Acknowledgments

I am grateful to all the people who have helped me along the way: my parents, who wholeheartedly supported my interest in computers, at a time when it was quite unusual and expensive to do so; my wife Susan Danziger and our children Michael, Katie and Peter, who make me a better person; my many teachers, including Erik Brynjolfsson and Bengt Holmström, from whom I learned so much; my partners at Union Square Ventures, starting with Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham who invited me to join the firm they had started; the many entrepreneurs I have had the opportunity to work with; the philosophers and scientists, such as David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto, who have demonstrated the power of human knowledge; the friends who have been there through good and bad times; and the many people who have taken the time to comment on the book and on my blog, who have invited me to speak, who have contributed in ways small and large, with special mentions for Ed Cooke for some of the earliest feedback, Seth Schulman for work on an early draft, Basil Vetas for capable research assistance, Nick Humphrey for goldilocks editing, Paul Reeves for intellectual pushback, Mona Alsubaei for perceptive feedback and crucial contributions to finishing the book, and Max Roser and the team at the Our World in Data project for their extensive data collection and visualization.