Infinite Loops

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a data scientist and bestselling author, is known for his brilliant use of data to upend conventional wisdom - often with humorous, surprising, and occasionally shocking results. His latest book, Who Makes the NBA, uses data to interrogate some of basketball’s biggest questions, consistently yielding unexpected insights. Here’s the kicker - he wrote the entire book in just 30 days after discovering Code Interpreter.

Unsurprisingly for a former quant, I had a blast chatting to Seth. Topics discussed include why so many NBA players are called Chris, whether basketball is due for a Moneyball moment, and why so many of us misunderstand the rags-to-riches story.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Seth’s Website
• Twitter

Show Notes:

• Author, data scientist… comedian?
• Using Code Interpreter to write a book in 30 days
• The trait that makes it incredibly easy to become an NBA player
• Why the best NBA player in history isn’t who you think it is
• Is basketball due a Moneyball moment?
• Why are so many NBA players named Chris?
• What people get wrong about the rags-to-riches story
• The hidden magic of data storytelling
• Finding your audience
• The danger of glamour
• Keep it simple, stupid
• Why the standard interview sucks
• Doppelgangers & the power of A/B testing
• The overdue revolution in health data
• Why Google should be worried
• Stated vs revealed preferences
• The power of enormous data sets
• Seth as World Emperor

Books Mentioned:

• Who Makes the NBA?: Data-Driven Answers to Basketball's Biggest Questions; by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
• Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life; by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
• Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are; by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy

Julian Gough sums up his career as follows: “I just sit in my room and write.”

Well, I think being an acclaimed children’s author, novelist, stage playwright, poet and top-ten Irish musician is a little more impressive than he’s letting on…

Oh, and I didn’t even mention that he wrote the ending to the computer game Minecraft!

His current project, The Egg and The Rock, puts all of this to shame. This book, which Julian is writing in public on Substack, seeks to do no less than redescribe the universe, arguing that is not some random, dead, purposeless sack of chemicals, but instead a living, evolving organism.

Julian joins me to discuss why the arc of human evolution bends towards man-made black holes, the hidden catastrophe at the heart of materialist science, the strange life of subterranean ice aliens, and MUCH more!

This was such an interesting conversation - I can’t wait for you to hear it. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Julian’s Website
• The Egg and The Rock
• Julian’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• “I just sit in my room and write”
• Why write a book in public?
• Materialism & science’s hidden catastrophe
• “The scientific method is in conflict with human nature”
• The faulty assumption at the heart of cosmology
• Big bangs, supermassive black holes & Darwinian evolution: A ~30 minute masterclass in cosmological natural selection
• “I'm predicting very, very large amounts of life in this universe”
• The strange life of subterranean ice aliens
• Could we spot man-made black holes?
• Bringing consciousness into physics
• Pulling back the curtain
• Julian as World Emperor
• MORE!

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge; by Paul Feyerabend
• What the Tortoise Said to Achilles; by Lewis Carroll
• The Life of the Cosmos; by Lee Smolin
• What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell; by Erwin Schrödinger
• Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology; by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
• The Bhagavad Gita
• Did the Universe evolve?; by Lee Smolin
• The Great Filter - Are We Almost Past It?; by Robin Hanson

Ben Reinhardt is the founder of Speculative Technologies “a nonprofit industrial research lab that’s working to unlock a wonderful, abundant future through technologies that don’t have a home in other institutions.”

He has previously worked at NASA and Bay Area startups/VC firms, founded a startup building robotics for eldercare, and helped entrepreneurs start companies in Singapore. Oh, and he has a Ph.D. in space robotics from Cornell University and is one of the few people with a B.Sc. in history!

Ben, who brings his expertise in emerging technologies to the OSV advisory council, joins the show to discuss why tech people don’t do philanthropy, when to trust a credential, why there aren’t more government moonshot programs, why academia is beholden to the new, and MUCH more!

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Speculative Technologies
• Ben’s Twitter
• Ben’s LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• Speculative Technologies: the four-stage roadmap
• How early VC funding can affect incentives
• From ‘eureka!’ to getting it out into the world
• Market failure & institutional consolidation
• Where are the moonshot programs?
• The skills needed to run a research program
• Why tech people don’t do philanthropy
• Turning philanthropy into a status game
• The hidden importance of materials & manufacturing
• When to trust a credential
• Agency & American culture
• Lean ideas vs. fat ideas
• Why academia is beholden to novelty
• Ben as World Emperor
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• What Works on Wall Street, Fourth Edition: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Road; by Cormac McCarthy
• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America; by John D. Gartner
• The Coffee Can portfolio; by Robert G. Kirby

My guest on Infinite Loops this week knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur from the time he was buying and selling things on eBay.

Jay Reno claims he didn’t know what the word ‘arbitrage’ meant back then, but if you tug on the colourful threads of his career, you’d reveal the kind of tenacity and resourcefulness that allows special founders like him to repeatedly find value in places that have long been deserted by everybody else.

If you listen in on today’s episode, it will become apparent why O’Shaughnessy Ventures invested in Jay and his current venture. Jay is the CEO and Founder of Pointhound, which helps people find amazing deals on flights and travel using their credit card points and miles. He’s also a partner at 645 ventures.

Among other fun pursuits, he’s spent the last ten years building all sorts of cool things; like a same-day grocery delivery service, a craft coffee company, a restaurant and bar reservation app, and a furniture rental service for city dwellers.

We spent our conversation talking about his advice for first-time founders; his learnings from building Pointhound; the whimsical world of credit card point programmes; his thoughts on consumer psychology; and much more!

For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Jay’s Twitter
• Jay’s LinkedIn
• 645 Ventures
• Pointhound HQ

Show Notes:

• How To Bring Your Idea To Life
• The Virtues of the Y-Combinator Model
• Picking the Right Investor
• Pointhound & The Points Game
• On Consumer Psychology and Trying New Things
• Removing the Invisible Barrier
• Product Cycles and User Feedback
• Slow Down to Speed Up
• The Common Pitfalls in Building Consumer Products
• The Credit Card Prestige Factor
• The Cashback Conundrum
• The Future of Pointhound
• Jay, The Emperor of The World

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla; by Nikola Tesla
• Mistakes were Made. (And, Yes, by Me.); by Jim O’Shaughnessy

My guest today is Michael Garfield, a paleontologist, futurist, writer, podcast host and strategic advisor whose “mind-jazz” performances — essays, music and fine art — bridge the worlds of art, science and philosophy.

This year, Michael received a $10k O’Shaughnessy Grant for his “Humans On the Loop” discussion series, which explores the nature of agency, power, responsibility and wisdom in the age of automation.

This whirlwind discussion is impossible to sum up in a couple of sentences (just look at the number of books & articles mentioned!) Ultimately, it is a conversation about a subject I think about every day: how we can live curious, collaborative and fulfilling lives in our deeply weird, complex, probabilistic world.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Michael’s Website
• Humans On The Loop
• Twitter
• Future Fossils Substack

Show Notes:

• What is “mind jazz”?
• Humans “ON” the loop?
• The Red Queen hypothesis and the power of weirdness
• Probabilistic thinking & the perils of optimization
• Context collapse, pernicious convenience & coordination at scale
• How organisations learn
• Michael as World Emperor
• MORE!

Books, Articles & Podcasts Mentioned:

• The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves; by W. Brian Arthur
• Pharmako-AI; by K Allado-McDowell
• The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century; by Howard Bloom
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
• Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There; by Lewis Carroll
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• Scale Theory: A Nondisciplinary Inquiry; by Joshua DiCaglio
• Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering; by Malcolm Gladwell
• The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich
• Do Conversation: There's No Such Thing as Small Talk; by Robert Poynton
• Reality Hunger: A Manifesto; by David Shields
• The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture; by William Irwin Thompson
• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Designing Neural Media; by K Allado-McDowell
• Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning; by Steward Brand
• Losing Humanity: The Case against Killer Robots; by Bonnie Docherty
• What happens with digital rights management in the real world?; by Cory Doctorow
• The Evolution of Surveillance Part 1: Burgess Shale to Google Glass; by Michael Garfield
• An Introduction to Extitutional Theory; by Jessy Kate Schingler
• 175 - C. Thi Nguyen on The Seductions of Clarity, Weaponized Games, and Agency as Art; Future Fossils with Michael Garfield
• 🎶⚔️👏🏼 205 - Greg Thomas & Stephanie Lepp on Jazz Leadership & Antagonistic Cooperation; Future Fossils with Michael Garfield
• 🌏🚜🫀212 - Manfred Laubichler & Geoffrey West on Life In The Anthropocene & Living Inside The Technosphere; Future Fossils with Michael Garfield

My guest today is Max Meyer, the proprietor of Arena Magazine, a new quarterly publication exploring technology, capitalism and civilization.

Arena’s aim? To “make it okay to dream in public again.”

Max and I discuss why he launched a print magazine in 2024, WTF happened to legacy media, the wisdom of Ratatouille and MUCH more.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Max’s Twitter
• Arena Magazine
• The New Needs Friends
• The Earthly Miracle of the Grocery Store
• Robert F. Kennedy announces the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Show Notes:

• What is going on with legacy media?
• Print advertising and the race to the bottom
• The collapse of trust in the media
• TikTok brain, news consumption & social media as a steam valve
• Bailouts & the appeal of the “zero interest fairyland”
• The wisdom of Ratatouille
• The decline of Presidential oratory
• American progress & the population bomb that didn’t go off
• Failure is a ladder
• The one rule of capitalism
• Long haul flights: Where’s our roast turkey?
• Why is Arena a physical magazine?
• Max as Emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Ultimate Resource; by Julian L. Simon
• The Population Bomb; by Dr Paul R. Ehrlich
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• How United Became an Airline; by Andy Kessler (WSJ)
• This is Water; by David Foster Wallace line.

Parmita Mishra is a computational biologist and the founder & CEO of Precigenetics, a company aiming to become a rocket to precision medicine.

Parmita is deeply knowledgeable about cutting-edge biology, particularly epigenetics — how behavior and environment can affect gene function without altering genetic code. Her passion for advancing our understanding of diseases is inspiring (and contagious: OSV is an investor in Parmita’s company!)

In our conversation, Parmita and I discuss everything from the curious case of male baldness to how her parents have saved 50,000 lives. 

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, highlights, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Website
• Precigenetics Twitter
• Preciginetics launch post

Show Notes:

• Explaining epigenetics to a golden retriever
• The curious case of male pattern baldness
• How to think about biology: start from first principles & beware binary thinking
• The lens you look through determines what you see
• The problem of data collection in biology
• Why the FDA needs to change its approach
• Why we still don’t understand the human brain
• Garry Tan’s advice: “Get an idea. Get a co-founder.”
• What’s been surprising about foundership?
• Failure is a ladder
• Obsession & how Parmita’s parents have saved 50,000 lives
• The most surprising things about America
• Parmita as World Empress

Books Mentioned:

• What is Life?; by Erwin Schrodinger
• I should have loved biology; by James Somers
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America; by John D. Gartner

Professor Luis Seco is a mathematician, educator, and investor.

Among many other titles and achievements, he is the Professor of Mathematics at the University of Toronto, Director of the quant research hub Risklab, Chair of the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Fields Institute, and co-founder of the asset management firm Sigma Analysis & Management Ltd.

Got all that?!

This one was really fun, and not just because Luis is a fellow quant. We discuss how maths resembles Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the future of the ‘metaversity’, the most important lesson Luis gives his students, why investing isn't what it used to be, and much more.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Website
• Twitter
• YouTube

Show Notes:

• What Luis learned from the Beethoven of mathematics
• “Mathematics is the language computers speak”
• The role of community in an increasingly confusing world
• Lifelong education & the voyage to the human brain
• Why to teach is to be human
• Timebinding & social media as a steam valve
• What matters more - content or communication?
• Math as a social science: quantifying risk in a nonlinear world
• From paper, to numbers, to images: The changing nature of data
• Why the future of education lies in decentralization
• Swarm solutions & why we’re in the century of collaboration
• Metaversities & the case for bringing your kids to work
• Why managing money is now based on words, not numbers
• Luis as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
• The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; by Robert M. Pirsig
• Manhood of Humanity; by Alfred Korzybski
• How to Win Friends and Influence People; by Dale Carnegie
• The Myth of 1926: How Much Do We Know About Long-Term Returns on U.S. Stocks?; by Edward F. Mcquarrie

Anthony Pompliano — investor, entrepreneur, and media powerhouse — returns four years and 228 episodes later to discuss his new book, How To Live an Extraordinary Life, a collection of 65 heartfelt letters to his two children.

At just 36, Anthony has already invested in circa 200 companies, served in Iraq with the U.S. Army, built and sold multiple businesses, and created one of the world’s largest independent media platforms. You don’t accomplish all that without learning a thing or two, and in this episode we dig into his hard-earned insights — from the uniting traits of the world’s smartest people, to the luxury of pessimism, to why luck isn’t real.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• How To Live an Extraordinary Life
• Website
• Twitter
• The Pomp Letter
• Anthony’s Previous Episode

Show Notes:

• The hidden power of “I don’t know”
• Why Anthony started writing letters to his children
• Today is practice for tomorrow
• Carve your ethics in stone, but your opinions in sand
• How bad positioning poisons decision-making
• Are there any parts of the book Anthony no longer believes in?
• What unites the smartest people in the world
• Why luck isn’t real
• The luxury of pessimism
• Power laws everywhere!
• Anthony as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books, Articles & Podcasts Mentioned:

• Adventures of a Bystander; by Peter F. Drucker
• The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance; by Josh Waitzkin
• How Will You Measure Your Life?: A thought-provoking approach to measuring life's success; by Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth and Karren Dillon
• Rules for a Knight; by Ethan Hawke
• The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War; by Robert J. Gordon
• Why Writing Letters to Your Kids Is the Best Gift You Can Give Them as Adults; by Polina Pompliano
• Shane Parrish on the Clear Thinking podcast
• Lucky vs, Repeatable; by Morgan Housel
• What Kind of Lucky Are You?; by Jim O’Shaughnessy

There’s a quote I heard a long time ago that goes something like this - “India has consistently disappointed both the optimists and the pessimists”.

It is equal parts pithy and profound, and does a somewhat passable job of summarising the multitudes contained in 21st century India. It’s a quote that was brought to life for me numerous times in my conversation with this week’s guest on Infinite Loops - Sajith Pai.

Sajith is a GP at Blume Ventures, one of India’s largest homegrown VC firms. He's known for his prolific writing and sharp frameworks that have become part of Indian startup canon over the past decade.

In 2018, he swapped a long-time career as a media executive for one as a venture capitalist. This changing of lanes, relatively late in his professional life, has given him a refreshingly nuanced perspective on the Indian startup ecosystem (which he’s bestowed with the moniker of ‘Indus Valley’, as a nod to both Silicon Valley as well as the Indus Valley Civilisation, one of the cradles of the ancient world and the ancestral civilisation of the Indian people).

His most compelling insight? That India isn't the monolithic 1.5-billion-person market that many Westerners believe. Instead, it's three distinct "countries" hiding in plain sight. There's India One: 120 million affluent, English-speaking urbanites (think the population of Germany) who love their iPhones and Starbucks. Then comes India Two: 300 million aspiring middle-class citizens who inhabit the digital economy but not yet the consumption economy. Finally, there's India Three: a massive population with a similar demographic profile to Sub-Saharan Africa, that’s still waiting for its invitation to join India’s bright future.

‘India 1-2-3’ is one amongst many pearls of wisdom that Sajith gifted me over our conversation, that also touched on India as a "digital welfare state", India as a ‘low trust society’; the emergence of a new class of ‘Indo-Anglians’; how cultural nuances in India shape everything from app design to payment systems; and much, much more.

Whether you're an investor, founder, or just curious about where the next decade of innovation might come from, this conversation is your crash course to understanding India in the 21st century. Sajith likes to say that ‘India is not for beginners’. Well, if you are a beginner on India, this week you’re in luck.

For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Sajith’s website
• Sajith’s Twitter
• Sajith’s Substack
• Blume VC’s Indus Valley Annual Report 2024

Show Notes:

• The Three Indias
• Navigating India in the 21st century
• India as a ‘low trust’ society
• Touring ‘India 2’
• The States and the Union
• Caste and Class in Modern India
• Governance and the Government
• Brain Drain
• The English Tax
• The Rise of the Indo-Anglians
• I, Writer
• On Media and Markets
• India as a Digital Welfare State
• The Virtues of Leapfrogging
• Sajith, The Emperor of the World

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid; by C. K. Prahalad
• Supercommunicators; by Charles Duhigg
• Career Advice; by Scott Adams
• The Indus Valley Report 2024; by Blume VC

My guest today is Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist, OG blogger, and quantum computing maestro.

Scott has so many achievements and credentials that listing them here would take longer than recording the episode. Here's a select few:

• Self-taught programmer at age 11, Cornell computer science student at 15, PhD recipient by 22!
• Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin.
• Director of UT Austin's Quantum Information Center.
• Former visiting researcher on OpenAI's alignment team (2022-2024).
• Awarded the ACM prize in computing in 2020 and the Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize in Physics (under 40 category) in 2018.

… you get the point.

