Shyam Sankar - Celebrating Heretics - [Invest Like the Best, EP.462]

About this episode

Shyam Sankar discusses technology, talent, and the importance of reindustrialization in America.

My guest today is Shyam Sankar, the CTO of Palantir Technologies. In this conversation, we explore the ideas that shape how Shyam thinks about technology, talent, and national power. We discuss the origins of Palantir’s forward-deployed engineering model and the lessons he learned from Alex Karp about identifying people's "superpowers". We also talk about Shyam’s fascination with the "heretics" of American history, the unconventional builders who challenged bureaucracy and created many of the systems that powered America’s military and industrial success. Shyam argues that the United States must reindustrialize after decades of moving production overseas, and explains what we can learn from America’s industrial past. In a new Colossus profile, our Editor in Chief Jeremy Stern tells the story of how Shyam became one of the most important but largely unseen figures behind Palantir, tracing his journey from immigrant roots to employee #13 and the architect of the company's success and distinctive culture. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ----- Become a Colossus member to get our quarterly print…

People in this episode

Host: Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Guest: Shyam Sankar

Topics covered

• technology
• national power
• industrialization
• engineering model
• American history
• bureaucracy

Keywords

• Palantir
• technology
• national power
• industrialization
• engineering
• American history
• bureaucracy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Palantir Technologies, Colossus

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