Good Morning Players

I am off to the Bahamas tomorrow to see the sun for the first time in 9 years.

Being on a 6:30 am wakeup to record the pod has made me hate daylight savings time with a burning passion, and appreciate early morning rays more than I ever have.

I hate how much the sun controls our well-being and mood.

Now on to our piece this week.

Internet points (and who wants them)

This week, Silicon Valley Bank imploded in real-time on Twitter. As someone who works in business media and spends a lot of time on Twitter, it was an endlessly fascinating moment in time.

I knew I wanted to write this week’s newsletter about it but wasn’t quite sure which angle to take.

One aspect of the crisis that I kept coming back to wasn’t really an aspect at all. It was a person and his pursuit of internet points.

Jason Calacanis

Calacanis is a name that tech Twitter is endlessly familiar with but anyone outside it has certainly never heard of.

He is famous for turning a $25,000 investment in Uber into $100 million. He hosts the All-In Podcast with the billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, VC David Sacks, and former Googler David Friedberg.

The All-In hosts are the tech-bros that all tech-bros look up to. If I had to rank them, Jason Calacanis is probably the lowest on the totem pole when it comes to smarts, respect in the industry, and general vibes.

He was also one of the loudest voices in the room throughout the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Below are a smattering of the tweets he posted before, during, and after a bank run was happening.

I’m not actually here to debate whether VCs started this bank run or not (they did). I’m not even here to debate social media’s role in finance these days (larger than people think.)

Instead, I want to talk about internet points.

The pursuit of internet points

Before you ask, internet points are made up. They are as real as the points in Whose Line is it Anyways?

Yet, they run the world right now.

An internet point is something you glean from achieving a reaction on the internet. They are platform agnostic—you can accrue internet points of various worth and at various rates on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Again, these are made up, but you know ‘em when you smell ‘em. That’s because they are naked in their pursuit of a reaction

And boy could you smell Jason Calacanis from a mile away.

His all-caps provocations. His hero-complex. His general lack of self-awareness reeked of someone who didn’t really want to advance discourse in a meaningful way. He just wanted to shout fire in a burning theater. As loudly and as many times as possible. Because it felt good to wrack up likes and followers at the rate he was.

It also felt good to know that people were specifically looking to him for guidance.

And so he capitalized on his moment and tweeted things that maximized internet points but not understanding.

It got me thinking about who else does this.

Elon wants internet points

Elon is the richest man on earth. He has built cars and rockets. He has done more real-world shit than maybe anyone in the modern era.

And yet, his latest act is all about accumulating internet points.

From stealing memes, to literally mobilizing teams of engineers to investigate why his reach is tanking, he cares far too much about likes and RTs for someone in his position.

I was struggling to find the reason why people like Elon and Jason Calacanis spend so much time searching for internet points.

One explanation is that they are simply nerds. If there is one thing we’ve learned throughout the history of the internet is that nerds dominate it. Bill Gates. Sam Altman. The dude who invented dogecoin. All huge nerds who do nerdy stuff like post memes and spend too much time on Twitter.

But that explanation doesn’t satisfy me.

Then I saw one that did

Side quests

I was looking for something to tie this piece together when I came across Jack Raines’ tweet and it all made sense.

These rich dudes are on side quests, but instead of crypto they are obsessed with internet clout.

They like this particular side quest because it scratches the one itch money doesn’t—the feeling of people listening to you.

It’s the only reason that these people who apparently have it all want to spend hours upon hours in pursuit of internet points. Granted, Jason Calcanis is an angel investor and lots of tech founders hang out on Twitter, but still.

You’re worth 100 million. Go touch some grass right?

Hypocrisy

I would be remiss if I didn’t end this piece by admitting that I also spend my life in search of internet points.

The difference is, it’s literally my job to capture attention. I am an internet point getter by trade.

That to me is the key difference between the content I created around SVB, and the content Jason did.

We’re both trying to earn internet points, but my quest is transparent. He obfuscates his by saying he was actually doing a greater good by inciting panic.

People smell bullshit and bullshit smells like begging for internet points when you’re the last person on earth who needs them.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

Winner: The new space suit that NASA astronauts will wear on furtue missions looks pretty snazzy. Fun fact, space is hot, so suits have to be white. But when astronauts renter the atmosphere they wear orange space suits so they are easier to spot while being rescued in the the water upon touch down.

Loser: A submarine carrying $84 million worth of cocaine was seized by official en route from South America. Whoops.

Winner: The Princeton Tigers for making the Ivy League proud and knocking off #2 Arizona.

Loser: Joe Biden for having #2 Arizona winning his presidential bracket.