Dwarkesh asked how Caro stays on track when a book takes years and almost nobody sees the manuscript. Caro says he learned this the hard way on The Power Broker: before writing anything, he boils the book down to a sentence, or at most a paragraph.
Okay.
…people who have seen the manuscript. So how do you make sure you're on the right track? Because, you know, you had to wait so long from when you start to when you get public feedback. How do you make sure that everything's going to hang together and you're pursuing the message the way you want to?
Well, part of your question is, how do you be sure you're on the right track? The answer to that is you're not, okay? But how do you try to stay on the right track? I do have a device for that. Before I start a book, I learned this the hard way with the power broker because I didn't do it with the power broker. Before I start a book, I think through what I want the book to be, the whole book. People say, you mean you think it through to the end? Well, the answer is yes. And then you say, well, what is this book about? I said at that desk sometimes for a long time before I start right when I'm thinking about the book, just asking myself in one way or another, what is this book about? You got to get it down to one sentence. You say, well, you can't get it down to one sentence. Then you…
Back in August, my sponsor, Jane Street, released the design files for a mystery chip and challenged my audience to figure out its true purpose. The challenge is over, and Jane Street has released a blog post highlighting some of their favorite submissions. They also revealed the ASIC's purpose. I…
I think my favorite submission was probably this insane visualization made by Chartan Van Driel and Leander Post, who started by showing in 3D how a chip is made from standard cells, how all of the metal layers fit together to actually comprise the logic of the chip, and then showed each component…
Don't worry if you missed this challenge. There's a new one live right now. So