Michael Moritz on Origin Stories, Exile, and Obsessive Curiosity

Michael Moritz on Origin Stories, Exile, and Obsessive Curiosity

Michael Moritz has written books through every phase of his life: the first history of Apple and an account of Chrysler's near-death while he was a journalist at Time, a study of Alex Ferguson's Manchester United in the middle of his 38 years at Sequoia, and now Ausländer, a family memoir, after leaving the firm. Moritz calls himself a dilettante with too many interests, but listen to him on learning to paint in his 40s, or the questions he would ask a ten-year-old boy in a German village in 1890, and you may decide that unsatisfied curiosity is not a small thing to build a life on.

Tyler and Michael discuss his childhood in Wales, where his love for visual arts came from, why he disappointed his Latin teacher, having Thanksgiving dinner with Philip Roth, why children don't interrogate their parents about their history, what he feels visiting Germany and why he now holds German citizenship, how a history major with no technical background talked his way into Sequoia, his unpublished Don Valentine profile, what people underrate about Steve Jobs, obsessives versus dilettantes, why capitalism was more ablaze in China than America, what funding the Booker Prize taught him about his own ignorance, how to improve San nonprofits, how an incurable cancer diagnosis changed his calendar, why Britain's stuck, what he'll learn next, and more.

Read a transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on YouTube.

Recorded July 21st, 2026.

Other ways to connect

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:04:57 - On living with difficult art

00:09:44 - On Jewish literature

00:13:00 - On why children don't interrogate their parents

00:15:54 - On returning to Germany

00:23:37 - On stumbling into venture capital

00:28:49 - On obsessives and dilettantes

00:33:03 - On supporting the Booker Prize

00:34:17 - On improving San Francisco's nonprofits

00:37:26 - On controlling your own calendar

00:38:43 - On why Britain is stuck

00:40:06 - On what comes next

00:41:10 - Outro

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(300)

Jared Diamond on Leaders, Luck, and Irreplaceability

Jared Diamond on Leaders, Luck, and Irreplaceability

Is leadership overrated? That's one simple reading of what Jared Diamond argues in his new book. Asked by Tyler to name the least replaceable leader in human history, Jared declines to name one — not ...

9 Syys 52min

Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire, Catholicism, and the Age of Social Contagion

Luke Burgis on Mimetic Desire, Catholicism, and the Age of Social Contagion

Luke Burgis left Wall Street after two years, founded a few successful companies in his twenties, then walked away to spend three years in a Roman seminary on the path to the priesthood. He now runs t...

19 Elo 52min

Daron Acemoglu on Liberalism, Automation, and the Educated Elite

Daron Acemoglu on Liberalism, Automation, and the Educated Elite

Daron Acemoglu returns for his second appearance with a new book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy?, which Tyler reads as an attempt to redefine and revitalize liberalism for our times. Where Daron'...

12 Elo 55min

Julia Ioffe on Russian Women, Missing Men, and the Roots of Autocracy

Julia Ioffe on Russian Women, Missing Men, and the Roots of Autocracy

Julia Ioffe left the USSR as a child and came back as an adult journalist to find that the confident, credentialed women she remembered from her Soviet childhood had largely been supplanted by those c...

5 Elo 55min

Andrew Graham-Dixon on Vermeer, a Forgotten Sect, and Underrated Artists

Andrew Graham-Dixon on Vermeer, a Forgotten Sect, and Underrated Artists

Andrew Graham-Dixon's new book, Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, rests on the conviction that you cannot understand what's in a painting without knowing what its maker was thinking about. In Vermeer's ...

22 Heinä 56min

Chase Koch on Principles, Music, and Overcoming Entropy

Chase Koch on Principles, Music, and Overcoming Entropy

Chase Koch grew up receiving Sunday philosophy lessons from his father Charles and, by his own account, spent most of them half asleep while his sister supplied the answers. The principles didn't land...

15 Heinä 54min

Joel Mokyr on Clans, Corporations, and a Culture of Growth

Joel Mokyr on Clans, Corporations, and a Culture of Growth

Joel Mokyr co-won the 2025 economics Nobel for exploring the question that traces back to the beginning of economics: how did sustained economic growth suddenly become normal? For nearly all of human ...

8 Heinä 46min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
aamukahvilla
psykopodiaa-podcast
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
adhd-podi
rss-luonnollinen-synnytys-podcast
rss-rahamania
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
ihminen-tavattavissa-tommy-hellsten-instituutti
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
psykologia
kesken
koulu-podcast-2
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-arkea-ja-aurinkoa-podcast-espanjasta
rss-niinku-asia-on
rss-koira-haudattuna
rss-valo-minussa-2
rss-8-oppituntia-rohkeudesta
rss-narsisti