Timeline.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is another cool space engineering adventure by the author of The Martian. Here our adventurer wakes up on a spaceship and needs to find a way to save the earth from astrophages. A lot of engineering and dry humour later, well you will have to read for yourself.

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No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer explores the work culture at Netflix. It explains the culture through three mechanisms: talent, candor (feedback), freedom (remove controls). The three mechanisms are explained at three levels (three feedback loops of more and more talent, candor, and freedom).

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Alien Information Theory by Andrew Gallimore aims to explain how DMT will allow us to see a higher dimension of reality than we currently can do. The book starts by explaining the neuroscience of psychedelics in a very informative, imaginary, and grounded way. Then from chapter 9 onward the reader is launched into hyperspace and Gallimore tries to convey how we are part of a larger HyperGrid (of information) that DMT is able to connect us to.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Michael Sandel about the problem with meritocracy. They discuss the dark side of the concept of merit, the pernicious myth of the self-made man, the moral significance of luck, the backlash against “elites” and expertise, how we value human excellence, the connection between wealth and value creation, the ethics of the tax code, higher education as a sorting mechanism for a caste system, alternatives to 4-year colleges, and other topics."

Always great to hear something from Michael Sandel, one of the first online courses I followed was by him (2012 if I remember correct - Justice course). Merit is taken all wrong, according to Sandel, and self-made (a related concept) is a myth. It's all about environment.

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"In this chapter we counter a number of prevailing views about the arts: the purposes of art and the possibility of objective standards of beauty. This leads to a discussion of the place of inexplicit knowledge when creating in the arts and how the "hard to vary" quality of explanations finds an analogue in the art. All of this discussion comes through the lens of beauty in nature and how flowers evolved to be attractive. But this attractive quality of flowers is not a mere matter of opinion for both insects and people find flowers attractive."

Interesting discussion of The Beginning of Infinity chapter 14. From the book "The fact that flowers reliably seem beautiful to humans when their designs evolved for an apparently unrelated purpose is evidence that beauty is objective. Those convergent criteria of beauty solve the problem of creating hard-to-forge signals where prior shared knowledge is insufficient to provide them." Difficult to vary (explanations) characteristics are (part of) the explanation for what we (perceive) as beautiful. Mozart's music '> Mozart with one wrong note '> random notes.

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"We’re sharing another great Gimlet show, How to Save a Planet. On this episode: It started with students walking out of school to demand more action on climate change, built into an international movement – and then was propelled forward by a pandemic. This is the surprising story behind Europe’s climate plan, and what the rest of us can learn from it."

A positive note (also related to the one below) that there is a way forward. That countries can agree (and the technology is already there) on how to emit less and still make progress.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Nina Schick about the growing epidemic of misinformation and disinformation. They discuss the coming problem of “deep fakes,” the history of Russian “active measures” against the West, the weaponization of the EU migration crisis, Russian targeting of the African-American community, the future of Europe, Trump and rise of political cynicism, QAnon, the prospect of violence surrounding the 2020 Presidential election, and other topics."

Less trust in the media in combination with easily made fake video = disaster in the making? May we live in interesting times.

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The new season has started and it's off to a good start. Deepfakes (also see Sam Harris' podcast above) will be very difficult to detect and easy to make. The example given here (or in SH) is that a student was able to do deepfakes for a movie better than a multimillion dollar budget of only a few years ago (de-aging actors). May we live in interesting times.

Another episode tackles contact-tracing which should be made with good safeguards (not spying on you), but doesn't seem so controversial to me.

Care robots, if designed well, can be a great resource, one that will not only help with manual tasks, but also one that could provide mental/social care. This episode interviews a maker and this seems to me to be a step in the right direction.

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"Paul Stamets is a mycologist, author and advocate of bioremediation and medicinal fungi."

Very good to hear Paul Stamets speak and to hear his enthusiasm for fungi. He does a great job of being both a good scientist and a dreamer. His work has been valuable in biodefense, personal health, saving the bees (ongoing project), and much more.

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"Dr. Mark Plotkin is an ethnobotanist who serves as president of the Amazon Conservation Team, which has partnered with 55 tribes to map and improve management and protection of 80 million acres of ancestral rainforests. Educated at Harvard, Yale, and Tufts, Plotkin has since spent much of the past four decades studying the shamans and healing plants of tropical America from Mexico to Argentina, although much of his work focuses on the rainforests of the northeast Amazon. He is best known to the general public as the author of the book Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, one of the most popular books about the rainforest. His new book from Oxford Press is The Amazon: What Everyone Needs to Know."

A man full of stories, and a joy to listen to. I think my take home message was that we can still learn about (and need to preserve) the culture that is now being lost (in the Amazon, but also elsewhere). That doesn't mean I don't believe in the scientific method, but that we should/could learn their secrets (and reward them for it), as to make those treatments more widely available (vs only a few shamans knowing it).

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Tristan Harris about the ways in which social media is fracturing society. They discuss the rise in teen depression and suicide, political polarization, conspiracy theories, information warfare, the decoupling of power and responsibility, the distinctions between platforms and publishers, the cancellation of Alex Jones, social media-inspired ethnic cleansing, concerns about the upcoming presidential election, culture as an operating system, and other topics."

In the days before the internet there were 3 channels, everyone watched the same, and you spoke to other around you (with different views). Now you get to live in your own (extreme) bubble. That is bad. Long story short, algorithms don't sort by 'trueness', but by 'engagement', and we are suckers who go for the latter.

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"Snow Crash is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics and philosophy."

This was my second reading/listen of the book and I enjoyed it a lot again. The play with language, action, VR, it all came together nicely.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with John McWhorter about race, racism, and “anti-racism” in America. They discuss how conceptions of racism have changed, the ubiquitous threat of being branded a “racist,” the contradictions within identity politics, recent echoes of the OJ verdict, willingness among progressives to lose the 2020 election, racism as the all-purpose explanation of racial disparities in the U.S., double standards for the black community, the war on drugs, the lure of identity politics, police violence, the enduring riddle of affirmative action, the politics of “black face,” and other topics."

Reflections on how identity politics and the hyper-focus on race is/can be bad. The world isn't colourblind (something Sam aims for), but that doesn't mean we should put people in different boxes and treat them differently. John McWhorter also talks about affirmative action and how that could be damaging.

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"For me, this is the most important podcast episode I’ve ever published. In it, I describe the most life-shaping, certainly the most difficult, and certainly the most transformative journey of my 43 years on this planet. I’ve never shared it before."

Heavy podcast that does a very good job of describing the events and how Tim has dealt/processed/healed over time.

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"In this special episode, the tables are turned. Instead of interviewing someone else, I am interviewed by two experts on several topics I’ve both studied and supported, including psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and what it can do to heal trauma and—broadly speaking—possible futures for mental health. This audio was recorded on a new show, The Psychedelic News Hour, soon to be a podcast, and I’m in conversation with two people: David Rabin, MD, PhD, (@drdavidrabin), a board-certified psychiatrist and neuroscientist, executive director of The Board of Medicine, and co-founder of Apollo Neuroscience, and Molly Maloof, MD, (@drmolly.co), a physician, Stanford lecturer, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapist."

First listen in a long while to The Tim Ferriss Show. Good musings on where the psychedelics (research) field stands and where Tim (and others) think it's going. Most important is the challenge of scaling it up and doing that not too quickly (losing quality/effectiveness) but quick enough (training lots of therapists).

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21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari is a surprisingly original book about the near future. In the book, Harari describes current trends and extrapolates them forward to a future that is likely to arrive. As Yogi Berra said "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future" it's good to see that much of the predictions in the book are based on current events/technology.

The book fits nicely between Sapiens and Homo Deus. It's true that there is some overlap between the books, but still 21 Lessons was refreshing.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Graeme Wood about the breakdown of social order in the U.S. They discuss the recent eruptions of violence, the loss of trust in the media, the cases of Jacob Blake and Kyle Rittenhouse, how to understand police videos, the risks of vigilantism, the politicization of race, the problem of deep fakes, Trump not actually wanting to be president, the prospect that Trump might attempt to pardon himself, and other topics."

Hmm, I noted that not much was now, but that also means that I'm quite used/adjusted to this type of news/ideas. Let's hope not much crazy happens in the US (or anywhere) come November.

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"Probiotic-crammed foods and pills are marketed as charmers of the human microbiome — and the key to immune, gut and brain health. But how much does the microbiome actually matter, and do probiotics live up to the hype? To learn more we talked with biomedical engineering professor Ilana Brito, immunologist Dr. Yasmine Belkaid, psychiatry professor Ted Dinan, and microbiologist Dr. Namrata Iyer."

Neh, we don't know enough. Like earlier book, microbiome is important and good to feed it, but pills won't do it.

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"This is a story of a road trip. After a particularly traumatic Valentine's Day, Fadi Boukaram was surfing google maps and noticed that there was a town called Lebanon... in Oregon. Being Lebanese himself, he wondered, how many Lebanons exist in the US? The answer: 47. Thus began his journey to visit them all and find an America he'd never expected, and the homeland he'd been searching for all along."

A wholesome story that I particulary enjoyed. A story about connection across boundaries.

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"This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written. After all, I undertook to tell several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story and I leave it to you as to how well I succeeded. I also undertook another task, but I won't tell you what that was lest l spoil the story for you. It is a curious fact that innumerable readers have asked me if I wrote this story. They seem never to remember the title of the story or (for sure) the author, except for the vague thought it might be me. But, of course, they never forget the story itself especially the ending. The idea seems to drown out everything -- and I'm satisfied that it should"

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Rationality: From AI to Zombies by Eliezer Yudkowsky is a huge tome that covers everything from heuristics to Bayes theorem. Its main goal is to give the reader a better/modern understanding of rationality and the tools one needs to have in their toolkit.

The book was quite the journey and over the coming months I plan to go back to the individual posts to put concepts in Obsidian and make notes on the review page.

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Autism on Acid is an amazingly personal book written by Aaron Paul Orsini and documents his transformational experience with a variety of LSD dosages and how they have helped him in his struggles with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

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I listened to the lastest two readings from the Beginning of Infinity and then some separate podcasts Brett Hall did, all were good, although there was some overlap.

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"In this episode the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Gabriel Dance about the global epidemic of child sexual abuse. They discuss how misleading the concept of “child pornography” is, the failure of governments and tech companies to grapple with the problem, the tradeoff between online privacy and protecting children, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, photo DNA, the roles played by specific tech companies, the ethics of encryption, “sextortion,” the culture of pedophiles, and other topics."

The problem is big, and getting bigger. Although it's difficult to measure. I really can't get my head around why people would want to do this, but Gabriel does provide the more extreminisation (not a word) of porn might have something to do with it.

Worth a listen, and a good call to action that tech companies are complicit and should fight it with much more force.

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Hell Yes or No by Derek Sivers is a great little book with life advice from a man who has figured out some good things about life. The thinking is clear, concise, and evergreen. Definitely a book to re-read/listen to (parts of) again every year or so.

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Measure What Matters by John Doerr is a great book about goal setting (as a company, also works for yourself). The book is structured well, the examples are a bit long but can be skipped over. Overall really recommended and it reinvigorated my goal-setting habits.

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Broken Stars is an anthology of short stories by different Chinese writers. They are collected by Ken Liu (an awesome writer in his own right). I can't say that I enjoyed every story as much, but there are some really innovative ones in there.

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"How parasympathetic responses fuel connection, social bonding, trust, and healing—and may even help us live longer. Strategies for releasing oxytocin, from orgasm to psychedelics and everything in between. Unintentionally creating intentional community. Switching from a culture of me to we. THC, the CB1 receptor, and promiscuous drugs. Where it does—and doesn’t—make sense to treat depression with psychedelics. Why it’s time to talk about cooperation, more rigorous psychedelic guidelines, and death."

Good intro to Julie Holland's new book. A wide ranging conversation that doesn't shy away from anything. Also about how the research is being done and how (especially now) integrity needs to be kept (and trouble not swept under the rug).

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"Yoel and Mickey have a far ranging conversation with University of British Columbia professor of philosophy, Evan Thompson. Despite growing up with a daily meditation practice and contributing to the cognitive science of mindfulness, why does Evan not consider himself a Buddhist? Is Buddhism a religion that is truly different from other religions? Is the self an illusion, as is popularily portrayed by Buddhist modernists such as Sam Harris? What do failures to replicate social psychology studies of embodied cognition mean for the larger enterprise of embodied cognition? Can science and traditional Buddhism co-exist? Why is Evolutionary Psychology a doomed entreprise?"

Consciousness is a process. And our perception/ego is part of that process. It's (according to Thompson) not an illusion as Sam Harris likes to state. He has many characteristics of a Buddhist, but argues in the podcast why he doesn't think it's significantly elevated above other religions.

At one point I should/could further explore his ideas. Here is his website.

Also from this podcast or the one above, I got reminded that psychological factors are (largely) determined by genetics, and that this is (by definition) a normal distribution. Or in other words, we categorize the extremes as anxiety disorder and the likes (and the other side robust or stoic?). So, pessimisticly, is there even anything we can do about it? I think we can about the symptoms/outcomes, but as of now not about the genetics. Or in other words, if you have a 'depressive-nature', you can better manage your life (insert psychedelics), but as of now I think the cards you were dealt determine more than I previously thought. Which can liberate us from some worries and could be bad news for others. Also, this doesn't bar us from taking responsibility for extreme live events and lowering them (children and mothers dying in child birth, rape, etc).

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"How do you actually make change in the world? For 126 years, Mississippi has had the Confederate battle flag on their state flag, and they were the last state in the nation where that emblem remained “officially” flying. A few days ago, that flag came down. A few days before that, it coming down would have seemed impossible. We dive into the story behind this de-flagging: a journey involving a clash of histories, designs, families, and even cheerleading."

Documents the history and struggle of getting the Confederate battle flag (or you know, the wrong side in the civil war) down. Good to hear where people come from, still frustrating that people argue for tradition or their 'values' when the flag is (also) an unquestionable sign for slavery. Still good to hear that progess is possible.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with William J. Perry and Lisa Perry about the ever-present threat of nuclear war. They discuss the history of nuclear weapons, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the present threat of accidental nuclear war, nuclear terrorism, unilateral disarmament, the psychology of deterrence, tactical nuclear weapons, cybersecurity, details of command and control, nuclear proliferation, the steps we could take toward safety, strategic missile defense, nuclear winter, and other topics."

We are still on hairtrigger alert when it comes to nuclear war. Perry has good suggestions on how to diffuse some of that tension. The difficulty lies in getting it implemented, especially in the current political climate. Still, he seems to be paving the way forward and hopefully some of the ideas will be implemented. And as I already learned, nuclear war because of an accident (i.e. bear climbing over a fence, birds on the radar) is the most likely cause (and that is just stupid).

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Scott Barry Kaufman about human well-being. They discuss intelligence and creativity, wisdom and transcendence, the history of humanistic psychology, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the connection between well-being and ethics, self-esteem, psychedelics and meditation, peak and plateau experiences, mortality salience, the pre-trans fallacy, fear of uncertainty, work and meaning, intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards, pathological altruism, intimacy vs. belonging, two aspects of self-transcendence, and other topics."

A surprisingly good conversation that touched upon a lot of aspects that make a good (and happy) life. What was new to me was that Maslov himself didn't see his hierarchy as a piramid, but already knew/proposed it as a hierachy where you sometimes are missing the 'lower' levels and can still work on the 'higher' ones.

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Network Effect by Martha Wells is the fifth installment in the Murderbot Diaries series. It was a bit longer than probably necessary and I wasn't totally focussed, so it wasn't as engaging as with the earlier editions.

