Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code

The a16z Show

a16z

Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, a16z's Anish Acharya joins Kevin Rose for an in-depth, fast-paced conversation on the rebirth of consumer technology, and how AI is reshaping what it means to build, invest, and create. They talk about why AI has reignited the consumer renaissance, what it means to build “weird and working” products, and how the next wave of apps will blend emotion, utility, and creativity in entirely new ways. From AI companions and “emotional interfaces” to the tools making it possible to build entire startups solo, Kevin and Anish explore what’s emerging at the edge of culture and code. This is a conversation about the future of creation, where consumer tech meets human feeling, and why the next big ideas will come from people bold enough to be weird.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So how did the like button come into existence?
0:02.1	What was it like back during that time?
0:04.0	I think in the early days when we first had something called asynchronous JavaScript to get a little bit geeky,
0:10.9	it was the first time, even though this sounds super archaic, that you could actually click a button,
0:15.2	send out for a server response, and get something back into your browser.
0:18.7	There was no way to just say, like, I think this is cool. Let me just tap on it and, like, show my vote of interest on something. And I was like, well, wouldn't it be cool if you clicked something and you saw the number go up and that number was the number of humans that actually had clicked on something. The way I see it is that this is social signal that will feed back into an algorithm that eventually give you more stuff that you would like to consume.
0:38.7	Consumer technology feels like it's coming back to life, and AI might be the spark.
0:43.3	On this episode, you'll hear from Kevin Rose of True Ventures and A16Z general partner
0:48.1	Anish Acharia to talk about how AI is rewriting the rules of consumer tech, from companionship
0:53.8	and creativity to how we
0:55.1	actually build products. They'll get into what it means for something to be weird and working,
1:00.0	why the best ideas still start as experiments, and how anyone can go from idea to app in a
1:05.3	single afternoon. They also revisit the early days of the internet, the invention of the like
1:09.8	button, and what it takes
1:11.1	to create something that truly changes culture. Let's get into it. All right, man, so ketones,
1:18.9	am I going to go on a trip? This is going to be a surprise for you. So these are ketones that
1:23.9	Tim Ferriss turned me on to. Okay. We don't have to make it a plug in the podcast or
1:27.6	anything because this isn't the show about ketones. Okay. But I will tell you that when you hit this, so these are specifically made for, they're supposed to go in your coffee. Okay. Now, you have to be careful here because you have to bend this like this and then it kind of shoots into your mouth and then you just chug it.
1:42.3	Have you ever had ketones before?
1:43.5	No.
1:44.0	Okay.
1:44.6	All right, let's do this.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from a16z, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of a16z and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.