Scott and I dig into the misunderstood world of quantum computing — the hopes, the hindrances, and the hucksters — to unpack what a quantum-empowered future could really look like. We also discuss what makes humans special in the age of AI, the stubbornly persistent errors of the seat-to-keyboard interface, and MUCH more.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, some highlights from Scott’s blog, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Shtetl-Optimized (Scott’s blog)
• My Reading Burden
• On blankfaces

Show Notes:

• So much reading. So little time.
• The problem of human specialness in the age of AI
• It’s always the same quantum weirdness
• Why it’s easy to be a quantum huckster
• Quantum progress, quantum hopes, and quantum limits
• Encryption in a quantum empowered world
• Wielding the hammer of interference
• Scientific discovery in a quantum empowered world
• Bureaucracy and blank faces
• Scott as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Fifth Science; by ****Exurb1a
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams

Danny Crichton is a man of many talents. He’s got a background in computer science, has worked in the worlds of foreign policy, was a managing editor at Techcrunch, and now serves as Head of Editorial at Lux Capital.

As Lux’s de-facto games master, Danny also devises their Riskgames: strategic simulations that immerse players in complex scenarios reflecting real-world challenges and dynamics. These games – whose players include senators, major generals, congressmen and, think-tank CEOs – include scenarios like ‘Hamptons at the Cross-Roads’ (that deals with climate change and maritime security) and ‘Powering Up’ (that deals with China’s global EV dominance).

Danny and I discuss the origins of Riskgaming and the lessons he’s learned in high-stakes games with tech founders and government officials. Plus, we riff on our shared Minnesotan roots, and discuss ways to combat the uncertain fog of war in our careers.

I hope you enjoy this insightful conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Danny's Twitter
• Danny's LinkedIn
• Danny's Personal Website
• Lux Securities Newsletter
• The Riskgaming Initiative

Show Notes:

• Origins of Riskgaming
• The Different Play Styles between Technologists and Policymakers
• One-off games vs. Iterative games
• The Game Theoretic Foundations of Riskgaming
• It’s All About Tough Decisions
• Parable of the First Mover Disadvantage
• The Importance of Incentives
• Why Insurance Companies are Obsessed with Truth in the Market
• How AIs Can Cut Through Bureaucratic Slog
• How Danny Builds Scenarios
• Why Riskgaming Teaches Better Decision Making
• Danny’s Thoughts on Intellectual Humility
• Danny and Jim’s Minnesotan Heritage
• Danny’s experience launching TechCrunch+
• Facing the Fog of War
• The Importance of Agility
• Danny as Emperor of the World

Books Mentioned:

• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
• Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places; by Paul Collier

My guest today is the human Swiss Army Knife, Yuk Chi Chan, who has packed more into the last decade than many people do in a lifetime.

Yuk Chi is the founder of Charter Space, the first British space company to graduate from the Techstars Space Accelerator. Before that, he served as an officer in the Singapore army (hmm, so maybe I should have described him as a Singaporean Army Knife) and practiced as a space lawyer (it’s funny how much cooler being a lawyer becomes when you preface it with the word “space”).

Suffice to say, Yuk Chi knows a lot about space. We had a blast discussing how ‘ownership’ of territory really works, why the sector impacts our daily lives FAR more than we think, and the mind-boggling mission of an intrepid robotic space snake.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• LinkedIn
• Substack
• Twitter
• Charter Website
• Charter Twitter

Show Notes:

• Yuk Chi Chan: The human Swiss Army Knife
• The strangely antiquated tools of the space industry
• Military training, problem-solving, and reframing the challenge
• The single most important trait in a co-founder
• Unlearning, cyclical culture, and robotic space snakes
• The labyrinthine world of space insurance
• Who owns space?
• The angry man on Yuk Chi’s shoulder
• Why Yuk Chi measures his life in dog years
• Space insurance as Zeno’s Paradox
• Why the space industry is WAY more ubiquitous than you think
• Yuk Chi as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; by Philip K. Dick
• Ubik; by Philip K. Dick

“Ignoring what is obvious incurs a huge cost.

It requires you to go about your day numbing yourself to the reality of who you are and what you want—which is a waste of time for you and everyone around you.

By contrast, admitting what is obvious is freeing and motivating. But it’s terrifying to do it. Sometimes the most obvious truths about ourselves are hard to see because the consequences of those truths seem so dire.”

Those are the opening lines of one of my favourite essays I’ve read in the last year, written by this week’s guest on Infinite Loops - Dan Shipper.

Dan is the Co-founder and CEO of Every, a media company that wants to be an intellectual lighthouse amidst the tempest that is the Age of AI.

Every began life in 2020 as a bundle of digital newsletters (almost like a centralised version of Substack with more of an editorial flourish). These days, it’s blossomed into an ecosystem of colourful newsletters, podcasts, courses, and software products, all oriented around the unpacking of a single question - “What comes next?”

Every is already one of my go-to destinations for all things interesting. It’s less brain food than brain buffet (the kind of buffet that serves fresh blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup).

In our conversation, Dan shares his thoughts on everything from AI companions; his approach to erecting the Every ‘Pyramid’; his playbook for building new media companies; the idea of LLMs as mirrors for humanity; and using content to ‘find your people’.

What I love about him is how candidly and thoughtfully he talks about his journey to discover his own truth. His realisation that he didn’t need to hang up his boots as a writer in order to become a founder is something that particularly hit home for me.

Dan Shipper is also my underdog pick to eventually wrest the title of Infinite Loops Emperor from reigning clubhouse leader Alex Danco. By which I mean to say, this is most certainly not the last time Dan joins us on the show, so you may as well get to know him better.

For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Dan’s Twitter
• Dan’s writing on Every
• Dan’s personal website

Show Notes:

• Dan’s Superhero Origin Story
• Writers as Founders
• What Would You Pay To Do?
• The Every Pyramid
• The New Media Playbook
• How To Find Your People
• Our AI Mirrors
• From Explanation Problems to Engineering Problems
• On Intuition
• From The Knowledge Economy To The Allocation Economy
• The Reluctance To AI Adoption
• AI Companions
• Dan, The Emperor of The World

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• Admitting What Is Obvious; by Dan Shipper
• *The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century; by* Howard Bloom
• Against Explanations; by Dan Shipper
• The Trial of Socrates; by I. F. Stone
• The WEIRDest People in the World; by ****Joseph Heinrich
• The Three Musketeers; by Alexandre Dumas

My guest today is Dr. Gena Gorlin, a psychologist specializing in the unique needs of the ultra-ambitious.

Unlike many in her field. Gena doesn’t aim to simply lift the floor of her clients’ ambitions — she wants to raise the ceiling.

In this episode, she breaks down the “Builder Mindset” - a way of thinking that empowers people to live to healthier, happier, and more fulfilled lives.

Over on our Substack, we dig deeper into Gena’s ideas, exploring the perils of perfectionism, the allure of complacency, and why psychological perfection might be more achievable than you think.

Important Links:

• Gena’s Website
• Building the Builders (Gena’s Substack)
• Gena’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• The Unique Needs of the Ultra Ambitious
• Death is the Default
• The Rigid Authoritarianism of Your Inner Drill Sergeant
• The Sweet, Stagnant Embrace of the Zen Master
• Agency & the Enlightenment
• Historical Ignorance as a Bottleneck
• Human Beings as the Base Unit of Action
• Fight, Flight or Freeze
• How to Build a Builder
• Perfectionism is not Perfect
• What to Do When Surrounded by C Players
• Persistence, Passion & Personality
• Reframing FTW
• Gena as Empress of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America; by John D. Gartner

“Most people don’t want to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that distraction is always an unhealthy escape from reality.”

My latest guest, Nir Eyal, writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. Nir previously taught as a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford.

In our conversation, Nir gives it to us straight. Distraction is killing us, and stopping us from reaching our full potential. In a world that is constantly conspiring to keep us distracted, Nir provides an alternative: we can take back control. We can regain our agency.

All of these ideas are presented in his book, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (co-authored with Julie Li). This book is a clear guide to understanding the psychology behind our impulses and is chock-full of great anecdotes and peer-reviewed studies to help you better manage your time, and your life.

Nir’s framework is not only interesting, it is practical, so I suggest you check out our Substack, where you’ll find the episode transcript and some actionable takeaways. I also encourage you to buy Nir’s excellent book and start applying his strategies to your own life. 

I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

Important Links:

• Nir’s personal blog
• Nir’s LinkedIn
• Nir’s Twitter
• Nir’s YouTube channel
• Nir’s Habit Tracking Tool
• Nir’s Schedule Maker Tool

Show Notes:

• What Being Indistractable Is All About
• Etymology of the Word Distraction
• The Strong Pull of Internal Triggers
• The Tyranny of the To-Do List
• The Difference Between High Performers and Low Performers
• The Dangers of Labelling Ourselves
• Using the Psychology of Identity
• Using Self-Determination Theory to Diagnose Distraction
• The Perils of Snowplow Parenting
• Believe the Good Science
• Nir as Emperor of the World

Books / Articles Mentioned:

• Indistractable; by Nir Eyal (+ bonus content)
• Nir’s articles on Timeboxing, Values, FOMO and Wage slavery
• Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life; by Peter Gray

As the saying goes, only three things in life are certain: death, taxes & Alex Danco.

Armed with sizzling hot takes on the sad death of Twitter likes and a new secret weapon in the form of his catchphrase-turned-episode theme (“Without mystery, there is no margin”), Alex returns for his eighth episode.

Despite our intentional lack of preparation, somehow this ended up as one our most cohesive conversations yet.

As usual, we’ve included links and an episode transcript over on our Substack, where we’ve also made the foolhardy attempt to distil one overriding theme from eight episodes of fiercely unstructured, defiantly unplanned, proudly meandering conversation.

Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alex_Danco
• Website: https://alexdanco.com/
• Previous episode: https://www.infiniteloopspodcast.com/alex-danco-on-self-delusion-sancho-panza-safe-words-seinfeld-ep156/

Show Notes:

• What the fuck is going on? & the sad death of Twitter likes
• Where are the journalists?
• Without mystery, there is no margin
• Why aesthetics are underrated
• Friction is good, actually
• Make things to gain agency
• Empowering small firms to access the mysterious margin
• Everything is positioning
• How to learn effectively
• Alex as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”; by Venkatesh Rao
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom

Mike Maples, Jr., co-founding partner of the VC firm Floodgate, is the veteran seed investor behind some of the 21st-century’s great success stories, including Twitter, Twitch, and Applied Intuition.

His book, Pattern Breakers (co-authored with Peter Ziebelman), articulates a new model of foundership, one built on the simple premise that transformative startups upend rather than improve current practices.

My company, OSV, is built around my belief that the collapse of the old models presents enormous opportunities to those savvy enough to seize them, so I had a blast quizzing Mike on the nuts and bolts of pattern-breaking foundership, from finding true believers to waging asymmetric war on the status quo.

If Mike’s theory sounds as interesting to you as it did to me, check out our Substack, where we’ve distilled some pattern-breaking insights and shared the episode transcript. I also encourage you to buy Mike’s excellent book.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

Important Links:

• Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future; by Mike Maples, Jr & Peter Ziebelman
• Twitter
• Substack (Starting Greatness)
• Floodgate
• LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• Seagull mode: an unexpected founder paradigm
• How to wage asymmetric war on the present
• Evading the comparison trap
• Finding your people: how to build a movement
• Why we should continually seek the truth
• The customer isn’t always right, but the ones living in the future are
• Why disagreeableness is undervalued
• How to fix a pitch Franckendeck
• Don’t use jargon as a substitute for clear thinking
• How to find the true believers
• How to live in the future
• How founders are like trainspotters
• Why wanting to be a founder is a bad reason to start a company
• Reading habits of a pattern-breaker
• The unreliability of memory
• Mike as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A story; by Richard Bach
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform The World; by David Deutsch
• What Works in Wall Street; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Poor Charlie’s Almanac: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger; by Charles T. Munger

As a former quant with six grandkids, my spidey-senses started tingling as soon as I heard about Ben Orlin’s mission to make math fun.

A native of St.Paul, Ben is a math educator and popularizer who is known for his “Math With Bad Drawing” blog and book series. Today’s conversation revolves around his excellent, original new book Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language, which reframes math as a language, complete with nouns, verbs and grammar.

Like any mathematician worth his salt, Ben loves games, which he sees as ‘puzzle engines’. No wonder then that our conversation meandered and unfolded like a satisfying puzzle, touching upon rich concepts. We discussed making sense of sampling through fantasy towns where 70% of inhabitants are lawyers (not a town I’d like to be in), threw in a bit of Lewis Carroll to discuss the assumptions built into propositional logic (sometimes it really is turtles all the way down) and pitied the Welsh kids learning how to count (keep listening to know what that means).

I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did! For more thoughts on the episode, the full transcript, and bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go; “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Ben’s Blog
• Ben’s Twitter
• Ben’s LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• A Mathematician’s Obsession
• The Language of Algebra
• What the Tortoise Said to Achilles
• The Concrete and the Abstract
• Games As Puzzle Engines
• We’re not Built to Understand Base Rates
• Why We Always Think About Samples Incorrectly
• Randomness and Wikipedia Rabbit-holing
• Counting in Different Languages
• The Concept of Zero
• Negatives as the Mathematical Language of Opposites
• Mathematical Escape Rooms
• Why Is the World Comprehensible?
• Discussing Infinity on Infinite Loops
• The Deep Mathematics of Music
• Ben As Emperor of the World

Books Mentioned:

• Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language; by Ben Orlin
• Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas That Shape Our Reality; by Ben Orlin
• Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea; by Charles Seife
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain; by Oliver Sacks

“We have created for ourselves a world that we didn't evolve for.”

Gurwinder Bhogal is, for my money, one of the most independent, original and insightful thinkers you’ll find in our corner of the internet.

He returns to discuss how willpower and good old-fashioned human agency can help us reclaim our mental sovereignty and escape the “constant avalanche of concerns that are being vomited over us through our laptop screens, our phones, our TV screens, and in conversations.”

For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Gurwinder's Substack 
• Gurwinder's Twitter
• Gurwinder’s previous Infinite Loops appearance

Show Notes:

• “We have created for ourselves a world we didn’t evolve for”
• The dogged persistence of our stubborn beliefs
• Gamification; generational differences in agency
• The societal impact of the education system’s changing priorities
• How to zombify a population
• Skin in the game: Gurwinder’s guide to reclaiming agency
• LLMs, bullshit, and the atomization of culture
• How to play better games
• Willpower is the bottleneck
• Gurwinder as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Why Everything is Becoming a Game; by Gurwinder Bhogal
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know; by Adam Grant
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
• The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements; by Eric Hoffer
• Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest; by Jonathan Haidt (After Babel)
• America’s Colleges Are Reaping What They Sowed; by Tyler Austin Harper (The Atlantic)
• Joe Biden and the Common Knowledge Game; by Ben Hunt (Epsilon Theory)
• The Emperor’s New Clothes; by Hans Christian Andersen
• Futarchy Details; by Robin Hanson (Overcoming Bias)
• The Enlightenment Trilogy; by Jed McKenna
• The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich

Professor Julia Sonnevend believes that charm is one of the defining political trends of our era.

In her latest book, she argues that charm will do no less than “shape the future of democracy worldwide,” exploring how it is weaponized by politicians ranging from Jacinda Arden to Kim Jong Un.

In our episode, you will discover why charm has emerged as a political force and how to innoculate yourself when you encounter it in the wild.

Julia and I also dig into the five components of a charming interaction, a tantalizing prospect for those of you who want to dabble in the dark arts yourself…

For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Charm: How Magnetic Personalities Shape Global Politics
• Julia’s website
• Julia’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Why social scientists are scared of charm
• The beer test of political leadership
• Can charm be manufactured?
• How humor affects charm
• The five building blocks of charm
• Does writing a book about charm make you immune to charm?
• Suspicion of seduction
• Is personality damaging politics?
• The true arbiter of authenticity
• How to encourage students to think critically
• How global iconic events are constructed
• Historical villains & the banality of evil
• Charming or not-charming: a speed-round
• The transitory nature of the charm offensive
• The benefits of taking a moment
• Julia as Empress of the World

As a proud owner of the exceedingly rare “two-digit” designation on CompuServe (the internet’s precursor), I’ve always been an early adopter of new tech.

I was, therefore, particularly excited to speak to Bilawal Sidhu, a one-man corporation whose prolific output outpaces many creators put together.

Since he was 11, Bilawal has been passionate about using cutting-edge tech to create videos that unite reality with his imagination.

He made his bones as a product manager at Google, but after his short-form videos generated millions of views on social media, he decided to go all-in on his creative projects, including this video showing ‘shadow aliens’ invading Miami Mall, which racked up 11M views in 24 hours (!) on TikTok.

Bilawal is also an adept rune-reader in the tech industry — his Creative Digest newsletter and YouTube channel offer insights and analysis on tech and market developments, while his TEDAI podcast broke the recent Helen Toner x OpenAI story.

If you’re a creator curious about the opportunities presented by cutting-edge tech, you’re gonna love this episode.