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Antifragile by Nassim Taleb - systems that increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failure.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Toby Ord about preserving the long term future of humanity. They discuss moral biases with respect to distance in space and time, the psychology of effective altruism, feeling good vs. doing good, possible blindspots in consequentialism, natural vs. human-caused risk, asteroid impacts, nuclear war, pandemics, the potentially cosmic significance of human survival, the difference between bad things and the absence of good things, population ethics, Derek Parfit, the asymmetry between happiness and suffering, climate change, and other topics."

Not much I didn't know already (from The Precipice). Focus for Xrisk is on AI and argues that we humans will be the cause of our demise or grand future. The future could possibly hold many more lives and it would be great if we could steer it towards a better one. Next to the AI efforts, I'm not too familiar with how charities/NGOs are tackling this or how effective this is (or in other words, I haven't updated my beliefs away from AMF in terms of donations).

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After originally reading Dune in late 2018, I've reread it in June 2020. Great book and it was interesting to see how much I had forgotten.

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"Brian and Dave are joined by Psymposia writer Russell Hausfeld to discuss capitalist logic in psychedelia, the principles of open science, and the increasing eagerness of extractive industry players (including gold and lithium mining outfits and traders) looking to capitalize on psychedelics."

Psymposia brings their ever-critical views on psychedelics corporations to the front again. It's a good podcast, but not too constructive/offering alternatives. Still interesting to see what kind of 'bad actors' are in the field and where they come from. One thing I don't agree with, is that we have finite resources, the whole idea of us humans is that we are creative and can think of new ways to do things, e.g. solar panels.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam discusses the recent social protests and civil unrest, in light of what we know about racism and police violence in America."

I can agree with Sam that we need to pull back from the brink. Shit is still bad in the US, but is it worse than 3 years ago. Conversation has broken down, and I hope Sam releases a conversation podcasts soon (vs this monologue). I do agree with him that we now see everything through the lens of discrimination (vs some people/police just being dicks in general). But I don't know if I can agree with that we should tone things down (if he even says that), we can be angry and frustrated. But, we need beter systems, not only protests. And only through conversation and seeing each other can we do this.

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"Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal are three of the most famous battles of the Second World War. Together they will shift the momentum in the Pacific theater and usher in the era of modern naval and amphibious warfare."

Another great episode of high drama by the masterful storyteller Dan Carlin.

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Wall of Storms by Ken Liu is the second installment in the dandelion trilogy. It’s another epic story that entices emotions, uncovers plots, and keeps on surprising with the large level of creative innovation.

Preceded by The Grace of Kings, also author of The Hidden Girl and The Paper Menagerie. All very good

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"Mindmed is a neuro-pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops and deploys psychedelic inspired medicines to improve health, promote wellness and alleviate suffering. We spoke with co-CEO JR Rahn about his path as an entrepreneur, the company’s approach to tackling the opioid crisis and their intellectual property strategy."

18-MC as non-psychedelic dopamine reset. Pharma company, so no interest in legalization and thinks top-down works best (could be so). LSD interesting, but didn't clarify what they could do with it.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with David Frum about the shifting political landscape. They discuss the secularization of politics, distrust of the media and other institutions, voter suppression, the 2020 elections, what happens if Trump gets a second term, the role of money in politics, conspiracy theories around Covid-19, the Michael Flynn controversy, the prospect that Trump will refuse to leave office, and other topics."

Good analysis of politics in the US. Frum is very optimistic that any democratic candidate will win (because of the mega unemployment that America is facing). This is even without the latest protests.

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DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman offers his account of a large scale study on the effects of DMT on the human brain and psyche. The book gives a detailed account of the research, how it came to be, the difficulties in getting it started, and the outcomes. Strassman puts an emphasis on the experiences of the participants and tries to fit them into categories and explanations. Although he makes several disclaimers that he ‘takes the experience at face value only as a thought experiment’ he often shines through that the second part of that sentence had been dropped.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Markovits about the problems with meritocracy. They discuss the nature of inequality in the United States, the disappearance of the leisure class, the difference between labor and capital as sources of inequality, the way the education system amplifies inequality, the shrinking middle class, deaths of despair, differing social norms among the elite and the working class, the ethics of taxation, scales of philanthropy, universal basic income, the need for a wealth tax, the relationship between meritocracy and political polarization, the illusion of earned advantages, and other topics."

Good analysis of why meritocracy isn't working. Main points relate to elites buying their way into education (and thus 'merit'). Also discussion on a one-time tax and that also sounded well-reasoned. I also made note of the relative philantropy and how some of the most rich only give away a very small portion (and some a large portion like Bill Gates).

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Jonathan Haidt about the maintenance of a healthy society. They discuss the problem of orthodoxy, the history of political polarization in the US, the breakdown of public conversation, remaining uncertainty about Covid-19, motivated reasoning, the 2020 election, the future prospects for Gen Z, the effect of social media on the mental health of girls, Jonathan’s experience with psychedelics, positive psychology, loss of self, the experience of awe, and other topics."

This was a really insightful conversation. Jonathan has a way of looking at the world that looks beyond the opposing forces (here politics in the US) and sees the motivation behind things. The latter half is about meditation and psychedelics and finding calm. Awe, losing yourself, leads to helping others, heart opens, and self transcendence, self-annihilation leads to connection to others - were some of the notes I took. I should dive deeper into his research to get a better graps on it than these few words of course.

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I don't really write much about the things I watch here (but why should I write about YouTube fitness videos anyway). That joke aside, I've been watching some good series and Devs was one among those. It's an interesting premise and great work on the suspense and cinematography. Quantum computer, free will, teenage coder, and unstable characters, what more could you want.

Some other good things I've watched: Westworld (could have been better though), Rick & Morty, Better Call Saul.

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"Socrates was ugly and tired of life, so he made a tyrant of reason. Philosophers are mummies who hate the body and the senses. Reason is a tricky old woman. Morality is a misunderstanding. Kant is a sneaky Christian. And don't even get Nietzsche started on "free will" or the "self" - just excuse for priests to punish people, a hangman's metaphysics. David and Tamler dive into Friedrich Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols, a fascinating set of aphorisms brimming with passion, provocation, questions without answers."

Hmm, some fun stuff at the beginning, but I didn't really get (or read) Nietzsche, so maybe that is why much went over my head.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Andrew Yang about the Covid-19 pandemic. They discuss the future of the middle class, Andrew’s experience campaigning for President, the need to build new digital infrastructure, universal basic income (UBI), concerns about the Biden’s age and #MeToo allegation, hostility between the United States and China, problems with the global supply chain, concerns about social cohesion, market failures, and other topics."

It's good to hear from Andrew Yang and his vision for America. He seems very smart and reasonable. He alleviates some concerns Sam has about Biden (but not all) and talks about how the American (political) system is broken and Trump is both an effect of that system, as one who is making it worse.

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Ecstasy: The Complete Guide edited by Julie Holland gives a solid and near-complete overview of the scientific and therapeutic knowledge about Ecstasy (MDMA, XTC, Adam, Molly). Although the book dates back to 2001, it’s more complete than one would expect, as much was then already known about Ecstasy.

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"Stacey Wallin & Payton Nyquvest join Paul Austin to discuss their new project, Numinus, a global network of healing spaces that use a combination of psychedelic medicine and cutting-edge science. Founded in 2018, Numinus offers a holistic blend of medicine-assisted therapy, psycho-spiritual support and integrative services as a path towards experiencing transformative health. Based in Vancouver, they plan to develop worldwide centers in the coming years."

A bit heavy on the 'I came here because I had X experience', and not too concrete on what they will do. But seems like people with some influence and money to get things rolling in Canada.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about the Covid-19 pandemic and its future implications. They discuss the failures of global leadership, the widespread distrust of institutions, the benefits of nationalism and its current unraveling in the U.S., politics as a way of reconciling competing desires, the consequences of misinformation, the enduring respect for science, the future of surveillance, the changing role of religion, and other topics."

If we take the very long view (say 500 years), we're doing so much better than in previous pandemics. Also interesting was their discussion about democracy and letting people vote directly on things (e.g. Brexit) and in how far the public can be trusted, Harari was more on the side of the public than Harris. Another interesting take was Harari's one on nationalism and saying that it's on the decline, what we're seeing is a divide and people being afraid of their 'neighbours', not focussing too much on other countries (still bad, but something slightly different).

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"In this episode, Joe interviews Amanda Feilding, Founder and Director of The Beckley Foundation. In the show, they cover topics on psychedelic research, policy work, regulation, and the benefits of psychedelics in a time of crisis."

Amanda Feilding had many interesting things to say. LSD research into creativity hasn't been done too much, but she is very optimistic in that regard.

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Great documentary about AlphaGo and the pivotal games it played in 2016. Also great music and editing. Really makes you excited for artificial intelligence.

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The Psychedelic Renaissance by Ben Sessa offers an enthusiastic, level-headed, and much-underappreciated overview of psychedelics and their potential.

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Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a great short (3.5h) introduction to astrophysics. It touches upon the size of the universe, the elements and where they originate from, and gives us humans a somewhat larger perspective.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Caitlin Flanagan. They discuss the different sorts of experiences people are having during the Covid-19 pandemic, what it has exposed about our education system, the 2020 election and the many problems with Joe Biden, why the press has been slow to cover Biden’s #MeToo allegation, the perceived double standards in the press and within feminism, and other topics."

A bit too political for my taste, not really too much new under the sun.

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"Stephen Wolfram shares remarkable lessons from his life and how he build the things he wanted to use. "

"Advice from Steve Jobs for naming a product: Take the generic word of the product and romanticize it"

Interesting interview and actually very timely. I've built a standing desk with walking (treadmill) option. I was partly inspired by a blog of Wolfram about his setup. He also launched the project he was talking about, just today (or yesterday).The Wolfram Physics Project. People only aren't fans (of his ego), but I have the positive position of not knowing about that too much. Overall inspiring and fun to hear him think about things as mathematical 'problems'.

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The Precipice by Toby Ord is a great birdseye view of the biggest challenges that we humans face in the future. Challenges that have the possibility of extinguishing our potential, threats that may make us go extinct. As could be predicted, these threats are currently mostly man-made.

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My first thoughts about getting solar panels and a green roof. Probably good to do for reducing heat in the bedroom (when not wanted ;) ). Investment in solar panels is probably also good, will have to calculate further when I have more information.

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"In this episode, Kyle sits down with Dylan Beynon, founder of Mindbloom, NYC based mental health and wellbeing platform. In the show they talk about how Mindbloom differs from other centers, paving the way for accessibility and affordability."

Really interesting to hear how ketamine is being used in the US and how Mindbloom is making it more affordable. It made my opinion of ketamine as a psychedelic to be used in therapy rise. The short duration, relatively low costs, are great.

"(key takeaways) Mindbloom is a next-generation mental health platform, catered to accessibility and affordability. They use ketamine tablets, different from lozenges and any other method. The tablets are held in the mouth and then spit out to avoid entering the liver, causing a sedation-like experience. Mindbloom differentiates themselves from other psychedelic therapy options by using a patient-choice model, to keep it affordable for those who need it. They offer the 4-week therapy model and give patients the option to choose ‘add-ons’ like extra integration. "

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Some thoughts about switching the dog food of Max. Conclusion is that vegetarian food is cheaper than the current food and making it yourself is really costly.

Read the essay

"Does a global pandemic help break the spell of our bitter partisan conflict, or does it just raise the stakes? In the first CS show in years, Dan wrestles with the Zeitgeist."

It's good to hear Dan Carlin again. In the episode (the first of 33 attempts that he has released) he struggles with his thoughts about the current political climate and how he could add something that 'doesn't hurt/bring more damage'. He points out the trouble with our current system (focussed on the US), the lack of dialogue and the perception that the 'other side' is 'bad' (not that they have bad arguments, but that they are maybe even evil).

"When he goes away, your problems, if you're an anti-Trump person do not disappear with him. He's a symptom. He's someone that came to power because of all the things going on, he didn't cause all the things that are going on. He is an amplifier..."

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Tihkal by Alexander & Ann Shulgin is a(nother - after Pihkal) great biography and chemistry exploration by this amazing couple. First you're taken across the world, from small French villages to Brazilian villas. It's humorous, opinionated, open-hearted, and overall a great read.

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"David and Tamler begin by talking about the question on everyone’s mind right now – are we obligated to be pansexual? Then, since many of us have more free time on our hands these days, we thought it might be a good idea to revisit Bertrand Russell’s essay (published in Harper’s Magazine) “In Praise of Idleness.” How did workaholism become the norm? Why do we see working insanely long hours as a virtue, a moral duty rather than a necessity? Would more leisure make us more fulfilled and creative or just bored? We also discuss Daniel Markovits’ book "The Meritocracy Trap" - when life is a non-stop hyper-competitive grind from preschool to retirement even among the elites, is anyone happy?"

The fist part is just hilarious (and a bit sad), but overall they don't take the pansexual claims too serious. The second part questions if we can/should be iddle, and I think it's something I should become a bit better at. Just to enjoy doing nothing for a whole day, two days, etc. Now I can only do this for a few hours and then I start reading something (to learn) again or blogging here for instance.

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Science VS is now doing various episodes about the Corona virus (COVID-19). They are quite good, critical, and let you hear the stories from the people in the field (read: scientists).

Listen to the episodes

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu is another great collection of stories by this awesome writer and translator.

Previously I've written about The Paper Menagerie and also liked many of the stories in that one.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about the coronavirus pandemic. They discuss the likely effects on society, proactive vs reactive school closures, community transmission, false comparisons between coronavirus and flu, the imperative of social distancing, the timeline of the pandemic, Trump’s political messaging, the widespread distrust of expertise, the importance of “flattening the curve” of the epidemic, the possible failure of our healthcare system, gradations of personal response to this threat, and other topics."

We should be working hard to flatten the curve (so our healthcare system doesn't implode). In The Netherlands we're slow in taking these steps. I predict this will change in a few days. I will be keeping my distance and handshakes are not cool for now (which was very weird yesterday when I hosted the Effective Altruism meetup). But I will take some weirdness over your grandparents dying.

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The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer is an awesome book that will spark your interest in doing good, help you know where to donate, and discusses honestly what objections you might have to it.

Download the book for free!

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I've been gathering some of the links and quotes (and sometimes comments) to articles I've read the last month. Here they are for last month.

Check out the links

"Aubrey de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation."

Another interesting showing of Aubrey, again a good update on where the field of longevity is at. He is still optimistic that we will get there in my lifetime and documents some of the changes in the last 5 years. He also states that there haven't been many changes in the model of ageing (and that is a good thing), we just need to tackle the pathways through which we age right now.

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And so the saga ends (for now). The bòòòòòòbs (o not oe) have saved the universe. They (a majority) is ready to leave earth behind. What comes next?

First listened/read in April 2019, now relistening the series in February 2020.

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"In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Fred Kaplan about the ever-present threat of nuclear war. They discuss the history of nuclear deterrence, U.S. first-strike policy, preventive war, limited nuclear war, tactical vs. strategic weapons, Trump’s beliefs about nuclear weapons, the details of command and control, and other topics."

A free (full) episode again (but I'm on the paid list). A deep dive into nuclear bombs and the impact they have had. It's just a miracle (or multiverse anyone) that not more went wrong.

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It's a good second book in the Bobiverse saga, but alas it didn't have many ends/story arcs that closed.

First listened/read in April 2019, now relistening the series in February 2020.

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I previously wrote; "This was a fun story and makes me wonder about the second and third book in the ‘bobiverse‘. I do however think that the story structure was different from what I expected so let’s take a look..."

First listened/read in March 2019, now relistening the series in February 2020.

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I've been gathering some of the links and quotes (and sometimes comments) to articles I've read the last month. Here they are for last month.

