Notes from a Secret Meeting
I was fortunate to be invited to a quiet group of fascinating people.
The variety is wild: scientists, magicians, spies(?), hackers, political appointees… and of course, founders, investors, fathers, mothers.
Once a year, we all get together at a retreat that is the opposite of a conference. No speakers, no panels, and no sponsors…
There’s no affiliation, no grand plan, no “agenda”… it’s a deliberate culture of respectful, curious conversation among different people.
The entire thing is meticulously planned to foster candid conversations in small groups.
It is one of my favorite weeks of the year.
It’s called Dialog. (The press took some awkward potshots at it this year over tenuous ties to Peter Thiel. Gell-Mann amnesia struck hard.) I can tell you firsthand that it's an exceptional culture and an important institution.
Everything shared there is off-the-record and never for attribution.
But if I am abstract enough about the specifics, I can share what some of the smartest and most informed people in the world say off the record.
(These are often hard to verify independently, so don’t bet your life on this… much of it is hearsay, but it may spark your imagination, affirm a hunch, or free you from a burdensome misconception.)
What I learned:
5-7% of products we make each year don't sell. That’s a big number. Some are sold at massive discounts, some are destroyed, and some are donated.
Often not discussed, but some adoption attempts that don't go well do serious damage to families (marriages and other children put under significant strain).
Well-informed people who still hate DOGE say many/most US AID cuts were reasonable, and claims about hundreds of thousands of directly attributable deaths are greatly exaggerated.
A variety of markets have an arms-dealing-like structure, with an understood grey area for sourcing/scrounging and, separately, market-making.
At some boarding schools, students receive separate grades for academic results and for effort. There are public rankings of both. (The culture seems to shame low effort more than low results.)
[Redacted] non-profit (with the most sympathetic name imaginable) has atrophied over decades and essentially acts as a mafia-like political organization now in California.
In a study of people considering career changes, those who took initiative to change felt better 5 years later than those who didn't.
Kraft Foods does, in fact, do some very shady shit.
Interesting hot takes I put into the “Huh” category, rather than the “things I learned” category:
Only a few thousand people actually have agentic minds, and they create new thoughts for all of us; it just repeats out from them.
Let's destroy the taboo about young women getting pregnant. The baby outcomes and mother recovery are both better younger. If women have kids younger they can have a steady, compounding professional career after kids rather than a difficult decade of trade-offs in the middle. Smaller generation gaps mean a more resilient family structure. (TLDR: There's a potentially better equilibrium here, but it requires a few cultural shifts.)
"It's not the nanny, it's the neglect" (on what actually causes trouble for parents trying to balance seeking help vs being present.)
Mandatory Civil Service (military but also Peace Corps, etc) in the US for 2 years. (If you opt out you are ineligible for welfare or entitlements of any sort.)
The absence of a good reputation should be understood as a bad reputation.
Just a few new ideas for the mind to munch on, huh… :)
(No photos so we’re not doxxing anyone)
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