Episode description

I talked with Patrick McKenzie (known online as patio11) about how a small team he ran over a Discord server got vaccines into Americans' arms: A story of broken incentives, outrageous incompetence, and how a few individuals with high agency saved 1000s of lives.

Enjoy!

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here.

Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.

Sponsor

This episode is brought to you by Stripe, financial infrastructure for the internet. Millions of companies from Anthropic to Amazon use Stripe to accept payments, automate financial processes and grow their revenue.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) – Why hackers on Discord had to save thousands of lives

(00:17:26) – How politics crippled vaccine distribution

(00:38:19) – Fundraising for VaccinateCA

(00:51:09) – Why tech needs to understand how government works

(00:58:58) – What is crypto good for?

(01:13:07) – How the US government leverages big tech to violate rights

(01:24:36) – Can the US have nice things like Japan?

(01:26:41) – Financial plumbing & money laundering: a how-not-to guide

(01:37:42) – Maximizing your value: why some people negotiate better

(01:42:14) – Are young people too busy playing Factorio to found startups?

(01:57:30) – The need for a post-mortem