Slowing Down in Silicon Valley

At the end of every podcast, we like to ask our guests to share what God has been teaching them in this season of life. This week’s guest is Frank Chen, a partner at the venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz. Before joining Andreessen Horowitz, Frank was the VP of products at Opsware.

James 1:19

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

Yeah, James 1:19 that has been particularly impactful for me in this season. It says, know this my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 

And the reason that's resonating with me now is it's kind of the antidote to the valley. The valley is do everything quick, right? Build things quick and break things and fail fast. And everything needs to be quick and go and go and go and go and go. 

And so for me, the antidote to that, which is I don't want to get in the way of progress and I don't want to get in the way of any ambitious entrepreneur who has that drive and energy. Right. We need the Moses and Aaron combos in our world. 

But there's also a counterbalance to it, which is be quick to hear—really understand people and understand where they're at. Be slow to speak so that you can meet them and kind of be a counterweight to the idea that we always need to be in a hurry. So that verse has been resonating with me.

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