Infinite Loops (Jim O'Shaughnessy)

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with Ed Latimore, a former professional heavyweight boxer (13-1-1) and full-time author that writes about getting sober, forgiveness, and self-improvement. We discuss:

• The path to sobriety and lessons learned
• Ed’s extraordinary boxing career
• What Ed dubs the ‘manosphere’
• The importance of transparency and grit
• And much more…

You can follow Ed on Twitter (https://twitter.com/edlatimore ), and follow his writing at (https://edlatimore.com/).

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

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

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

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

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

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

… you get the point.

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Tracy Alloway is the co-host of the Odd Lots podcast and a managing editor at Bloomberg Markets. You can follow Tracy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tracyalloway and listen to her podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1te7oSFyRVekxMBJUSethH

Show Notes:

• Financial crisis hindsight
  
• Being obsessed with risk and systemic stability
  
• Historical parallels to the crisis of ‘08
  
• Macro vs. micro bullshitting
  
• Why people refuse to say “I don't know”
  
• Victorian chicken bubble
  
• Tales of forensic accounting
  
• NFTs being used to launder money?
  
• NFTs’ path to success
  
• Insights from collapse of previous civilizations
  
• Understanding the Human OS
  
• Fair Wages for Robots
  
• Praise for Citi’s Matt King and Credit Suisse’s Zoltan Pozsar

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

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

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Jason Crawford is the founder & president of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century.

Jason has written well over 100 essays on the history of technology and the philosophy of progress, and given numerous talks and interviews on the same.

He joins the show to discuss whether humans deserve progress, how to make progress cool, the two types of optimism, and more!

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with Brent Beshore, CEO and Founder of Permanent Equity. In this conversation, we cover:

• What Brent has learned since making his first deal.
• How COVID-19 has impacted the businesses in Brent’s portfolios
• The importance of time horizons
• The lasting changes from COVID-19
• Finding the right partners and teams in business

You can follow Brent on Twitter (https://twitter.com/BrentBeshore) and learn more about Permanent Equity here (https://www.permanentequity.com/about-our-firm)

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

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

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Tom Morgan returns for his third appearance on Infinite Loops with Jim, Infinite Loops’ own Ed William and special guest Brett Andersen, an evolutionary psychology PhD student at the University of New Mexico.

We discuss the implications of the ideas presented in Brett’s fantastic essay ‘Intimations of a New Worldview’, whether the rise of anti-heroes is a challenge to Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, the influence of conscious vs unconscious design, and much more.

Important Links:

• Intimations of a New Worldview
  
• Brett’s Substack
  
• Brett’s Twitter
  
• Tom’s blog
  
• Tom’s Twitter
  
• Awakening from the Meaning Crisis
  

Show Notes:

• Objective vs subjective morality
  
• Complexity as a precondition
  
• Biological complexification
  
• Complexification and social selection
  
• Relevance realisation
  
• Jordan Peterson’s ‘Maps of Meaning’ and the metamyth
  
• The optimal path and the process of creation
  
• The cognitive purpose of supernatural beliefs
  
• Mapping a response to the meaning crisis
  
• Quantum entanglement and consciousness
  
• Practical implications of Brett’s theory
  
• Cultural evolution
  
• Conscious vs unconscious design
  
• There is an underlying flow of things
  
• Breaking Bad and the Hero’s Journey
  
• Slack vs tension
  
• MUCH more!
  

Books Mentioned:

• Meaning in Life and Why It Matters; by Susan Wolf
  
• The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity; by Bobby Azarian
  
• The Life of the Cosmos; by Lee Smolin
  
• Evolution's Arrow: the direction of evolution and the future of humanity; by John Stewart
  
• Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny; by Robert Wright
  
• The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature; by Geoffrey Miller
  
• Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief; by Jordan Peterson
  
• Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis; by John Vervaeke
  
• Principia Mathematica; by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell
  
• The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World; by Iain McGilchrist
  
• The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by
  
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
  
• Life Finds A Way: What Evolution Teaches Us About Creativity; by Andreas Wagner
  
• Tao Te Ching; by Laozing

Edward Rooster is one of our favourite writers. His themes include the future, mythology, time and history. He has written two books, Box of Stars and Harvest, and he is currently working on a third.