For the full transcript and bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Bilawal’s Website (includes links to all social channels)
• What Does “Rat Park” Teach Us About Addiction? (Psychiatric Times)

Show Notes:

• Aliens at the Miami Mall & the deep fake arms race
• How to unite reality with imagination
• The three waves of content democratization & the incoming content tsunami
• Artisan vs organic content
• Creation by proxy
• Climbing up the adoption curve
• Bilawal’s idea-to-execution creation process
• Remix culture & co-creation
• Competing visions of an AI-infused feature
• Finding an economic model that benefits indie creators
• Sovereign AI & being long human creativity
• Bilawal as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
• The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates; by Howard Bloom
• The Ultimate Resource; by Julian L. Simon

When Luca Dellanna speaks, I listen.

Unlike many of the other management, productivity and behavioral gurus out there, Luca is ruthlessly committed to providing actionable, tangible advice that is rooted in the messy, chaotic reality of daily life.

This conversation, my second with Luca, revolves around his excellent new book, Winning Long-Term Games: Reproducible Success Strategies to Achieve Your Life Goals.

Why should you care? Because long-term strategies consistently deliver better results. In other words, being able to identify, play, and win long-term games is, quite literally, the secret to success.

With examples ranging from NASA janitors to Stonehenge spray painters, we discuss how to successfully identify reproducible long-term strategies and how to persuade others to get on board with them.

We also explore how hypotheticals can be an insanely powerful tool for ensuring our short-term actions remain consistent with our long-term goals (and yes, before you ask, my beloved premeditation makes an appearance).

I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did! For more thoughts on the episode, the full transcript, and bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go; “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Winning Long-Term Games: Reproducible Success Strategies to Achieve Your Life Goals
• Luca’s Website
• Luca’s Twitter
• Luca’s Previous Episode
• Five Counterintuitive Truths We Learned From Luca Dellanna

Show Notes:

• The Tale of the Three Bricklayers
• Tighten Up Those Feedback Loops
• The Perils of Short-Term Thinking
• How to Signal Long-Term Intentions
• Reproducibility is King
• The Mighty Power of the Humble Hypothetical
• Concretizing the Abstract
• Goldilocks Solutions
• Extracting Tangible Benefits From Stratospheric Objectives
• Intuition & Luck in Long-Term Games
• Risk of Tactic vs Risk of Strategy; Flexible North Stars
• Build Your Own Long-Term Company
• Tesla’s Risky Success
• Luca as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Winning Long-Term Games: Reproducible Success Strategies to Achieve Your Life Goals; by Luca Dellanna
• The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
• Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder; by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• The Infinite Game: How Great Businesses Achieve Long-Lasting Success; by Simon Sinek

Let me introduce you to the four horsemen of the investment apocalypse:

Fear.

Greed.

Hope.

Ignorance.

Notice anything?

Three of four are emotions.

I’ve long argued that effective investing is far more about emotional control than technical know-how (although the latter certainly helps!) By hook or by crook, the best investors can find a way to tame their pesky emotional impulses and overcome that primal urge to respond impulsively to panic, passion, or pride.

My guest, the razor-sharp Ateet Ahluwalia, is a veteran trader and investor who has spent well over 15 years at the coalface, from trading at Goldman at the dawn of the financial crisis to his current role as founder and managing director of the venture capital firm Island Green Capital Management. As you’ll hear from our conversation, Ateet has built an insanely deep understanding of the emotional constitution required to succeed in finance and venture capital, which informs his approach to risk management, hiring, investing, due diligence, and everything in between.

I hope you enjoy our wide-ranging conversation, whose implications extend well beyond investing. For episode takeaways, a full transcript, and various other goodies, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• The Thinker and The Prover; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Ateet’s LinkedIn
• Island Green Capital Management

Show Notes:

• Why Venture Capitalists Should Shun the Glory
• “In a changing world, playing it safe is one of the riskiest things you can do."
• Risk: Why Size Matters
• The Emotional Constraints of Investing
• How to Find Out What Someone Really Wants
• The Purifying Power of Mistakes
• Pick up the Phone!
• Being Humbled by the Market
• Public vs Private Investing
• Why Hit Rates Matter
• Assessing the Macro Position
• Bullshitting, Question-Dodging, and Other Red Flags
• The Many Bosses of the Venture Capitalist
• Be a Painkiller
• Ateet as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Enlightenment Trilogy; by Jed McKenna
• Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist; by Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson
• Financial Intelligence: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean; by Karen Berman, Joe Knight & John Case
• Adventures of a Bystander; by Peter F. Drucker

I’ve always tried to encourage curiosity in my three children and now six (!) grandchildren. My kids often reminisce about my default response to their childhood questions: pointing to the bookshelf that flanked our sofa and saying, “look it up in there!”

Luckily, natural curiosity was never lacking in our household. Over the years, however, I have become increasingly frustrated when I hear about the stultifying, rote, curiosity-killing nature of our education system.

It was a pleasure, therefore, to speak to Audrey Wisch, an impressive young founder who, after witnessing first-hand how kids’ curiosity was being crushed, decided to do something about it. She left Stanford University to build Curious Cardinals, a personalized service that matches children with university mentors. What started as a pandemic project has grown into something much bigger - Audrey and her co-founder were named to the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 List in education, and Curious Cardinals has now delivered over 20,000 hours of mentorship to over 2,000 kids.

As you’ll hear in our conversation, Audrey’s approach to education is a breath of fresh air, focusing on agency and empowerment, meeting kids where their interests lie, and harnessing the benefits of technology.

I hope you enjoy our conversation! For the full transcript alongside bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go; “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Curious Cardinals
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Show Notes:

• The Classroom: Disengaging, Uninspiring and Regurgitating
• The Chicken Nugget Strategy: Learning Through Interests
• Are Attention Spans Shortening?
• Why Mentors Matter
• Rose, Bud, Thorn: How to Design an Effective Mentorship Session
• The Perks of Proximity
• The RBG Approach to Disruption
• Against a One-Size-Fits-All Approach
• Curiosity, Lifelong Learning & Openness to Change
• Shakespeare on Snapchat
• The Changing Role of Memory
• Prompting via Socratic Iteration; Tapping into the Why
• How Audrey Became Interested in AI
• Why the College System Restrains K-12 Progress
• Hiring for the Output vs Hiring for the Input
• Audrey as Empress of the World
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness; by Jonathan Haidt
• Paper Belt on Fire: How Renegade Investors Sparked a Revolt Against the University; by Michael Gibson

Matthew Ball is the CEO of Epyllion, which makes angel investments, provides advisory services, and produces television, films, and video games.

He’s also a Venture Partner at Makers Fund, Senior Advisor to KKR, Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, and sits on the board of numerous start-ups.

Matthew is one of the sharpest and most original thinkers on the future of media and the Internet (i.e. The Metaverse). The fully revised and updated edition of his bestselling book "The Metaverse: Building the Spatial Internet" releases next week.

Important Links:

• Matthew’s website
• Matthew’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Into The Metaverse
• AI and The Metaverse
• ‘AI Can Bend the Laws of Physics’
• Human Engineering and the Human Brain
• Screens and Education
• The Reflexivity of AI Doomerism
• The Salvation of the ‘TV Species’
• From Passive Media to Active Media
• ‘What’s An Appropriate Simulation?’
• ‘We Don’t Outlaw Fire, We Train Firemen’
• Applying the Precautionary Principle
• Media and the Metaverse: Three Stages of Competition
• The Enduring Value of Taste
• Hardware and AI: The Vergence-Accommodation Conflict
• The Emperor of the Metaverse
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Metaverse: Building the Spatial Internet; by Matthew Ball
• The Streaming Book; by Matthew Ball
• The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich

Nat Eliason is a writer with a keen interest in writing about challenging and revealing things. His debut book, Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance (out July 9th, 2024), charts his personal odyssey into Crypto’s Get-Rich-Quick underbelly.

Nat joins the show to discuss the highs and lows of the cryptocurrency market, the lessons learned from his financial adventures, the psychological effects of bubbles, crypto’s cutting-edge developments, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Nat’s Website
• Nat’s Twitter
• Nat’s YouTube

Show Notes:

• Making A Lot of Money, As Fast as Possible
• The Peer Pressure of Crypto Markets
• The Psychological Effects of Diamond Hands
• Signs of Peak Speculation
• How Bitcoin Has Carried the Crypto Story
• Ethereum’s Innovations
• The Emergence of Stablecoins
• What Makes USD A Reserve Currency?
• The Crazy Anonymity of Crypto Projects
• The Two Options of Getting Into Crypto
• Imagining the Money Pile
• What Nat Couldn’t Keep in the Book
• Nat’s Next Career as a Novelist
• Nat as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Influence; by Robert Cialdini

Noor Siddiqui is currently building Orchid, a reproductive technology company that measures genetic predisposition to disease and provides embryo screening for couples going through IVF.

Noor joins the show to discuss the ambitious culture of the West Coast, getting into the Thiel Fellowship, her personal reasons for starting Orchid, the sacred act of reproduction and why it must be made safe, her belief in children as the future, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Noor’s Personal Website
• Noor’s Twitter
• Noor’s Linkedin
• Orchid’s Website

Show Notes:

• The Ambitious Culture of San Francisco
• The East Coast Aversion to Risky Ambition
• The Intimate Origin Story of Orchid
• What Orchid Has Built
• The History and Controversy Around Reproductive Technology
• Surprising Aspects of Orchid’s Technology
• Benefits of Saliva Testing
• Making Our Own Genetic Luck
• Noor’s Predictions for the Field
• Advances in Embryonic Freezing
• Why Noor Values Clear Writing
• Noor as Empress of the World
• MORE!

Books/Essays Mentioned:

• What You Can't Say; by Paul Graham
• Secrets (from Zero To One); by Peter Thiel

The Fourth Way is a pseudonymously run Youtube channel and Twitter page dedicated to the path of psychological and spiritual growth and self-improvement. Built around the philosophy of two thinkers - George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky - the ultimate aim of the Fourth Way is “to assist individuals in achieving a higher state of consciousness and self-awareness which can lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful existence.”

Tune in to this week’s episode to learn about the four ways of being; how to befriend your centers; the keys to the universe; and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• The Fourth Way Youtube channel
• The Fourth Way on Twitter

Show Notes:

• Memetic Alchemy
• Introducing The Fourth Way
• The Best Time To Start Is Now
• The Four Ways of Being
• Waking Sleep
• Befriending Your Centers
• Keys To The Universe
• The Law of Octaves
• Indoctrination as Hypnosis
• The Fourth Way Curriculum
• The Search for Mystery
• Don’t Forget To Self-Remember
• Life Is Movement
• A Pitch for The Fourth Way
• Don’t Go With The Flow
• The Fourth…Emperor Of The World

Books Mentioned:

• The Fourth Way; by Peter Ouspensky
• In Search of the Miraculous; by Peter Ouspensky
• Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson; by ****George Gurdjieff
• In Search of Being: The Fourth Way to Consciousness; by George Gurdjieff
• The Struggle of the Magicians; by George Gurdjieff
• Siddhartha; by Herman Hesse
• The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean; by Thoth The Atlantean

Mona Sobhani, Ph.D. is a cognitive neuroscientist, researcher, and author. In 2022 she published her first book, Proof of Spiritual Phenomena: A Neuroscientist's Discovery of the Ineffable Mysteries of the Universe, which documents her “transformation from diehard materialist to open-minded spiritual seeker.”

Mona joins the show to discuss blowing open the box of materialism, why anecdotes are scientifically underrated, what she learned from studying decades of research into psi-phenomena, how quantum science is transforming the way we think about consciousness, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Mona’s Twitter
• Proof of Spiritual Phenomena: A Neuroscientist's Discovery of the Ineffable Mysteries of the Universe; by Mona Sobhani
• Cosmos, Coffee & Consciousness (Mona’s Substack)
• Life Will Be the Death of Me Podcast with Chelsea Handler (Ep. 19): People on the Other Side with Laura Lynne Jackson
• Infinite Potential: The Life & Ideas of David Bohm
• Prophetic AI

Show Notes:

• Mona’s Journey Beyond Materialism
• Anecdotes are Scientifically Underrated; Research Into Psi Phenomena
• How Mona Deals With Her Colleagues’ Skepticism
• The Persuasiveness of Personal Experience
• Psychic Phenomena & the Scientific Method
• Blowing Open the Box of Materialism
• How Quantum Science is Transforming How We Think About Consciousness
• Transcendent Technology
• Psychedelics as a Bridge
• What’s Next for Mona
• Bringing Humanity Back Into Science
• Mona as Empress of the World
• MORE!

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• Proof of Spiritual Phenomena: A Neuroscientist's Discovery of the Ineffable Mysteries of the Universe; by Mona Sobhani
• The Radical Ideas of Psychedelic Research 2.0 (Pt.1; Pt.2); by Mona Sobhani
• Many Lives, Many Masters: The true story of a prominent psychiatrist, his young patient and the past-life therapy that changed both their lives; by Dr. Brian Weiss
• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy; by Michael Polanyi
• The Two Cultures; by C. P. Snow
• The Fabric of Reality: Towards a Theory of Everything; by David Deutsch
• The work of Dean Radin
• The Common Basis of Memory and Consciousness: Understanding the Brain as a Write-Read Head Interacting With an Omnipresent Background Field’ by Joachim Keppler
• How To Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence; by Michael Pollan
• What the Tortoise Said to Achilles; by Lewis Carroll

Described by David Perell as “like Rick Rubin for writing,” Ellen Fishbein is an author and writing coach and the founder of Altamira Studio, an independent publisher specializing in short-form books. She joins the show to discuss how traditional publishing disrespects intelligent readers, her advice for aspiring authors, what she’s learned from Shakespeare’s sonnets, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Altamira Studio
• Writing.coach
• Muse By Mail
• Ellen’s Website
• Ellen’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• The Caves of Altamira
• The New Book Deal
• Using Shakespeare’s Sonnets as a Writing Guide
• The Author’s Compass
• The Storytelling Magic of Herman Hesse
• Zero to One & Writing as Personal Communication
• How Traditional Publishing Disrespects Smart Readers
• How the Legacy Publishing System Results in Regression to the Mean
• AI in the Writing Process
• Cutting Out the Middle Man
• Muse By Mail
• Advice for Aspiring Authors
• Writing Coaching & Working with Big Publishers
• Ellen as Empress of the World
• MORE!

Books, Articles & Films Mentioned:

• The New Book Deal; by Ellen Fishbein
• Future of Publishing: 10 High-Conviction Views; by Ellen Fishbein
• What makes Zero to One a masterpiece; by Ellen Fishbein
• Have you found your “bible”?; by Ellen Fishbein
• ASK ARISTOTLE; by Vishal Sharma and William Jaworski
• MEMES MAKE MILLIONS; by Jason Levin
• SPACEFARING: A contribution to Earth’s archives; by Ellen Fishbein
• The Glass Bead Game; by Hermann Hesse Hesse's
• Demian: The Story of a Boyhood; by Hermann Hesse
• Siddharta; by Hermann Hesse
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future; by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• How to Retire Rich: Time-Tested Strategies to Beat the Market and Retire in Style; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams; Directed by Werner Herzog

Professor, Mathematician and Writer John A. Paulos joins the show to discuss math education, the power of puzzles, cognitive biases, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• John’s Website
• John’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Why Do People Hate Math?
• The Power of Posing Problems with Counterintuitive or Shocking Results
• Using Everyday Examples to Understand Math Concepts
• Systems Designed to Take Advantage of Innumeracy
• People’s Ignorance of Randomness and Random Samples
• The Strange Power of Anchoring Bias
• Tradeoffs between Probability and Plausibility
• The Prisoner’s Dilemma & Math Anxiety
• Improving the Monty Hall Problem
• Designing an Ideal Intro Math Course
• The Big Brother Aspect of Nudging
• John as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Innumeracy - Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences; by J.A. Paulos
• A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market; by J.A. Paulos
• A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper; by J.A. Paulos
• Statistics; by D.A. Freedman, R. Pisani, and R.A. Purves
• Thinking Fast and Slow; by Daniel Kahneman

Chris Wilcha is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and commercial director.

His latest film, Flipside, which is co-executive produced by Jim and presented in association with Infinite Films (among others), opens in select US theaters tomorrow (May 31st, 2024).

An ode to creative failure, abandoned projects, and rekindled passion, Flipside premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival to rave reviews. Here’s the full description:

“When filmmaker Chris Wilcha revisits the record store he worked at as a teenager in New Jersey, he finds the once-thriving bastion of music and weirdness from his youth slowly falling apart and out of touch with the times. FLIPSIDE documents his tragicomic attempt to revive the store while revisiting other documentary projects he has abandoned over the years. In the process, Wilcha captures This American Life icon Ira Glass in the midst of a creative rebirth, discovers the origin story of David Bowie’s ode to a local New Jersey cable television hero, and uncovers the unlikely connection between jazz photographer Herman Leonard and TV writer David Milch. This disparate collection of stories coheres into something strange and expansive—a moving meditation on music, work, and the sacrifices and satisfaction of trying to live a creative life.”

Important Links:

• Flipside; a film by Chris Wilcha
• 32 Sounds; a film by Sam Green

Show Notes:

• An Ode to Abandoned Projects
• How Flipside Got Made
• When Filmmaking Gets Personal
• Taking the Big Swings
• Bringing the Film to Life in the Editing Room
• "Life can only be understood backwards, but we must live it forwards”
• Meeting Uncle Floyd
• Working With Judd Apatow & the Coen Brothers; Balancing Art & Commerce
• Stylistic Choices & Following Your Obsession
• How Jim Got Into Music
• The Changing Landscape of Documentary Filmmaking
• How the Creative Industries Compare to Wall Street
• Chris’ Favourite Unmade Documentaries
• Chris as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

“PHETASY IS a movement disguised as a company. We just want to make you laugh while the world burns.”

