Bonnie Kavoussi @bkavoussi Twitter profile

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

8 months

Mood.

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Last Seen Profiles

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Instead of free college, it would be better to eliminate the de facto requirement to have a college degree to get a good job. Even if college were "free," many people can't afford four more years of not making money in the workforce.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Mark Zuckerberg was able to start Facebook because of the substantial amount of time he invested in coding and creating new products. Relationships matter, but if you have to choose between building and networking, choose building.

Naval

@naval

4 years

It’s becoming easier and easier to be social, but exceptional people are built in solitude.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

The ten highest-earning cities in 1980 vs. 2016 (from Jump-Starting America). The SF Bay Area has effectively taken Michigan's place. The fact that Michigan is no longer in the top 10 shows how fleeting economic success can be.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Notes from Peter Thiel's speech yesterday:

Notes from Peter Thiel’s speech at the National Conservatism conference on July 14, 2019

I took notes on my phone, so any mistakes are mine. These notes should be treated as paraphrases and not as direct quotes, since I was not…

medium.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

New Peter Thiel speech:

2019 Wriston Lecture: Peter Thiel

Investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel delivers the 2019 Wriston Lecture.Learn more: https://www.manhattan-institute.org/events/2019-wriston-lecture-end-compu...

www.youtube.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

6 months

@brianstelter This is a moving essay.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

California's top income tax rate is 50%, and there is still no train between SF and LA.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

It's only taken minimal exposure to Silicon Valley for me to see how abusive so many parts of our economy are toward young people. The tech industry is the one sector that empowers young people instead of belittling them.

Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Silicon Valley > academia

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Peter Thiel: "We've been in such a long bear market for ideas, and the Overton window is so uncomfortably narrow, that I would be long ideas more than at any other point in the last 50 years."

The World According to Thiel

Recorded on January 17, 2020Peter Thiel, the cofounder of PayPal and Palantir; early investor in Facebook, LinkedIn, and SpaceX; and the founder of the Thiel...

www.youtube.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Why did economic growth start slowing down in the 1970s? It's hard to ignore the shareholder revolution that started around the same time. It may have maximized short-term corporate profits in a way that had deep long-term costs and negative externalities.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

I just bought @AndrewYang 's book Smart People Should Build Things.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 years

Instagram: My life is perfect Facebook: Just went on a great trip Twitter: The world is collapsing

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 years

Comparing a janitor at Kodak in the 80s with a janitor at Apple today, to understand rising inequality

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@AndrewYang Congrats, Andrew! The DNC Convention is lucky to have you.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Peter Thiel: "Think a lot harder about the future...try to think concretely what you want to do...there's always a question, where is the frontier, where are some pockets of innovation where you can do some new things and not be in a crazed competition."

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel warns against socialism, plans to endorse Trump in 2020

In a new episode of "Uncommon Knowledge," available now on Fox Nation, billionaire Silicon Valley investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel sat down with author Peter Robinson to discuss everything...

www.foxnews.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

“Capitalism without religion is a disaster.” - @Chris_arnade at @AEI event now.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@JustinWolfers American exceptionalism!

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

"I think 'fail fast' is catastrophic if it is applied to strategy and goals." - @pmarca

Why venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is critical of the ‘fail fast’ startup mentality

SAN FRANCISCO — "Fail fast" is a well-known phrase in the startup world — or "fail forward" and "fail better" — used by many entrepreneurs and investors

www.geekwire.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Peter Thiel argues that science was "decentralized" and "healthy" before the New Deal; then after the atomic bomb, it became too centralized and bureaucratized to innovate. Before, we had "science as discovery," now we have "science as governance."

Peter Thiel: Zero to One

Eric Metaxas interviews entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel on his bestselling book ZERO TO ONE. Using Apollo 11 and Woodstock as reference points, Thiel a...

www.youtube.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Imagine if during the Cold War, a majority of our business and political leaders--including billionaires--were terrified of criticizing the Soviet Union. That's where we are now with China.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

2 years

@NormOrnstein Joe Biden is definitely a decent person.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

At Harvard, I was really upset there was no great books program (not even an optional one), so I spent a summer reading all of the books in one of Columbia's required great books classes. Here are the books that have been on that syllabus.