Check out the links

Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic by Mike Jay gives you a full history of Mescaline. It takes you on a journey through the jungles of South America, over the plains of North America, to labs around the world. It not only documents who has been involved with the early use of it, but also how it's been taken up (and later left behind) in popular culture. A deep-dive into mescaline.

Historically interesting, not much related to research and as a compound also not that interesting for research.

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The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu is an amazing book in a genre that I normally don't read. It's a fantasy book that is set on some islands and represents technology as in the 16th age of China (or at least so I imagine).

Highly recommended if you're looking for a big book to lose yourself in.

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"James Wilks travels the world on a quest for the truth about meat, protein, and strength. Showcasing elite athletes, special ops soldiers, and visionary scientists to change the way people eat and live."

A good documentary that highlights why a vegan diet can be the very best for you. Very timely with my research into a healthier diet ongoing. I'm already almost eating only vegan foods, so this wasn't too much of a change/news for me. Good to see the athletic perspective too (but many featured also use other supplements). All-in-all a good documentary and recommended.

I did go out and looked at some criticism and found that some of the claims are overblown. Yet still I think that it does do a good job of highlighting some of the dangers associated with meat. The storytelling was also very much on point (i.e. one perspective), and quite 'American'.

Watch the trailer

The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley is a very interesting take on the psychedelic experience. It's written by the author of Brave New World, a very interesting book too.

I'm reading it for my new venture, and it's a fun read. Not per se necessary to understand psychedelics. Michael Pollan's How To Change Your Mind might be a better (and longer) intro.

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Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday is already the third book I've read by him. The others were 'The Obstacle Is the Way' and 'Perennial Seller'.

The chapters consist of short lessons around the mind, body, and soul. Each has some connection to stillness. Inner calm is what he argues for, and does so with success most of the time.

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A look forward to 2020 and the goals I've set for the new year.

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I've been gathering some of the links and quotes (and sometimes comments) to articles I've read the last month. Here they are for last month.

Check out the links

"In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Judson Brewer about addiction, craving, and mindfulness. They discuss the nature of reward-based learning, the role of subjective bias in addiction, the neuroscience of craving, the neural correlates of the sense of self, real-time neuroimaging, effort and effortlessness in meditation, smoking cessation through mindfulness, the difference between dopamine-driven reward and happiness, how to make meditation a habit, working with anxiety, and other topics."

A shorter episode that touches on many things I'm familiar with. With regards to the reward, I think that The Power of Habit is also a good source.

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After the click are my notes from Conjectures and Refutations by Karl Popper. I found it very interesting and was prompted by David Deutsch to read it. Some of the chapters (read: lectures) were a bit too repetitive. I will extend the notes sometime soon.

"our scientific knowledge, progresses by unjustified (and unjustifiable) anticipations, by guesses, by tentative solutions to our problems, in a word by conjectures"

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast Sam and Annaka Harris speak with Donald Hoffman about his book The Case Against Reality. They discuss how evolution has failed to select for true perceptions of the world, his “interface theory” of perception, the primacy of math and logic, how space and time cannot be fundamental, the threat of epistemological skepticism, causality as a useful fiction, the hard problem of consciousness, agency, free will, panpsychism, a mathematics of conscious agents, philosophical idealism, death, psychedelics, the relationship between consciousness and mathematics, and many other topics.

Wow, that was very interesting. His main point is that there we haven't evolved (and simulations back this up) to exactly see the world as it is. And there might be a more 'deeper' explanation behind it. Sam and Annika (his wife, author of Conciousness) do a good job of asking for clarifications and pointing out how some of Donald's wording might be confusing.

I would be curious to hear, in a few years, if he has made progress and how it also links back to quantum theory (ala David Deutsch).

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Beyond Coffee by James Beshara takes a look at the most popular nootropics, alas it doesn't provide much information beyond what I already knew.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Roland Griffiths about the current state of research on psychedelics. They discuss the historical prohibition against their use; the clinical and scientific promise of psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, DMT, MDMA, and other compounds; the risks associated with these drugs; the role of “set and setting”; the differences between psychedelics and drugs of abuse; MDMA and neurotoxicity; experiences of unity, sacredness, love, and truth; the long-term consequences of psychedelic experiences; synthetic vs natural drugs; the prospects of devising new psychedelics; microdosing; research on psilocybin and long-term meditators; the experience of encountering other apparent beings; psilocybin treatment of addiction; and other topics. In his Afterword, Sam discusses his experience on a large dose of psilocybin—his first psychedelic experience in 25 years.

A great conversation in which Roland Griffiths gives a good overview of where the science of psychedelic research is at this moment. It's all very promising (and I find it fascinating), but wide scale acceptance and more testing needs to be done.

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I've been gathering some of the links and quotes (and sometimes comments) to articles I've read the last month. Here they are for last month.

Check out the links

Tamler learns something new about menstruation. David weighs in on the democratic debates and the impeachment hearings. Then we map the various social and political factions onto the factions in our respective fields. Who are establishment neoliberals of philosophy, and who are the white feminists? What about the IDWs of psychology – and the Chads and Stacys? Finally we get serious and break down the article by Alan Fiske in Psychological Review called “The Lexical Fallacy in Emotion Research.” Does language affect how we understand the emotional landscape? Do the words we happen to use deceive us into thinking we have “carved nature at its joints”? What is a natural kind anyway when it comes to emotions?

Again a fun and informative episode. My conclusion is that we don't need/use exact language to have/describe emotions. And that around the world some people experience/describe them differently (also see Talking to Strangers above). So although you might not have a word for an emotion, you can still experience it and describe it in a roundabout way.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Lynn Novick about her four-part documentary College Behind Bars. The film follows the progress of students in the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) as they pursue their undergraduate degrees. Sam and Lynn are joined by Jule Hall, a BPI graduate who served a 22-year sentence and is now working for the Ford Foundation.

A very powerful conversation that sparks hope. Crime is very bad, but that doesn't mean someone should have no chances anymore. This conversation highlights how they are trying to use education to reintegrate people. Alas it's privately funded, and I hope the American government one day gets it shit together.

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Marcela Ot’alora G. is a psychotherapist and an installation artist. Her interest and focus on trauma has led her to understand the healing process as an intimate reconnection with one’s essence through love, integrity, acceptance, and honoring of the human spirit. In addition to working with trauma and PTSD, she has dedicated her professional life to teaching and research. She uses art as a vehicle for deepening the relationship to self, others, and the natural world. Marcela worked as a co-therapist in MAPS’ very first government regulated MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study in Madrid, Spain. She served as the principal investigator for MAPS’ phase two MDMA-assisted psychotherapy study, and is currently in the MDMA healthy volunteer study and phase three in Boulder, Colorado. She is also a trainer and supervisor for therapists working on MAPS studies for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

It's been a few months (since June) that I listened to the Tim Ferriss show. This one caught my attention because I'm interested in this area. The conversation describes her (life/work) experience and what Marcela thinks is important as a guide.

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Related Therapy Resources

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Yasmine Mohammed about her book Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam. They discuss her family background and indoctrination into conservative Islam, the double standard that Western liberals use when thinking about women in the Muslim community, the state of feminism in general, honor violence, the validity of criticizing other cultures, and many other topics.

A very deep and touching subject. It's great (in a way) to hear from someone who has been through the bad (very bad) things that faith/religion does to people (and societies). And still very alarming to hear how some others look at it (e.g. saying that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs/traditions, including very harmful ones).

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The Redemption of Time by Baoshu (translated by Ken Liu) was an awesome end to the Three-Body series. I really loved how he (another writer) brought everything together and closed many loops in the original books.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Richard Dawkins. They discuss the strangeness of the “gene’s-eye view” of the world, the limits of Darwinian thinking when applied to human life, the concept of the extended phenotype, ideologies as meme complexes, whether consciousness might be an epiphenomenon, psychedelics, meditation, and other topics.

A more light-hearted episode that let Dawkins explain some of the finer points of Neo-Darwinism. Some things about meditation from Sam. Wholesome.

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"A leading artificial intelligence researcher lays out a new approach to AI that will enable us to coexist successfully with increasingly intelligent machines"

I liked the book as a lay-person overview of where we are with AI. Stuart Russell does a great job of not looking too far ahead and also foreseeing some problems that we already have. There was no clear distinction between AI today and AGI, and that divide might be too technical/doubtful, but I (and Russell too) think the systems of today won't get us to AGI.

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The documentary series UNNATURAL SELECTION explores new developments in the science of gene-editing that defy evolution and raise moral, social and environmental impact questions about where we, as a society, draw the line.

I found the documentary to be very interesting. It does a great job of highlighting the humans involved in the different aspects of this newfound power. On the flipside, it also means that the information density is less than ideal. I like that it shows both things that can go well and things that are dangerous/possibly bad. Where it will go, I don't know, but watching this did provide some information (and inspiration for my second novella).

Watch the trailer

A short daily podcast in the light of Planet Money's 'The Indicator' (also recommended). Until now some cool episode on everything from insect invasions to human genome editing.

As far as I can judge the topics are well-researched and presented in an understandable manner. My only worry is that it's touching upon many topics without going deeper, and I might want to shut of some of this cool-yet-unactionable info quite soon. But for now, interesting.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Bari Weiss about her book How to Fight anti-Semitism. They discuss the three different strands of anti-Semitism (rightwing, leftwing, and Islamic), the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, the difference between anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, “Great Replacement Theory,” the populist response to globalization, the history of anti-Semitism in the U.S., criticisms of Israel, the fate of Jews in Western Europe, and other topics.

A good conversation where Sam explores the different reasons of anti-Semitism. There were definitely things there that I wasn't aware of. Personally I'm not a big fan of religions, but of course even less so against crime against people/races/religions. And it seems weird that it's also underreported, but that would probably have to do with the political system in the US.

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Japan’s rising sun goes supernova and engulfs a huge area of Asia and the Pacific. A war without mercy begins to develop infusing the whole conflict with a savage vibe.

It's been ages (9 months) since the last Hardcore History episode. In this one he continues the story of Japan in the second world war. Start at episode one (this is three). I can't recommend another history/podcast in general, more than this one.

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Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky is an interesting sci-fi book that takes the human race towards a new planet. Alas, the humans don't really get to land and some other species gains consciousness over time.

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Richard Dawkins, FRS FRSL is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. His latest book "Outgrowing God: A Beginner's Guide" is available now.

It's great to hear Joe and Richard Dawinks speak together. I'm not a regular listener to this podcast, but found this one (and the one above) quite interesting. Dawkins is of course known for his work on genetics, but this time they focus on his other area of interest, religion. They talke about some of the major flaws in logic present in them (with good examples of recent religions).

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Alex Blumberg made his early career by helping build two of the most successful shows in radio and podcasting: Planet Money and This American Life. In 2014, convinced that podcasts could make money, he walked away from the safe umbrella of public media to start a new media company with co-founder Matt Lieber. Every doubt, triumph and humiliation of building the business was documented on the podcast Startup, which included the back-and-forth over how the company got its name: Gimlet. Many more successful podcasts followed, and five years after launch, Gimlet sold to Spotify for roughly $200 million.

I heard this story earlier via Startup, their own podcast. From this perspective you again hear how crazy it actually was. And that all of this happened within 5 years. Major kudos to them.

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Is character destiny, or can fluky decisions or tiny shifts in weather patterns fundamentally change who we are? Does the existence or non-existence of alternate universes have any bearing on freedom and responsibility? David and Tamler conclude their discussion of Ted Chiang’s “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” along with another very short piece by Chiang called “What’s Expected of Us” that was first published in Nature.

Plus, do you have low likability in the workplace? It could be because you’re too moral and therefore not that funny. But don’t worry, we have a solution that’ll help you increase your humor production and likability with no reduction in morality. All you have to do is listen!

More discussion on Exhalalation (short stories) by Ted Chiang. Fun discussion, and it highlighted some points I hadn't thought about before.

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A very lucid look a what time is, what we know about it and how this is much different from how we experience it from day to day. Much physics is involved, but no more than one calculation.

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The very first time Tristan Walker shaved, he woke up the next morning with razor bumps all over his face. "I was like, what is this? " he remembers saying. "I am never shaving again—ever." He soon discovered that like him, many men of color were frustrated by the lack of shaving products for coarse or curly hair. Fifteen years after that first disastrous shave, and after countless meetings with doubtful investors, Tristan launched Bevel, a subscription shaving system built around a single-blade razor. Eventually his brand Walker & Company grew to include 36 hair and beauty products, used by millions of men and women across the U.S. In 2018, Walker & Company was sold to Proctor & Gamble, and Tristan became P& G's first black CEO.

A story about pursuing a passion, doing what it takes, and sticking to a vision. And in marketing terms, finding a blue ocean where others were not investing and knowing that this was the case. Tristan thinks long-term and was able to get people to care (i.e. build a movement) about his company and products.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Megan Phelps-Roper about her book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.

A good take on Christian fundamentalism and how to combat extremism. And how Twitter can be used for good sometimes.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Andrew McAfee about the history of human progress and the modern uncoupling of our prosperity from resource consumption. They discuss the pitfalls and hidden virtues of capitalism, technological progress, environmental policy, the future of the developing world, and other topics.

I really liked what McAfee had to say. Although we messed up the planet really badly, what if we more prosperity now won't lead to more pollution? That is what he argues for. Computers, he says, are the one thing we can point to. For instance that we can now let engineers think about the best way to make an alumminum can, saving resources.

He said somewhere that capitalism + tech = saving costs (fewer resources used). 'Make a buck, save a buck'.

But what about externalities (e.g. the water quality down river). Capitalism isn't very good at this and governments need to step up. He argues for a carbon neutral tax (e.g. not getting more money back to pay for stuff, but just circulate money back to offset damage). He also notes that poverty is the great pollutor (e.g. wood stoves in huts), so increasing wealth (especially now, with India and others using tech to do stuff much more efficiently than England did in the industrial revolution) doesn't equate increasing pollution.

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A conversation between Yuval Harari and Steven Pinker. The conversation is very calm and paced. They talk about important topics and go at it from slightly different angles. But no large disagreements.

- Pinker, treats: nuclear war (not likely, but very bad outcome), climate change (direction is not positive, ditto for nuclear) -- earlier progress (nuclear) - Harari: disruptive tech - biotech & AI (also promises) -- you need (for all of them, global cooperation) - populists/against current system - see fortresses as the solution, but those don't communicate

- intellectual climate in general -- don't have philosophical framework for new things (e.g. genetical editing babies) -- ideals of some are worst case of other - Pinker: reason, enlightenment has some things we can still use -- ditto: sympathy, objectivity -- but (Harari) you do need to start the conversation (jup) - but some are not useable with those old ideas (e.g. Effective Altruism - new, 21st century)

- Pinker doesn't think that advances (AI, gene editing) will come fast -- e.g. because there are many genes for trait A,B,C (link to Radiolab) - Harari: AI and gene editing don't have to be perfect, but just better than humans now! -- 'crucial line in sand, when the system knows you better than yourself!' --- good: healthcare needs, bad: China/21 century Stalin/hiring decisions - Pinker: we could already have 1984 technology (camera in every room), why? democracy etc -- but still in democracy (Harari) private survailance (Facebook)

- Harari: trade-off efficiency and ethics (will it still be right now with AI?) - Harari: AI of today is much better than us already in many cases, don't need AGI -- You only need one country to go ahead

- Intellectual climate West? -- Open Society (Popper?) vs race/identity/etc -- but problems in Russia and Hungary much worse - Harari: we need more scientists who need to inform the public and politics (science is coming closer to real life - e.g. climate change)

Overall a good conversation which higlighted their points of view.

