Matthew Mandel

I’m an investor at Union Square Ventures in NYC. I write about the things I’m most excited about like technology, philosophy, business, and culture. If you’re interested in following my writing, you can subscribe below:

  • Touro Synagogue / President’s Day

    I visited the Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island this weekend. It’s the oldest synagogue in the United States, and Washington delivered his “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation” to the community in 1790. Reading his letter was a stirring reminder of the unique greatness of the American project. Happy President’s Day! “Gentlemen. While I receive, with…

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  • Underrated Internet Communities

    What are the most underrated internet communities today? The rationalists and effective altruists were underrated in the 2000s and 2010s. I stumbled on lesswrong in high school (through reddit) and got a kick out of the quirky perspective over there. It felt interestingly orthogonal to debates I was exposed to in class and to the…

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  • AI and Art Demo Night

    I recently published a post on the USV blog about AI and art. I’ve been reflecting on how intimately connected technology and art are. The art we make is mediated by the tools at our disposal, and the visions technologists pursue are often downstream of the stories artists tell. Since I published the blog, Open…

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  • Habits

    Duolingo let me know today that I’ve done a Hebrew lesson everyday for the last three weeks. That’s not the most impressive feat. The lessons take less than five minutes, and I still haven’t made it a month. But I was surprised at the consistency I achieved on this brand new behavior. I had a pretty…

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  • AI Aesthetics

    (Crossposted from the USV blog) The word “technology” comes from the Greek word techne, which refers to an art or skill or practice. Plato writes a lot about the concept, often making reference to artists such as flute players as canonical examples of those engaged in a techne. Though today we are inclined to contrast…

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