Samuel Woldenberg

Silicon Valley is going through a Copernican Revolution For decades the valley thought industries rotated around it Now we’re waking up to the realization that we’re just a speck compared to the behemoths of Energy, Chemicals, and Atoms broadly We’re back to the future

1/ Today is the last day to preorder my book Mobilize: How the Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III. Mobilize tells the story of American defense innovation that won the 20th century. It shows how bureaucracy broke the Pentagon—and how a Defense Reformation led by heretical heroes is bringing speed, mass, and deterrence back to our military. This book couldn’t be timelier. The mission couldn’t be more urgent. Join the ranks of the heretical heroes. It’s time to mobilize.

here is a definitive reading list for budding reindustrialists: phase 1: operations & optimization: the toyota way lean principles, waste elimination, management systems, and continuous improvement for building efficient, high-quality production. the goal a practical introduction to bottlenecks, throughput, and flow through the lens of theory of constraints. factory physics a rigorous foundation for understanding queues, variability, capacity, and the behavior of real production systems. the machine that changed the world a foundational book on lean production and the evolution of modern manufacturing systems. sources of increased efficiency in the dupont rayon plants a close look at industrial productivity, management, and operational efficiency inside a major american manufacturing system. phase 2: scaling & historical inspiration: freedom’s forge industrial mobilization, production scaling, and wartime coordination at national scale. my life and work firsthand perspective on mass production, vertical integration, simplification, and industrial philosophy. my years with general motors management, decentralization, strategy, and organizational design inside one of america’s great industrial firms. behemoth a history of giant factories and the role they played in shaping industrial civilization. arsenal of democracy the transformation of american industry toward war production, with lessons in speed, conversion, and manufacturing scale. the deindustrialization of america an account of industrial decline, disinvestment, and the structural forces that weakened american manufacturing. reindustrialization of america a period view on rebuilding industrial capacity and restoring productive strength in the united states. kochland a study of industrial power, corporate systems, and one of the most consequential private industrial empires in america. phase 3: strategic context & modern realities: chip war semiconductors, geopolitics, and the strategic importance of advanced industrial supply chains. apple in china a close look at supply chains, industrial concentration, manufacturing capability, and the strategic consequences of offshoring advanced production. made in the usa materials, energy, production systems, and the physical realities behind large-scale manufacturing. energy and civilization broad historical context on how energy systems underpin industrial growth and civilizational scale. where’s my flying car? a case for technological ambition, industrial acceleration, and the lost momentum of physical progress. science mart an examination of how science, markets, and institutions reshaped american innovation. discovery-driven growth a strategy framework for navigating uncertainty while building ambitious new ventures. phase 4: finance, economics & capital allocation: economics in one lesson a compact introduction to economic reasoning, incentives, and second-order effects. “the curse of machinery” is especially relevant for industrialists thinking about productivity, labor, and industrial progress. the outsiders capital allocation, CEO decision-making, buybacks, acquisitions, decentralization, and how exceptional operators think like owners. investment banking a practical guide to valuation, deal structure, and the financial mechanics behind acquisitions, leverage, and strategic transactions. distressed debt analysis credit, restructuring, downside analysis, and how to think through broken balance sheets and mispriced industrial assets. bonus: steelhead job shop playbook practical lessons on quoting, sales, operations, workforce, and growth for metal and job-shop businesses. ben einstein’s blog and writings practical lessons from hardware startups, manufacturing execution, and company building. skunk works lessons in innovation, speed, engineering culture, and rapid development under intense constraints.

The real story is the $25 million per mile price tag they’re betting on. Nashville’s own 2018 light rail plan priced at $200 million per mile. New York’s East Side Access cost $3.5 billion per mile. The LA Metro expansion is running $1 billion per mile. The Boring Company says it can build 13 miles of twin tunnels through Nashville for $240-300 million total. That’s a 95% cost reduction from the industry average. If the number holds, it rewrites the economics of every transit project in America. If it doesn’t, a few hundred million in private capital evaporates and taxpayers lose nothing. That risk asymmetry explains why Tennessee said yes when LA, Chicago, Baltimore, and DC all said no. The engineering gamble is wild. 12-foot diameter tunnels instead of 28-foot. Fully electric Prufrock machines that mine continuously instead of stopping every 5 feet to install lining segments. Zero people in the tunnel during operations. A machine that “porpoises” into the ground from a truck instead of requiring million-dollar launch pits and cranes. Every one of those innovations has worked in Las Vegas sand. None have been tested in karst limestone, the geology that creates sinkholes, caves, and underground streams. Their own CEO said at the unveiling that Nashville would not be their choice if they were optimizing for easiest places to tunnel. This tells you everything about what The Boring Company is actually trying to prove. Nashville is where the thesis meets the hardest possible geology. 50 inches of annual rainfall versus Vegas’s 4. Rock that creates underground caves and streams. They just signed a construction contract in Dubai too, meaning they need Nashville to work before the next project launches. The internal memo from the governor’s office estimates 1 mile per month. The Boring Company’s website claims 1 mile per week. That 4x gap between political planning and corporate marketing will determine whether this finishes in 2027 or 2030. Week 7, when Prufrock-MB2 arrives, is when this gets real. Two machines boring simultaneously through Tennessee limestone will answer the question the entire tunneling industry has been debating for a decade: whether a startup can actually outrun the physics that made infrastructure the slowest-moving sector in construction.

oil & gas bucks nearly every american de-industrialization or "stagnation" trend. the US went from planning LNG import terminals to becoming the world’s largest exporter in <10 years. and to do it, we built some of the most complex, massive equipment ever designed. tbh, it’s one of the only areas where we still execute highly complex megaprojects. not flawlessly, but at a speed and level of technical sophistication that stands in sharp contrast to basically everything else. success has led to re-engineering entire supply chains around hydrocarbon abundance. cheap O&G feeds chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, steel, power markets, etc. and i don't know if/when AGI will come, but I am pretty sure it will drink gas, too. importantly, as we scale the electro-industrial technologies that increasingly define the future, we need to bring this same depth of expertise and execution. we must learn from O&G!

This is not a joke. It’s snowballs today, rocks tomorrow. People will say “this is just fun,” but it’s not. It’s practice. Mamdani and left rhetoric has trained people to hate police. As the economy gets worse and AI takes jobs, police will be attacked.