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David and Tamler dive back into the Ted Chiang well and explore the fascinating world described in "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom." What if you could interact with alternate versions of yourself - versions that made different choices, had different jobs, or different partners?

I recently listeend to the collection of stories (Exhalalation) and I can confirm they are very interesting. The take of David And Tamler are also interesting and got me thinking about the ideas some more.

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A look back at the progress of my 2019 goals over Q3 and a look forward toward the end of the year.

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The Great Mental Models: General Thinking Concepts by Shane Parrish (of Farnham Street blog fame) is a short (3,5 hours) read/listen that introduces some awesome and useful mental models.

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The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide by James (Jim) Fadiman gives you an overview of what we know today about using psychedelics for therapy/self-care/self-exploration.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Barbara Tversky about how our senses of space and motion underlie our capacity for thought. They discuss the evolution of mind prior to language, the importance of imitation and gesture, the sensory and motor homunculi, the information communicated by motion, the role of “mirror neurons,” sense of direction, natural and unnatural categories, cognitive trade-offs, and other topics.

I really liked the concept of her widening the scientific knowledge to go beyond the verbal and more specifically beyond words/language. In the conversation they talk about her work in these areas and more generally about the research being done. We do a lot more than speak, and the book she has written (Mind in Motion), covers more of this.

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I also listened to this one a second time and it was even better than the first time. The grand theories, the struggle, and wall-facing brilliance, it was a wild ride again.

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I probably read this somewhere in the beginning of 2018, or end of 2017 for the first time. Now on 12 September 2019 I've re-read (or actually listened) it again. I can highly recommend the book (and the triology in general). It's hard sci-fi, starts from China, and ends somewhere else in the universe.

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In the late 1980s, Curt Jones was working in a Kentucky lab, using liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze animal feed. He wondered if he could re-invigorate his favorite dessert by pouring droplets of ice cream into a vat of liquid nitrogen and – voila! – out came cold and creamy pellets that he soon branded Dippin' Dots. The novelty treat spread to fairs, stadiums and shopping malls, and eventually grew into a multi-million dollar brand. But a few years ago, Curt was forced to walk away after the company was hit with debt, recession and a punishing lawsuit.

Guy starts of the podcasts saying it's a cautionary tale, and he wasn't lying when he said that. The story showcases what can go wrong, the other risks that were taken (read: lots of personal and family debt), and how he lost the business in the end. Good to hear another side of the coin.

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This was a very fun book. It takes place in space, Max is a badass, and there is lots of fighting and gore. I wouldn't say there are any deeper topics being discussed, it's just a bit of fun to relax with.

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(forgot to add earlier) Awesome short stories by Ted Chiang. Inspired by podcast of Very Bad Wizards and earlier work I read by him to listen to these ones.

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David and Tamler dive back into the Bible, this time to the perplexing and poetic Book of Job. What does this book have to say about the theodicy, the problem of evil? Why does Job (and his children) have to suffer so much just so God can prove a point to Satan? Are the speeches of Job's friends meant to be convincing? Does Job capitulate in the end? Does God contradict himself in the last chapter? What’s the deal with Elihu? So many questions, not as many answers – maybe that's why it's such a classic.

An interesting discussion of a book (of a book) that I've not yet read. In the discussion they don't find concrete answers, and that might have more to do with the Book of Job than their analytical skills.

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Seeing Like A State by James C. Scott explores the mishaps of statebuilding, and more precise ‘high modernism’. It takes multiple deep dives into examples with a focus on forestry, agriculture, city building, and social organisation. These include Tanzanian villages, Russia under Lenin, and Revolutionary France.

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The Good Gut by Justin and Erica Sonnenburg is an interesting first look at the state of research into our gut. They are good at pointing out that we don’t know much yet and that much more research needs to be done. There are some recommendations (eat more fibres) sprinkled throughout the book. And they use their personal life to reflect on the choices they have made regarding nutrition.

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Flux by Jeremy Robinson is an engaging sci-fi book that takes you through time. Good parts were the connection between characters and historical accuracy. I found more difficult/not-expected the superhuman characters and what they were doing in the story.

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For a new project I'm reading this book. It has some very good pointers and advice. It also provides a rather complete document for guidance. Yet my problem with it is the non-scientific lens it puts on. I don't think we can quantify/measure/etc everything, but mentions of tarot cards and spirits just get me a little too riled up.

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In this very interesting series, the Radiolab team tackles intellinge. They ask what it is, how we should measure it, what could go wrong, and what has gone wrong. They also dive into ethics relating to what if we could change intelligence. The last one was very interesting because you can imagine yourself on a slope. When you have kids, you want to give them the best education and attention and care as a parent. Most people would also screen for diseases and missing chromosomes. But where do you draw the line? What are the criteria?

And when should you not have a kid. What are the right reasons? (e.g. the care it should need and 'ruining' other peoples lives) And what are the wrong reasons? (eugenics)

Listen to the first episode/series

The less we know, the more we know it. David and Tamler talk about the notorious Dunning-Kruger effect, which makes us overconfident in beliefs on topics we're ignorant about and under-confident when we're experts. Plus, we break down an evolutionary psychology article on why poor men and hungry men prefer women with big breasts. Trust us, it's a really bad study. We're sure about it.

Ohh what a fun they had with the second topic. Just wow, that we are doing this kind of research (and the lack of rigour that went into it). The Dunning-Kruger effect was very interesting to hear about again (see mom, I did learn something during psychology). The google trend even shows it being used more and more.

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The web is broken. Data is mined, sold, and exploited. Social media is an endless and biased scroll through the worst of humanity. Nobody’s personal information is safe. And worst of all, it’s inescapable. The web is a cornerstone of our lives. It’s how we work, communicate with each other, and get information. And it wasn’t supposed to be like this. How did a utopian vision of a free, open, and democratic internet turn into nothing more than a machine for marketing and surveillance? In the season finale Caterina is joined by early web adopters Steven Berlin Johnson, Anil Dash, and Kevin Delaney to ask: Where did the web go wrong? Could we have prevented it? And what, if anything, can we now do to fix it? It’s a question that affects us all and will determine the future of our lives online… and off.

A more historic event/technology. Interesting but I don't have much to say about it.

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Sam Harris returns to the podcast to talk about meditation and his new Waking Up meditation app. What are the goals of mindfulness practice - stress reduction and greater focus, or something much deeper? Can it cure David's existential dread? Tamler's fear of his daughter going away to college? Can sustained practice erode the illusion of self? Is that even something we'd want to do? What if it diminishes our attachment to people we love? And what is the self anyway? Is Sam a defender of panpsychism? So many questions... Plus, the ethics of creating talking elephants by curing them of their autism through bonding and possibly mounting. (Seriously.)

This was my introduction to this podcast and I really like it. It's more of 'two smart people talking', but more intellectually than CGP Grey and Brady Harran. And with guest like this time. The episode summary lists the questions answered/discussed quite well. One thing Sam talks about is the principle/teaching of impermanence. That we should not cling onto things that will change eventually.

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The Singularity Trap by Dennis E. Taylor is another good book by the author of the Bob's series. This one is less fun and universe building and more focussed on one particular event and story. It still has quite some humour and interesting dynamics. Less expansive, still fun and well-written.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Eric Topol about the way artificial intelligence can improve medicine. They talk about soaring medical costs and declining health outcomes in the U.S., the problems of too little and too much medicine, the culture of medicine, the travesty of electronic health records, the current status of AI in medicine, the promise of further breakthroughs, possible downsides of relying on AI in medicine, and other topics.

Finding correlations and new discoveries through big data and AI in healthcare has proven to be a bit too early. Watson was/is quite the flop. Yet at the same time AI systems can be used to spot tumors on pictures, to see what gender you have, just based on your eye. I guess it is in line with other things we know about AI today, there is no understanding. We shouldn't put all our hope/trust into systems like this, but we should and can use it to our advantage.

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Possible Minds: 25 Ways of Looking at AI by John Brockman is a collection of essays by leading AI researchers, artists, and philosophers. They all give their own view on the state/future of AI, a reflection on The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener. Each essay is quite different and here I will try to summarise them.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Jared Diamond about the rise and fall of civilizations. They discuss political polarization, disparities in civilizational progress, the prospect that there may be biological differences between populations, the precariousness of democracy in the US, the lack of a strong political center, immigration policy, and other topics.

Diamond is well-versed in history and knows that making parallels with other (end) times isn't always useful. At the same time you can learn from other periods of time (and I think that his latest book, Upheaval, is motly about that, and how to recover from crisis). They talk about his other books too.

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In 2004, two former Paypal engineers, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russ Simmons, were spit-balling new internet ideas. Out of their brainstorm came a site where you would email your friends asking for local business recommendations. The launch was a flop, but they discovered that people seemed to enjoy writing reviews not just for friends, but for the general public. Fifteen years later, Yelp is a publicly traded company with more than 4,000 employees and over 140 million monthly visitors.

Most interesting is one underlying factor, the time/place that shaped Jeremy and the rest of the PayPal maffia. Someone that is just willing to give to bright guys 1 million to develop an idea, that is pretty audacious. I'm still listening to Loonshots but I think many of the mentioned concepts apply here too.

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Growing up, Tim Brown discovered he was very good at two things: design and soccer. While playing professional soccer in New Zealand, he was turned off by the flashy logos on most athletic gear. He started making simple canvas shoes for his teammates, but soon discovered a better material: soft merino wool from his country's plentiful sheep. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, his future business partner Joey Zwillinger was frustrated that most companies lacked a genuine commitment to sustainability. In 2015, Tim and Joey teamed up to create Allbirds, a company with two ambitious goals: create the world's most comfortable shoes, and do it in a way that was completely carbon-neutral. Today, just three years after launch, Allbirds is worth $1.4 billion.

One nugget from the episode is the part about turning down an investor that did make a reasonable offer, but that didn't believe in his vision. I think that you should have the same idea and that only then you can move forward with something like that. Anyways, a good episode and fun conversation. Oh another thing, sustainability (what we're also about at Queal), not a great marketing talking point (comfortable is what they chose instead), just let sustainability be a secondary thing (but it's not the main buying reason).

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Julie Rice is an entrepreneur best known for co-founding the fitness phenomenon SoulCycle. Julie served as Co-CEO at SoulCycle from 2006 to 2015 before joining WeWork in November 2017.

A good conversation that touches a lot on working together in a team (and as cofounders). I heard about SoulCycle before on the How I Built This Podcast and this gave some more insight into the company. What I really like is that they made something people wanted, and expanded from there. I think at Queal that is one of the things we should focus on, creating value for our customers (and letting them spread the word). And less on shouting to the world that we're cool.

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The synopsis of the episode is also what I took away from it: "When you’re building a bridge, responsibility for making sure it won’t fall over isn’t handed over to a few ‘bridge not falling down engineers’. Making sure a bridge is safe to use and remains standing in a storm is completely central to the design, and indeed the entire project. When it comes to artificial intelligence, commentators often distinguish between enhancing the capabilities of machine learning systems and enhancing their safety. But to Pushmeet Kohli, principal scientist and research team leader at DeepMind, research to make AI robust and reliable is no more a side-project in AI design than keeping a bridge standing is a side-project in bridge design.Far from being an overhead on the ‘real’ work, it’s an essential part of making AI systems work in any sense. We don’t want AI systems to be out of alignment with our intentions, and that consideration must arise throughout their development."

And: "For instance, Pushmeet is looking for efficient ways to test whether a system conforms to the desired specifications, even in peculiar situations, by creating an ‘adversary’ that proactively seeks out the worst failures possible. If the adversary can efficiently identify the worst-case input for a given model, DeepMind can catch rare failure cases before deploying a model in the real world. In the future single mistakes by autonomous systems may have very large consequences, which will make even small failure probabilities unacceptable."

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Seth Tibbott may be the only founder in the world who grew his business while living in a barn, a teepee, and a treehouse. His off-the-grid lifestyle helped him save money as he started to sell tempeh, a protein made of fermented soybeans. Throughout the 1980s he barely scraped by, but things took a turn in 1995, when he discovered a stuffed tofu roast made in Portland, Oregon. Knowing vegetarians had few options at Thanksgiving, Seth named the roast Tofurky and started selling it at co-ops in the Pacific Northwest. Nearly 25 years later, Tofurky sells plant-based protein around the world, and has estimated sales of $40 million a year.

Seth was early, way early. He didn't have (or has) too much business acumen and that is great. You need to balance the books, but being a mission driven company can give so much meaning/satisfaction to life. A fun and compelling listen.

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In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Adam Grant about the social science of the workplace. They discuss how teams work effectively, the nature of power, personality types and fundamental styles of interaction, the critical skill of saying “no,” creativity, resilience, the strange case of Jonas Salk, the nature of mindfulness, the power of cognitive reappraisal, reflections on mortality, the replication crisis in social science, and other topics.

I'm already familiar with Adam Grant from his various books, most notably Give and Take. The thing I found most interesting is that being a giver (or taker) and being confrontational (or not) are orthogonal (they don't correlate together), and that a person that is high in both, could be the best leader (a confrontational helper of sorts).

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Can we live forever, that is a question I'm asking actively at this time. Valter Longo gives some years extra with the longevity diet. Next to that he advocates for a Fasting Mimicing Diet (FMD) every few months. His advice is about keeping the machine clean and running well. Yet I think we still need to do repairs sometimes to keep it going at 100% (or more).

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Ramit Sethi, author of the New York Times bestseller I Will Teach You To Be Rich, has become a financial guru to millions of readers in their twenties, thirties, and forties. He started his website, iwillteachyoutoberich.com, as a Stanford undergraduate in 2004, and he now hosts over a million readers per month on his blog, newsletter, and social media.

The conversation between Tim and Ramit is again one in which they discuss several topics with great clarity. Some things I already knew (how to invest in index funds etc). Other things were good refreshers (do spend money on the things you love, cut out other expenses (vs saving a bit everywhere)). And other things were new (how to talk about a prenub, or similarly a living arrangement agreement).

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Mike Pappas and Carter Huffman believe their invention fulfills the promise of the digital world: the complete freedom to design your identity. But what if we all used it? The human voice is a key marker of authenticity and individuality, and Modulate uses A.I to transform your voice into anything you want it to be. In real time. If you’re a woman and want to sound like a man, Modulate can help you. But he gift of free expression also comes with a price. Yes: Modulate could allow people to be their true selves and speak in a voice that represents who they are. Yes: Modulate could expose institutional vocal bias against certain sounds and accents. But it also could contribute to the world of deep faking and harassment. At what point is digitizing our real-world identity too much?

The case they didn't discuss on the podcast, which I thought of immediately, was that of guys (older creepy guys) adopting the voice of kids/girls to develop trust and then do bad things later. It was also very interesting to hear them talk about the 'watermark' they can put in the modulator, and it's good that they are thinking about the security risks.

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Ben Chestnut knows: When you bootstrap your business, you have to make your own luck. He used a DIY ethos to grow Mailchimp to a $600M company without ever raising a dollar of outside funding. The Mailchimp story is the exception to Reid's rule (Generally: Raise more money than you think you need!). The episode explores a range of options for those who don't fit the VC-funding mold for any set of reasons.

If you want to grow fast and have a large impact (if they need to go hand-in-hand) then VC funding might be the way to go. I think that this is the lense through which Reid frames this dilemma and that is ok. What I like about bootstrapping is that it's also a way to go slower and with less risk (i.e. you make money whist building the company).

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The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin is a great book on how to achieve peak performance. It mixes together his personal journey in chess and push hands with frameworks he discovered during his life. In my summary, I will pick apart the principles and see how I can apply them in my own life. The main question I have is how to apply these things that are applied to the relative or very short timeframe, with learning and performing over longer periods of time without those competition moments.

