Funding Science & Innovation; Remote Work & Future Silicon Valley

This holiday break episode of 16 Minutes on the News (#36) covers two timely and still developing-news topics:

#1 The National Science Foundation could rebrand as the National Science AND Technology Foundation -- as well as get up to $100B more in funding for 10 focus areas among other things -- if a new bipartisan proposal called the "Endless Frontiers Act" (inspired by the name of this Vannevar Bush memo that led to the NSF being created 70 years ago) goes through.

What does this mean for U.S. competitiveness, corporate innovation, startups, and science vs. engineering vs. business? a16z general partner Martin Casado (who has worked the full spectrum from research lab to academia to startup to to big company and more) weighs in...

#2 10:21 A whole spate of companies announced they're going remote, not just during and extending beyond the pandemic but permanently, using language such as "remote first", "digital by default" and more.

So is this the new normal? What are the considerations, practices, and tooling involved here? Will this trend extend beyond tech jobs and tech companies (has it already)? What could it mean for the future of Silicon Valley? a16z general partner David Ulevitch and operating partner Chris Lyons (who runs the Cultural Leadership Fund) take a quick pulse-check on what's going on...

...with host Sonal Chokshi.

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