Bridget Phetasy is an entrepreneur, writer, podcast host, political commentator, burgeoning media mogul, and standup comedian. Over the past few years, her media company - Phetasy - has become an outlet for 100s of hours of social commentary filtered through her sharp and spiky worldview.

She joins the show to discuss the comedic temperature in America today; the role of comedy in contemporary society; humour as a weapon; and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Bridget’s Twitter
• The ‘Beyond Parody with Bridget Phetasy’ newsletter
• Bridget’s Youtube channel
• Bridget’s website

Show Notes:

• Comedy as Dissidence
• Post-Trump Comedy
• America’s Comedic Temperature
• A Tipping Point For Comedy
• Does The Rubber Band Snap Back?
• The Atomization of Culture
• The Coddling of the American Mind
• Fighting Political Peer Pressure
• The Anti-fragility of Normie-ville
• “Capitalism Always Wins”
• The Pendulum Swings
• The Cyclical Nature of Moral Panic
• Luxury Beliefs
• Humor as a Weapon
• The Societal Utility of Comedy
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art; by Lewis Hyde
• Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It; by Thomas de Zengotita
• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community; By Robert D. Putnam

Porter Braswell is the Founder and CEO of 2045 Studio, an exclusive network for accomplished professionals of color.

Porter is also the Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the career advancement platform Jopwell, the host of the Harvard Business Review podcast Race at Work, and the author of two books, including 2019’s Let Them See You.

Porter joins the show to discuss how 2045 Studio is harnessing community to empower professionals of color to succeed, how to establish trust within a community, what he learned from Magic Johnson’s mentorship, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• 2045 Studio
• Porter’s LinkedIn
• Porter’s Twitter
• Porter’s Instagram
• Race at Work podcast
• O'Shaughnessy Ventures Invests in 2045 Studio

Show Notes:

• The Significance of 2045
• Bridging the Inclusion Gap
• Networks, Community & the Clubhouse
• The Opportunity To Be in the Majority
• Building the Right Kind of Partnerships
• The Importance of Human Capital
• Socratic Problem-Solving
• How to Establish Trust Within a Community
• The 2045 Approach to Networking
• Councils & Relationship-Building
• Surprising Lessons From Foundership
• Leveraging the Community
• Magic Johnson’s Mentorship & the Advantages of the Athletic Mentality
• Why Porter Writes
• “Wouldn't it be so cool if I could always feel like I belong?”
• 2045’s Long-Term Vision
• Porter as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Let Them See You: The Guide for Leveraging Your Diversity at Work; by Porter Braswell
• Yes, You Can: The Secrets Revealed for How to Get into and Succeed at America's Top Universities and Colleges; by Porter Braswell
• The Intelligent Investor; by Benjamin Graham

Grant Mitchell is a seasoned entrepreneur, operator, and investor in the areas of health, technology, and machine learning. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Every Cure, where he uses AI to research rare diseases and conduct drug repurposing.

Grant joins the show to discuss the use of AI in rare drug research, the role of translational scientists, neglected knowledge, and MUCH MORE!

Important Links:

• Every Cure Website
• Dr. Grant’s Twitter
• Dr. Grant’s LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• The Organizational Problem in Pharma
• The Power of Biomedical Knowledge Graphs
• The Traditional Pharma Approach to Drug R&D
• Risks in the World of AI-driven Drug Discovery
• The Limits of AI for Medical Use
• Biology’s ‘Ignorome’
• The Role of Translators
• Every Cure’s Typical Supporters
• Neglected Latent Knowledge
• Grant as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books/Essays Mentioned:

• The AI Revolution; by Tim Urban (Wait But Why)
• Ikigai - The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life; by Héctor García & Francesc Miralles

Author and friend-of-the-show Jimmy Soni returns to discuss the future of publishing, the changing world of book marketing, the courage of creative risk, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Jimmy’s website
• Jimmy’s Twitter
• The Great Reshuffle

Show Notes:

• Why Traditional Publishing is in Stasis
• A Case of Broken Incentives
• The Changing World of Book Marketing & the Case for Patience
• Talent Spotting & Creative Risk
• The Challenge of Self-Publishing
• Experiment, Experiment, Experiment
• Taylor Swift, Michael Jordan, and the Courage of Trying Something New
• Don’t Be Trapped by the Opinions of Others
• Jimmy as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Founders; by Jimmy Soni
• A Mind at Play; by Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Invest Like The Best; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• How To Retire Rich; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Atomic Habits; by James Clear
• Psychology of Money; by Morgan Housel
• The Obstacle is the Way; by Ryan Holiday
• Trust Me, I'm Lying; by Ryan Holiday
• The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; by Daniel James Brown
• You Are a Badass; by Jen Sincero
• 11/22/63; by Stephen King

Arjun Khemani is a 17-year-old writer and podcaster who dropped out of high school to help lead support at Airchat, the social network co-founded by Naval Ravikant.

As the host of the Arjun Khemani podcast, Arjun has spoken to a wide range of guests including David Deutsch, David Perell and Naval Ravikant. His Substack, Progress Good, “serves as a defense against the anti-Enlightenment tradition, exploring progress, rationality, and optimism.”

Arjun joins the show to discuss why education should be voluntary, the moral case for selfishness, the pessimism of ultimacy and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Arjun’s Twitter
• Progress Good (Arjun’s Substack)

Show Notes:

• The Myth of the Good Old Days
• The Citadel of Science
• Generational Warfare
• Why Education Should Be Voluntary
• Misunderstanding Money
• Escaping the Altruism Trap: the Case for Selfishness
• Coercion & Moral Righteousness
• The Pessimism of Ultimacy
• The Hunt for Better Problems
• Arjun’s Leap Into the Unknown
• Reimagining Education
• What’s Next?
• Arjun as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• One Summer: America 1927; by Bill Bryson
• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
• The Road to Serfdom; by Friedrich Hayek
• The Lessons of History; by Will & Ariel Durant
• Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour; by David R. Hawkins
• Deschooling Society; by Ivan Illich

Eddy Elfenbein is an OG finance blogger, ETF manager, and FinTwit legend, with over 25 years of experience working in and around Wall Street.

Eddy joins the show to discuss the story behind his longtime blog - Crossing Wall Street (CWS), the origins of his famous Buy List, his ETF journey, his philosophy as an investor, and much more!

Important Links:

• Eddy’s Twitter
• Eddy’s Blog (Crossing Wall Street)
• Eddy’s Substack
• The Myth of 1926

Show Notes:

• Origins of a Wall Street Blogger
• Bypassing the Gatekeepers
• Eddy’s Buy List
• Many Paths to Stock Market Success
• The Last Sustainable Edge in Public Markets
• The Great Truths of Investing
• Stocks Don’t Know You Own Them
• The Market and the Casino
• Debating Academic Finance
• Major League Buy List
• Down with Perma-Bears
• Unpacking ETFs
• The Next Avatar of Market Intelligence
• The Moat of the Stock Picker
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• THE MISBEHAVIOR OF MARKETS: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence; by Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L Hudson
• Stocks for the Long Run; by Jeremy Siegel
• The Myth of 1926: How Much Do We Know About Long-Term Returns on U.S. Stocks?; by Edward F. McQuarrie
• Fama and French Three Factor Model Definition: Formula and Interpretation (Investopedia)

Friend-of-the-show Anna Gát returns to discuss… well… pretty much everything!

On April 13th, O’Shaughnessy Ventures and Interintellect are co-hosting a Future of Publishing event at the beautiful Pratt Mansion in NYC.

We’re bringing together established publishers, online writers, new publishing houses, journalists, technologists, authors and more to rethink and reimagine how ideas are spread in our changing world. Confirmed speakers include Coleman Hughes, Tara Isabella Burton, Tamara Winter, Sahil Lavingia and many more!

Here’s the best part - we want YOU to be there! To buy in-person tickets and for more information on live-streaming, scheduling, speakers, and more, just follow this link.

We hope to see you there!

Important Links:

• Interintellect
• Anna’s Twitter
• Anna’s Website
• Interintellect Substack

Show Notes:

• The Shock of Losing a Parent
• Interintellect & the Post-Tribe Internet
• How to Facilitate Better Conversations
• Surprising Salons
• Faker Spotting & the Temptations of Power
• Avoiding Audience Capture
• The Humanness of Casablanca
• Greatness, Co-Creation & Doing the Work
• Misconceptions About Leadership
• The Personality of Language
• What’s Next for Anna
• Cities as Ideas
• Anna as Empress of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity; by David Graeber and Wengrow
• Adventures of a Bystander; by Peter Drucker
• Mating; by Norman Rush
• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York; by Robert A. Caro
• Power vs. Force; by David R. Hawkins
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics; by Stanislas Dehaene
• Embers; by Sándor Márai
• The Hunger Games; by Suzanne Collins

The inimitable Visakan Veerasamy returns for a characteristically wide-ranging discussion…

Important Links:

• Visa's Website
• Visa's Twitter 
• Visa's Youtube
• Visa’s Previous Episode
• Visa’s Post-Episode Thread

Show Notes:

• Life as a Dad
• A Conversation With David Deutsch
• Change, Courage, Curiosity & Creativity
• Possibility Space & the Problem of Wretchedness
• A Good Blog Post Can Change the World
• The Outdated Language of Counterculture
• Colliding Our Reality Tunnels
• Imperfection Breeds Creativity
• We Are Co-Creators
• Status Quo Soldiers
• The Power of Noticing
• Visa as Emperor of the World
• MUCH more!

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• Friendly Ambitious Nerd; by Visakan Veerasamy
• Introspect; by Visakan Veerasamy
• status quo soldiers lose in the long run; by Visakan Veerasamy
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Thinker and The Prover; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Leonardo Da Vinci; by Walter Isaacson
• Ninety-five Theses; by Martin Luther
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; by Lewis Carroll
• The News: A User’s Manual; by Alain de Botton
• Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man; by Marshall McLuhan
• Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behaviour; by David R. Hawkins
• How I Accidentally Started The Sixties; by Howard Bloom
• One Summer: America 1927; by Bill Bryson

Brendan McCord is the founder of Cosmos Institute — a non-profit dedicated to exploring the intersection of AI and philosophy.

Brendan joins the show to discuss Cosmos’ origins, the pursuit of philosophy as a technologist, the different schools of thought in AI, complex adaptive systems and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Brendan McCord’s Reading List
• Cosmos Institute Substack
• Brendan’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• The Genesis of the Cosmos Institute
• Philosophy as a Quixotic Pursuit
• The Man of the System Dilemma
• Existential Risk & Scenario Agnosticism
• The AI Schools of Thought
• The Religious Nature of the E/Acc Movement
• What Tocqueville Can Teach Us About AI
• The Philosophy-to-Code Pipeline
• “Cars ignited the Sexual Revolution” and Other Unexpected Occurrences
• The Best Systems are Adaptive
• Heterogeneity & Resilient Systems
• Open Source and the US-China Situation
• Automation, Augmentation & Open-Ended Generation
• The Underrated Nuance of Russian Realism
• Cinematic Visions of the Future
• Great Talent & the Risk of the Tasmanian Devil
• Brendan as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Murray Rothbard, “For A New Liberty”
• David R. Hawkins, “Power vs. Force”
• Jung Chang, “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China”
• Jung Chang, “Mao: The Unknown Story”
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “The Gulag Archipelago”
• Arthur Koestler, “Darkness At Noon”
• Adam Smith, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”
• Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
• Lewis Carroll, “What the Tortoise Said To Achilles”
• Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”
• Marc Andreessen, “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto”
• Alexis De Tocqueville, “Democracy in America”
• 'Pericles's Funeral Oration' quoted in Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War”.
• Plato, “Theaetetus”
• Plato, “The Republic”
• Nietzsche, “The Gay Science”
• C.P Snow, “The Two Cultures”
• Elinor Ostrom, “Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action”
• James M. Buchanan, "Freedom in Constitutional Contract: Perspectives of a Political Economist”
• Iain M. Banks, “Consider Phlebas” (Culture Series #1)
• Chen Qiufan and Kai-Fu Lee, “AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future”
• Christopher Buckley, “Thank You for Smoking”
• John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”

Alex Komoroske has spent his career studying, writing about, and working in complex adaptive systems. He has published multiple essays on topics like Schelling points in organizations, why debate should be collaborative, and how to ensure resilient growth in harsh environments. Alex has also worked as a product manager and in corporate strategy at Google and Stripe.

Alex joins the show to discuss how to escape busyness, why heroism is overrated, the different types of magic, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Alex’s Website
• Alex’s Twitter
• Alex’s LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• The Parable of the Builder & the Gardener
• Against Heroism
• Noise is Good
• Complex Adaptivity All the Way Down
• Information Flow, Context Switching and Luck Surface-Area
• Escaping Busyness
• Paradigm Shifts & the Importance of Uncertainty
• The Self-Transcending Mindset
• The Power of Compression & The Virility of Memes
• Order From Chaos
• The Iterative Adjacent Possible
• Saruman & Radagast Magic
• The Illusion of Certainty
• Alex as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• The Magic of Acorns; by Alex Komoroske
• The Sarumans and The Radagasts; by Alex Komoroske
• The Iterative Adjacent Possible; by Alex Komoroske
• Crossing the Bridge of Nihilism; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Adult Development Primer; by Dimitri Glazkov
• The Mower against Gardens; by Andrew Marvell
• Being There; by Jerzy Kosinski
• Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment; by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony & Cass R. Sunstein
• Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century; by Howard Bloom
• Zorba the Greek; by Nikos Kazantzakis
• Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny; by Robert Wright
• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction; by Christopher Alexander

Cedric Chin is a writer, researcher and operator whose Commoncog newsletter is dedicated to finding useful, practical ways to accelerate business expertise. He joins us to discuss some of the most potentially transformative concepts he’s uncovered, from the business expertise triad to naturalistic decision making.

Important Links:

• Cedric’s Website (Commoncog)
• Are You Ready for the Great Reshuffle?
• The Naturalistic Decision Making Podcast
• Wisdom Unleashed

Show Notes:

• Commoncog’s Rabbit-Holing Origins
• The Business Expertise Triad
• Quality Engineering & Process Control
• The Effectiveness of Naturalistic Decision Making
• Expectancy, Intuition & Investing
• How to Stay Open-Minded
• Trial & Error, Knowledge Shields & the Power of Reading
• Protocols & Pattern-Matching
• Cedric as Emperor of the World
• MUCH more!

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• The Tricky Thing About Creating Training Programs; by Cedric Chin
• The Business Expertise Series; by Cedric Chin
• The Oxford Handbook of Expertise; edited by Paul Ward, Jaan Maarten Schraagen, Julie Gore and Emile Roth
• Accelerated Expertise; by Robert R. Hoffman, Paul Ward, Paul J. Feltovich, Lia DiBello, Stephen M. Fiore and Dee H. Andrews
• The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success; by Will Thorndike
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon; by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
• Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos; by Donald Wheeler
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Hound of the Baskervilles; by Arthur Conan Doyle
• What Works on Wall Street: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy

Devon Eriksen always wanted to be a writer. As a child, he was persuaded to abandon his aspirations in favor of a career in software engineering. Two decades later, he retired to finally fulfil his ambition to write imaginative hard-science fiction in the vein of authors like Asimov, Heinlein and Niven. He self-published his first novel, Theft of Fire, last year to an excellent reception.

Devon joins the show to discuss why his book incorporates alien technology, the role of patronage in the digital era, his unusual approach to obtaining feedback, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Theft of Fire; by Devon Eriksen
• Devon’s Website
• Devon’s Twitter
• Introducing: The Life of David Rhoiney

Show Notes:

• Centralization & Institutional Corruption
• The Evolving Nature of Resource Constraints
• Why Theft of Fire Features Alien Technology
• The Musk Dynasty
• Architects vs Gardeners
• Editing, Feedback & Beta-Readers
• Audience Capture & Disagreeableness
• “Money is a measure of fu*ks given”
• Patronage & Intellectual Property in the Digital Era
• Permissionless Writing
• How to Become a High-Agency Character
• Devon as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• Theft of Fire; by Devon Eriksen
• The Ultimate Resource; by Julian Simon
• The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress; by Robert A. Heinlein
• The Population Bomb; by Paul R. Ehrlich
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; by Robert M. Pirsig
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr

Jacqueline Novogratz is the founder of Acumen, a nonprofit impact investment fund “changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders and ideas.”

As well as founding Acumen in 2001, Jacqueline is a public speaker and best-selling author. She also sits on multiple philanthropic boards. Her latest book Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, “reveals 12 leadership practices for anyone eager to build a better world.”

Jacqueline joins us to discuss how to create a high-trust society, the difference between moral righteousness and moral leadership, why the opposite of poverty is dignity, and MUCH more.

