One Person, One Summer
Andreessen: Brendan Eich wrote JavaScript over a summer. I think it's fair to say it's the most widely used language in the world. SSL — that was a guy named Kip Hickman who wrote that over a summer. One guy. The Transformer at Google was a small handful of people. The core work on GPT — not that many people.
The pattern in software repeatedly over a very long time — the really creative work is two people, three people. AI ought to make the individual coder far more productive. We ought to have a world of super-coders building things that were inconceivable five years ago.
JavaScript — one person, one summer. SSL — one guy, one summer. The Transformer — a small handful of people.
Transmuting Labor Into Capital
Andreessen: The philosopher's stone in alchemy transmutes lead into gold. Newton spent 20 years trying to find it. Software is our modern philosopher's stone — it transmutes labor into capital.
Somebody sits down at a keyboard, types a bunch of stuff in, and a capital asset comes out the other side. Then somebody buys that capital asset for a billion dollars. It's literally creating value out of purely human thought.
Someone sits at a keyboard, types stuff in, and a capital asset comes out. Creating value from purely human thought.
Assets That Build for Decades
Andreessen: Minecraft, Facebook, Google, Salesforce, World of Warcraft — software assets that have been around for 30 years, gaining in value every year. Being polished and polished. More powerful, more valuable.
We've entered an era where you can build things that compound over decades. And five billion people are a click away from any new piece of software. The potential market size is nearly infinite.
Software assets gaining in value every year for decades. Five billion people a click away. Nearly infinite market.