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The revolution in home DNA testing is giving consumers important, possibly life-changing information. It’s also building a gigantic database that could lead to medical breakthroughs. But how will you deal with upsetting news? What if your privacy is compromised? And are you prepared to have your DNA monetized? We speak with Anne Wojcicki, founder and C.E.O. of 23andMe.

Earlier (on Science VS) I heard about the lack of good databases on ancestry (and the trouble with 'prototypical' people from country/region X). This time the focus is more on research and how 23andMe gets funding/makes money. I think we can do great things with the data from the company, but at the same time I'm sceptical until more comes out of it (and also think there may be some good things happening already with pharma companies).

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In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about his new book, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society. Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. His books include Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care and Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (coauthored with James H. Fowler). He was on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009.

Although I'm a bit late with summarising this one (5 days later), I do recall one main observation. And that is that some of our 'good' evolutionary behaviours (e.g. the distinction between ingroup and outgroup) can now lead to very 'bad' outcomes.

Here are some observations from the subreddit that I liked: "Christakis (among others) seems to instead argue that the evolved traits are with us, and that our intentions can not override them. Instead the modern political objective becomes how to attain good outcomes (or at least not bad ones) given the constraints of traits deep within us. Christakis’ example of the Hutu and Tutsi slaughter and how culturally created super-groups are less ideal, but more realistic ways to “hack” our attraction to de-individualized thought, outlines what that might be. MacAskill and Singer (#44 and #48) could be seen as moral philosophers who attempt to expand that circle of concern in their very rational way, while accepting that moral progress is a highly constrained optimization problem."

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I read this book again over the last few weeks and it's still one of the best (if not the best) book on behaviour change / goal-setting I've read. It's not too long, it's clear, unapologetic and based on decades of experience. I love how he uses it himself and that it gives clear guidelines on how to apply it yourself.

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Highly recommended movie that tells the story of a girl that gets lost in a spirit world. Great story arch and even better animation.

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We don't find meaning in the universe, we make the meaning (Max Tegmark). And how cool would it be if we could explore/make habitable more parts of the universe. We have to understand the principles of the brain better (Ed Boyden) before/so that we can better make (hybrid) interfaces with the world outside.

To create the future with AI. There are 3 technical nerdy questions, 1) how can we make machines even understand our goals, 2) how can we make the machines adopt the goals (e.g. like the difference between 1 and 2 for kids), 3) how do we get them to retain the goals (e.g. like how kids get bored of LEGO as they get older) (Max Tegmark)? If we can't solve these questions before we have machines who are smart enough, we are totally screwed.

Intelligence and consciousness are things we currently don't really understand, but that doesn't mean we can't. We actually know that we can figure it out (with time). And consciousness and competence are not related one on one.

What about inequality? George Church repeats something I also believe/get from data, is that the meaningful gap between poor and rich is becoming smaller. Many more people will get a house above their head, no smallpox, no malaria (fingers crossed), etc. Of course there will still be the ones at the top and within countries (instead of between) there may be bigger differences (at least in wealth) than before.

Democracy and equality go hand in hand. An article by Gilles? looked at opinion polls versus lobbyist money on voting records of US representatives. There was a deep correlation between it and lobbyists and not what the people wanted. Democracy can be bought. With regards to AI it should be prevented that this becomes the same (Max Tegmark). But George Church gives a little bit of pushback on it, that the lobyists reflect our voting (with our wallets) to corporations.

Will we still have work in the future? We will still find meaning in work. And we will still want to get some things from humans (connection). Work might be more decoupled from pay/money, but we get more from it than that.

If someone would come for career advice (to Max Tegmark), and that person would talk about getting cancer, being hit by a bus, etc. Well, that would be very stupid. But that is, in part, what we humans are doing (e.g. Terminator, Bladerunner, etc). It might get more clicks, but we could use some optimism too.

Diversity between people and fields can be a great boon to research. This includes art, philosophy, and more. Focussing on one problem with one viewpoint, will be left behind.

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Susan Tynan's experience in the ephemeral e-market of LivingSocial made her want to start a business that she could touch and feel. After being charged $1600 to frame four posters at her local framing store, she decided to create a mail-order framing company that offers fewer designs at lower prices. Framebridge is now five years old and still feeling growing pains, but is slowly reshaping the rules of a rigid industry.

It's great to hear about how someone wants to build a company and has to go through several very difficult events to make it happen (I can relate in some parts). A good interview and altough the industry is not too relevant, the busines model (ecommerce) is very much alike.

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Amanda Palmer is a singer, songwriter, playwright, pianist, author, director, blogger, and ukulele enthusiast who simultaneously embraces and explodes traditional frameworks of music, theatre, and art. She first came to prominence as one half of the Boston-based punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls, earning global applause for their inventive songcraft and wide-ranging theatricality.

This was a very personal conversation and Amanda shares her story freely.

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Humans, it has long been thought, are the only animal to engage in economic activity. But what if we’ve had it exactly backward?

We like to believe that humans are unique because we do X, Y, or Z. But almost everything including economic behaviour is also being done by other animals (or plants). One thing to not forget is to not mistake competence for comprehension. I like how the episode ends: "The one thing that makes humans human? Our obsession with asking and answering this question. As far as I know we’re the only species so concerned with distinguishing ourselves from other animals. Of course, research could prove me wrong."

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Joi Ito knows: No organization that’s entirely closed – or entirely open – can scale as successfully as an organization that combines both. Joi has spent his career championing radically open systems, from Creative Commons to cyber currency. Now as Director of the famed MIT Media Lab, he's focused on facilitating open conversations so we can keep pace with the shifting challenges we face in our companies, our institutions, and our societies.

I took from this episode that you should balance both open and closed systems (duh). What I think is true for closed systems is that you can better capture value (LinkedIN/Facebook). But open systems may provide more value for the world (internet, open source software). For a company I think it's important to have some open parts and to engage with a community (e.g. for Queal to ask input for a recipe, but that the company decides what it will be exactly).

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Shane Parrish about some of the mental models that should guide our thinking and behavior. Shane Parrish is the host of The Knowledge Project podcast and the founder of Farnam Street blog (highly recommended), which aims to help others develop an understanding of how the world works, make better decisions, and live a better life. Shane was previously a cybersecurity expert at Canada’s top intelligence agency, Communications Security Establishment, a division of Canada’s Defense Department.

I really like Shane's website and his way of looking at the world. In the podcast they discuss several mental models and take a look at how it could influence your life. It's not so much at being better in the moment, but knowing to take a step back and calculation/putting something in a model and knowing what to do. One of the models is concerned with thinking about second order effects, in many cases they are the opposite of the immediate thing you see in front of you.

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George Church talks about the things that are possible in biology. He starts with a great argument and that is that we already are augmented, that we have overcome many of our ancestral limits. We can see the whole visible light spectrum, hear everything from very soft to very loud, our memory goes back 5000 years, etc.

He also talks about 'SynNeuroBio' and the possibilities here. Of course there is enough mention of CRISPR and genome engineering of organs. Very interesting ideas of which many are becoming reality.

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John Foley started climbing the rungs of the corporate ladder at a young age, first as a fast food server and eventually as an e-commerce executive. Still, at 40, he couldn't climb out of bed fast enough to make it to his favorite spin class. John couldn't understand why there wasn't a way to bring the intensity and motivation of a boutique fitness class into the home. Having never worked in the exercise industry, he teamed up with a few friends to create a high-tech stationary bicycle called the Peloton Bike. Today, Peloton has sold close to half a million bikes, with a valuation as high as 4 billion dollars.

In some parts this is about a struggling entrepreneur who had to keep convincing others that his idea wasn't that crazy. At the same time it's about someone who is already really connected and can use that to further his startup. Nonetheless I found the episode very inspiring and it showcased an entrepreneur with a vision who had the perseverance to see it come true.

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Here are some more notes from some more episodes of Science VS

• Lyme disease is real and you should do your best to not get it (ticks, red spot), but the chronic version is a myth/other things people have.
• The agricultural impact of all milk alternatives are better on the whole (and don't need a suffering animal), see a report here
• DNA kits are all the rage, but the datasets of non-Caucasians is bad (5-10 people for a large part of Asia), and the idea of a 'prototypical' X country person is quite odd and man-made.
• Vitamins and minerals are good for you, and some supplementation might help in selected cases, but for most people (a multi-billion dollar industry) there are no benefits. Eat balanced/varied etc.
• Artificial sweeteners research is inconclusive and some point to bad effects (e.g. messing up your ability to recognise what really is sugar and have the right response), others can't find the same effects.
• The fertility cliff is more of a slope and starts for women at around 33, for men around 40ish. You can also just be very unlucky (producer on the show, both were physically fine).
• Race can be seen in the DNA, but is in the 0,01% difference and even there the diversity is larger in populations within Africa than between those and Westerners. What you can find in DNA doesn't divide among the stereotypical cultural? lines we as humans have made.
• Human lab rats were the prisoners in the 60's and 70's in America. Ethics were left at the door and it's a dark part of science's history.
• Vaccines work and have saved countless lives. As side-effects, you can get a mild fever, but not much else. Misinformation (even Russian interference) has messed up America and beyond.
• Birth control is to be done in the right way. Pulling out at the last moment is not that. Taking the pill is very safe, but you do need to do it right. A spiral is the most effective. And a male birth control would be an injection and not a pill (the stomach would break it down).
• Chiropracters base their profession on quite the amazing story and bad/no science (and many recognise it). There may be a small effect on neck pain, the rest is placebo (makes me think of essential oils all over again).

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Kevin Systrom is an entrepreneur and the co-founder (with Mike Krieger) of Instagram. While at Instagram, Kevin served as the CEO, where he oversaw the company’s vision and strategy and daily operations. Under his leadership, Instagram grew to over one billion users and launched dozens of products including video, live, direct messaging, creative tools, Stories, and IGTV.

I loved how Kevin keeps on learning and wants to develop himself, even after having this large success already. Now that their departure is in the news it looks quite sudden, but they actually have been with Facebook for 6 years. They talk about feedback (360 degrees feedback) and how it becomes more difficult to get honest feedback once you climb the ranks of a company / the ranks grow under you.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris reads from an issue of Dabiq, the magazine of ISIS, and discusses the beliefs and goals of jihadists worldwide.

What Sam tries to drive home is that there is no negotiating with people in the extremes. They believe there is an after life and that they are fighting a holy war (this is one of the things that makes religion so terrible). He also notes that the production quality of Dabiq is better than magazines in the US, which should worry you. Many of the people who are fighting this war (and a war it is) are well-educated and have opportunities, but they choose to fight for this. I highly recommend listening to this episode to better understand what someone on 'the other side' is thinking.

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Allison Duettmann challenges Aubrey De Grey with the top objections against longevity to be debunked and debated before opening up the floor to the public.

In all honestly it's preaching to the choir here for me. But I might go back to this talk again if I ever hear objections if I speak with others about this and need to find good arguments.

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The banana used to be a luxury good. Now it’s the most popular fruit in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the production efficiencies that made it so cheap have also made it vulnerable to a deadly fungus that may wipe out the one variety most of us eat. Scientists do have a way to save it — but will Big Banana let them?

In the episode we are presented with a solution, GMO (and I think is the right solution), but the industry insider seemed more concerned about the public image, so we will see where it goes.

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God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens takes reason to religion. It's a deep dive into a terribly important topic. Not only because it has shaped (and for the foreseeable future will shape) our lives. Whilst some will argue that we're already living in the next Enlightenment (or hope so, Steven Pinker), Christopher Hitchens is more militant and political, if we need an Enlightenment, he will be one of the horsemen of it.

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In this epic of a book, Steven Pinker one again tackles a very large topic without sparing any words. He argues for a mind that already is pre-wired (genes) in a certain. Of course there are effects from the environment, but we are far from a (reprogrammable) blank slate.

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In the 1960s, Alice Waters studied abroad in France – and discovered a culinary world far from the processed food popular in America. When she returned to California, she tried to find restaurants to recreate her experiences abroad, but she couldn't. In 1971, she opened a small restaurant in Berkeley called Chez Panisse, where she focused on serving fresh, local ingredients. Just a few years later, Chez Panisse was named one of the best restaurants in America, and became one of the hottest locations for fine dining in the Bay Area. Despite her success, Alice chose not to turn Chez Panisse into a restaurant empire. Instead, she continued to insist on cooking with food raised locally, sustainably, and ethically. Today, most chefs agree Alice Waters and Chez Panisse sparked the farm-to-table movement in the restaurant industry.

Another great episode of the HIBT podcast. I loved the passion of Alice and just to learn about her story. One thing I plan to do is to buy more foods from places where I know the supply-chain is better than it is now. But one thing I do want to keep in mind is that I've already opted out of buying some of the worst products (meat). So another place to start is with cheese and to see if I can find better cheese where you can be more certain of the humane?/better treatment of the cows making it. (and I still want to learn more about consciousness soon and write more about being vegetarian).

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As cities become ever-more expensive, politicians and housing advocates keep calling for rent control. Economists think that’s a terrible idea. They say it helps a small (albeit noisy) group of renters, but keeps overall rents artificially high by disincentivizing new construction. So what happens next?

Most economists say that rent control is a bad idea, as is just about any form of price control. They believe that markets work best when supply and demand are allowed to find a natural equilibrium, with price acting as the referee. "It’s not a good way of allocating scarce space. It’s not a good way of helping the downtrodden. It’s a way that freezes a city and stops it from adjusting to changes, a way that freezes people in apartments and stops the motion that is inherent in cities."

Although it sounds like a great idea (and one you can sell politically), reality shows that it's a very bad idea. What really took it home for me is that you're just helping people already living there (if at all), and by that preventing other people from also living in the city (and preventing innovation/improvements/etc).

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Neil Gaiman is the bestselling author and creator of books, graphic novels, short stories, film and television for all ages, including Neverwhere, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The View from the Cheap Seats and the Sandman series of graphic novels. His fiction has received Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and Will Eisner Awards, among many other awards and honors.

I was already a bit familiar with Neil from reading The Graveyard Book and reading (and watching season 1 of) American Gods. I really liked the latter. The former was very good but didn't hit the right snares for me.

In the interview Tim explores what it takes to be a good writer, about Neil's collaboration with Terry Pratchett, and more. The episode didn't have too many new insights for me, but I really loved how they connected and talked about everything from fountain pens to adoption something for the screen.

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This was an interesting episode that touched on the subject of discrimination, nationhood?, identity, and more. What if someone is being a pain in the ass (the Dutch women living in Switzerland), when do you say that she is not welcome? And what about people you don't like (but haven't done anything wrong).

The episode does a great job of showing different perspectives and really makes you think.

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A look back at the progress of my 2019 goals over Q1 and a look forward toward the rest of the year.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Roger McNamee about his book Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. Roger McNamee has been a Silicon Valley investor for thirty-five years. He has cofounded successful venture funds including Elevation with U2’s Bono. He was a former mentor to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and helped recruit COO Sheryl Sandberg to the company.

Roger really has some good points about privacy and how Facebook isn't doing well on these points. He also talks about Google a lot and that we're not the consumers, and not the product (any more), but that we are the data stream. And that the (future) customers are advertisers and insurance companies who will want to/are harvesting this data. Really worth the listen.

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For all of human history, we’ve wanted to fly – and to fly fast. Blake Scholl, Founder and CEO of airplane startup Boom, is about to make happen. He has created a new supersonic jet, which could be the biggest disruption to air travel since the Jet Age of the 1960s. But progress always has a price. And Boom could have a big one.

Things I like: Connecting people faster can be better. And making this technology doesn't necessarily mean more bad things (CO2 emissions etc).

