Menlo Park After Dark

The invitation did not say quid pro quo. It said exclusive dinner with the President of the United States, which in Washington is considered a different thing, although the distinction has been getting harder to locate lately. The mechanics were

Peter Thiel went to Stanford. Marc Andreessen did not, but his money goes there, or at least it did until his money started going toward the people dismantling it. These are the kinds of details that feel like they should

OpenAI allegedly published a policy document last week proposing that the productivity gains from AI should be shared with workers — specifically through a four-day workweek at full pay. The same OpenAI that is building the systems companies are using

The website was called Noshoes.fun. It tracked, in real time, which Silicon Valley startups had adopted a no-shoes policy in their offices. This was a real thing that existed, that someone had built, and that was being discussed at the

Nobody at the table hNobody at the table had been to space. This felt worth noting, given that two of them had opinions about it with the confident specificity of people who had. “The delay makes complete sense strategically,” said

The invitation said Founder Wellness Circle and promised a “somatic reset experience” followed by “authentic peer sharing.” The address was a $4 million townhouse in Los Altos. The dress code, inexplicably, was linen. I went with Mr. X, who described

The banner ad at the entrance of the HumanX conference last week read: “Stop Hiring Humans.” Nobody moved it. Nobody apparently found this ironic enough to mention. Six thousand five hundred investors, founders, and executives walked past it, collected their

“I’m leaving California.” Patrick said it the way people announce terminal diagnoses — gravely, with the quiet dignity of a man who has made peace with the inevitable. The table absorbed the news. Nobody looked surprised. Two people nodded slowly.

“Seven hundred and forty nanograms per deciliter,” said Brandon, before anyone had ordered drinks. He said it the way other people say their SAT scores or their net worth — with the specific pride of a number that only impresses

The comeback party has been going on for six months now and nobody has thought to check who wasn’t invited. “Crime is down 25%,” said Scott, raising his glass with the energy of a man personally responsible. “Homicides at a