Venkatesh Rao
Writer and consultant on technology, organizations and history; founded the blog Ribbonfarm and now writes the Contraptions newsletter.
Venkatesh Rao did not write this page. What is this?
It collects the places they publish and what they have said there, each linked to the source. They have no account here. Is this you? Claim it, correct it, or ask us to remove it from ppll.
Where they publish
ContraptionsNewsletter His newsletter on technology, history and organizations.
Open contraptions.venkateshrao.com
Link verified 4 Sept 2026.
Recommends rcmnd
What they recommendrcmnd 5 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
City of Fortune Recommends
I read that last month, and visited Venice while I was reading it, and I was struck by the extent to which medieval Venice was a well-oiled political economy machine.
contraptions.venkateshrao.com 2025-01-03
Debt: The First 5000 Years Disliked
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
contraptions.venkateshrao.com 2023-06-17
Sapiens Disliked
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
contraptions.venkateshrao.com 2023-06-17
Show 2 more
The World Is Flat Disliked
I don’t know about you, but I personally feel starved of ambitious sensemaking frames for recent history that aren’t quite as silly as say Friedman’s World is Flat or Harari’s Sapiens, or quite as ideologically compromised as Graeber’s Debt.
contraptions.venkateshrao.com 2023-06-17
Slouching Towards Utopia Recommends
Slouching Towards Utopia offers one thought-provoking answer to the question that is worth taking seriously, and integrating into your thinking.
contraptions.venkateshrao.com 2023-06-17