Things I worry about: Not too much, but mainly about the why. With better and better video technology, do we really need to move around quicker. One story during the podcast is about that other airlines cut costs and did other things, whilst Concorde focussed on speed (and was funded by the government with not too commercial goals), but is that really what people want, we will see.

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In today’s interview Jack Clark, Policy Director at OpenAI, explains that from a computational perspective using a hand and playing Dota 2 are remarkably similar problems. And more broadly, what does this imply for policy. What can governments and organisations do. And when should they figure it all out?

I’d say from my perspective that the politicization of AI, the realization among people taking part in AI, that it is a political technology that has political effects, has been very significant. We’ve seen that in work by employees at AI organizations like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to push back on things like AI being used in drones in the case of Google or AI and facial recognition in the case of Microsoft and Amazon. And that’s happened alongside politicians realizing AI is important and is something they should legislate about.

This episode was an interesting take (from different perspectives/guests) on the AI policy questions. One thing I took away was that the distinction between short- and longterm is overblown. In many cases we should be taking/developing the same frameworks and precautions now, as in the future.

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Kenji López-Alt became a rock star of the food world by bringing science into the kitchen in a way that everyday cooks can appreciate. Then he dared to start his own restaurant — and discovered problems that even science can’t solve.

This was the follow-up to the episode I listened to in September 2018. It followed up on the troubles of opening a restaurant. This felt most like a conversation between friends and probably has some good value for someone contemplating starting a restaurant (which isn't me).

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Nick Bostrom about the problem of existential risk. They discuss public goods, moral illusions, the asymmetry between happiness and suffering, utilitarianism, “the vulnerable world hypothesis,” the history of nuclear deterrence, the possible need for “turnkey totalitarianism,” whether we’re living in a computer simulation, the Doomsday Argument, the implications of extraterrestrial life, and other topics.

A great conversation with someone I know about a bit (Nick is one of the founders/early enthousiasts for Effective Altruism). I've also read Superintelligence, a book about the dangers of AI/ASI/AGI. It's great to hear them talk and get into the papers mentioned.

Find the papers here

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The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov consists of three consecutive stories. I like that he started this book as an explanation why plutonium 186 can exists (it can’t, but a friend of his mentioned it and he decided he could write a story about it).

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For years, Gary Cohn thought he’d be the next C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs. Instead, he became the “adult in the room” in a chaotic administration. Cohn talks about the fights he won, the fights he lost, and the fights he was no longer willing to have. Also: why he and Trump are still on speaking terms even after he reportedly called the president “a professional liar.”

Quite interesting to hear, but also a bit difficult. He doesn't want to speak about everything and seems to have an interesting view of the world. I do like how Stephen interviewed him and was both respectful and pushed the points when needed.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Kahneman at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. They discuss the replication crisis in science, System 1 and System 2, where intuitions reliably fail, expert intuitions, the power of framing, moral illusions, anticipated regret, the asymmetry between threats and opportunities, the utility of worrying, removing obstacles to wanted behaviors, the remembering self vs the experiencing self, improving the quality of gossip, and other topics.

To be honest, there wasn't much I didn't know already. You can hear that Kahneman isn't that optimistic (something I heard earlier in The Undoing Project). But I do highly recommend Thinking, Fast and Slow.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with computer scientist Stuart Russell about the challenge of building artificial intelligence that is compatible with human well-being.

In preparation of the Effective Altruism evening we organised around Artificial Intelligence, I listened to this episode again. It highlights dangers and possibilities. Within the EA community, many are working on the safety problem. The biggest open question for me (and for everyone else I guess) is the speed at which we will develop AGI, and if this is 10 years, 100 years, or maybe much later.

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In 2010, Logic the rapper, born as Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, released his first official mixtape titled "Young, Broke & Infamous." At 20 years old, Logic certainly was young and broke, and while crashing on a friend's couch, he poured himself into his music. Logic's career could have fizzled if it wasn't for Chris Zarou, a young college athlete-turned-manager who had no more experience in the music business than Logic. Undeterred, the two decided to work together, continuing to use free music and social media to build Logic's reputation as a talented, fast-flowing rapper with a hopeful message. In 2012, Logic signed to Def Jam Records and in 2014 dropped his debut album "Under Pressure," which shot to number 4 on the Billboard charts.

This story is about investing for the future and not 'cashing-out' too early. First giving, giving, giving, and only then taking/enjoying the rewards whilst giving more (e.g. a concert/merch). And one about trust and alignmnent of goals.

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"Everyone’s genius is right next to their dysfunction." - Graham Duncan. Graham Duncan is the co-founder of East Rock Capital, a multi-family office investment firm that manages $2 billion for a small number of families and their charitable foundations.

Another good episode about talent and how to manage/incubate it. It's about finding who is better than you at something and/or knowing how to empower someone to become this person. Why does Graham know something about this? Finance is an industry that lives on talent, of creativity (sometimes too much), and people are thus the greatest asset.

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A very good read on how to tell your story, your customer's story to be exact. With heavy inspiration from the book/film industry, Donald takes you on a journey and through the steps you have to take your customer through. I found the book to be very insightful and will use his recommendations to better tell the story of our customers.

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In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Sally Satel about addiction. They discuss whether addiction should be considered a disease, the opiate epidemic in the U.S., the unique danger of fentanyl, the politicization of medicine, PTSD, and other topics.

Depending on the perspective (helping, family, law, etc) the 'sticker' of disease might not be the best way to describe addiction. It's not just brain science, it's also a lot about environment and support. In the end they discuss organ donation and make strong case to get this going legally. One thing that surprised me was that organ donations from dead people (where there is the opt-in or opt-out debate), not many people leave good organs behind (i.e. bad organs), which makes sense, but does up the urgency of needing to get more from alive people (before we 3d print them etc).

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Like many classic technology stories, Sqaurespace started in a college dorm room. In 2003, 21-year-old Anthony Casalena created a website-building tool for himself. But after hearing some positive feedback from friends, he decided to put the tool online and start a business. For years, Anthony ran Squarespace almost entirely on his own but the stress took a toll and he reached the limits of what he could accomplish by himself. The journey to hiring a staff and scaling the company had its own set of growing pains for Anthony, including difficulty letting go of control, and learning how to manage other people. Today, Squarespace has grown to more than 800 employees, and valued at $1.7 billion.

At various points this story could have failed (as many start-up stories might). It's good that Anthony recognizes these and also the very good upbringing he had (he could borrow 30k from his parents!). Anthony shows that he is open to learning and that making mistakes isn't the end, it is just another place to learn more again.

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"Great leaders make everyone they enlist a hero in their own story."

I love how Reid Hoffman understands how stories are important and how they should empower a hero's journey for everyone (and put the company in the yoda role).

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Whether you’re mapping the universe, hosting a late-night talk show, or running a meeting, there are a lot of ways to up your idea game. Plus: the truth about brainstorming.

Some structure is best. Or maybe put differently, a lot of structure, around the right parts. Have time to do nothing, but protect that time. Make a routine, but be free in what concepts you connect. Etc.

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What progress have we made as humans? Where are we now? And where might we be going? These and more answers in the second book I read by Steven Pinker (before I read Better Angels of Our Nature). Instead of only focussing on violence and war, this book looks at many more aspects of development. It ties in with quite some other books I've been reading and in the full summary I will shed some more light on this. And I will focus on some critique that the book has gotten and my personal interpretation of this.

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If you want to do as much good as possible with your career, what problems should you work on, and what jobs should you consider? This episode features Rob Wiblin, director of research for effective altruist organization 80,000 Hours, and the host of the 80,000 Hours podcast. Julia and Rob discuss how the career advice 80,000 Hours gives has changed over the years, and the biggest misconceptions about their views.

This episode was cross-posted from the Rationally Speaking podcast and gives a more high-level overview of EA and 80,000 Hours. What I liked most was that Rob reiterated that 80k has changed their focus to be 1) more on the long-term, and 2) more on doing good directly (vs earning to give).

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In the 1970s, Roxanne Quimby was trying to live a simpler life – one that rejected the pursuit of material comforts. She moved to Maine, built a cabin in the woods, and lived off the grid.By the mid-80s, she met a recluse beekeeper named Burt Shavitz and offered to help him tend to his bees. As partners, Roxanne and Burt soon began selling their "Pure Maine Honey" at local markets, which evolved into candles made out of beeswax, and eventually lip balm and skin care products. Today Burt's Bees can be found in nearly every grocery store and drugstore around the U.S.

It's interesting to hear Roxanne's story. What I liked most was her reluctance to be an entrepreneur and how they did it their way. Also without much (if any) marketing and a focus on the product. Funniest moment: when they hired a 14 year old kid to do their bookkeeping in the beginning.

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I liked this second book by Andy Weir quite a lot. It's a great vacation read where the pages just flow away. Like The Martian (his debut novel), it's full of science and interesting twists. See the full review for spoilers and my take on the storyline.

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What can we learn about flexibility? How can we apply it in our daily life and what is the best routine to get very flexible. Jujimufu takes on this challenge in his ebook.

It's very interesting to read but now is the time (in the coming weeks) for me to make my own routine and incorporate the lessons in my own life.

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Today’s guest, freewheeling economist Glen Weyl, won’t have it, and is on a warpath to reform liberal democratic institutions in order to save them. Just last year he wrote Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society with Eric Posner, but he has already moved on, saying “in the 6 months since the book came out I’ve made more intellectual progress than in the whole 10 years before that.”

He believes we desperately need more efficient, equitable and decentralised ways to organise society that take advantage of what each person knows, and his research agenda has already made some breakthroughs.

Despite a background in the best economics departments in the world – Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Chicago – he is too worried for the future to sit in his office writing papers. Instead he has left the academy to try to inspire a social movement, RadicalxChange, with a vision of social reform as expansive as his own.

Another very good and intellectually challenging episode. I will have to pick up his book and two that are mentioned in the near future. For now, do read the episode notes.

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In 2005, Raghuram Rajan said the financial system was at risk “of a catastrophic meltdown.” After stints at the I.M.F. and India’s central bank, he sees another potential crisis — and he offers a solution. Is it stronger governments? Freer markets? Rajan’s answer: neither.

Of course the title triggered me to think about his prediction if there would be another crash. He didn't stay much about the topic but did see that for instance businesses have more loans than before (where first the home-owners had too much leverage). We will see how it goes.

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Ken Block is a co-founder of DC Shoes and a professional rally driver with the Hoonigan Racing Division. His rally career began in 2005, and he won Rookie of the Year that season in the Rally America Championship. Ken has accumulated five X Games medals and achieved global fame through his wildly successful viral series of Gymkhana videos. Gymkhana videos (including all associated edits) have racked up more than 500 million views, landing the franchise in Ad Age’s top-10 viral video charts. In January 2010, Block formed the Monster World Rally Team (later renamed to Hoonigan Racing Division) and signed with Ford to pursue his dreams of racing in the World Rally Championship and in doing so, became one of only four Americans to ever score points in the WRC. His latest project is The Gymkhana Files, which takes viewers behind the scenes of GYMKHANA TEN: The Ultimate Tire Slaying Tour, a video that, as of this writing, just went up and already has nearly 20M views. It’s all complete insanity.

This was another fun episode where he Tim speaks to a fellow life-experiencer. Ken Block has done many things (see above) and it's great to see that he uses curiosity and learning to keep on evolving and having success.

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Watch Gymkhana 10

When she was just 19 years old, Melanie Perkins dreamt of transforming the graphic design and publishing industries. But she started small, launching a site to make yearbook design simpler and more collaborative. Her success with that first venture — and an unexpected meeting with a VC investor — eventually landed her the backing to pursue her original idea, and the chance to take on software industry titans like Adobe and Microsoft. Today, Melanie's online design platform Canva is valued at over $1 billion, joining the list of Australia's "unicorn" companies.

I guess that offering great value is key here. I'm doing an exercise around pricing and the power of 'free', and this is a great story around that. She offers free tools to many, and you can pay for something extra (e.g. printing that design). With almost zero marginal costs Canva can help you design something beautiful, and so the company can both help itself and help you!

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Susan Cain is the author of the bestsellers Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can’t Stop Talking, the latter of which has been translated into more than 40 languages. Quiet is in its seventh year on The New York Times Best Sellers list, and it was named the number one best book of the year by Fast Company magazine, which also named Susan one of its Most Creative People in Business.

I was already familiar with Quiet and liked the conversation between Tim and Susan. It's very interesting to see that she hit a snare and has been successful with her book and speaking resulting from it. Also a mention of what Tim will do in the future, write more about mental health and the ways we can (with psychedelics) become better (period).

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While Carrie is out of town, Ross and his cohorts at the Independent Investigations Group set up a test to see if the Earth is flat, or a lumpy, bumpy globe. And they invite their old friend Mark Sargent, and a cadre of flat earthers to join them. Arriving at the Salton Sea with some PVC pipe, balloons, and a magical camera that recovers ships lost on the horizon, these globeheads and flatties devise a fair and simple test of the Earth's shape. We'll let you guess how that turns out.

I listened to this episode and some more. It's great fun. Nothing much to say about the flat earth people, just very bad reasoning and cognitive dissonance.

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The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham can be summarised in one sentence: Buy a portfolio of stocks, hold on to them. Ok, this, of course, is too much of an exaggeration but that is one of the lessons I took away from the book.

Passive over active, investor over speculator, index funds for the win!

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Peter Mallouk is the President of Creative Planning, one of the largest independent wealth management firms in America. Creative Planning provides wealth management services to clients, manages over $36 billion for clients in all 50 states and abroad, and has been featured as the number one independent wealth management firm in America by Barron’s (2017). Peter is featured in Worth magazine’s Power 100, featuring the most powerful men and women in global finance, the only financial planner on the list (2017 and 2018). Creative Planning was featured in Forbes in 2016 as the number one RIA for growth over the last 10 years.

Again a very interesting conversation. Maybe also one where I'm remindered that I might be taking in way too much information and not have enough time to process it. But that is a thought to maybe cristallise another day.

Investing better than 'average' is not possible. Just buy the SNP500. That is what Peter says, what Benjamin Graham says. What I found new in Peter's perspective is the view on private markets. Places where you can have an informational advantage, might have more risk, might be stuck longer with an investment (e.g. if you buy into the development of some houses).

Peter talks about Bitcoin and argues that there (and also with gold) there isn't much/or any intrinsic value to it (and my current opinion is that it's also not the best of the crypto coins and will trend toward zero in the long-term).

He also talks about the time-frame you're investing for. And that even when you're 67 you want to still have a part of your money in stocks vs bonds. You don't only need that money today (low risk), you will also need it in 20 years (so you can have more varience, aka stocks, now, with a higher yield).

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Follow Alex Honnold as he becomes the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000ft high El Capitan Wall. With no ropes or safety gear, he completed arguably the greatest feat in rock climbing history.

I was on the edge of my seat for about the whole experience. Awe, wonder, and WTF, are some of the words I would use for this feat. It's crazy, and although it's somewhat understandable from a 'go to the maximum of human experience' perspective, it's still so crazy that he does this. It's dangerous and no-one should have to do it, but at the same time it's amazing to see as a spectator.

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Every year tens of billions of animals are raised in terrible conditions in factory farms before being killed for human consumption. Despite the enormous scale of suffering this causes, the issue is largely neglected, with only about $50 million dollars spent each year tackling the problem globally.

This was a great (reuploaded) episode of the 80000 hours podcast. It looked at what ways animal advocacy is making progress. There are some surprising results there. One is that campaigning companies can be very effective (versus campaigning individual choices). It showed that pressuring one industry after another can have a great positive impact on animal welfare.

There is some discussion about which animals are conscious and I would love to dive deeper into that (and better find out what I think is where the 'line' of consciousness lies).

