Network State by Balaji Srinavasen

Read the full post at - Network State by Balaji Srinavasen The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan is a book I picked up mainly because my work is tech-adjacent, and for a while this book was everywhere among the tech elite. Even though it seemed ridiculous on the cover, I wanted to understand what my peers were paying attention to. I’d heard Balaji on some interviews, and he seemed like a guy who’s too smart for his own ideas — someone who came up with grand visions not rooted in human reality. But I read the book anyway. It was a pretty fast read, which I appreciated. And I’ll say this: I think it’s helpful for humans to throw out big ideas every once in a while, even if they just get shot down. New ideas are useful and we need more in the marketplace. But this one was absurd, ridiculous, and vacuous. I was taken aback that so many people celebrated as smart and well-read were praising this book. I must be missing something, because it has so many things wrong with it. The Basic Idea…