Literature Humanities

www.college.columbia.edu

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

"The main difference between those who go far and those who do not is some people have a vision and the others do not and therefore can only react to the current events as they happen...No vision, not much of a future." -Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Austin is the San Francisco of Texas, Dallas is the New York of Texas, Houston is the LA of Texas, and San Antonio is the Miami of Texas.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

When you realize that the main constraint to progress is that there aren't enough good ideas, not that there isn't enough capital, that will make you feel a lot more powerful--because anyone, no matter how rich or poor, can come up with good ideas that change the world.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

2 years

@TulsiGabbard Congrats on the podcast! Your willingness to say what you think, regardless of partisanship, is admirable. Just subscribed.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Entrepreneurship is an important antidote to envy and conflict. Instead of having to fight over scraps, you can build a better alternative.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 years

@jodiecongirl @ASlavitt I'm also not sure how this is "free market" in any way

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

2 years

@Austen The All-In Podcast.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Peter Thiel, Roberto Unger, and Cornel West spoke at Harvard last week, and you can watch here:

American Democracy March 14, 2019 Lecture

null

www.youtube.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Don’t worry about what other people think of you now. Worry about what you will think of yourself in ten years.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

3 years

"Leisure is not a time to retreat from the world. Rather, it’s a time for poetry, prayer, and philosophy." - @david_perell

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@elonmusk Nuclear fusion will be a game-changer.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

If today's economists and pundits had been around in the 1960s: "We should outsource our manufacturing to the Soviet Union. Their labor costs are lower, they will become a capitalist democracy, and we will both be better off. Win-win!"

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

The most important thing to do in the coming years is to prevent war, a global depression, and the fall of the U.S. as the world's preeminent power. And make everyone better off while we ward off these dangers.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Don't look around. Look up.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@newbalance Thank you for making things in America and for helping in this time of need.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@Chris_arnade @AEI @TPCarney . @Chris_arnade said that people need to feel like valued members of something larger than themselves, and elites have been treating them like widgets. We need to be doing more to provide meaning, community, and good jobs. In short, dignity.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 years

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

If you oppose philanthropy, that means you either think that market failures don’t exist or that the government can and should solve all market failures. Neither proposition is true.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Emmanuel Macron calls for Europe to determine its own destiny:

Macron calls on Europe to quit dependency on US arms

On Baltic trip, French president urges Continent to regain strategic independence.

www.politico.eu

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

"The best way to make VCs want to invest in you, I would explain, is to actually be a good investment." Paul Graham on how ambitious people need to unlearn the need to get good grades and focus on creating value:

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Silicon Valley thought leadership that I recommend: --Zero to One by Peter Thiel --Sam Altman's blog: --Paul Graham's essays: --Y Combinator's videos: --Content from @pmarca , @naval , @JustGLew , @balajis

Y Combinator

Videos to help you build a successful startup. Subscribe for startup advice, founder stories, and a look inside Y Combinator. What is Y Combinator? We invest $500,000 in every startup and work...

www.youtube.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

6 years

This interview with ⁦ @EricRWeinstein ⁩ on capitalism and socialism is worth reading:

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 years

. @pmarca 's list of recommended books: Lots of great books here.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@bfcarlson There was more warmth, trust, and financial security back then. Prices of essentials like housing were far lower.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

2 years

@rivatez If America's rich could view the Medicis as a role model, we could have a renaissance in America. Wealth doesn't need to just go toward universities, political campaigns, and tech startups.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

3 years

@micsolana Wealth taxes may start out taxing only billionaires, but ultimately they're going to hit the middle class and prevent them from being able to build wealth.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

3 years

. @NickKristof : "The greatest threat to America’s future is less a surging China or a rogue Russia than it is our underperformance at home."