Edward joins the show to discuss embracing uncertainty, avoiding becoming Icarus, unsticking yourself from time, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of a value investment firm IMA, author of two books on investing, and a recently published non-investing book named “Soul In The Game”. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes magazine called him "The New Benjamin Graham."

Vitaliy loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music.

Important Links:

• Blog: https://contrarianedge.com/
  
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/vitaliyk
  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/vitaliyk
  
• IMA: https://imausa.com/
  
• Favorite classical music website: https://myfavoriteclassical.com/
  
• “The Gateway Drug to Classical Music” Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tfsohjLty6IK2b2B8AGE0
  

Show Notes:

• Coming to America from Soviet Russia
  
• How movies shape perception
  
• Two frameworks to understand the mind
  
• Programming yourself with the words you use
  
• The Thinker and the Prover
  
• Abracadabra—I create as I speak
  
• Four modes of communication
  
• Not letting an idea become your identity
  
• Writing about both sides of the argument
  
• Reality is nuanced
  
• Depersonalize your arguments
  
• A mathematical formula to determine outcomes
  
• Table cloth model of investing
  
• Event, Judgement, Reaction framework
  
• Reframing your worries away
  
• Is the USA still the best place to be for talented people?
  
• Elon Musk’s distinctiveness
  
• Favorite classical composers
  
• Opera as a plunger for the writer's block
  
• Introducing kids to classical music
  
• The best financial advice Vitaliy ever got
  
• Can money buy happiness?
  
• Experiencing self vs. remembering self
  
• Traveling is an antidote for monotony
  
• Going outside your myopic circles
  
• “The Gateway Drug to Classical Music” playlist
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Books Mentioned:

• Soul In The Game; by Vitaliy Katsenelson
  
• Think Again; by Adam Grant
  
• Influence; by Dr Robert B. Cialdini
  
• The Wealthy Barber; by David Chilton
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach; by Douglas Hofstadter
  
• How to Win Friends & Influence People; by Dale Carnegie

Emad Mostaque is the founder and CEO of Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion.

Emad joins Stability AI’s recently announced Executive Chair of the board of directors Jim O’Shaughnessy to discuss the future of AI, the benefits of open source software, and much more.

Important Links:

• Stability AI
  
• Stable Diffusion Launch Announcement
  
• Stability AI’s Twitter
  
• Emad’s Twitter
  
• Jim’s announcement as Executive Chair
  

Show Notes:

• The open vs closed AI debate
  
• How will open AI lead to better outcomes for AI safety?
  
• How will AI allow us to to solve previously unsolvable problems?
  
• How AI can transform education
  
• AI and storytelling
  
• What is ‘clean’ data?
  
• Can AI technology increase IQs across the entire world?
  
• The future: optimism, pessimism, jobs, AI alignment and the panopticon
  
• Why closed AI is a bad business model
  
• Anticipating and defending against future problems
  
• What two ideas would you like to give everyone in the world?
  

Books Mentioned:

• The WEIRDest People in the World; by Joseph Henrich

Morgan Housel comes back for his second episode and Infinite Loops’ 100th episode! Morgan is a financial writer and author of the bestselling book “Psychology of Money” — having sold more than a million copies worldwide!

You can follow Morgan on Twitter at https://twitter.com/morganhousel, and read his blog at https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/

Show Notes:

• Morgan’s role at Collaborative Fund
  
• Marketing that isn’t “forced”
  
• Good product is good marketing
  
• When perception becomes reality
  
• Feedback to Morgan’s book
  
• The power of stories
  
• Understanding finance vs. Experiencing it
  
• Writing is thinking
  
• Not a great age for middlemen
  
• Promises of crypto
  
• Should volatility be considered as risk?
  
