SBF Profile picture
17 Dec, 22 tweets, 6 min read
1) Better is Bigger, part 3:

What does bigger look like?
2) NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
3) Especially if you're altruistic, a huge amount of the value in the world is in aiming big:
4) And if you try hard, big isn't as impossible as it looks:

5) So what does big usually look like? How do you get there from here?

Well, part of the answer is: I don't know! No one knows the future for sure.

But we can look at the past.
6) One way to have a lot of impact is to donate a lot.

Where can you get 'a lot' from?

Well, let's look at the world's most valuable companies, to start.

companiesmarketcap.com
7) I'm going to go ahead and throw out "be born into the Saudi royal family" as a life choice.

And what's left is:

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tencent, Alibab, Tesla, Berkshire, TSM, Visa, ...
8) There are a few outliers here, but the theme is:

Build a company with 1B+ users.

In fact, that matches up pretty well.

statista.com/statistics/272…

Every social media network with 1B+ users is worth $100B+.

And in fact most companies of any sort with 1B+ users are.
9) The smartphones, operating systems, computer chips, credit cards, retail stores, etc. used by 1B+ are all part of companies worth $100B+;

And most companies worth $300B+ have at least 100m users.
10) So how do you build something worth a ton?

Build something 1B+ will use; be born into the Saudi royal family; build Tesla; or build Berkshire Hathaway.

Berkshire is an interesting case: become the most popular investment vehicle, and you can scale massively.
11) And then there's Tesla.

Tesla doesn't currently have 1B cars sold; that's not what Tesla's about, really.

Maybe it will be, soon: to some extent, Tesla is about the future, and the possibility that it will come to dominate the auto industry.

And space, and tunnels...
12) To a large extent, Tesla is about the person behind the company.

Tesla is a bet on @elonmusk. It's a bet that the same person who defied the auto industry and came out winning--and now looks poised to do that in space--will keep winning.
13) A bet that the man whose shitposts took on shortsellers and the SEC; whose speeches pitted him against MBAs and regulators; whose public pot puffing belies a fanatical obsession with his products--

that he will keep thinking big. And that when @elonmusk builds, he delivers.
14) Which brings us full circle, sort of. Eventually Tesla's biggest product might be cars, but right now it's not.

Right now Tesla's biggest product is TSLA, which is possibly the world's most popular investment vehicle. Sort of like BRK.
15) Because to some extent the world knows the potential of thinking big.

Tesla may not be the Facebook of cars yet, but TSLA is the Facebook of stocks.
16) As an aside: @SpaceX is raising right now. If @FTX_Official can get an allocation:

a) FTX will list SpaceX stock for customers across the world
b) We'll donate 95% of gains to the world's most effective charities, and 5% to the Dogecoin foundation

@elonmusk
17) So anyway: I don't want to overgeneralize too much here, but roughly speaking:

If you build a product used by 1B people, that's worth a fortune.

And how do you do that? I don't know, I've never done it before!

But you have to identify something 1B people *could* use.
18) And then you have to build it.

And then you have to find your 999,999,999 closest friends and get them to use it too.
19) This post started off about having huge impact on the world. And donating a fortune is one way, but it's not the only way.

And in fact it's not the most common way.

You *do* need to do something that touches 1B people, though, somehow.
20) You can single handedly stop a nuclear war: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav…, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Ar…

You can feed billions of people: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Bo…

For better or for worse, you can be the leader of the US, or China.
21) Generally, you can try to identify the most important things in the world, and try to maximize your impact on them.

Some of those people are famous. Many aren't, and might never be. The people I respect most in the world often aren't, because that's not their goal.
22) But one way or another -- whether it's through industry or charity or science -- if you want to change the world, think big.

And if you can get really big, and focus that energy, you will often change the world.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with SBF

SBF Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @SBF_Alameda

19 Dec
1) Proposed FinCEN rules
2) NOT LEGAL ADVICE

I've read through the doc once but I'm not confident in my takes on it.

public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-28437.pdf
3) I think really the place to start is in the Request for Comment section.

It's easy to think of regulators as unfeeling, faceless harbingers of doom. They're not.

In general, they try to be reasonable.

There are a number of requests, but all sound like this:
Read 16 tweets
18 Dec
1) I’m honored and excited to be chatting with @VitalikButerin and @hosseeb about effective altruism, giving, and how you can maximize your positive impact on the world!

ftx.medium.com/effective-altr… Image
2) The conversation will be at December 22nd, 5pm PST = 23rd, 9am HKT, co-hosted by @dragonfly_cap and @FTX_Official
3) And in the run-up, each of Vitalik, Haseeb and I will be giving away $50k to one of the world's most effective charities.

You can vote on which one gets the donation!

Read 4 tweets
12 Dec
1) Better is Bigger, part 2:

No really, better is actually bigger.

2) NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
3) The core thesis of Better is Bigger is basically math: that the scale of the world's problems is huge, and so you should be much less risk averse if your goal is to donate.

This post is not about that math. This post is about people, and the world, and some history.
Read 33 tweets
11 Dec
1) Better is Bigger
2) NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
3) Let’s say you were offered a coin flip. 75% it comes up heads, 25% it comes up tails; 1:1 payout. How much would you risk?
Read 26 tweets
7 Dec
1) FTX has listed MobileCoin(MOB)!

ftx.com/trade/MOB/USD
2) NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
3) MobileCoin is a fast privacy-focused blockchain that just went live!

MOB is the native coin of the blockchain

medium.com/@mobilecoinfou…
Read 5 tweets
6 Dec
1) Building big and right
2) NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE
3) I firmly believe that the big upside in DeFi lies in an ecosystem that has billions of users and trillions of dollars of assets flowing through it.

This almost *has* to be the upside.

And to get there, DeFi needs to think big.
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!