a16z Podcast
Episode: Why Creativity Will Matter More Than Code
Date: October 22, 2025
Guests: Kevin Rose (True Ventures), Anish Acharya (General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz)
Host: Andreessen Horowitz

Episode Overview

This episode features a lively discussion between Kevin Rose and Anish Acharya exploring how AI is dramatically shifting the landscape of consumer technology, creativity, and product building. They revisit their careers, the social web’s formative years, and debate why, in a world where software creation is commoditized by AI, creativity and embracing “weird and working” ideas now matter more than technical prowess. The episode spans technological history (the birth of the Like button), the rise of AI companionship, evolving startup workflows, and predictions for future skills and social dynamics.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Birth of the Like Button & Early Social Internet

[00:00–05:22 & 30:47–39:39]

• Kevin Rose shares the origin of the Digg button, which inspired Facebook’s Like button using AJAX, a breakthrough for real-time web interactivity.

  • Quote: “There was no way to just say, like, I think this is cool. Let me just, like, tap on it... I was like, well, wouldn’t it be cool if you clicked something and you saw the number go up and that number was the number of humans that actually had clicked on something?” —Kevin Rose [00:00, 31:10]

• Story of patenting the “like”/vote feature, interactions with Mark Zuckerberg, and the cultural impact:

  • “We were just talking about what it meant to—what liking was all about, what digging was all about... this is social signal that will feed back into an algorithm that eventually give you more stuff that you would like to consume.” —Kevin Rose [31:22]

• Reflection: No one foresaw the negative ramifications of these now-ubiquitous features—tech was driven by playful experimentation, not grand intentions.

  • “No one knew this was going to be the case. It was not. Nothing about this was intentional. It was like, what does this unlock? And it turns out that unlocks both the good and the bad.” —Kevin Rose [39:39]

2. AI’s Renaissance in Consumer Technology

[06:39–11:56 & 41:00–51:03]

• After a stagnant period for consumer startups, AI is now “a renaissance,” enabling new products, founders, and business models.

  • “From an investor perspective, this is like a renaissance for consumer investing. We haven’t seen an opportunity like this since 2010, 2011, 2012... Consumers are willing to pay.” —Anish Acharya [07:38]

• Big tech launches successful consumer apps for the first time—but their “models aren’t products,” and indie startups can still win by focusing on emotional and multi-model experiences where the giants won’t tread.

• Example: Startups addressing “companion” or emotional needs (e.g., Janitor AI) can outpace big tech, as the giants avoid controversial or “soulful” domains.

  • “They’re structurally set up to kind of take the soul out of products. And when you talk about categories like companionship, the whole thing is the soul.” —Anish Acharya [11:21]

3. Companionship, Loneliness, and AI’s Emotional Role

[11:56–18:18]

• Deep discussion on AI companionship: optimism about alleviating loneliness balanced with concerns about social skills atrophying due to agreeable bots.

  • “There’s a deep loneliness, and any progress we make towards addressing the loneliness is human progress.” —Anish Acharya [13:09]
  • “Are we training people to want... agreeable models over real, you know, the real character building that comes with the emotional side of things?” —Kevin Rose [15:07]

• Both expect AI relationships to become more sophisticated, presenting “productive friction” and mirroring real social learning over time.

• “If you just for a second imagine, we are in the huge brick cell phone era of AI... we’re just stepping on the field of this.” —Kevin Rose [16:48]

4. Weird and Working: The New Consumer Product Playbook

[20:31–29:56]

• Investing in and building consumer products is about finding the “weird”—creative, unusual product ideas that feel slightly embarrassing and risky.

  • “So much consumer investing and building is willingness to be embarrassed.” —Anish Acharya [05:23]

• Celebrating original, odd experiments (e.g., Poke’s onboarding negotiation, Twitter’s broadcast model, Uber’s “get in a stranger’s car”): What started as peculiar innovations becomes mainstream.

  • “That is the weird thing. It seemed odd at the time... what does seem weird at the time eventually becomes mainstream.” —Kevin Rose [26:30]
  • “Founders have to push themselves to the edge of being embarrassed... Otherwise, it’s very derivative.” —Anish Acharya [26:57]

• Importance of investing in founders with “weird” creative DNA who iterate, survive failures, and try again—these are the ones who upend markets.

5. The Rise of No-Code/AI-Created Apps: Creativity > Code

[41:00–65:08]

• AI supercharges “small business” creators: anyone with an idea can build/sell apps without raising VC or knowing how to code.