Important Links:

• Acumen’s Website
• Acumen Academy
• Jacqueline’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Acumen’s Origins
• A People-First Theory of Change
• Emerging Entrepreneurship in Africa
• Social Return on Investment and the Rise of Microfinance
• How to Create a High Trust Society
• The Blue Sweater
• The Path to Moral Leadership
• Defining Win-Win
• Solar Lights, the Adjacent Possible and the Rejection of Cynicism
• What Jacqueline is Most Excited For
• Jacqueline as Empress of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World; by Jacqueline Novogratz
• Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World; by Jacqueline Novogratz

Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of 9 books and over 100 scientific papers. A critic of what he sees as the scientific establishment’s dogmatic dedication to materialism, he is perhaps best known for his theory of “morphic resonance,” via which information and activity can be transferred across space and time. Rupert joins the show to discuss being branded a heretic, how to test for telepathy, his advice for young scientists, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Rupert’s Website
• Rupert’s Banned TED Talk
• The Science Delusion; by Rupert Sheldrake
• A New Science of Life; by Rupert Sheldrake
• Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals; by Rupert Sheldrake
• Is The Sun Conscious?; by Rupert Sheldrake (Journal of Consciousness Studies)

Show Notes:

• The Apostate of Scientism
• The Origins of Scientism
• How to Achieve a Phase Change in the Sciences
• Testing for Telepathy & Incentivizing Intuition
• Structural Resistance to Panpsychism
• When Science Gets Personal
• Loosening the Grip of Determinism
• Advice for Young Scientists
• Rupert as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• The Science Delusion; by Rupert Sheldrake
• New Science of Life; by Rupert Sheldrake
• Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals; by Rupert Sheldrake
• Is The Sun Conscious?; by Rupert Sheldrake
• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters; by Steven Pinker
• The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature; by Steven Pinker
• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures; by Merlin Sheldrake
• The End of Faith; by Sam Harris
• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• What the Tortoise Said to Achilles; by Lewis Carroll
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; by Robert M. Pirsig
• The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward; by Benoit B. Mandelbrot & Richard L. Hudson
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; by Thomas Kuhn

Friend-of-the-show Rob Henderson returns to discuss his powerful, moving and important debut book, Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class (published TODAY). We discuss Rob’s experience of the American foster care and adoption system, the life-changing impact of the military, the rise of Luxury Beliefs, the benefits of standardized testing, and MUCH more.

Important Links:

• Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class (Amazon)
• The SAT is a pathway to more college diversity, not less; by Rob Henderson (The Boston Globe)
• Rob Henderson: Lessons I Learned the Hard Way; by Rob Henderson (The Free Press)
• Rob’s Substack
• Rob’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Foster Care, Adoption & Social Mobility
• Structural Origins of the Foster System
• Why Early-Life Stability is Underrated
• How Ideas Can Change Outcomes
• The Life-Changing Impact of the Military
• Young Male Syndrome
• The Role of Intelligence in Governing Outcomes
• The Benefits of Standardized Testing
• Yale, Luxury Beliefs & the Rise of Identity Politics
• Are Luxury Beliefs a Political or Class Phenomenon?
• Trickle-Down Meritocracy
• Technology, Assortive Mating & Social Mobility
• Is the Overton Window Shifting on Campus?
• Rob as Emperor of the World

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class; by Rob Henderson
• The SAT is a pathway to more college diversity, not less; by Rob Henderson (The Boston Globe)
• Rob Henderson: Lessons I Learned the Hard Way; by Rob Henderson (The Free Press)
• Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society; by Nicholas A. Christakis
• Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010; by Charles Murray
• Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World, by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross
• A Suitable Boy; by Vikram Seth
• The Son Also Rises; by Gregory Clark

Alec Stapp is the co-founder of the Institute for Progress, a non-partisan innovation policy think tank aiming to “accelerate scientific, technological and industrial progress while safeguarding humanity’s future.” He joins the show to discuss how to achieve change in the age of lobbying, why bipartisanship is underrated, why US immigration policy is so slow-moving and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• IFP’s Website
• Alec’s Twitter
• IFP’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Reimagining the Think Tank
• Progress is a Policy Choice
• Bipartisanship is Underrated
• Achieving Progress via Reframing
• Achieving Change in the Age of Lobbying
• Moonshot Projects and Incremental Change
• Ways to Enact Change Within Existing Institutions
• Governmental Embrace of Technology
• Reducing NIMBYism
• The Barbell Approach to Policy
• The Washington Mindset
• Reasons to be Optimistic
• Lessons From Other Countries
• Why Hasn’t Immigration Policy Changed?
• Alec as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better; by Jen Pahlka
• The Proceduralist Fetish; by Nicholas Bagley
• The housing theory of everything; by Sam Bowman, John Myers & Ben Southwood

• Strange Loop Canon (Rohit’s Substack)
• Building God: Demystifying AI for Decision Makers
• Rohit’s Twitter

• Demystifying AI
• AI as a Fuzzy Processor
• Complexity & Determinism
• The Flash Crash Scenario
• Regulating AI
• Open Source, Closed Source & Big Brother
• Carving Through Bureaucracy
• Socially Adapting to AI Disruption
• The Centaur Model
• Integrated Information Theory & Consciousness
• Big Tech in the AI Era
• Are We Running Out of Data?
• Rohit as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• Building God: Demystifying AI for Decision Makers; by Rohit Krishnan

• Infinite Loops Substack

• Episode One: Tequila With Ramp Capital
• Taking Inspiration From My Dinner With Andre
• Would the Show Be Different if Monetized?
• “I would be doing this if I wasn’t pressing publish”
• Jim’s Definition of a Successful Episode
• Nerves & Jim’s Appearance on Oprah
• Infinite Loops as a Serendipity Engine
• The Infinite Loops Team
• Jim’s Dream Guests
• Controversiality & Being Distinctive
• Jim’s Relationship With His Grandchildren
• We Are Winners of the Cosmic Lottery
• Why Aren’t There More History-Focused Episodes?
• The Jim O’Shaughnessy Guide to Productivity: Silence, Journalling & Keeping Things Simple
• Advice to Parents
• What Has Jim Changed His Mind On in the Last 12 to 24 Months?
• Advice to Young People Who Doubt the American Dream
• When Will We See An Updated What Works on Wall Street?
• What Would a World of Abundance Look Like?
• Jim’s Favorite Poem
• Jim as EVIL Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• Ramp Capital and Super Mugatu (Ep.01)
• Brian Muraresku (Ep. 57)
• David Rhoiney (Ep. 99)
• Will Storr (Ep. 122)
• Alex Danco (latest episode) (Ep. 156)
• Brian Roemmele (latest episode) (Ep. 168)
• Julie Fredrickson (Ep. 181)
• Ben Westhoff (Ep. 189)
• Guy Spier (Ep. 197)

• The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name; by ****Brian Muraresku
• How to Retire Rich: Time-Tested Strategies to Beat the Market and Retire in Style; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Invest Like the Best: Using Your Computer to Unlock the Secrets of the Top Money Managers; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• What Works on Wall Street: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
• Fentanyl, Inc.: how rogue chemists are creating the deadliest wave of the opioid epidemic; by Ben Westhoff
• One Summer: America 1927; by Bill Bryson
• To His Coy Mistress; by Andrew Marvell
• The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock; by T. S. Eliot

• Plymouth Street
• Lisa’s LinkedIn
• Lisa’s Twitter
• Minn’s LinkedIn
• Minn’s Twitter

• The Origins of Plymouth Street
• Problems With the Current US Immigration System
• Expanding Access to the O-1 Visa
• High-Skilled Immigration as a Bipartisan Issue
• The Importance of Storytelling
• From Anecdotal to Empirical; Coalition Building
• Injecting Agency Into the Immigration Process
• Scaling with Technology
• The Emotional Toll of the Immigration System
• Building the Right Team & Breaking Bad News
• Dealing With Negative Externalities
• Is America Open for Business?
• Augmenting Plymouth’s Offering
• Remote Work vs In-Person
• What’s Next?
• Lisa & Minn as Emperors of the World

• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner

• re:collect’s Website
• Alice’s Twitter
• Alice’s LinkedIn
• How to Improve Your Creative Thinking

• Augmenting Human Creativity
• Collection Does Not Always Lead to Recollection
• Using re:collect to Connect Information
• How to Increase Your Creativity
• Different Phases of Creativity
• How AI Fits Into the Picture
• Harnessing Our Attention
• AGI & ASI
• Boosting Evolution
• re:collect’s First Order Effects
• Nothing is True
• Convergence, Divergence & Collective Intelligence
• re:collect in Seven Years’ Time
• From Academia to Entrepreneurship
• Alice as Empress of the World
• MORE!

• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Fabric of Reality: Towards a Theory of Everything; by David Deutsch
• The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich

• Guy’s Website
• Guy’s Twitter
• Guy’s YouTube Channel
• 3Blue1Brown (YouTube Channel)
• Numberphile (YouTube Channel)

• The Differences Between New York, Switzerland & Paris
• Exploring the Dark Underbelly of New York Nightlife
• Psychedelics, Guns & Regulation
• The Advantages of Swiss Democracy
• Don’t Short the United States
• The Branding Skill of the Royal Family
• Unlocking the Rules of the Class System
• Life Paths & Premeditation
• Luck, Opportunity & Non-Canonical Science
• Jim’s Music Taste
• Mathematical Shenanigans
• Guy as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence; by Michael Pollan
• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner
• Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want and Getting It; by Henriette Anne Klauser
• Invest Like The Best; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Outside, the Sky is Blue: The story of a family told with searing honesty, humour and love; by Christina Patterson

• No Worries: How To Live a Stress-Free Financial Life
• Jared’s Website
• Jared’s Twitter
• Daily Dirtnap
• We’re Gonna Get Those Bastards
• Jared Dillian Money

• From Coast Guard, to Wall Street, to Writer
• “I am not in the money business—I am in the happy business”
• The Awesome Portfolio
• Stop Worrying About Small Financial Decisions
• The Biggest Financial Decisions You Will Ever Make
• Keep Your Finances Separate From Your Partner; Never Loan Friends or Family Money
• To Make Money, You Have to Want Money
• Generational Attitudes to Money
• Being Wealthy vs Being Rich
• Blowing Up Your Identity
• Improving Financial Education
• Why Investing Should Be Hard
• The Hidden Costs of Being Cheap
• Why People Are Scared of Entrepreneurship
• The Worst Financial Decision Jared Has Ever Made
• Jared as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• No Worries: How To Live a Stress-free Financial Life; by Jared Dillian
• Those Bastards: 69 Essays on Life, Creativity, and Meaning; by Jared Dillian
• All The Evil of This World; by Jared Dillian
• Street Freak: Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers; by Jared Dillian
• Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!; by Robert T. Kiyosaki
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; by Stephen R. Covey

Writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and master of mental models, George Mack, returns to discuss the top 0.1% of ideas he’s ever come across, from treating life as a video game to spotting high-agency individuals. Important Links:

• George’s Twitter
• The Lindy Library
• Roy: A Life Well Lived (Rick and Morty)
• How to Spot High Agency People
• The Mack Meditation
• What is ignored by the media — but will be studied by historians?
• The Early-Late Razor

Show Notes:

• Treating Life as a Video Game
• Finding the Important Metrics
• Embrace Momentum; Embrace Constraints
• How to Spot High Agency People
• How to Increase Your Agency
• The Mack Meditation & Silence as Alpha
• Why Pessimism vs Optimism is the Wrong Debate
• The Future of Media
• What is Ignored by the Media but will be Studied by Historians?
• The Reddit to Facebook Continuum
• George’s Most Midwit Opinion
• Randomness & Feeding the Algorithm
• How to Retain Curiosity
• George as Emperor of the World

Books Mentioned:

• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner
• Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Secret; by Rhonda Byrne
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World; by David Deutsch

• Website
• Twitter
• Fund
• Scribe Media
• Money 20/20 Talk
• The Thinker and The Prover
• Jimmy Soni & Liberty RPF — Unleashing the Future of Publishing

• A Guide to Creator Economics
• The Death of the Marketing Department
• Creator x Business Partnerships
• Why Some People Are So Reluctant to Embrace the New Playbook
• How to Become More Open-Minded
• The Anthology of Balaji & the Curation-Author Effect
• How to Cultivate Good Taste & the Rise of Curation
• What Balaji Taught Eric About Technology
• How Eric Became CEO of Scribe
• Why Does Big Publishing Continue to Hold So Much Influence?
• Helping the World Make Great Books
• The Future of Books
• Eric as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness; by Eric Jorgenson
• The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future; by Eric Jorgenson
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Invest Like the Best; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch

• rpv’s Website
• rpv’s Substack
• Arkady’s LinkedIn
• Arkady’s Twitter

• Judging Investments by Their Technology Readiness Level
• Bringing Scientific Expertise Into Venture Capital
• Scorecards & Dealbreakers: How rpv Analyzes a Deep Tech Opportunity
• Spotting the Early Red Flags
• How rpv Deploys Scientific Due Diligence
• Providing Feedback & Educating the Industry
• Self-Censorship, Ideology & the Scientific Method
• Why Don’t More Scientists Become Entrepreneurs?
• The Ideal Composition of a Deep Tech Founding Team
• Science’s Ultimate Goal
• Taking Progress for Granted
• The Two Types of Human Motivation
• How Neurotech Can Benefit Humanity
• Why Arkady is Less Bullish on Quantum Computing
• Incoming Deep Tech Developments
• MORE!

• Survive & Thrive: Entrepreneurship Frameworks That Work; by Paul Kewene-Hite
• The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves; by W. Brian Arthur
• One Summer: America 1927; by Bill Bryson

• Alex’s Twitter
• Founder’s Journal
• Morning Brew
• The Great Reshuffle
• Will Storr on Infinite Loops
• The Best Stuff | Conscious Leadership Group

• The Rise of Morning Brew
• Finding Morning Brew’s Voice
• Finding the Writing Unicorn
• Writing Nature vs. Writing Nurture
• Corporate Speak vs. Online Speak
• The Power of Self-Awareness
• Interviews & Talent Spotting
• Ideating, Doing & Premeditating
• Following the Intrinsics
• Finding Your Zone of Genius
• Building Storyarb
• Alex as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• What Works on Wall Street, Fourth Edition: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters; by Joseph Sugarman
• The Tao Te Ching; by Laozi
• The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success; by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman & Kaley Klemp
• The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How To Tell Them Better; by Will Storr
• Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind; by Andy Dunn

Tim Beiko, who runs the core protocol meetings for Ethereum, teams up with writer and consultant Venkatesh Rao to discuss their “Summer of Protocols” research program. This initiative brought together 33 researchers with a wide range of expertise to investigate protocols across several domains. Join us for an in-depth exploration of protocols: understanding what they are, their importance, why they can go wrong, and much more! Important Links:

• Summer of Protocols
• Protocolized Newsletter
• Venkatesh’s previous episode
• Venkatesh's Website
• Ribbonfarm
• Venkatesh's Substack
• Venkatesh's Twitter
• Tim’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Why We Should Care About Protocols
• Protocols, Narratives & World-Building
• The Three Preconditions of a Protocol
• "Civilization progresses by increasing the number of actions we can do without thinking about them.”
• When Protocols Go Wrong
• More Protocols = Less Agency?
• Workplace Safety & Protocol Complexity
• How to Build Good Protocols; Building Protocol Literacy
• Why Aren’t More People Talking About Protocols?
• How to Encourage Protocols-First Thinking
• Protocols Have Long Timelines
• Protocols in Fiction
• Protocol Hunting In Silico
• Determinism, Open Environments & Evolution
• How to Hack Protocols
• Agility Isn’t Always the Answer
• Memory: The Most Valuable Asset in a Civilization
• Next Steps & How to Learn More
• MORE!

