Venkatesh Rao

Independent consultantCurrently: ribbonfarm.com Previously: Xerox

I’ve been a writer and independent consultant since 2011. Much of my work has been in the Silicon Valley technology ecosystem, but in recent years, an increasing fraction of my work has been around sustainability and climate action.

Project Lead On

Whitepaper

The Yak Online Governance Primer

Lead editors: Sachin Benny & Venkatesh Rao

Published: February 2nd, 2022 UTC / Day 688 Pandemic Mean Time

Report

Future Frontiers

An era of democratized access to frontiers?

Lead editors: Venkatesh Rao

Published: December 1st, 2020 UTC / Day 260 Pandemic Mean Time

Report

Don’t Waste the Reboot

Making the next normal better than the last one

Lead editors: Paul Millerd & Venkatesh Rao

Published: April 30th, 2020 UTC / Day 45 Pandemic Mean Time

Collaborated On

Program

Yak Rover

Mars rovers for everybody

Published: March 28th, 2021 UTC / Day 377 Pandemic Mean Time

Report

The New Old Home

Rediscovering the home as a production frontier

Lead editors: Pamela Hobart & Drew Schorno

Published: June 10th, 2020 UTC / Day 86 Pandemic Mean Time

Writings

2022

20 May: Big Graph of Mud

20 May: Graph Minds Notebook

13 May: Graph Minds

06 May: Ozymandias Problems

29 Apr: Can Robots Yearn For Phantom Limbs?

23 Apr: Towards Management Metamodernism

15 Apr: Mopium, Copium, Hopium

08 Apr: Dark, Gray, and Light Lore

01 Apr: Epics vs. Lore

01 Apr: On Lore

25 Mar: Raw Lore

18 Mar: Lore as Imaginative Irony

11 Mar: Lands of Lorecraft

04 Mar: Transaction-Cost Utopias Reconsidered

25 Feb: Teeth and Identity

18 Feb: Theory-Shaped Debris

09 Feb: Derangements

2021

16 Dec: Winter Break

10 Dec: The Backstopper Economy

02 Dec: Magic Beans

19 Nov: Through a Scanner, Darkly

11 Nov: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times...Again

04 Nov: Here We Go Again

29 Oct: Coordination Headwinds

22 Oct: Baby Eons

14 Oct: The First Terraforming

06 Oct: Remystifying Supply Chains

30 Sep: On Robots

23 Sep: Goalposts-Complete Problems

17 Sep: Pitchdark Futures

09 Sep: Low-Level Vitalist Memeing

29 Jul: Summer Break

21 Jul: One Tenth of a Second

15 Jul: Superhistory Redux

08 Jul: Accidental Designs -- 2

01 Jul: The REALIST Stack

24 Jun: Accidental Designs -- 1

16 Jun: Perpetuated Beta

16 Jun: Welcome to Ribbonfarm Studio

16 Jun: After Westphalia

16 Jun: The Great Weirding

16 Jun: The Clockless Clock

09 Jun: Upcoming Changes

02 Jun: Maker Studio, Manager Studio

28 May: Living With Problems

19 May: Good People and Wicked Problems

11 May: Superhistory, Not Superintelligence

05 May: Illusions and Collisions - 3

27 Apr: The Meaning Crisis Conspiracy

20 Apr: Late-Style Thinking

13 Apr: Illusions and Collisions - 2

06 Apr: Welcome to the World of Tomorrow

30 Mar: Digital Homelessness

24 Mar: Illusions and Collisions -- 1

19 Mar: Moving to Tuesdays...

12 Mar: Demiurgical Businesses

05 Mar: Late Sceneification

26 Feb: Shadowland -2

19 Feb: Mars and the Meaning of Money

12 Feb: Shadowland - 1

05 Feb: Tick-Tock Talk -- 2:

29 Jan: Weird Moneys

22 Jan: Anti-Network Effects

15 Jan: Involvement Music

08 Jan: Selfies in Vaporworlds

07 Jan: Alert: Breaking Smart Billing Problem

01 Jan: Tick-Tock Talk - 1

2020

25 Dec: Complete 2020 Roundup

18 Dec: Darker Things

11 Dec: In the Wake of the Eighties

04 Dec: Involvement Capitalism

16 Oct: Hitting Pause

09 Oct: Notes on Textual Capital

02 Oct: Tunnelhead

25 Sep: Fifth-Generation Management

19 Sep: Control Failure -- 2

11 Sep: A Bad Prequel

04 Sep: Post-Covid Circularity

28 Aug: No newsletter this week

21 Aug: The State of (Business) Play

14 Aug: Control Failure -- 1

07 Aug: The Descent of the Public

31 Jul: Operating in Time - 2

24 Jul: Thinking Out Loud: Year One

17 Jul: Operating in Time

10 Jul: The Next Experiments in Elitism

03 Jul: After Westphalia: Introduction

26 Jun: Indoors in Time

19 Jun: Big Moods, Little Moods

12 Jun: Farcaster Mansions

05 Jun: Into the Weirding -- Part 2

29 May: From Story to Setting

22 May: Into the Weirding -- Part 1

16 May: A little gift

08 May: The Medieval Future of Management

01 May: Reimagining Publics