Opinion | The Biggest Threat to America Is America Itself (Published 2021)

The big problem isn't Russia or China, it's creeping mediocrity.

www.nytimes.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

6 years

Making the best possible case for both your side and for the other side can reduce polarization, by making both sides seem more reasonable. Bad arguments can backfire and make people more set in their ways.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Peter Thiel: "There's always this wisdom of crowds that works up to a certain point and then transitions into a madness of crowds. This is the unhealthy development that's taken place in Silicon Valley in recent years."

2019 Wriston Lecture: Peter Thiel

Investor and entrepreneur Peter Thiel delivers the 2019 Wriston Lecture.Learn more: https://www.manhattan-institute.org/events/2019-wriston-lecture-end-compu...

www.youtube.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

. @AndrewYang on his decision to quit law and become an entrepreneur:

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Moving America's center of economic gravity from dysfunctional and expensive coastal cities to places that don't penalize growth is one of the most important things that can be done this decade.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

9 months

@SenTedCruz Texans want accountability from their elected officials. They want their U.S. Senator to work on bipartisan legislation on healthcare policy, economic policy, tax policy, and other domestic policy. You do have good policy instincts, please work on policy. Thank you!

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Hell is an endless debate about health insurance. We were debating this in 2009. At this rate we'll still be debating health insurance when I'm 80.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Peter Thiel on scientific innovation: "The inputs seem to keep going up, the outputs are very badly stalled. That's the opposite of technology. Technology is doing more with less, and we're doing less with more."

Internet50: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Internet on Oct....

Livestream of UCLA Samueli's 50th anniversary of the internet celebration at Royce Hall on Oct. 29, 2019--50 years to the day the first message was sent over...

www.youtube.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

@paulg @rivatez Zero to One.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

"Why do the independent-minded need to be protected, though? Because they have all the new ideas." @paulg

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@Chris_arnade @AEI Takeaways from the @AEI event today with @Chris_arnade (interviewed by @TPCarney ): @Chris_arnade said that Americans who have been left behind have been stripped of meaning in their lives. Elites don't fully appreciate meaning beyond the rat race for money and credentials.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

A must-read on Peter Thiel's beliefs, by @david_perell .

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

News outlets are constantly covering politics, politics, politics because that's what gets the most engagement. But it's not sustainable to obsess about things that you have so little influence over. Focus on your own life and find things where you can really make a difference.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

New paper: Curing diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia would increase economic output by 5%.

The Costs and Benefits of Caring: Aggregate Burdens of an Aging Population

www.nber.org

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

The Affordable Care Act is pro-entrepreneurship.

Andy Slavitt 🇺🇦

@ASlavitt

5 years

BREAKING: This case to completely dismantle the ACA will be heard on July 9.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

"Not only do our actions matter, I believe they matter eternally."

Back to the Future | Peter Thiel

When Boeing introduced its flagship 707 jet airliner in 1958, the power to cruise at 977 . . . .

www.firstthings.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@tedcruz Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion..."

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@nic__carter @micsolana . @JeffLonsdale described this well: "One thing that has been underrated this past decade is that most people were only cancelled after they let themselves be cancelled."

Some 2020 Predictions

It’s 2020, and there were a lot of things that I wanted to write in 2019 that I never finished. Luckily, I can write one post and cover many of them under the guise of writing predictions for the...

unpleasantfacts.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@njhochman He seems like a good person.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

At this rate, we're going to have an unsustainable national debt, a large share of the population on the brink of bankruptcy, and people dying from the virus every day for at least another year. We couldn't solve either the economics or the science. American exceptionalism!

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@tedcruz Love it!

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

. @danwwang : "One point Germans kept bringing up was that the US has de-industrialized itself and scattered its production networks. While Germany responded to globalization by moving up the value chain, the US manufacturing base mostly responded by abandoning production."

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

A very good piece by @patrickc and @tylercowen on why we need to systematically study how progress happens:

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Nine lessons that Joe Lonsdale learned from Peter Thiel, including: "Return to first principles." "Don’t divide your attention." "Obsess over perfection."