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In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Douglas Rushkoff about the state of the digital economy.

Douglas believes (I think quite correctly) that there is something special about human connections and the interaction between us. It's something we can't bring back to algorithms that are the ones that Facebook runs. He also states that neuroscientists don't fully know what consciousness is and I think that is also true. Yet at the same time I do believe that many of our human behaviours are not that special. I think we understand a larger and larger part. But that doesn't justify that we (read, large corporations) hack our biological system for their gain. I think I have quite the agency (not to be confused with free will) over what I want/do, but I can understand that even I'm influenced by my environment.

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In this episode, Ross and Carrie together take 280 homeopathic pills live on the air, chase them with wine, and discuss their first visit to a combination homeopath and Ayurvedic practitioner. Will Ross and Carrie survive the overdose? Will Ross’ fatigue be cured? Will Carrie’s headaches go away? And will Ayurveda permit hot drinks?! Find out in this one-of-a-kind episode!

What I liked is that they did take the session very seriously and at the same time were vigilant about what they we're being told. Again I don't believe there is much more to this than 'normal' medicine and that advice like eating garlic is legit, but I think (know) you don't need a certain Vata type for it.

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Sure, essential oils smell nice and cure clubfoot when applied topically (or so we’ve been told)… but what if you atomize the oils and pass their tiny molecules through your nasal passages? Ross and Carrie enlist the help of Jesse Thorn and Jordan Morris to see if vaping with the MONQ Therapeutic Air Device can make them healthy, vibrant, zen, happy, sleepy, and bashful.

Conclusion: It smelled nice, but it didn't do anything. There is no pathway for it to 'work', except placebo. As a side-note I wrote a very long email to a friend who is involved with such a company and I hope that it helped her think critically about her choice to promote such a product (not only focussed on the effect, but also on the MLM aspect of the company).

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This book brings together the lessons that Seth has been teaching in his course 'The Marketing Seminar'. He stresses that you need to see the customer, to understand him or her, and to intelligently serve them better.

There are no lessons about which program to use, how to do analytics or anything like that. The lessons revolve around understanding who you are serving, why, and what. I think it can be summarised as on the back of the book "People like us do things like this." Seth has a deep understanding of human psychology and this book is a perfect example of how he uses this to make marketing better.

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This 'book' was made for Audible (Amazon) and I think I can best describe it as 5 long-form podcast episodes mashed together. A bit of Tim Ferriss and a bit of Masters of Scale. The stories are good, but I don't think it dives very deep.

One lesson from it is that power is moving down, that people get more of a say. And I might agree with this, but at the same time there is still a lot of power at the top and money still moves most things. But if I look at it optimistically, then yes, I can see the power moving.

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Jim Yong Kim has an unorthodox background for a World Bank president — and his reign has been just as unorthodox. He has just announced he’s stepping down, well before his term is over; we recorded this interview with him in 2015.

It's great to listen to this humble man speak about his life, career, and vision for the World Bank. I don't know anything about why he is stepping down from the World Bank at this moment, but I can agree with most, if not all, things he says in this positive and encouraging interview.

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Eventbrite's Julia Hartz knows: The constant roar of customer feedback holds all the secrets to your success – if you learn how to read the signs. Julia made rapid response to user feedback the driving force behind Eventbrite’s strategy, as it grew from a simple ticketing app to a full-service platform for event creators.

Listen to customers (duh), and learn (by doing) how to find what is really actionable and could improve your product. Julia went extreme and talked with most customers in the beginning. This let Eventbrite find what other things they could do (e.g. physical products to help events move people in faster). And now she gets together different parts of the company (e.g. customer service and technical team) and process feedback together so they can keep on improving.

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What a book! Written for children (of all ages) and a great way to learn more about philosophy.

Together with Sophie, you take a journey through history. You learn from the Greeks, from Kierkegaard, and most of all from the conversations between Sophie and her mysterious philosophy teacher.

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A good sci-fi book that explores both human politics and another way a consciousness can be. One thing I was most suprised by were the strong characters and how the interaction between the human 'factions' played out.

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Grey has a theme for 2019, Myke has two themes for 2019, and they both discuss why Yearly Themes are important to them.

It was fun listening to them talk about their themes and how it has helped them get some guidance. And of course it was fun listening to this after having just made my own theme and goals.

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Algorithms to Live By is a very enjoyable and applicable book by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths that explores how we can use knowledge from computer science to guide decisions in our lives. I finished the book a little while ago, but plan to make headway today on the review.

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Patrick Collison is chief executive officer and co-founder of Stripe, a technology company that builds economic infrastructure for the internet. After experiencing firsthand how difficult it was to set up an online business, Patrick and his brother John started Stripe in 2010. Their goal was to make accepting payments on the internet simpler and more inclusive. Today, Stripe powers millions of online businesses around the world.

“If people around you don’t think what you’re doing is a bit strange, maybe it’s not strange enough.” — Patrick Collison

It was great listening to this episode where you really get a look into the mind of a great entrepreneur. See the below for the many books mentioned in the episode. One fun fact from the episode is around naming your company (says a person who named his company Queal), Stripe first was named SlashDevSlashFinance and although it wasn't good (it was bad) they did business and there is always time later to find the perfect name.

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Benedict Dohmen and Santiago Nestares of Benitago Group, both 21, met as computer science students at Dartmouth College. Both worked very long hours in the library and suffered from back pain. They began collaborating on a prototype for a product that ended up being called the Supportiback, gathering feedback from members of the Dartmouth community, including a local hospital president and professors and students studying engineering and medicine. They launched the product on Amazon in the UK, and when it seemed their first small order was in danger of selling out quickly, they arranged financing from their supplier and were off and running. Since then, they’ve entered the US market on Amazon, and are on track for nine-figure revenue in 2019. They have introduced 120 consumer products, and are trying to become an alternative to big consumer products companies through a strategy of applying their successful scale-up strategies to brands they acquire.

Pff, sometimes you hear the story of someone else and think "They are just at another level." I'm inspired by the story of these entrepreneurs and how they have been able to use customer feedback, good processes and some computer science to build a very successful business. One lesson I took away (again) was to focus on The One Thing that matters.

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It can be easy to believe that humans are insignificant. We're specks of dust on a random planet in a vast universe. Less powerful than elephants. Fewer than ants. But David Deutsch believes that's all beside the point, because humans possess one unique skill: attaining knowledge. David Deutsch -- Oxford professor, father of quantum computing, recluse -- convinced Chris Anderson years ago to take over leadership of TED with his ideas about knowledge. In this mind-bending conversation, the two dive into his theory that the potential reach of knowledge is infinite. They explore how knowledge first developed, why it sets us apart and what all of these heady concepts really mean for our present and future.

This was a bit more of a repetition of what I've heard/read before (see below), but still very interesting and always great to hear Chris Anderson interview.

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Nancy Lublin knows: To succeed as an entrepreneur, you need grit. But grit isn't just charging up the same hill over and over. It's generating an endless supply of Plans B. And Nancy always has a Plan B, and C, and D. Her grit fueled her success scaling three not-for-profits: Dress for Success, DoSomething.org and Crisis Text Line.

In this episode I liked how she separated grit from just plain persistance. You need to keep on going, again and again, but do it smart!

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“…when we looked at the cost effectiveness of education programs, there were a ton of zeros, and there were a ton of zeros on the things that we spend most of our money on. So more teachers, more books, more inputs, like smaller class sizes – at least in the developing world – seem to have no impact, and that’s where most government money gets spent.”

“Two programs that come out as spectacularly effective… well, the first is just rearranging kids in a class. You have to test the kids, so that you can put the kids who are performing at grade two level in the grade two class, and the kids who are performing at grade four level in the grade four class, even if they’re different ages – and they learn so much better. So that’s why it’s so phenomenally cost effective because, it really doesn’t cost anything. The other one is providing information. So sending information over the phone [for example about how much more people earn if they do well in school and graduate]. So these really small nudges. Now none of those nudges will individually transform any kid’s life, but they are so cheap that you get these fantastic returns on investment – and we do very little of that kind of thing.”

This episode is another good example of how the EA mindset helps you to find the most effective ways to do good and what things that seem good (like smaller classes) actually have little to no impact.

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Dr. Peter Attia is a former ultra-endurance athlete (e.g., swimming races of 25 miles), a compulsive self-experimenter, and one of the most fascinating human beings I know. He is one of my go-to doctors for anything performance or longevity-related. He is also easily the best quarterback and sherpa for the US medical system I’ve ever met.

This is another great episode in which they discuss a lot around psychedelic (and other) substances and how they can have a positive impact. I love to learn more about where the research is now and they also mention that they need more done on the policy side in Europe.

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In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Deeyah Khan about her groundbreaking films “Jihad” and “White Right.” They discuss her history as a target of religious intolerance, her adventures with neo-Nazis and other white supremacists, the similarities between extremist groups, the dangers of political correctness, and other topics.

It's good to listen to Sam agree on a lot of points and also disagree on how to precisely conquer hate. What I really appreciated is how Deeyah Khan uses conversation and humanisation to connect people who 1) don't know each other, and 2) hate someone for some black and white idea and fall through completely after making a true connection.

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Andrew Weil, M.D. (@DrWeil) is a world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine. Dr. Weil received a degree in biology (botany) from Harvard College in 1964 and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1968. After completing a medical internship at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, he worked a year with the National Institute of Mental Health, then wrote his first book, The Natural Mind. From 1971-75, as a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, Dr. Weil traveled widely in North and South America and Africa collecting information on drug use in other cultures, medicinal plants, and alternative methods of treating disease. From 1971-84 he was on the research staff of the Harvard Botanical Museum and conducted investigations of medicinal and psychoactive plants.

Just wow, this guy really seems to know what he is talking about. He is well-versed in the scientific method and knows how to work with scientific knowledge, people, politics, and even business. The only negative/questionable thing I can say is that he refutes the scientific method somewhere along the conversation and argues for more intuition. And while I get this feeling and I also think there are good things out there that we haven't done great double-blind placebo-controlled test on (and maybe on some we can't really, think psychedelics), I do believe that it is what we should strive for. Better knowledge, not more intuition.

That being said, I do see myself reading one of his books in the future.

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"We tend to think of deciding whether to commit to a partner, or where to go out for dinner, as uniquely and innately human problems. The message of the book is simply: they are not. In fact they correspond – really precisely in some cases – to some of the fundamental problems of computer science."

I've ordered the book and I think the examples in the podcast were great. We as humans are quite good as intuitive mathematicians, but there are some good ways in which we can improve our decision making. The algorithms/frameworks from this podcast can very well be a way to do this!

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Optimism, data, and a boat-load of history. This book is most probably the opus magnus of Steven Pinker. In it he argues (convincingly) that we're living in the best time ever. And that earlier times (even 20 years ago, but certainly everything before that too) were very, very bad. Rape, murder, genocide, infanticide, starvation, and all other horrible things come to pass. So prepare your stomache, and read to the end to also learn about the positive side of all this.

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The quirky little grocery chain with California roots and German ownership has a lot to teach all of us about choice architecture, efficiency, frugality, collaboration, and team spirit.

It is great to listen to a story about a shop (or any company) that is doing things the other way. They don't advertise, they train their personnel more on people skills than cashier skills. This story takes a quick look at the success of Traders Joe.

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In 2010, while working as a fashion assistant at Vogue, Emily Weiss started a beauty blog called Into The Gloss. She quickly attracted a following of devoted readers hooked on the blog's intimate snapshots of style makers' beauty routines. Within a few years, Emily realized her readers were hungry for a new beauty brand, one that listened to them directly, and understood their lives. Without any prior business experience, she won over investors and found the perfect chemist to create Glossier, a line of beauty and skincare products with a focus on simplicity. Today, just four years after launch, Glossier is valued at an estimated $400 million.

Building a relations with her customers is what Emily has done very gracefully. I think that is something I can also keep in mind for those moments that we're thinking of using other platforms etc to sell Queal on.

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In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Derren Brown about his work as a “psychological illusionist.” They discuss the power of hypnosis, the power of expectations, the usefulness of Stoic philosophy, and other topics.

Although this episode was more of a conversation among friends, it did reveal some truths about human beings. We are very much influenced by our environment (and maybe even fully if you go to the logical extreme). Time to watch some Derren Brown!

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An amazing documentary about a man who wanted to teach all the kids in the world that they are worth it. That they are loved for who they are.

I encourage you to watch this. It moves you, it makes you chuggle, it delights.

One thing I took away was this: 143. This was the weight that Mr. Rogers was for most of his adult life. And it also stands for I (1), love (4), you (3). Wow! Just a few days ago I heard someone describe what his life goals are, he said 'love and curiosity'. If anyone is an embodiment of that, it's Mr. Rogers.

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Eva Moskowitz wants to fix a really big problem. There are over a million kids in New York City’s public schools. Most can’t read or do math at grade level. Many won’t graduate on time. And it’s largely poor, black and brown kids who are stuck in the lowest performing schools. Eva’s the founder and CEO of Success Academy, the subject of this season of StartUp. And she’s actually making progress.

I'm now two episodes in and it's a great listen. It's a story about changing the system, about doing it your own way and achieving success (and fighting resistance). Go give it a listen and check out the archive of the StartUp podcast.

Update: At 4 episodes still very much worth the listen! Change is hard, and although I don't know that this is the best system for everyone, Eva Moskowitz is truly bringing (positive) change to the American educational system.

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The first bonus episode from the How I Built This Summit features Jenn Hyman, co-founder of Rent The Runway, a designer clothing rental service that pulls in $100 million a year. When Jenn sat down with Guy Raz for a live interview at the Summit in San Francisco, she shared her long term strategy for launching the company in phases, plus her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

What I loved was that she already planned for the future. She saw the trend of not owning things and renting it (e.g. Uber) and at the same time pitched her investors also on the opportunity in front of them (renting dresses). And now she wants to take the company to a 100 billion valuation, renting many of your clothes (even work clothes, and the average amount of days a user is active... 140 days!).

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It began as a post-war dream for a more collaborative and egalitarian workplace. It has evolved into a nightmare of noise and discomfort. Can the open office be saved, or should we all just be working from home?

Stephen asks what works in the office. One surprising finding is that the open office leads to less in-person conversations (but more email collaboration). And in the end they conclude that it really depends on what your unique situation is and what you would need. Just don't let costs be your only guide.

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On his fourteenth birthday, right before his eyes, Chen's parents are incinerated by a blast of ball lightning.Striving to make sense of this bizarre tragedy, he dedicates his life to a single goal: to unlock the secrets of this enigmatic natural phenomenon. His pursuit of ball lightning will take him far from home, across mountain peaks chasing storms and deep into highly classified subterranean laboratories as he slowly unveils a new frontier in particle physics.

This is yet another weird and wonderful book by Lui Cixin. Just like the Three Body Problem (triology) it takes an extreme version of a phenomonem and sees where the story takes us. It's closer to Earth and doesn't go out there like the other books, but still is very interesting to read. It wouldn't make my sci-fi top 10, but nonetheless a very pleasant book.

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This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields—a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes—even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow"; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries—with more than ten million copies in print—this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: "In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."

It took me a while to finish 'The World According to Garp'. The book was very different from my normal selection (sci-fi and business books). Yet it was very pleasant and delightful. The book touches upon various topics (see above) and is written beautifully. I'm glad I've read this classic.

We all know our political system is “broken” — but what if that’s not true? Some say the Republicans and Democrats constitute a wildly successful industry that has colluded to kill off competition, stifle reform, and drive the country apart. So what are you going to do about it?

Stephen talks to experts and people who want to move the system in a new direction. Not one where all the customers (read: voters) are unhappy, but to one where you have a real choice.

