Barackface: 14: Iran

The Convergence Age: Ten Forces Reshaping Humanity’s Future
Liquid Computing: The Future of Human-Tech Symbiosis
Velocity Money: Crypto, Karma, and the End of Traditional Economics
The Next Decade of Biotech: Convergence, Innovation, and Transformation
Beyond Motion: How Robots Will Redefine The Art Of Movement
ChatGPT For Business: A Workbook
Becoming an AI-First Organization
Quantum Computing: Applications And Implications
Challenges In AI Safety
AI-Era Social Network: Reimagined for Truth, Trust & Transformation AI And Robotics Break Capitalism
Musk’s Management
Corporate Culture/ Operating System: Greatness
CEO Functions

The oil CEO who stood up to Trump is a follower of the disciplined 'Exxon way' and has a history of blunt statements Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods politely poured cold water on Trump’s preferred expediency, calling Venezuela “uninvestable” until a prolonged period of reforms can be enacted. .............. Woods, an Exxon lifer who succeeded Rex Tillerson as CEO in 2017 when his boss went to work for Trump, is a reserved but strong-spoken chief who has emerged as an unofficial industry spokesman. .......... Woods is a believer in the famed, disciplined “Exxon way.” He’s always cordial but blunt. He’ll tell you Exxon won’t invest in renewables—Exxon is about molecules, not electrons—and that Exxon shouldn’t be blamed for climate change. .......... And he’s not going to appease the president by upsetting Exxon shareholders—an ongoing conundrum for the business leaders. Energy analysts said Exxon stock likely would have suffered if Exxon overcommitted to spending billions in Venezuela in its current, uneconomic state. Exxon’s stock ticked down only slightly by 0.5% on Monday—despite Trump’s critical words—and maintained a market cap of about $529 billion. .......... “This is Trump’s problem. There’s no urgency by the industry at all to go back into Venezuela. And there’s almost no inducement other than guaranteeing profitability, which they can’t do,” Wicklund said. “You can sweeten the terms, but the political risk outweighs that variable by a factor of 10.”

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Everywhere on the planet?
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) January 13, 2026

I see a lot of advice on X. And I'm sorry to be the one to tell you. But most advice is flawed.

It often suffers from survivor bias, where people share what worked for them, ignoring the fact that many others did the exact same thing and got completely different outcomes.…
— Marc Randolph (@mbrandolph) January 13, 2026

just imagine taking a16z money, then getting legends like Tom airdropped into your company help you grow & build distro channels .. forward deployed growth guy with a media machine on tap

latest in a lineup of stars, so much fun working with you this last few weeks man ! https://t.co/Hoh35IydKP
— David Booth (@david__booth) January 13, 2026

A single night at @DavidSacks's home in SF with @FrancisSuarez back in 2021 was enough to convice my co-founders and I to move our life, our families and our company from Palo Alto to Miami.

4 years later, we couldn't be happier with the move.

Even visiting SF for meetings…
— Ale Resnik 🇦🇷🇺🇸/acc (@AleResnik) January 13, 2026

You all use Uber, DoorDash and every other tech innovation made here but now you want the creators of these services to go bankrupt doing it??

That math doesn’t math.

Everyone that is potentially touched by this will now leave and all that will result is a massive hole in… https://t.co/pI6U2alj65
— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) January 13, 2026

Just to recap:@RoKhanna proposed a "one time 1% tax over 5 years" that is actually a 5% tax of the ownership rights, meaning if you have 10x voting shares its a tax that takes 50% of your value

This immediately triggers a massive flight of wealth from California

so dumb
— Andrew Côté (@Andercot) January 13, 2026

Ben Horowitz on AI: “This is a bigger technology market than I've ever seen.”

In this exclusive conversation with a16z's Jen Kha, Ben covers:
- Why he doesn't think there's an AI bubble
- How a16z is structured
- The origin of our American Dynamism vertical
- His most listened… pic.twitter.com/B2wSXmrxNr
— a16z (@a16z) January 13, 2026

Novels at https://t.co/2gIdgwmoTw
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) January 13, 2026

Marc. You should sponsor work on my novel about a billion people living on the waters. Bigger deal than Mars. https://t.co/XUjXcdTUSv 100K. Samples: Six Weeks From Zero https://t.co/PEZEon1uMJ The Dawn Beyond Currency (Part 1) https://t.co/hluU2KB89T
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) January 13, 2026

So you two. Design a wealth tax that would actually work. Don't just complain.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) January 13, 2026

The @CAgovernor and I have had our policy disagreements over the past few years on issues like his opposition to Prop 36, but he is spot on here. This so-called wealth tax is going to backfire and middle class taxpayers are going to be forced to pick up the bill. We need to close…
— Mayor Matt Mahan (@MattMahanSJ) January 13, 2026

Product category might make a big difference, no?
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) January 13, 2026

This is really pushing it.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) January 13, 2026

"We see that influencers with fewer than 100,000 followers typically produce the best results." Why is this? Explain. Why is 1M not better. Pretty counterintuitive.
— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) January 13, 2026

Barackface

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Wednesday, January 14, 2026

14: Iran

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