Lessons from Peter Thiel

These lessons summarize what Joe Lonsdale learned from working over many years with Peter Thiel, a chairman and founder of Palantir. These are very much worth reading — they will change the way you…

medium.com

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Most of my favorite thought leaders are not full-time thought leaders...they work in business and write for fun.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

Sam Altman's ( @sama ) advice on how to be successful is worth reading in full:

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

A key lesson in Ender's Game is that young people often are uniquely suited to leadership and strategy. Today, we have older managers treating rising stars like their interns/assistants. It's time to leave, respectfully, and lead.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@paulg I'm surprised by how little innovation there has been in the news business since the internet. There are completely new ways to imagine the way people interact with information, and a lot of journalism still amounts to "write an article for print and then post it online."

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

9 months

@luke_metro Our expensive housing doesn’t subsidize housing in the rest of the world though; we just do it to ourselves.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

2 years

Lack of social mobility is a much bigger problem than inequality.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

I grew up in Texas, and it is worth paying attention to. It's diverse and vibrant, you can have a great lifestyle without being an oligarch, building housing is legal, taxes aren't prohibitive, and you can actually build new things there, both literally and figuratively.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

2 years

@jacobhelberg @MattHourihan India's economy is growing fast, and helping India and building its ties with the U.S. is important for defending freedom and democracy. We should have done this a long time ago.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

"Growth is impossible without dissent. A world without heretics is a world in decline, and in a declining civilization everything we value, from science and technology to prosperity and freedom, is in jeopardy." @foundersfund

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

. @tylercowen : "I believe the smart classical liberals and libertarians have, as if guided by an invisible hand, evolved into a view that I dub with the entirely non-sticky name of State Capacity Libertarianism." This is worth a read:

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@elonmusk If nothing else, it is nice to have someone running Twitter who actually enjoys using it.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

"Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years." -Bill Gates

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@Chris_arnade @AEI @TPCarney In short: @Chris_arnade said that elites need to stop looking down on people who are less educated. "Just move" is condescending and not always practical. The elite college/job/big city rat race is not for everyone. People need good jobs, community, and faith wherever they live.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 years

@elonmusk Major props for changing the world while also maintaining a sense of humor

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

@sama @naval The combination of forgiveness for the victims and toughness on the perpetrators of suffering is a powerful combination.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

5 years

There are lots of personal trainers and nutritionists, but I would pay serious money for a sleep coach that could help me get the best sleep possible. Sleep is so important and underrated.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

3 years

Great interview with @DavidSacks and @balajis on centralization vs. decentralization on @getcallin right now.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 years

This is unsettling--if we went to war with N. Korea, could we be sure Russia and China would stay on the sidelines?

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@tedcruz I was missing your tweets. Merry Christmas to you and your family!

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

3 years

@cyantist With rhetoric like this, there isn't even an attempt to discuss what the government would fund with these taxes. It's purely about cutting some people down.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

2 years

@mattyglesias "Single-issue document-retention policy voters"--love it.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@RandPaul @chiproytx Let's all take @Jim_Jordan 's book to heart.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@EricTrump @maddow @LaraLeaTrump @NatEnquirer Lovely picture!

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

. @dollarsanddata : "The biggest risk you can take in life is taking no risk at all."

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

7 months

@NikkiHaley It's in the United States' interest for the UN and organizations like it to be in the U.S., and for that to happen, we need to give visas to people we may not agree with.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

3 years

@paulg The data on earnings for college graduates vs. non-college graduates is grim. And people with professional degrees make a lot more on average too.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

4 years

Why did economic growth slow down starting in the 1970s? One key factor is ideology--people started believing the lie that we have to choose between economic/technological progress and social progress. No, JFK got it right--we can both go to the moon and have equal rights.

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Bonnie Kavoussi

@bkavoussi

1 year

@joodaloop @bugmango Children of immigrants do!

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