Books & Essays Mentioned:

• The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates; by Howard Bloom
• Hope Runners of Gridlock; by Simon de la Rouviere
• High Rise; by J.G Ballard
• The Drowned World; by J.G Ballard
• The Drought; by J.G Ballard
• A Burglar's Guide to the City; by Geoff Manaugh
• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering; by Frederick Brooks
• In the Beginning Was the Command Line; by Neal Stephenson
• Slow Ideas; by Atul Gawande
• Nakatomi Space; by Geoff Manaugh
• Base Layers And Functional Escape Velocity; by Vitalik Buterin

• Will’s YouTube Channel
• Will’s Twitter
• Eight Books That Changed My Life
• Rick and Morty – Finding Meaning in Life
• David Foster Wallace – The Problem With Irony
• The Attention Economy – How They Addict Us
• Every Story Is The Same
• The Happiness Trilogy:
• Part 1: What is Happiness?
• Part 2: The Foundations of Happiness
• Part 3: The Secret to Happier
• The moral roots of liberals and conservatives; Jonathan Haidt
• The Thinker and The Prover

• Short-Form vs Long-Form Videos
• The Righteous Mind
• The Internet as Liberator; the Rise of Curation
• Pushback & Pop Culture
• YouTube & the Rise of the TikTok Style
• Navigating the Attention Economy
• The Future of the Creator Economy
• Will’s Hero’s Journey
• Finding Deep Happiness
• Compression, Genetics & Environment
• Education vs. Entertainment
• The Free Energy Principle
• Filter Failure
• Will as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion; by Jonathan Haidt
• One Summer: America 1927; by Bill Bryson
• Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business; by Neil Postman
• The Shallows: How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember; by Nicholas Carr
• Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown
• Happiness: A Very Short Introduction; by Daniel M. Haybron
• The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being; by Daniel M. Haybron
• All The Light We Cannot See; by Anthony Doerr
• How To Change Your Mind; by Michael Pollan

Ben Westhoff is a best-selling investigative journalist focusing on culture, drugs, and poverty. Ben’s book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic was the culmination of a four-year investigation into the worst drug crisis in American history, an investigation that included Ben making an undercover visit to Chinese drug factories. His latest book, Little Brother: Love, Tragedy, and My Search for Truth tells the story of Ben’s search for his little brother’s killer. Ben is currently working on a documentary, Antagonist, about naltrexone, an opioid treatment medicine that some have called a “wonder drug.” Ben joins the show to discuss the failure of the War on Drugs, the role played by Big Pharma, how he speaks to his children about drugs, what most Americans misunderstand about poverty, and MUCH more. Important Links:

• Ben’s Website
• Drugs + Hip-Hop Newsletter
• Antagonist Documentary Teaser

Show Notes:

• The Worst Drug Crisis in World History
• How China and Fentanyl Are Connected
• Why Can’t the USA Stop This?
• The Failure of the War on Drugs; Better Solutions
• Vivitrol: a Wonder Drug?
• Finding Better Ways to Care For the Vulnerable
• Free Markets & Big Pharma
• How Ben Speaks to His Children About Drugs
• Innovation & Stigmatization
• How Harm Reduction Can Help
• What Has Happened to San Francisco?
• Could Decriminalization Work?
• Ben’s Hunt For His Little Brother’s Killer
• What Most Americans Misunderstand About Poverty; How Listeners Can Help
• How Ben’s Documentary Can Help
• Ben as Emperor Of The World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic; by Ben Westhoff
• Little Brother: Love, Tragedy, and My Search for Truth; by Ben Westhoff
• Original Gangstas: Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and the Birth of West Coast Rap; by Ben Westhoff
• Thank You For Smoking; by Christopher Buckley

• Roon’s Twitter
• Roon’s Substack
• AGI Futures

• Shape Rotators Vs. Wordcels
• Why AGI is Possible
• AI in Science Fiction
• AGI Future #1: Neuralink Third Impact
• AGI Future #2: Simulation Theory
• AGI Future #3: Dumb Matter
• AGI Future #4: Balrog Awakened
• AGI Future #5: Ultra Kessler Syndrome
• AGI Future #6: The Tragedy of Taiwan
• AGI Future #7: For Dust Thou Art
• AGI Future #8: CEV Super Intelligence
• Why Tenet is Christopher Nolan’s Best Movie
• Roon as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History; by Howard Bloom
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates; by Howard Bloom
• William Blake vs the World; by John Higgs
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams

• Default Wisdom
• Why You’re Never Leaving Twitter; by Katherine Dee
• Everything I Know About Elite America I Learned From ‘Fresh Prince’ and ‘West Wing’; by Rob Henderson

• Origin Story
• Why You’re Never Leaving Twitter
• Art & Journalism in the Attention Economy
• Class, Wealth & Status
• How to Heal Our Attention Span
• Escaping the Nostalgia Trap
• Technology, Cultural Lag & Barriers to Entry
• Astroturfing vs. Organic Momentum
• Katherine as Empress of the World
• MORE!

• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
• Class: A Guide Through the American Status System; by Paul Fussell
• The novels of Donna Tartt
• The novels of Easton Ellis

• Part One
• Website
• Twitter
• Still Too Soon to Tell & Other Songs
• Tech Independence

• Curiosity Starts With Dissatisfaction
• Defining Things By Their Opposites
• Counterbalancing Our Biases
• How To Reframe Your Problems
• Still Too Soon To Tell
• Alternate Pasts & Alternate Futures
• The Choice You Commit To Is The Best Choice
• Just Do The Thing
• What Next?
• Derek As Emperor Of The World
• MORE!

• Anything You Want; by Derek Sivers
• Hell Yeah Or No; by Derek Sivers
• How To Live; by Derek Sivers
• Your Music And People; by Derek Sivers
• William Blake vs the World; by John Higgs
• The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates; by Howard Bloom
• The Selfish Gene; by Richard Dawkins
• Awaken The Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Life; by Tony Robbins
• The Enlightenment Trilogy; by Jed McKenna
• What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies; by Tim Urban

• Website
• Twitter
• There’s No Speed Limit
• Ideas Are Just A Multiplier Of Execution
• The Thinker and The Prover
• Keep It Simple, Stupid (Infinite Loops Substack)

• Don’t Be AC/DC. Be Miles Davis.
• Does It Have To Be This Way?
• Rebranding Laziness
• Time Is A Multiplier
• From Idea To Execution
• Useful Not True
• When Simple Gets Hard
• How Derek Found Agency By Accepting Blame
• Cultivating Insatiable Curiosity
• More!

• Anything You Want; by Derek Sivers
• Hell Yeah Or No; by Derek Sivers
• How To Live; by Derek Sivers
• Your Music And People; by Derek Sivers
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow
• Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There; by Lewis Carroll
• The Cosmic Trigger trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson
• The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life; by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd
• Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics; by Tim Marshall
• Au Contraire!: Figuring Out the French; by Gilles Asselin and Ruth Mastron
• Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour; by Kate Fox

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• MoonPals
• Fio Creations

• From Bieber’s Intern to Moon Pals
• Ideas Are Harder Than Execution
• Kickstarting Gravity Blankets
• How to Have a Good Idea
• Kanye West & the Creative Process
• The Wizard & the Warrior
• Magic is Real
• Social Situations Are a Departure From the Truth
• Moon Pals, Barbie, Taylor Swift & the Dawn of a New Paradigm
• Long Tails, Curation & Good Taste
• John as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism, by Howard Bloom.
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow

James Pethokoukis is a policy analyst, official CNBC contributor, and Dewitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the creator and writer of the Faster, Please! newsletter, which is dedicated to “discovering, creating, and inventing a better world through technological innovation, economic growth, and pro-progress culture.” James joins the show to discuss his new book, The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised. Important Links:

• Faster, Please!
• The Conservative Futurist
• WTF Happened In 1971?
• Tinkered Thinking — White Mirror
• The Great Reshuffle
• Bono On Nuclear Energy
• Our World in Data

Show Notes:

• What Happened to America?
• Up Wing vs. Down Wing Thinking
• AI as a General Purpose Technology; Regulatory Capture
• Technological Proficiency & Problem Solving
• How to Reframe Tomorrow
• “Be Like the Blade of Grass”
• Green Shoots of Optimism
• AI as a Lifelong Learning Instructor
• We Are the Economy
• Three Policies That Could Change the Future
• James as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised; by James Pethokoukis
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner
• The Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision Of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom

• Twitter
• Substack
• 40 AI Use Cases

• Becoming a Kaggle Grandmaster
• Hyper-Competitive Learning
• From Physics to Data Science
• How Natural Language Processing Has Evolved
• The Problems That LLMs Can’t Solve
• The Future of the Centaur Model
• AI as a Creativity Extender
• Why Bojan is Homeschooling His Kids
• The AI Feedback Flywheel
• How Quickly Will Different Sectors Be Transformed By AI?
• Disruption vs. Destruction
• Is AGI possible?
• AI Use Cases: Mental Health & Elder Care
• How to Win Twitter
• Why Bojan Became a Top 10 Amazon Reviewer
• Bojan’s Favorite Books
• Bojan’s Current Side-Project
• Bojan As Emperor of the World
• MORE!

• Lolita; by Vladimir Nabokov
• The work of Haruki Murakami
• The work of Milan Kundera
• The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature; by Steven Pinker
• Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed; by James Scott

Julie Fredrickson is a former founder and the Managing Partner of Chaotic Capital, an “early stage fund for companies that adapt our lives and systems to the opportunities that chaos brings.” She joins the show to discuss the Great Weirding, becoming a playable character, how the market provides a muse, the power of preparation, and more! Important Links:

• Website
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Chaotic Capital
• The Great Weirding; by Venkatesh Rao
• The Thinker and The Prover

Show Notes:

• Julie’s Origin Story
• The Difference Between Hippies and Tech
• “Circumstances change. Humanity does not. Plan accordingly.”
• The Great Weirding
• The Myth of the Perfect Past
• How to Become a Playable Character
• The Weirdo Lighthouse
• The Power of Showing Up
• How Julie Assesses Founders
• Talent Doesn’t Matter
• The Market is the Muse
• “In the beginning, there was the word”
• Preference Falsification vs. Revealed Preferences
• Julie’s Revealed Preferences
• “Prepare, and the opportunity will come”
• Silicon Valley Is an Idea, Not a Place
• The Open-Source Ethos
• Julie as Empress of the World

Books Mentioned:

• Bad Predictions: 2000 Years of the Best Minds Making the Worst Forecasts; by Laura Lee
• The History of the Peloponnesian War; by Thucydides
• Republic; by Plato
• American Cycles of History: According to the Fourth Turning Generational Theory and The Boomer Soul 1946-2022; by William H. Van Marter Jr.
• William Blake vs the World; by John Higgs
• Julie, or the New Heloise; by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• The End of History and the Last Man; by Francis Fukuyama
• The Peripheral; by William Gibson
• Neuromancer; by William Gibson
• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How To Tell Them Better; by Will Storr
• Class: A Guide Through the American Status System; by Paul Fussell
• What Works on Wall Street: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Singularity Sky; by Charles Stross
• Marxism and Modernism; by Eugene Lunn
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom

• Danny’s Twitter
• Danny’s Website
• Wisdom Unleashed

• Fancy a phone call? The power of human interaction
• What Danny has learned from 397 podcasts
• The Art of Interviewing
• Finding “the thing”
• How has Danny changed deciding his aim was to sell out Madison Square Garden?
• Danny’s research process
• “I’m attracted to the light”
• When did things go wrong?
• Podcasting as idea collecting
• In-person vs Zoom
• The ability to speak to anyone in the world
• Danny’s favorite questions
• The different types of podcast
• Why podcasts are like the printing press for audio
• The importance of connection
• What will podcasting look like in 2034?
• Always Be Closing
• Danny as emperor of the world
• MORE!

• How to Win Friends and Influence People; by Dale Carnegie
• Hidden Genius; by Polina Marinova Pompliano
• The Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• Jim’s “Exploring the Dark” Reading List:
• Meditations; by Marcus Aurelius
• Heart of Darkness; by Joseph Conrad
• The Human Animal: A Personal View of the Human Species; by Desmond Morris
• Exploring the Shadow: Understanding and Addressing the Dark Side of the Human Psyche; by John C. Friel and Linda D. Friel (Article)
• Man's Search for Meaning; by Viktor E. Frankl
• The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious; by Carl Jung
• Memories, Dreams, Reflections: An Autobiography; by Carl Jung
• Beyond Good and Evil; by Friedrich Nietzsche
• The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil; by Philip Zimbardo
• Meeting the Shadow: Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature; edited by Connie Zweig and Jeremiah Abrams

• Dror’s Website
• Dror’s Twitter
• Our Great Reshuffle Series
• The Once and Future Liberalism; by Walter Russell Mead
• The Great Online Game; by Packy McCormick

• The relationship between AI & remote work
• How remote work & AI will change our cities
• What cities will succeed in the new world?
• Remote work vs. Back to the office
• Uncertainty & the death of the “job”
• How to cure zero-sum thinking
• The economy doesn’t need us all to be ambitious
• How work is going to change
• How AI will transform professions’ scalability; the internet as a matching engine
• How Dror uses AI
• Unbundling ideas from execution
• The value of Twitter
• The tragedy of the uncommon
• The great online game
• UBI & the need for new social systems
• Dror as emperor of the world.
• MORE!

• Rethinking Real Estate: A Roadmap to Technology’s Impact on the World’s Largest Asset Class; by Dror Poleg
• After Office: A Survival Guide For Cities, Humans And Companies; by Dror Poleg
• The Longer Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand; by Chris Anderson

• Rob’s Substack
• Rob’s Twitter
• Trung’s Substack
• Trung’s Twitter
• Our previous episode with Trung & Rob

• Rob’s homework assignment
• The two endings of Apocalypse Now
• Coppola’s disastrous production process
• Should Willard have taken Kurtz’ place?
• Draft dodgers: fear of death, or fear of social judgment?
• Different perspectives of American Empire
• The memory industry: Vietnam in film
• When condemning backfires
• The thin veneer of civilization
• Willard’s moral injury
• Is pacificism sustainable?
• Art as a response to social conditions
• Telling the story vs romanticizing it
• Be careful what you wish for: The McKenna take
• When Jim was Jedpilled
• When Rob was Jedpilled
• The creative process: feeding the black box, becoming the vessel, and summoning the muse
• George Lucas’ version of Apocalypse Now
• Cut scenes and time travel
• Trung & Rob as Emperors of the World
• MORE!

• The Enlightenment Trilogy; by Jed McKenna
• Heart of Darkness; by Joseph Conrad
• The Lucifer Principle; by Howard Bloom
• Howard Bloom hierarchies
• The Sympathizer; by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• The War of Art; by Steven Pressfield
• Moby-Dick; by Herman Melville
• The Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Creative Act: A Way of Being; by Rick Rubin

• Apocalypse Now; directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse; directed by Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper & Eleanor Coppola
• The Vietnam War; directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
• Platoon; directed by Oliver Stone
• The Wolf of Wall Street; directed by Martin Scorcese
• Wall Street; directed by Oliver Stone
• The Social Network; directed by David Fincher
• Born on the Fourth of July; directed by Oliver Stone
• The Deer Hunter; directed by Michael Cimino
• A Clockwork Orange; directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Patton; directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
• Full Metal Jacket; directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Saving Private Ryan; directed by Steven Spielberg
• The Godfather & The Godfather Part II; directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• The Matrix; directed by the Wachowskis
• Rick and Morty
• Do We Get To Win This Time?
• Tetragrammation with Rick Rubin

"Who is America’s best-known banker? That would be Jamie Dimon. But who is the richest? That would be Andy Beal, with an estimated net worth of $9 billion." Friend-of-the-show Frederik Gieschen joins us for an impromptu conversation about his article on the life and work of Andy Beal, the richest banker in America. Important Links:

• High Roller: Lessons from America’s Richest Banker
• Frederik’s Twitter
• Frederik’s Substack
• Frederik’s previous episode
• The Internet Contrarian

Show Notes:

• The Arena, the Maze, and the Labyrinth
• Why do myths endure?
• “You can’t do a good deal with a bad person”
• America’s richest banker: the Andrew Beal story
• Agreeableness, contrarianism, and accountability
• Thinking like a banker vs. thinking like an investor
• The random buzz generator: How to fight linear thinking
• The alchemy of success
• Bubbles: When heterogeneity becomes homogeneity
• “The higher you rise in a hierarchy, the less good the information you get.”
• Deterministic vs. probabilistic thinking
• The difference between being an investor and being in the investing business
• The return of Andrew Beal
• The importance of agility
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Cosmic Trigger trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Aesop’s Fables; by Aesop
• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art; by James Nestor
• The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time; by Michael Craig
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life; by Alice Schroeder

• Substack
• Twitter
• Website

• Dr. Gurner’s origin story
• How forensic psychology experience can help executive coaching
• Leaning into the 1%
• Why psychological tests are flawed
• The common traits of successful founders
• High performance & bottlenecks
• Why your business should not be your identity
• Data vs. emotion
• How Dr. Gurner applies her strategies in her own life
• Don’t be nice
• Be unreasonable
• Social validation is not important
• How can you improve someone’s communication skills?
• How Dr. Gurner would teach executive coaching
• The “no Plan B” mentality
• Can high energy be detrimental?
• How to unpack charisma
• How to turn down work
• Dr. Gurner’s greatest satisfaction
• How has leadership changed in the last 20 years?
• Dr. Gurner as Empress of the World
• MORE!

• The Art of War; by Sun Tzu

Board Certified hypnotist & Goodwin Hypnosis founder Todd Goodwin joins us for his second appearance to discuss why we should treat the mind like a garden, why revelation is not the same as resolution, why labels can be counterproductive, and much more!

Important Links:

• Goodwin Hypnosis

• Goodwin Hypnosis’ YouTube

• Todd’s first episode

• Luca Dellanna’s episode

• Our episode on Dr John Sarno

Show Notes:

• Treating the symptoms vs treating the cause

• Gardening the mind

• “Revelation is not resolution”

• Why aren’t hypnosis & NLP more popular?

• Could Todd’s work be filmed?

• Why labeling conditions can be counterproductive

• Clearing the emotional charge from traumatic memories

• Top-down vs. Bottom-up solutions

• Hypnosis as a way of reclaiming agency

• How we are shaped by childhood experiences

• Why we need a more compassionate criminal system

• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Healing Back Pain; by John E. Sarno

Why is hard work a form of laziness? Why should we be wary of short-term success? How can imagining parallel worlds help us make better decisions? Author, management advisor, and researcher Luca Dellanna joins us to discuss these questions and more!

