commitment

Whether we care about the possible dual use harms you just mentioned, or we just care about things that already exist, to ameliorate both of those, we do need enhancement of our capabilities.

“Whether we care about the possible dual use harms you just mentioned, or we just care about things that already exist, to ameliorate both of those, we do need enhancement of our capabilities.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

22 / recommendation

I don't know who the Moncef Slaoui of the problem is, it would depend on the problem in question, but my recommendation would be: "Figure out who Moncef is and go hire Moncef.

“I don't know who the Moncef Slaoui of the problem is, it would depend on the problem in question, but my recommendation would be: "Figure out who Moncef is and go hire Moncef.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

23 / preference

Getting back to what we were discussing previously, in as much as the sociology and "cultural" explanations of defensibility are real, the best people consider themselves crafts people in their domain and they really, above almost all else, want to work with the best other people. It may almost be true, that even if from a customer-facing standpoint, craft was not valued by the market, you might still want to build an organization that indexes very heavily on this, because you just want the best people for other reasons.

“Getting back to what we were discussing previously, in as much as the sociology and "cultural" explanations of defensibility are real, the best people consider themselves crafts people in their domain and they really, above almost all else, want to work with the best other people. It may almost be true, that even if from a customer-facing standpoint, craft was not valued by the market, you might still want to build an organization that indexes very heavily on this, because you just want the best people for other reasons.”
Publisher
Dwarkesh Podcast

25 / belief

As we think about what the world is gonna look like in 50 years or 100 years, it, plausibly more than anything else, is going to determine the shape of that.

“As we think about what the world is gonna look like in 50 years or 100 years, it, plausibly more than anything else, is going to determine the shape of that.”
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

26 / evaluation

For example, the paper Tyler mentioned about declining research productivity in semiconductors, crop yields and a couple of other fields, that was done fairly close to here and that is work squarely relevant to these questions that I think is really important and we may not be here in the same way without it.

“For example, the paper Tyler mentioned about declining research productivity in semiconductors, crop yields and a couple of other fields, that was done fairly close to here and that is work squarely relevant to these questions that I think is really important and we may not be here in the same way without it.”
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

27 / prediction

These two guys Hsieh and Moretti published an updated version of a previous paper this summer putting forward a model showing that if you look at the zoning restrictions that existed in the Bay Area and New York between 1964 and 2009, and you imagine a counter-factual world where there was much more supply elasticity in these places and we built way more homes here in the Bay Area and in New York.

“These two guys Hsieh and Moretti published an updated version of a previous paper this summer putting forward a model showing that if you look at the zoning restrictions that existed in the Bay Area and New York between 1964 and 2009, and you imagine a counter-factual world where there was much more supply elasticity in these places and we built way more homes here in the Bay Area and in New York.”
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

28 / belief

I want to actually get back to the topic of weirdness a little bit later on, but quickly, before we shift focus from Silicon Valley, many in Silicon Valley are talking about the idea of universal basic income and what we do when the robots take all of our jobs. And I think you were initially a supporter of it, and then you changed your mind.

“I want to actually get back to the topic of weirdness a little bit later on, but quickly, before we shift focus from Silicon Valley, many in Silicon Valley are talking about the idea of universal basic income and what we do when the robots take all of our jobs. And I think you were initially a supporter of it, and then you changed your mind.”
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

30 / recommendation

I won’t be offended, or I’m sure Tyler won’t be offended, if you all take out your phone and go ahead and order it right now: The Complacent Class; I highly recommend it.

“I won’t be offended, or I’m sure Tyler won’t be offended, if you all take out your phone and go ahead and order it right now: The Complacent Class; I highly recommend it.”
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
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