  • “There are businesses that will be built by, you know, $100 million revenue, one person. That’s awesome... we have 0.1% of the software that we need in the world... we’re just getting started.” —Anish Acharya [42:44]

• Kevin’s and Anish’s stacks:

  • Perplexity for search/productivity
  • V0 for visual component gen & prototyping
  • Cursor, Replit, Base44, Convex for code/app building—multiple LLMs for debugging and ideation

• Example workflow:

  • “Tell the AI to take that idea and give you 20 different versions of it... by the end of the day you’re left with something that is truly unique and different.” —Kevin Rose [57:29]
  • The shift: creativity and product sense are now more important than technical skills (e.g., SQL, APIs); orchestration and vision outweigh code-wrangling.

6. Always-On Recording, Future Social Norms & Privacy

[64:35–81:59]

• Debate: As devices and AI make “lossy” (theme-based, not verbatim) recording ubiquitous, will privacy and authenticity survive?

  • “Technology and social norms sort of adapt to each other in lockstep... Yes, we’ll be recorded more, but we’ll develop new social norms so that it can fit.” —Anish Acharya [79:05]

• Both highlight awkwardness and value in raw conversation—visual cues (e.g., device LEDs) and on-device, theme-based summarization may help balance privacy and utility.

  • “The idea of lossy is interesting because you pick up broader themes and if you can pull emotional context along for the ride... I hope it goes there.” —Kevin Rose [81:40]

7. Future Skills — The Role of Computer Science and Creativity

[71:04–77:24]

• Lively debate: Is a computer science degree still valuable?

  • Kevin: Future is about orchestrating, not engineering; creativity is a differentiator.

  • Anish: Technical fluency and systems thinking remain vital, even as low-level coding fades.

  • “I would argue that creativity in the future is going to be more important than technical ability. We don’t need to teach people SQL...” —Kevin Rose [74:09]

  • “Being able to think technically is more important than ever... a lot of it was systems thinking, and I think the systems thinking is actually really important.” —Anish Acharya [74:41]

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “The like button... was social signal that will feed back into an algorithm that eventually give you more stuff that you would like to consume.” —Kevin Rose [00:00, 31:22]
• “So much consumer investing and building is willingness to be embarrassed.” —Anish Acharya [05:23]
• “From an investor perspective, this is like a renaissance for consumer investing... Consumers are willing to pay.” —Anish Acharya [07:38]
• “They’re structurally set up to kind of take the soul out of products. And when you talk about categories like companionship, the whole thing is the soul.” —Anish Acharya [11:21]
• “The weird is... internal. The weird is I just see the world in a different way and that is the founder that is going to win.” —Kevin Rose [23:51]
• “I would argue that creativity in the future is going to be more important than technical ability.” —Kevin Rose [74:09]
• “Being able to think technically is more important than ever... I think the systems thinking is actually really important.” —Anish Acharya [74:41]
• “That is a no way. There is no way. Because you pull it up and you paste it and that’s the last time you wear the device.” —Kevin Rose (on using always-on recording in an argument) [83:18]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Topic | |----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Origin of the Like button, AJAX, rise of real-time social signals | | 07:38 | Why AI is sparking a consumer tech renaissance | | 11:56 | Companionship, AI, and the soul of products | | 20:31 | "Weird and working": The new consumer moneyball | | 26:30 | Twitter's “broadcast, not friend” insight; how “weird” goes mainstream | | 41:00 | AI-powered product building for all; no-code & creative empowerment | | 50:07 | The workflow: using V0, Cursor, multiple LLMs—creativity over code | | 57:29 | Iteration: getting 20+ variants from AI for design | | 64:35 | Always-on recording, “lossy” memory, and future social contracts | | 74:09 | Will creativity surpass technical skills? | | 79:05 | Adapting to recording/AI in social settings | | 83:18 | Avoiding relational landmines in always-on recording |

Tone and Language

Conversational, candid, and playful, the episode is peppered with tech nostalgia, product geekery, and honest skepticism about both AI utopias and looming social challenges. The rapport between Rose and Acharya fosters real vulnerability on investing mistakes, relationship blunders, and what it means to cultivate creative courage in a rapidly evolving, AI-augmented world.

For Listeners

If you want a window into the bleeding edge where AI, creativity, product ideation, and cultural shifts collide—and hear battle-hardened practitioners debate what really matters next—this is a can’t-miss episode. You’ll come away believing that creativity, curiosity, and a tolerance for “weird” are now the most future-proof tools in any builder’s arsenal.