Important Links:

• Luca’s Website

• Luca’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Ergodicity: survival is king

• Why sample size matters

• The two types of competitors

• Teaching by signaling

• The parallel worlds approach to decision-making

• Racing to the bottom

• Why working hard can be a form of laziness

• The three things managers should prioritize

• Why desiring change isn’t enough

• Fighting avoidance with actionable small steps

• “Mixed values produce mixed results”

• Thinking by writing

• What Luca has learned from living in multiple countries

• Luca as Emperor of the World

• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder; by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy

• Ergodicity: Definition, Examples, And Implications, As Simple As Possible; by Luca Dellanna

• The Control Heuristic: The Nature of Human Behavior; by Luca Dellanna

• 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late; by Luca Dellanna

• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu

Why is hard work a form of laziness? Why should we be wary of short-term success? How can imagining parallel worlds help us make better decisions? Author, management advisor, and researcher Luca Dellanna joins us to discuss these questions and more!

Important Links:

• Luca’s Website

• Luca’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Ergodicity: survival is king

• Why sample size matters

• The two types of competitors

• Teaching by signaling

• The parallel worlds approach to decision-making

• Racing to the bottom

• Why working hard can be a form of laziness

• The three things managers should prioritize

• Why desiring change isn’t enough

• Fighting avoidance with actionable small steps

• “Mixed values produce mixed results”

• Thinking by writing

• What Luca has learned from living in multiple countries

• Luca as Emperor of the World

• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder; by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy

• Ergodicity: Definition, Examples, And Implications, As Simple As Possible; by Luca Dellanna

• The Control Heuristic: The Nature of Human Behavior; by Luca Dellanna

• 100 Truths You Will Learn Too Late; by Luca Dellanna

• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu

Designer, entrepreneur and Visualize Value founder Jack Butcher joins us for his second appearance on the show to discuss how to get closer to reality, the differences between the US & the UK, whether vision can be taught, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Jack’s Twitter
• Visualize Value
• Jack’s first appearance on the show
• How to Get Rich
• The Great Reshuffle

Show Notes:

• Jack’s origin story
• Productizing Visualize Value
• Ideas vs experience
• Fighting fear with experience
• Differences between the US & the UK
• “The buck stops here”
• “The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit”
• How to transcend language
• Can you teach vision?
• The internet as a variance amplifier
• How to communicate clearly
• Get closer to reality
• Jack’s Twitter X Logo
• Jack as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
• The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel
• Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment; by Jed McKenna

Dan Runcie is the Founder of Trapital, a company focused on music, media, and entertainment. Trapital’s output includes a podcast, weekly newsletter, and deep-dive essays breaking down trends in the music industry. Dan joins us for his second appearance on the show to discuss how AI will transform the music industry, whether the age of the superstar is over, how artists become billionaires, and MUCH more! Important Links:

• Dan’s Twitter
• Trapital
• Dan’s first appearance on the show

Show Notes:

• Can the music industry embrace AI?
• What will happen to music when AI gets better?
• Will some genres be quicker to adapt than others?
• How streaming algorithms are improving
• Are AI playlists the death of DJs?
• How artists can game the algorithm
• How artists can use the music industry’s Pareto distribution
• Artists become millionaires selling music, and billionaires selling product
• Will we see the end of record companies?
• Will Bowie Bonds die?
• Are we going to see the end of the superstar?
• Ads & audiences
• Spotify vs YouTube vs TikTok
• Can newcomers displace the incumbents?
• Will the streamers dominate podcasting?
• What’s next?
• Dan as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Dr. William Zeng is founder and President of the Unitary Fund, a non-profit dedicated to developing the quantum ecosystem to benefit the most people. He previously led initial development of Rigetti Computing’s quantum cloud platform, and is co-inventor of the Quil quantum instruction language. He was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 in the Science category for his work on quantum computing. Dr. William was one of the first recipients of an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship, which is a one-year program for ambitious people who want to build something great. Fellows receive a $100,000 grant and access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts to support them in bringing their projects to life. Dr. William is using his fellowship grant to study how emerging quantum technologies can explore foundational questions in quantum mechanics. Important Links:

• The O’Shaughnessy Fellowships
• The Unitary Fund
• Will’s Twitter
• A possibilities no-go theorem on the Wigner’s friend paradox

Show Notes:

• An introduction to quantum computing
• Regular computers vs quantum computers
• The impact of simulating quantum systems
• How quantum computing can transform risk analysis
• What does a quantum world look like?
• Encryption & risk
• The benefits of an open-source ecosystem
• Wigner’s Friend experiments, agency & objective reality
• "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
• “Technology is an integration of body and mind”
• The laws of physics
• What’s next?
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
• The science fiction of Greg Egan
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• Historical Ontology; by Ian Hacking

Jack Raines is an online writer and LinkedIn provocateur, whose newsletter Young Money has already amassed 30,000 readers. Jack joins the show to discuss the importance of travel, the upsides of authenticity, risk, luck, and much, much more! Important Links:

• Jack's Twitter
• Young Money

Show Notes:

• Jack’s origin story
• Optionality and opportunity costs
• Hostel hopping
• The healthy life
• Grindset and hustle culture
• LinkedIn pranks
• Slamming the door on opportunities
• Work culture and the Great Reshuffle
• The luck of being alive today
• Crypto skepticism
• Quantifying risk
• Jack’s three favourite places in the world
• The default path is not your destiny

Richard Craib is the Founder & CEO of Numerai, a new kind of hedge fund where data scientists around the world collaborate to predict equity returns using artificial intelligence. Richard joins the show to discuss Numerai’s origins, how it embraces the spirit of open source, why it has its own cryptocurrency and MUCH more! Important Links:

• Numerai
• Richard’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• The genesis of Numerai
• How and why Numerai gives away its dataset
• Getting users to put skin in the game
• How Numerai scores users; becoming comfortable with the process
• Size limits & leverage
• Reactions to Numerai
• Numerai’s cryptocurrency
• How Numerai differs from Quantopian
• Data, optimization & LLMs
• “Monopolize intelligence, monopolize data, monopolize money, and decentralize the monopoly”
• What could go wrong?
• Numerai’s relationship with its data scientists
• Could Numerai’s model work in any other industries?
• What could go wrong?
• “Life is long”
• MORE!

The scientist, researcher, analyst, connector, thinker, and doer Brian Roemmele joins us for his second Infinite Loops appearance to discuss the decline of wisdom and how we can save it, why LLMs are the modern version of Plato’s cave, we need locally run AI models and MUCH more! Important Links:

• Brian’s Twitter
• ReadMultiplex.com
• 40 AI Use Cases: How Many Did You Know About?
• Brian’s first Infinite Loops appearance

Show Notes:

• Why LLMs are the modern version of Plato’s cave
• AI as Promethean fire
• Why we need locally run AI models
• AI use cases & the Nedd Ludd story
• The decline of wisdom
• Creating a wisdom keeper
• Loneliness & abandonment
• “How To Have A Conversation With Your Local Documents”
• History is written by the victors; using wisdom to define our future
• The tragedy of lost knowledge
• You are loved and you are not alone
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• Cycles: The Science of Prediction; by Edward R. Dewey and Edwin F. Dakin
• The Iliad; by Homer
• The Odyssey; by Homer
• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• The Bible
• The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size; by Tor Norretranders
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces; by Joseph Campbell

Dr. Pippa Malmgren is an economist, founder, keynote speaker & award-winning author. She served President George W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President and on the National Economic Council. She was responsible for financial market issues during the Enron crisis, and was responsible for assessing terrorism risks to the economy after 9/11. She has also advised the US Cabinet. Dr. Pippa’s most recent book, the Infinite Leader, won the International Press Award for the Best Book on Leadership for 2021. Dr. Pippa joins the show to discuss why leadership has gone wrong, what she thinks of the recent UFO news, why we’re already in World War III, and a whole lot more! Important Links:

• Dr. Pippa’s website
• Dr. Pippa’s Substack
• Dr. Pippa’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Why leadership has gone wrong
• Worldbuilding & the difference between management and leadership
• Why leaders always stay too long
• Balancing trust vs truth
• Confidence vs competence
• Balance, surfing & Taoism
• Numbers, stories & UFOs
• Reality belief systems: "It's not only stranger than we think, it's stranger than we can think.”
• How psychedelics impact how we understand reality
• What Pippa would include in her leadership academy
• Bailouts, inflation & CBDCs
• We are already in World War III
• Creating a hug movement
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Infinite Leader: Balancing the Demands of Modern Business Leadership; by Chris Lewis & Dr. Pippa Malmgren
• The Leadership Lab: Understanding Leadership in the 21st Century; by Chris Lewis & Dr. Pippa Malmgren
• Signals: How Everyday Signs Can Help Us Navigate the World's Turbulent Economy; by Dr. Pippa Malmgren
• Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life; by Rory Sutherland
• Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders; by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Rig Veda
• Prometheus Rising; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Wholeness and the Implicate Order; by David Bohm
• Orthodoxy; by G. K. Chesterton

mgren is an economist, founder, keynote speaker & award-winning author. She served President George W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President and on the National Economic Council. She was responsible for financial market issues during the Enron crisis, and was responsible for assessing terrorism risks to the economy after 9/11. She has also advised the US Cabinet. Dr. Pippa’s most recent book, the Infinite Leader, won the International Press Award for the Best Book on Leadership for 2021. Dr. Pippa joins the show to discuss why leadership has gone wrong, what she thinks of the recent UFO news, why we’re already in World War III, and a whole lot more! Important Links:

• Dr. Pippa’s website
• Dr. Pippa’s Substack
• Dr. Pippa’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Why leadership has gone wrong
• Worldbuilding & the difference between management and leadership
• Why leaders always stay too long
• Balancing trust vs truth
• Confidence vs competence
• Balance, surfing & Taoism
• Numbers, stories & UFOs
• Reality belief systems: "It's not only stranger than we think, it's stranger than we can think.”
• How psychedelics impact how we understand reality
• What Pippa would include in her leadership academy
• Bailouts, inflation & CBDCs
• We are already in World War III
• Creating a hug movement
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Infinite Leader: Balancing the Demands of Modern Business Leadership; by Chris Lewis & Dr. Pippa Malmgren
• The Leadership Lab: Understanding Leadership in the 21st Century; by Chris Lewis & Dr. Pippa Malmgren
• Signals: How Everyday Signs Can Help Us Navigate the World's Turbulent Economy; by Dr. Pippa Malmgren
• Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life; by Rory Sutherland
• Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders; by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Rig Veda
• Prometheus Rising; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Wholeness and the Implicate Order; by David Bohm
• Orthodoxy; by G. K. Chesterton

Ethan Mollick is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. He also leads Wharton Interactive, an effort to democratize education using games, simulations, and AI. When Ethan started his Substack One Useful Thing in November last year, he was planning on writing about a different management paper every post. Then, in Ethan’s words, the arrival of ChatGPT turned him from “an AI-skeptic to an AI-believer.” Over the last few months, Ethan has been explaining the rapid developments in the AI industry, documenting how he has incorporated AI into his teaching, and providing practical guides to how we can use AI in our daily lives. Important Links:

• Ethan’s Substack
• Ethan’s Twitter
• 40 AI Use Cases: How Many Did You Know About?

Show Notes:

• From AI skeptic to AI believer
• AI is already disruptive
• Unexpected AI use cases
• AI is not a search engine
• Prompt crafting is not the future
• Is the centaur model the future?
• How will AI impact education?
• Will AI accelerate entrepreneurship?
• The politics & geopolitics of AI
• How to get unique results using AI
• Using AI to explore liminal spaces
• Speed-running the adoption curve
• Can you teach curiosity?
• The complex relationship between corporations and AI use
• We have agency over our future
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology; by Raymond Kurzweil
• The Iliad; by Homer

• Qiufan’s Website
• Qiufan’s Twitter

• Qiufan’s sci-fi influences
• When did the third wave of AI begin?
• Why is modern sci-fi so dystopian?
• How AI is going to impact education
• Hidden biases & the objective function
• Deep fakes & narrative collapse
• Accelerationism, balance & Daoism
• Do we need real jobs?
• Happiness is a byproduct
• Living in a post-scarcity society
• What’s next?
• MORE!

• AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future; by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan
• Bullshit Jobs: A Theory; by David Graeber
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek; by Manu Saadia
• Waste Tide; by Chen Qiufan

Todd Goodwin is the founder of Goodwin Hypnosis, a hypnosis center based in North Carolina. He is a Board Certified Fellow of the National Guild of Hypnotists, a designation earned by only one in every 500 hypnotists. As well as working with thousands of clients since opening Goodwin Hypnosis in 2007, Todd has co-facilitated hypnosis certification courses, created a book and accompanying 30-day hypnosis system designed to stop people from smoking, and given numerous presentations on hypnosis to physicians, students, and medical staff. Todd joins the show to discuss some of the common myths & misconceptions around hypnosis. Important Links:

• Goodwin Hypnosis
• Goodwin Hypnosis’ YouTube
• The Thinker and the Prover
• Our episode on Dr John Sarno
• The Six Stage Model of Behaviour Change

Show Notes:

• Hypnosis in our everyday lives
• Why isn’t hypnosis more widely used?
• “I don’t want someone in my head”
• “I can’t be hypnotized”
• Targeting the root causes of behavior
• Tension between the conscious & the unconscious
• How secondary gains can obstruct progress
• How to clear root fear
• Using language to elicit change
• Be curious about yourself; remember that you are worthy of love
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Healing Back Pain; by John E. Sarno
• Influence: Science and Practice; by Robert Cialdini
• Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming; by Richard Bandler and John Grinder

Nat & Martha Sharpe have been a creative team for over a decade. Nat was a film school graduate and Martha a storytelling enthusiast. They fell in love while filming a musical parody of "Beowulf" with their friends. After another comedy and two documentaries, they started having children. Focus shifted from art to survival. Together, they learned to code, got off food stamps, and traveled around America in an RV. Today, Nat and Martha homeschool their 5 kids and are eager to explore alternative education, expand their comfort zones, and—as always—make movies. Nat & Martha were the first recipients of an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship, which is a one-year program for ambitious people who want to build something great. Fellows receive a $100,000 grant and access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts to support them in bringing their projects to life. Nat & Martha are using their fellowship grant to study and make documentary films of alternative childhood education schools. Important Links:

• The O’Shaughnessy Fellowships
• Nat & Martha’s Website
• Nat & Martha’s Twitter
• Nat & Martha’s O’Shaughnessy Fellowship Application Video
• Nat & Martha’s YouTube Channel
• OSV’s investment in Synthesis School

Show Notes:

• Nat & Martha’s origin story
• How education is connected to community
• “Kids want to survive, they want to thrive, they want to learn”
• Education vs indoctrination
• Screen time isn’t the problem & why unschooled children become entrepreneurs
• The magic blue bus
• Finding the others
• What caused the rise in helicopter parenting?
• The conflict between agency & community
• It can be hard to give people money
• Learning by doing; in-demand learning
• How can we monetize the best teachers in the world?
• How AI is going to transform education
• What’s next?
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson

Jason Crawford is the founder & president of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. Jason has written well over 100 essays on the history of technology and the philosophy of progress, and given numerous talks and interviews on the same. He joins the show to discuss whether humans deserve progress, how to make progress cool, the two types of optimism, and more! Important Links:

• The Roots of Progress
• Jason’s Website
• Jason’s Twitter
• Discourse on the Arts and Sciences; by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Triumph of the Nerds
• Why I’m a proud solutionist

Show Notes:

• Why do we need progress studies?
• Are humans conditioned to resist progress?
• Increasing the burden of safety
• What the Roots of Progress is seeking to achieve
• How can we make progress cool?
• Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will
• Do we deserve progress?
• Progress & politics
• Steelmanning the case against progress
• How can we defend against bad actors?
• Calibrating our approach to risk
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• Frankenstein; by Mary Shelley
• Erewhon; by Samuel Butler
• Darwin Among The Machines; by Samuel Butler
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Ultimate Resource; by Julian L. Simon
• The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines Our Freedom; by Philip K. Howard
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
• The Jungle; by Upton Sinclair
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson

1. David’s Twitter
2. David’s Substack; Everything is Bullshit
3. Cards Against Humanity
4. The Execution Hypothesis; by Richard Wrangham
5. Discordianism
6. Our podcast with George Mack
7. Our podcast with Will Storr

1. What is bullshit?
2. The difference between bullshitting and lying
3. Why moralizing is bullshit
4. Concealing the status monkey
5. The origins of Cards Against Humanity
6. How are status games changing?
7. Why happiness is bullshit
8. Happiness as a status symbol
9. How can we escape bullshit?
10. Why we’re driven by negative emotions
11. How to become more positive
12. The role of humor in calling out bullshit
13. MUCH more!

1. On Bullshit; by Harry G. Frankfurt
2. Propaganda; by Edward Bernays
3. Influence: Science and Practice; by Robert Cialdini
4. The Moral Animal: Why We Are The Way We Are; by Robert Wright
5. The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It; by Will Storr
6. The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History; by Howard Bloom
7. Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
8. Happy; by Derren Brown
9. Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
10. Gödel, Escher, Bach; by Douglas Hofstadter

• Dylan’s Twitter
• Essayful
• Write of Passage

• Losing the O’s
• The collapse of the old institutions
• An introduction to Essayful
• "There's nothing new under the sun.”
• The blurry border between fiction & nonfiction
• Rebuilding the Tower of Babel
• A book as a living thing
• How is AI going to impact writing?
• Why Dylan took Write of Passage
• Why are academic papers so hard to read?
• Why does Ireland have such cultural influence?
• What’s next?
• More!

