Don't Worry About No Jobs | Joe Lonsdale, Palantir & 8VC Co-Founder

I think I heard you say in one of your talks before that there's always going to be problems. So I would say you're more of the optimist that, you know, jobs will not get wiped out. How do you see the future of jobs moving?

Absolutely. This is like the biggest mistake people intuitively make in the young generation is that they're worried there's not going to be enough jobs. It's just— that comes, I think, from a lack of understanding of economics. Jobs exist when there's something you could do to contribute to the world. And there's just so many ways that you can create things to do to serve others. There's so many problems, there's so many even subtle problems people are willing to pay for to solve. It's actually really ironic, because we have an economy right now where for one of the first times ever, there's actually more jobs officially trying to hire people than there are people officially seeking jobs. And on top of that, there's millions of vocational jobs we could have if people were willing to be trained in skilled vocations. The problem in our economy is not that there's not enough jobs, and that's not going to be the case in any time in the near term. We can talk about it. It's a longer conversation with automation and stuff, but there's like every 50— no, every 70 or 80 years, about half the jobs in the US have been destroyed by productivity, and it's happened 4 times now, and that's a really good thing. Why is that a really good thing? If it hadn't happened, you'd all be farmers. We wouldn't be having this conversation. You'd be farming to make enough food right now. if we hadn't destroyed the farming jobs. And it's not just true for farming, it's true for manufacturing, it's true for all sorts of things. The only way we all get wealthier is that it takes less people to do something. This is very unintuitive, right? This is an economics thing, but it's like, the only way we all get wealthier is it takes less people to do something. Every time you destroy jobs, what that actually means is you're creating more productivity with less people, and that actually helps the rest of society. So it's like, you are destroying that job for that one person, but you're giving that wealth to all of society. And so we all get wealthier through higher productivity. And it's a long conversation, but the more wealth we have as a society, like, I think the better, the better it is overall for everyone. And that's the only way we're going to advance. And just as a specific instance, right now, one of the biggest fiscal crises in our country is we can't afford healthcare entitlements. If you look at the numbers, we're like 13 times GDP in debt based on the healthcare promises we've made to people who are older in our country. And I'm not saying we shouldn't provide their healthcare. I'm just saying it's like, it's not affordable if you look at the numbers. The only way we're going to be able to solve this problem is if we could destroy a lot of jobs in healthcare. It's like everyone's really afraid of destroying jobs. If we don't make healthcare more productive, we're gonna go bankrupt. So it's just very ironic to me that people are so worried about destroying jobs, and the only way we're gonna actually function as a society is to provide healthcare more cheaply, right? So that's just one example, but it's like, it's actually really, really good when you guys create things that make us more productive. It helps everyone, and no one should be guilty about that, is my view.

You mentioned a little bit about the industries that you're excited about. One of our speakers earlier this week, William Santana, The Nightscope founder says, where the money goes, that's where the future goes. What is most of your money going into? So what is the future that you see?

Well, most of our investing is going into really hardworking teams of great engineers and scientists, specifically within these bio-IT problems, and specifically within vertical enterprise and solving problems in big industries. And then every once in a while, we find cool opportunistic things like criminal justice reform or flying cars. So I think it's a combination of these things. They're all pretty fun right now.

Cool. And then I want to open it up to everybody, but just, you know, your typical question of what's that one big advice from all the things that you've gone through in life that you would give to, you know, a group that's starting their first venture?

Oh gosh. There's like all sorts of different ways to take this. I guess since you're actually starting your first venture, The thing that I was able to do with Palantir and with other things that I've worked on is it's actually better, rather than having 5 people who are each starting their first venture, find around you people you really admire and really respect, and team up and get together. What really is going to matter for your life is not whether or not you own 5% or 10% or 30% or 40% of your company. What's going to matter is being part of a big win, and being part of a big win where you learn from it, and where you work really hard, and where you have a shared experience with people you admire. That's actually just worth so much more. So one of the best things you could possibly do is own less of something that's going to be bigger, and that's going to have more great people involved in it, rather than own more of something that has a lower percent chance of winning. So just be really careful about that. There's actually too many people starting companies right now, and it's much better to work with others who are already starting to work and to contribute something big than it is just to start something yourself, is my view.

That's interesting. I think that's super valuable, and it's the other side of the table. was talking to you guys earlier this week, he was more on the other side where he was like, no, I'm not going to give a piece of my company. We're going to be a huge company, but the more I give away, the less control I'll have over my vision. But it's also interesting to see this side.

I gave up a lot of Palantir. We were very generous with our first 20 employees. A lot of them want to start their own companies. I don't own very much of Palantir at all at this point, and I'm doing pretty well. So I think it's, you know, I'd much rather be part of a really big win and be really generous and surround myself with the very best people.

Not get carried away in the numbers, but just the vision.

It doesn't matter. You own a little piece of something really big, and it's going to give you a platform. Whatever you're working on now is going to be a platform for the rest of your life, and being part of a big win with a lot of great people, that's what matters, I think.