[defrost]

The quote given isn't a strawman though, it's a perfectly valid summary of just a few points from the actual manifesto:

    Techno-Optimists believe that societies, like sharks, grow or die.

    We believe growth is progress – leading to vitality, expansion of life, increasing knowledge, higher well being.

    We agree with Paul Collier when he says, “Economic growth is not a cure-all, but lack of growth is a kill-all.”

    ...

    Our enemy is corruption, regulatory capture, monopolies, cartels.

https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

It's all in for unlimited growth, unlimited consumption, unlimited population, zero regulation, magic free market will fix things.

You can argue for or against that vision, but you can't claim that the above is not his manifesto.

[fdschoeneman]

It's very clearly a distortion and not a valid summary of the manifest. Monopolies and captured regulators are not the same thing as "guardrails" in the authors summary.

You may benefit from reading about what straw man arguments are before commenting further.

[defrost]

That's quite the attitude you have there.

You also might benefit from further education.

I'd strongly suggest you start with reading the full manifesto and not rely on technical point scoring on the basis of short quotes.

[fdschoeneman]

I did read the manifesto, and while we can all benefit from more education, you, specifically, would benefit from learning what a straw man is.

Hint: All I have to do to prove the rebuttal relies on a straw man is to show that it mischaracterized or meaningfully distorts the ideas in the manifesto. I have done that.

[jfengel]

And as we all know, sharks grow indefinitely and never die. That's why ancient sharks are still alive and outmass the planet itself.

That's definitely the model we should be aiming for.