• Old God’s Time; by Sebastian Barry
• Unflattening; by Nick Sousanis
• The Island of Saints and Scholars; Sean McMahon
• Ulysses; by James Joyce

After starting his career on a market stall in Essex, John Sills has spent the last twenty-five years working to make the world a better place for customers. John is the Managing Partner at the customer-led growth company The Foundation, and his writing has also been featured in publications such as The Guardian and Management Today. He joins the show to discuss his thought-provoking and timely new book The Human Experience: How to make life better for your customers and create a more successful organization. Important Links:

• John’s Website
• John’s Twitter
• John’s Substack

Show Notes:

• John’s time working on an Essex market stall
• Human vs functional customer experience
• What’s blocking the human experience?
• Why do leaders stay away from the frontline?
• Escaping Vogonization
• Does the human experience scale?
• The benefits of starting from first principles
• Why companies should empower their staff
• The link between curiosity, creativity & customer experience
• Why aren’t companies changing & why aren’t more startups disrupting?
• Are frictionless customer experiences desirable?
• The myth of customer loyalty
• Tech upgrades & immersion
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Human Experience: How to make life better for your customers and create a more successful organization; by John Sills
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• The Customer Copernicus: How to be Customer-Led; by Charlie Dawson
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams

Billy Oppenheimer is a researcher for Ryan Holiday. He is also known for his viral long-form tweets and Six at 6 on Sunday newsletter. Billy is insatiably curious. He is a master at drawing lessons from anecdotes from the worlds of sports, music, comedy, business, and more. He joins the show to discuss how to cultivate good taste, whether everything is a remix, why he learns through introjection, and a whole lot more. Important Links:

• Six at 6 on Sunday
• Billy’s Twitter
• Billy’s website
• Our episodes with David Senra (1, 2)
• 'A Bicycle of the Mind' - Steve Jobs on the Computer
• Our episode with Edward Rooster
• To His Coy Mistress; by Andrew Marvell
• Kubla Khan; by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Show Notes:

• Focus on doing the thing
• SIX at 6’s origin story
• Learning through introjection
• Developing taste & cultivating curiosity
• “People don’t have ideas, ideas have people”
• How Billy practices his scales
• Fiction vs non-fiction
• Repetition, repetition, repetition
• Should we study more failures?
• Process compounds
• “Care, but don’t care too much”
• Has anyone succeeded without persistence?
• Conceptual ancestors
• Everything’s a remix
• Taste, tools, markets & feedback
• Finding your pain points
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• Trust Me, I'm Lying; by Ryan Holiday
• Psychology of Money; by Morgan Housel
• Atomic Habits; by James Clear
• The Immortality Key : The Secret History of the Religion with No Name; by Brian C. Muraresku
• Reality Hunger; by David Shields
• The Power of Myth; by Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers
• Cloud Atlas; by David Mitchell
• The Great Gatsby; by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Da Vinci Code; by Dan Brown

Friend-of-the-show (and new O’Shaughnessy Ventures team member) Liberty RPF joins Jim and fellow friend-of-the-show Jimmy Soni to discuss the current state of the publishing industry and the new opportunities emerging for current and aspiring authors. Important Links:

• Jimmy’s Website
• Jimmy’s Twitter
• Liberty’s Newsletter
• Liberty’s Twitter
• 10 Reasons Why I’m Publishing My Next Book on Substack
• Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

Show Notes:

• How has the publishing industry changed?
• Reinventing the audiobook
• The living book
• Towards new book pricing models
• Why the traditional publishing industry is becoming unsustainable
• The tragedy of unwritten books
• A rejection from a traditional publisher is meaningless
• What do traditional publishers do well?
• The importance being invested in the success of a product
• Leveraging AI & other tools in the writing process
• Why the publishing industry is successful
• Increasing the power of individual creators
• Change, prestige & disruption
• Playing the right kind of status games
• Aligning quality with meritocracy
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Founders; by Jimmy Soni
• A Mind at Play; by Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman
• Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar; by Jimmy Soni & Rob Goodman
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Invest Like The Best; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds; by David Goggins
• The Psychology of Money; by Morgan Housel
• The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich; by Tim Feriss
• Harry Potter; by J. K. Rowling
• Reality Hunger; by David Shields
• $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No; by Alex Hormozi
• The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It; by Will Storr

Alex Danco returns for his seventh (yes, SEVENTH) appearance on Infinite Loops to discuss, as usual, pretty much everything other than the topics we had prepared in advance. This week, we discuss: The two types of lawyers, what Alex learned from reading Don Quixote, Elon the Reply Guy, the psychology of Seinfeld, the best Wall Street Movies, and much more. Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alex_Danco
• Website: https://alexdanco.com/
• Newsletter: https://danco.substack.com/

Show Notes:

• The two kinds of lawyers
• Medicine, placebo, Don Quixote & theatre
• Heroes, villains & main characters
• Elon the Reply Guy
• Safe words, scams & narrative collapse
• Self-deception is multiplayer
• The psychology of Seinfeld
• To what extent are great innovations already baked into the systems?
• Margin Call: The two schools of thought
• The best Wall Street movies
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Theory And Practice Of Gamesmanship Or The Art Of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating; by Stephen Potter
• Don Quixote; by Miguel de Cervantes
• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
• The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History; by Howard K. Bloom
• Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships; by Eric Berne
• Mendel's Dwarf; by Simon Mawer
• The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine; by Michael Lewis
• The Bonfire of the Vanities; by Tom Wolfe
• The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron; by Peter Elkind & Bethany McLean

Gurwinder Bhogal is a writer and programmer who writes about the myriad ways in which technology and psychology conspire to fool us and how we can withstand the covert assault on our senses. Gurwinder is known for his epic Twitter ‘Megathreads’ which set out a series of powerful concepts for understanding the world. He joins the show to discuss our tendency to narrativize information, how to overcome the bandwidth tax, why Wikipedia is the world’s largest source of misinformation, and MUCH more! Important Links:

• Megathread: Feb 7, 2020 (53,000 likes)
• Megathread: Feb 11, 2022 (62,000 likes)
• Megathread: March 18, 2023 (most recent)
• Gurwinder's Substack
• Gurwinder's Twitter
• The Toxoplasma of Rage

Show Notes:

• Megathreads & the Woozle effect
• AI, the Encyclopedia Disinformatica, and cultivating a garden of Mithridates
• Capturing the nuance between dishonesty and lying
• The Toxoplasma of Rage
• Overcoming the bandwidth tax
• Brandishing the golden hammer; why we can’t comprehend large numbers
• Tribalism & intersubjectivity
• The purity spiral
• Are we facing a lost generation?
• We are programmed to like complex explanations
• Narrativizing information
• “Certainty is the death of thought”
• Climbing the thinking ladder
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• Talking to Strangers; by Malcolm Gladwell
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies; by Tim Urban

This week, we’re delighted to welcome Ed Latimore back for his second Infinite Loops appearance.

Ed is a best-selling author, former professional heavyweight boxer, competitive chess player, Physics graduate, father, and husband. He joins us to discuss stoicism, progress & pain, demonstrating authenticity, being liked vs. being respected, and a whole lot more. Important Links:

• Ed’s Twitter
• Ed’s website
• Ed’s Substack
• Ed’s first Infinite Loops appearance

Show Notes:

• New child; new house; new book
• How Ed’s new book has developed
• Humor and progress
• Understanding addiction
• Being liked vs being respected
• “Stoicism found me”
• Is progress possible without pain?
• “Humans are very bad at the future”
• Demonstrating authenticity
• Being cast as a father figure
• What’s next for Ed
• Ed’s three step process for self-improvement
• “I don't think any situation has ever gotten worse because someone has good manners.”

Books Mentioned:

• The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs who Shaped Silicon Valley; by Jimmy Soni
• The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance; by Josh Waitzkin
• Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds; by David Goggins
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life; by Mark Manson

Edward Rooster is one of our favourite writers. His themes include the future, mythology, time and history. He has written two books, Box of Stars and Harvest, and he is currently working on a third. Edward joins the show to discuss embracing uncertainty, avoiding becoming Icarus, unsticking yourself from time, and MUCH more! Important Links:

• Edward’s Mirror
• Edward’s Substack
• Edward’s Typeshare
• Edward’s Twitter
• The Days Dad Started Over
• Leaving Eternity’s Parking Lot
• You Do Not Have to Be Perfect
• Looking Back from the Future

Show Notes:

• The Days Dad Started Over: Why Edward started writing
• Edward’s book writing process
• Unsticking yourself from time
• Sources of storytelling inspiration
• Embracing uncertainty
• Avoiding the content trap
• The ‘create you own adventure’ approach to writing
• [Finding inspiration in music]
• Storytelling & common knowledge
• Writing as found art
• Not as much matters as we think it does
• How can we avoid becoming Icarus?
• Editing; Editors
• The opportunities of generative AI
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• Stray Reflections; by Jawad Mian
• Box of Stars; by Edward Rooster
• Harvest; by Edward Rooster
• Retrieve; by Edward Rooster
• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Cloud Atlas; by David Mitchell
• The Great Gatsby; by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• American Gods; by Neil Gaiman
• Reality Hunger; by David Shields
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; by Robert Pirsig
• Looking Backward; by Edward Bellamy

Venkatesh Rao is a writer, consultant, and author. He has been writing about indie consulting for years and has recently published The Art of Gig, Volumes 1 & 2, which together take an in-depth look at the gig economy. Venkatesh joins the show to discuss tragic luck, becoming slightly nonsensical, the advantages of mediocrity, and a whole lot more! Important Links:

• Venkatesh's Website
• Venkatesh's Blog
• Venkatesh's Substack
• Venkatesh's Twitter
• The Art of Gig
• The Art of Gig: our synthesis
• The Gervais Principle

Show Notes:

• Origins of The Art of Gig
• Paycheck People
• Learning how to take risks
• Is there a risk-taking gene?
• The case for fixed-point futurism
• Finding meaning
• Personality types, narrative, and becoming a courageous thinker
• Don’t get tragically lucky
• Generational agency
• Sparring, pressure and meaning-making
• Be slightly nonsensical
• Teaching others to appreciate randomness
• Towards infinite games; be mediocre
• Understanding divergentism
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Art of Gig: Volumes 1 & 2; by Venkatesh Rao
• The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich; by Tim Feriss
• Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself; by Daniel H. Pink
• The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life; by Paul Millerd
• Tempo: timing, tactics and strategy in narrative-driven decision-making; by Venkatesh Rao
• The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By; by Dan P. McAdams
• Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life As Play and Possibility; by James Carse
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity; by David Allen

Ananyo Bhattacharya is the author of The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann, a brilliant biography of one of the most prolific and influential scientists to have ever lived. He joins the show to discuss von Neumann’s contributions to quantum physics, game theory, the Manhattan Project, and much more! Important Links:

• Ananyo’s Twitter
• The Man from the Future

Show Notes:

• How did John von Neumann even exist?
• Would von Neumann’s discoveries have happened without him?
• The Martians of Hungary
• The migrant mentality
• Innovation in the face of extinction
• Science, genius & the herd mentality
• Von Neumann’s contribution to quantum physics
• Game theory, Minimax and zero-sum games
• von Neumann: quant in the streets; romantic in the sheets
• The eccentricity of brilliance
• Von Neumann and the Manhattan Project
• The godfather of the open-source movement
• Von Neumann as a project manager
• How writing the book changed Ananyo’s understanding of von Neumann
• Ananyo’s next projects
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann; **by **Ananyo Bhattacharya
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour; by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern

Michael Breitenbach is Senior Vice President within the Chief Investment Office at Bank of America Global Wealth and Investment Management, where he is responsible for leading development of quantitative infrastructure and machine learning models for evaluating both internally and externally covered investment offerings. He is also the man behind an extremely popular anonymous Twitter account that many of you will be familiar with (see if you can guess which one…) Michael joins the show to discuss the FTX fallout, the current state of the crypto industry, the rise of AI compliance, and MUCH more! Important Links:

• Michael’s LinkedIn
• Michael’s (personal) Twitter

Show Notes:

• FTX: grift or systemic failure?
• The decline of old media
• AI compliance & regulation
• Crypto: use cases, privacy & regulation
• The end of privacy
• Dealing with new and better problems
• Scale vs anti-scale
• Cynicism can be a comparative advantage
• Against binary thinking
• Time binding & cultural evolution
• Consider taxation

Books Mentioned:

• The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption; by Sebastian Mallaby
• Time-Binding: The General Theory; by  Alfred Korzybski

• Visa's Website
• Visa's Twitter 
• Visa's Youtube

• The origins of Friendly Ambitious Nerd
• “The most heroic thing you can do is not hate yourself”
• Confronting the minotaur
• Introspection & Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
• Overriding human OS
• Humor is the cure
• How to demonstrate the power of humor
• Dealing with judgment & criticism
• Responding to requests for help
• Enforcing a no-assholes rule
• "Focus your time and energy on what you want to see more of”
• “School is bullshit”
• Question defaults & screw around
• MUCH more!

• Friendly Ambitious Nerd; by Visakan Veerasamy
• Introspect; by Visakan Veerasamy
• The Science of Storytelling; by Will Storr
• The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It; by Will Storr
• The Hero with a Thousand Faces; by Joseph Campbell
• Shantaram; by Gregory David Roberts
• The Art of War; by Sun Tzu
• The Tao Te Ching; by Laozi
• The Lord of the Rings; by J. R. R. Tolkien

• Founders Podcast
• Founders on Colossus
• David’s Twitter
• Liberty’s Substack
• Liberty’s Twitter
• David Bowie Predicts the Impact of the Internet on Newsnight

• David’s lunch with Sam Zell
• Optimizing for freedom
• Information can build a fortune
• Persist, persist, persist
• Burning the ships
• Customising education
• Where are the Teddy Roosevelt’s of today?
• Embracing our evangelical side
• “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see”
• Fighting fear of technological development
• Is anything truly ‘new’?
• "Properly understood technology is just a better way to do something”
• Towards positive sum games
• How to cultivate voluntary engagement
• Unleashing the scenius
• Finding better explanations
• Risk-taking and the origins of the USA
• The explore and create framework
• Read biographies
• MUCH more!

• Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel; by Sam Zell
• The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey; by Candice Millard
• Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill; by Candice Millard
• Cinema Speculation; by Quentin Tarantino
• Christopher Nolan: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work; by Ian Nathan
• The WEIRDest People in the World; by Joseph Henrich
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future; by Peter Thiel
• The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie; by Andrew Carnegie
• All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die So I'll Never Go There: Buffett & Munger - A Study in Simplicity and Uncommon, Common Sense; by Peter Bevelin
• The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness; by Eric Jorgenson
• Enzo Ferrari 2018: Power, Politics and the Making of an Automobile Empire; by Luca Dal Monte
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson

Dwarkesh Patel is the host of The Lunar Society podcast, where he interviews scientists, historians, economists, intellectuals, & founders about their ideas. He also writes about tech, progress, talent, science, and the long-term over at his Substack. Dwarkesh has been described as “one of the best young podcasters alive”, and his Substack has been praised by the likes of Jeff Bezos, Paul Graham and Tyler Cowen. Important Links:

• The Lunar Society
• Dwarkesh’ Twitter
• The Mystery of the Miracle Year
• Popularizers are intellectual market makers
• Scouting talent as buying options

Show Notes:

• How to become a better podcaster
• The importance of curiosity
• Disagreement & problem solving
• “Computer programs are written by humans for other humans to read, and only incidentally for computers to execute”
• The difference between podcasting & essay writing
• Investing in public and private companies; human OS
• Premeditation & decision-making
• The mystery of the miracle year
• How much innovation is baked into the cake?
• How to cultivate young talent
• AI & education
• The importance of intellectual market makers
• Scouting talent as buying options
• Interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried
• Effective altruism & virtue signalling
• If you do everything, you will win

Books Mentioned:

• The Years of Lyndon Johnson; by Robert Caro
• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve; by Lenora Chu
• Outliers: The Story of Success; by Malcolm Gladwell
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
• The Lessons of History; by Will & Ariel Durant
• The Story of Civilization; by Will & Ariel Durant
• Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God; by Will Durant

David Ha is the Head of Strategy at Stability AI, and one of the top minds working in AI today. He previously worked as a research scientist in the Brain team at Google. David is particularly interested in evolution and complex systems, and his research explores how intelligence may emerge from limited resource constraints. He joins the show to discuss the advantages of open-source models, modelling AI as an emergent system, why large language models are bad at maths and MUCH more! Important Links:

• David’s website
• David’s Twitter
• Teaching Machines to Draw (2017)
• Weight Agnostic Neural Networks (2019)

Show Notes:

• Why David joined Stability AI
• The advantages of open-source models
• We cannot predict the inventions of tomorrow
• Making memes with generative AI
• The centaur approach to AI
• An introduction to large language models
• The relationship between complex systems and resource constraints
• Large language models are bad at maths
• Modelling AI as an emergent system
• Understanding different perspectives
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective; by Kenneth Stanley and Joel Lehman

• American Alchemy
• Jesse’s Twitter