Gabe Newell: On Productivity, Economics, Political Institutions, and the Future of Corporations

For those interested, here is a really interesting video of Gabe Newell at the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs talking about some of the in-game economic problems Valve has faced in the past few years. I think he briefly mentions Yanis somewhere in the middle of the video. link to this video

So the first thing is the meta learning. Looking at companies like Valve and Wolfram, they provide a template of another way of running companies which seem to consistently produce the best kind of software and incredible wealth for all those involved. The two things you look for when running a software company. Next, Stephen livestreams his day to day as a CEO. This is so significant. I know the HN trope which dang warned about earlier, but I actually love it. Imagine if you could get detailed logs about how Steve Jobs lived his life. Not from books others write about him and make up fake stuff to make it sell more, but straight from the horse's mouth as they say. That is what his meticulou…

For an understanding of what Valve are doing, here is a 1 hour talk by Gabe Newell (CEO): Gabe Newell: On Productivity, Economics, Political Institutions, and the Future of Corporations link to this video TL;DR: * The most skilled workers are the most undervalued * Make products to serve the customer * Management is a skill, not a career path * The only people they consider themselves to be unable to compete with are their customers, so enabling the customer to produce better content in their ecosystem is the most efficient way of producing things.

…riend of mine really enjoys the "Star Wars: Rebellion" board game. 3 The decisions and mechanics gives the sense of excitement he feels when he watches a Star Wars movie. I don't blame Garfield for making the kinds of games he likes though. His clout probably helps makes new trails for other ideas to take shape and be improved on. 1 link 2 link to this video 3 link…