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Appearing on the Founders podcast this week, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen made the rather extraordinary claim that - going back four hundred years - it would never have occurred to anyone to be “introspective.”
Andreessen apparently blames Sigmund Freud and the Vienna Circle with having somehow “manufactured” the whole practice of introspection somewhere between 1910-1920. He summarised his own approach to life thus: "Move forward. Go."
Host David Senra, apparently delighted, congratulated Andreessen on developing what he called a "zero-introspection mindset."
Well, look.
Marc Andreessen was right about web browsers.
But he has since been wrong about a great many things.
And he is entirely wrong about introspection.
A remarkably selective reading of four hundred years
If we accept that introspection is a Viennese invention of the early twentieth century, we have to explain away...well, rather a lot.
... continue reading