This episode goes together perfectly with 'Tweak the Vote' just below.

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Seth Godin is the author of 18 bestselling books that have been translated into more than 35 languages. He was inducted into the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame in 2013 and has founded several companies, including Yoyodyne and Squidoo. His blog (which you can find by typing “Seth” into Google) is one of the most popular in the world.

I've followed an online course (The Marketing Seminar) from Seth at the beginning of this year and it was a great experience. His follow-up book This Is Marketing is on the way. Some of his other books Purple Cow, Linchpin, and Tribes have passed by my desk.

This podcast highlights how Seth works and how he thinks about marketing. It's full of examples and great stories. Seth says no a lot and it's good to see how calm he stays, but in pursuing opportunities, as in saying no to non-essentials.

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Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, investor, Chief Product Officer of Adobe, and venture partner with venture capital firm Benchmark. Scott co-founded Behance in 2006 and served as CEO until Adobe acquired the company in 2012. Millions of people use Behance to display their portfolios, as well as track and find top talent across the creative industries.

“In the startup world, resources are like carbs. Resourcefulness is like muscle. When you develop it, it actually stays with you and impacts everything you do going forward.”

One thing a took away from the podcast is that you always have to be curious, to see things from different perspectives. What if you had to do it in 1/10th the time? What if you had unlimited resources? What if having no plan, is the plan (Jack Ma, Alibaba)?

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Nick Kokonas is the co-owner and co-founder of The Alinea Group of restaurants, which includes Alinea, Next, The Aviary, Roister, and The Aviary NYC. He is also the founder and CEO of Tock, Inc, a reservations and CRM system for restaurants with more than 2.5M diners and clients in more than 20 countries.

Nick does one thing really, really well. He asks smart questions. Or put another way, he asks stupid questions. He asks why something must cost that much, and then diggs deep to find the root causes. He does this for the costs of publishing a book (and finds out that you're paying for all the failures the publisher has to endure, so better do it yourself). And he finds asks questions like "Why do restaurants, even fancy ones, have table cloths?" (the tables look terrible, so he decides to get good looking wood tables). Through it al he shows remarkable inquisitiveness and a joy for learning.

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Hamilton Morris is a writer, documentarian, and scientific researcher who currently studies the chemistry and pharmacology of tryptamines at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

In the episode Tim and Hamilton discuss many things related to compounds that have a profound effect on us humans. They discuss the chemistry. And what the social implications of them are. Once again I agree that psychedelics can be a force for good. One to-do is to take a look at many of the links mentioned in the talk.

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At age 40, Bobby Trussell's promising career in horse racing hit a dead end. With bills to pay and a family to support, he stumbled across a curious product that turned into a lifeline: squishy-squashy memory foam. He jumped at the chance to distribute Swedish memory foam pillows and mattresses to Americans. Tempur-Pedic USA began by selling to chiropractors and specialty stores, providing one of the first alternatives to spring mattresses. Today, the company is one of the largest bedding providers in the world.

Just like last episode this one was less inspiring than some of the other stories. It's about a person who took an invention and through luck/perserverance made it work. I guess I miss some originality or vision behind it. Something that changes the world significantly and not just makes us sleep better.

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Economics Prof Tyler Cowen says our overwhelming priorities should be maximising economic growth and making civilization more stable. He states:

• Our top moral priority should be preserving and improving humanity’s long-term future
• The way to do that is to maximise the rate of sustainable economic growth
• We should respect human rights and follow general principles while doing so

Another point that touched me, because I think about this sometimes and maybe will take action (i.e. stop drinking alcohol or really limit myself to a few drinks at very limited occasions): "We take it for granted, but so many lives are lost each year, so many careers ruined, so much productivity lost. One of my personal crusades is, we should all be more critical of alcohol. People will pull out a drink and drink in front of their children. The same people would not dream of pulling out a submachine gun and playing with it on the table in front of their kids, but I think it’s more or less the same thing. To a lot of liberals, the drink is okay and the submachine gun is not. I think, if anything, it’s the other way around, and I encourage people to just completely, voluntarily abstain from alcohol and make it a social norm."

He also makes a point about Black Swan risks: "I see the recurrence of war in human history so frequently, and I’m not completely convinced by Steven Pinker. I agree with Steven Pinker, that the chance of a very violent war indeed has gone down and is going down, maybe every year, but the tail risk is still there. And if you let the clock tick out for a long enough period of time, at some point it will happen. Powerful abilities to manipulate energy also mean powerful weapons, eventually powerful weapons in decentralized hands. I don’t think we know how stable that process is, but again, let the clock tick out, and you should be very worried."

And lastly, the also speak very positively about Superforecasting (TBD), a book about how to do better predictions.

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In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Matt Taibbi about the state journalism and the polarization of our politics. They discuss the controversy over Steve Bannon at the New Yorker Festival, monetizing the Trump phenomenon, the Jamal Kashoggi murder, the Kavanaugh hearing, the Rolling Stone reporting on the UVA rape case, the viability of a political center, the 2020 Presidential election, the Russia investigation, our vanishing attention span, and other topics.

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This is the final installment of the murderbot diaries. It brings back the story to the beginning and involves more murdering and feelings, many feelings that Murderbot didn't want to feel.

In the late 1990s, Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan took on the notion that "green doesn't clean" by setting out to make soap that could clean a bathtub without harming the environment. Adam started experimenting with baking soda, vinegar, and scented oils, while Eric worked on making sleek bottles that looked good on a kitchen counter. Just a few years later, Adam and Eric were selling Method cleaning products in stores throughout the country, after a bold gamble got them on the shelves of Target.

For one reason or the other, this episode inspired me less than others. Maybe because of the business approach (emptying credit cards) or maybe because I didn't feel what problem they were solving. They did bring more people into buying green, so that is good.

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I thoroughly enjoy listening to Planet Money and this episode was no exception. Much of the money (8% or more) is hidden away from the rest of the world. Untaxed, unaccountable. In this story a short look inside the black box.

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Samin Nosrat is a writer, chef, and teacher who is masterful at turning complexity into simplicity. Her first book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, is a New York Times bestseller. Samin has been called “The next Julia Child” by NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and she has been cooking professionally since 2000.

This episode is about much more than cooking. It’s about the creative process, creative highs and lows (and how to push through those lows), rejection, vulnerability, and much more.

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Always be clear in your communication. Many people aren't and that leads to two interpretations of what you've said. One that is charitable by your followers who see in it what they want. And the other negatively by the outgroup. This can only lead to more division.

The podcast goes further to discuss infinite ethics which was interesting but seems less practical to me than other topics discussed in the 80000 hours podcasts.

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In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris gets together with Bill Maher and Larry Charles to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their film “Religulous.” They discuss religion, politics, comedy, and other dangerous topics.

One interesting thing about the documentary is that it's still relevant today. Try making one about bitcoin now and see how relevant it stays. Or one about jumpstyle some years back. Religion is quite ridiculous and opinions are only slowly changing (we of course want/need religion for the conform that it brings, but in my opinion it isn't helping much in bringing us closer and towards more knowledge).

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Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom knows: You can scale big with a simple idea (and a tiny team!) — but only if you catch the prevailing winds. The simple photo app tapped the right trends and dodged needless complexities. The result? 30M users in 18 months (and 1B today). Plus, a $1B sale of a 13-person company.

What are you doing better than anyone else? What can you focus on? I've heard the story of Instagram before and if I had to pick one word it should be FOCUS. Or again (see a few podcasts below), you do you!

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Bobbi Brown started out as a makeup artist in New York City, but hated the gaudy color palette of the 1980s. She eventually shook up the industry by introducing "nude makeup" with neutral colors and a natural tone. In 1995, Estée Lauder acquired Bobbi Brown Cosmetics and Bobbi remained there for 22 years, until she realized the brand was no longer the one she had built.

Another great woman who has built a mega brand (of course not one I knew of before listening to the episode). The one lesson I take away is to do your own thing, be unique, be different, and be outstanding. Bobbi's thing was "nude makeup", it may sound boring but it had an audience, a market, an appeal. What is mine? What is yours?

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Howard Marks is co-chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, a leading investment firm with more than $120 billion in assets. He is the author of the new book Mastering the Market Cycle: Getting the Odds on Your Side, and his previous book on investing, The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor, was a critically acclaimed bestseller.

There is a lot of wisdom about systems thinking in this episode. Some shoutouts to Thinking: Fast and Slow and overall good advice. Howard is a value investor, yet his advise can be read more broadly. He also thinks that we are on the last sprint of this economic cycle and I wonder what will happen when it breaks (I give it a max of 2 years).

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Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. They discuss the importance of meditation for his intellectual life, the primacy of stories, the need to revise our fundamental assumptions about human civilization, the threats to liberal democracy, a world without work, universal basic income, the virtues of nationalism, the implications of AI and automation, and other topics.

The new/interesting thing I took away from this conversation is that Harari sees nationalism as a good construct. He argues that in the first time in history we can fight/die/serve a country. Before you served your family, your tribe, and no one more. He argues that the step from village to country is larger than from country to humanity. I hop he is true and that concepts like effective altruism are successful.

Read my reviews of Sapiens and Homo Deus (TBD?)

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I've liked the Robert Langdon series for quite some years now. This book is no exception. It is a puzzle story and Robert finds himself in the middle of the action again.

What I liked even more is that it examines some great themes that I've been thinking about. These include religions, AI, the orgin of life, our future. I won't spoil much more here, but go read it.

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Where will AI technology go? How can we develop it in a beneficial way? And what is all that can go wrong?

These are just some of the questions in Life 3.0. Tegmark shows of his deep knowledge of his field and excites the reader with both his realism and optimism for our future.

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I was forward this article by a friend of mine a while back. And yesterday I finally read it. It was insightful and here are my notes/summary of the article

• Consciousness is a Darwinian adaptation and evolved by natural selection
• It gave some advantage by having a subjective experience instead of going through the motions
• Explanations are about long-term thinking (e.g. hunting), or social environments
• There are six pitfalls Dawkins warns about

1. Definitions and the tyranny of language
• Cognition: Process of perceiving, processing, and storing information
• *E.g. the response of plants to light
• Consciousness: Immediate awareness of thought, memory or sensation
• There isn't necessary connection between cognition and consciousness
• Animal welfare: psychological health (emotions), physical health (body)
• * We cross a shaky bridge (metaphore) when going from scientific data (physical) to what we think animals experience (psychological)
2. Thinking that there is only one 'argument from analogy'
• There are many ways to cross the bridge
• Some see the way animals express pain (physiological) as analogus to how we do it and infer that they experience (psychological) it the same way, but others might not be convinced by those arguments
• Some thinking physiological expressions are important, others cognitive abilities, others the similarities in brain structures, or language
• This might have to do with 3 different levels of consciousness you can be describing
1. Phenomenal consciousness: experience of seeing, hearing, feeling pain, etc.
2. Access consciousness: experience of thinking about or reporting a mental state in present or past (memory)
3. Monitoring and self-consciousness: experience of thinking about one's own actions and their effect and if necessary modifying them
• For different levels, you might need/want different bridges (e.g. for the latter two you would maybe need language)
3. Assuming that 'choice' and 'preference' imply consciousness
• E.g. Both people and rats drink more water when deprived before
• We experience water as better in those first gulps/glasses
• Because rats follow the same drinking pattern (more first), they experience the same pleasure
• Alas, plants do the same thing. A dodder plant chooses to entangle more nutritious plants over others
• Listen to this Radiolab podcast for more.
• A way out of this pitfall is to divide choice in two categories
1. Fixed innate responses (the plant)
2. Choices that involve learning to perform arbitrary actions in order to obtain goals (e.g. pulling a lever for food)
4. Assuming that autonomic responses imply consciousness
• In humans there are 3 systems that underly emotions
1. The cognitive/verbal
2. The autonomic (e.g. heart rate)
3. The behavioural/expressive
• We reason by analogy that if we see 2) and 3), animals are also experiencing (consciousness) 1).
• But, these are not always correlated (e.g. going quickly from fear to excitement can show the same outwardly)
• "Let us look for consciousness not in the heart or the bloodstream or the rectum but in the brain where it surely belongs."
5. Assuming that complexity of behaviour implies cognition
• The Social Intellect theory (Humphrey, 1976) argues that social systems are so complex it demands conscious evaluation
• Alas, simple computer algorithms are showing that complexity is not actually needed
• "There is no complex cognition, no need even for memory of the behaviour..."
6. Assuming that only cognitively complex organisms are conscious
• "You don't need to be very clever to feel pain or hunger or fear."
• (and the other way around) Animals with fewer cognitive abilities might still posess consciousness

• Animal welfare implications
• Dawkins ends the article by stating that the confusion about definitions troubles the water when discussing animal welfare. I think this article helps with clearing some of that up and although it (or any other article to date) solves why we have consciousness (and who with us), it is helpful.

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In the interview with David Roodman we get a look into the effect of incarceration on crime. Hint, there is, in most cases, no link. The program of three strikes and out has little to no deterrence effect.

"Then there are the after-effects, and this is where it gets most complicated. Being in prison you could imagine, could reduce the amount of crime you commit afterwards. Maybe you learn to read, or you’re helped off of your drug problem, or you’re scared straight by the experience. But it’s also easy to imagine that being in prison just makes things worse. That you’re more alienated from society, that you’re closer friends with other criminals, and you learn from their techniques, or you have less ability to get a real job because you’re marked as a felon."

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As the title says, it's best not to open a restaurant. Steven talks with Kenji Lopez-Alt (a food scientist and critic). They discuss some of the aspects that you face when opening a restaurant, many of which are not foreseen. And again, don't open a restaurant.

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Tim interviews Drew Houston about his life and extracts many lessons on building a business and how to be a good manager. It was an enjoyable episode. As always there are good stories and life lessons to be extracted.

They mentioned quite some books and here are a few I might have already wrote something about:

• Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury
• The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christensen
• Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore
• Getting Past No by William Ury (TBRead)
• High Output Management by Andrew Grove
• The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
• Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charlie Munger (TBRead)
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
• Principles by Ray Dalio

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Shane interviews Tyler Cowen, who writes a blog called Marginal Revolution. And has written the book Average is Over

Tyler is quite the interesting guest and they philosophise about what the future will bring. And how (of course) there will be no middle class like we know it today.

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Is the world getting better or not? That is the central question of this episode. You hear the positive perspective from Steven Pinker (Better Angels of our Nature), and more pessimistic views of Tyler Cowen (Average is Over).

GDP is also covered and it's proposed that we use something 'better' to measure wealth/welfare. This is coined the Social Progress Index/framework. It takes into account 1) basic needs, 2) building blocks for improvement, 3) ability to reach goals.

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Choking under pressure can be the result of thinking too much. We try and control everything and thereby forget/confuse our body that is doing most things on auto-pilot (at least for a professional). And that auto-pilot is what you're training before.

For creative tasks, a monetary reward is not the thing you want to be giving people. A high (more money) incentive led to the worst outcome in some experiments.

How to get better (and not choke), deliberate practice. More about that in Peak by Anders Ericsson.

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Steve started his entrepreneurial journey by learning from others. He was mentored by another person in the shoe business. But after a while he was eager to spread his wings and be his own boss.

Steve Maddon participated in the pump & dump schemes as portrait in Wolf of Wall Street. He stated that the boiler room depictions in the movie were true to life. He eventually spent time in jail and did quite some drugs around that period.

One nugget from the episode was that he found a different market (audience) for his product than expected. He was targetting people his age but found that younger kids bought the shoes. The same goes for where he craved respect (the industry people) and later found it from others.

Guy always asks the entrepreneurs "Was it luck or talent?". Steve answer was about windows of opportunity. You've got to grasp those. So (as always) it's a combination.

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