a16z(@a16z):Ben Horowitz says this may be one of the best times in history to be 18: you're entering a world only your generation will understand. "I would be thrilled to be 18. I think it is one of the best times in history to be 18. It's unfortunate because I think the systems for getting people into work currently make people really nervous about their future." "This is like Thomas Edison's time or Henry Ford's time. You're going into a world that only you will understand. People like me will have a much more difficult time understanding the world than you will, what's possible, and what you can do." "You're going to go in at a very young age being more capable than people with 30 or 40 years of experience. That's just amazing because normally you've got to work your way up the corporate ladder, spend 20 years developing your status and credibility." "Now you can come out right off the rip, using the new tools to solve almost any problem out there... Are we out of problems? All I read about is problems. There are problems everywhere. Now you can go out and attack them directly." @bhorowitz @eriktorenberg

2026.09.22 17:45

Ben Horowitz says this may be one of the best times in history to be 18: you're entering a world only your generation will understand. "I would be thrilled to be 18. I think it is one of the best times in history to be 18. It's unfortunate because I think the systems for getting people into work currently make people really nervous about their future." "This is like Thomas Edison's time or Henry Ford's time. You're going into a world that only you will understand. People like me will have a much more difficult time understanding the world than you will, what's possible, and what you can do." "You're going to go in at a very young age being more capable than people with 30 or 40 years of experience. That's just amazing because normally you've got to work your way up the corporate ladder, spend 20 years developing your status and credibility." "Now you can come out right off the rip, using the new tools to solve almost any problem out there... Are we out of problems? All I read about is problems. There are problems everywhere. Now you can go out and attack them directly." @bhorowitz @eriktorenberg

a16z@a16z

2026.09.22 16:55

Gagan Biyani with Erik Torenberg and Ben Horowitz on HAA: The Horowitz Andreessen Academy HAA is a private, full-time, in-person school in San Francisco for young people coming out of high school. Its mission is to nurture the best young people in the world, and equip them with the tools to shape it. The Industrial Revolution rewrote how we train young people. It's time for a new model for the AI era. HAA is project-based – less lecture time, more time with tools and AI, structured social life, co-ops/internships, with students embedded alongside working adults. Founding Partners include Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe. It's the best time in history to be 18. The vision is grads with careers they love or their own companies founded, and hopefully other schools copying the model down the road. 0:55 Why a16z is backing a school 4:40 Why other college alternatives failed 6:55 AI is this era's Industrial Revolution 9:35 The model: live in SF, intern at top startups 12:10 Ben: the best time in history to be 18 15:25 No big idea at 18? Join someone who has one 17:40 People skills come from reps, not lectures 23:15 Why it has to be San Francisco 26:45 Why it's a separate, for-profit company 31:00 Every curiosity becomes a project 33:30 Main character or NPC? 35:15 You can't learn to be a CEO from a book 37:30 Picking a problem, and failing the right way 40:30 What success looks like in five years YouTube: @gaganbiyani @bhorowitz @eriktorenberg