• Morgan’s next book
  
• Disconnect between the ideal and the practical
  
• Change in Morgan’s life after his book’s success
  
• Happiness is not about money
  
• Raising children into great adults
  
• Interviews should be conversations, not interrogations
  
• On luck and humility
  

Books Mentioned:

• Psychology of Money; by Morgan Housel

In this edition of Infinite Loops, we spoke with Rob Henderson. Rob is a veteran and a PhD candidate in Psychology, at the University of Cambridge. We talk about:

• Growing up in foster care and overcoming a "tough" childhood
  
• Role of a military stint in early adulthood
  
• Luxury beliefs
  
• Role of media in shaping identities
  
• America's export of cultural ideas
  
• and MUCH more!
  

Follow Rob on Twitter at https://twitter.com/robkhenderson and read his essays about the many aspects of human behavior here: https://www.robkhenderson.com/

Jack Raines is an online writer and LinkedIn provocateur, whose newsletter Young Money has already amassed 30,000 readers.

Jack joins the show to discuss the importance of travel, the upsides of authenticity, risk, luck, and much, much more!

Important Links:

• Jack's Twitter
• Young Money

Show Notes:

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

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with Alex Danco of Shopify. In this wide-ranging discussion we cover:

• Alex’s first 6 months at Shopify
• Social Capital & SPACs
• How Twitter has changed status networks
• The rise of e-commerce
• Can Founders Lie?
• And much more

Follow Alex (https://twitter.com/Alex_Danco) on Twitter, and read his blog here http://alexdanco.com/ .

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with legendary actor, documentarian, Co-Founder of Imagine Entertainment, and academy award winning director Ron Howard. In this wide ranging discussion, we cover:

• The pressure and thrill of directing a Beatles documentary
• How the movie industry has evolved, and the impact of COVID-19
• How documentaries differ from traditional movie making
• The future of entertainment and how streaming changes things
• And MUCH more

Enjoy!

Dennis McKenna is the founder of the McKenna Academy and has conducted research in ethnopharmacology for over 40 years. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, and was a key investigator on the Hoasca Project, the first biomedical investigation of ayahuasca.

Important Links:

• McKenna Academy: https://mckenna.academy/
  
• ESPD 55 (Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs): https://espd55.com/
  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DennisMcKenna4
  
• ICEERS (International Center for Ethno-botanical Education, Research, and Service): https://www.iceers.org/
  

Show Notes:

• ESPD 55 conference
  
• Goals of the McKenna Academy
  
• How psychedelics affect our relationship with nature
  
• Bridging the gap between ancestral and moderns scientific knowledge
  
• Psychedelics on the safety scale
  
• Nixon’s war against drugs
  
• Fear of persecution in the medical community
  
• LSD being really responsible for the birth of modern neuroscience
  
• DMT reopening the door to clinical research
  
• Using psilocybin for end of life applications
  
• Psychedelics are not just “band-aids”
  
• Dissipation of knowledge among indigenous tribes
  
• Reality hallucination
  
• Therapeutic utility of psychedelics
  
• Future of psychedelic research
  
• Making psychedelics more accessible
  
• Protecting endangered plants
  
• Forming alliances with indigenous communities
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Immortality Key; by Brian Muraresku
  
• How to Change Your Mind; by Michael Pollan
  
• Psychology and Alchemy; by Carl Jung

Our recurring guest (who rarely recurs these days), Alex Danco, comes back for his sixth appearance on Infinite Loops!

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

• Our planned, but unplanned conversations
  
• Pink Floyd were philosophers
  
• From Heraclitus, to Lao Tzu, to Gita, to Deutsch
  
• Where does decision making come from?
  
• Projection 101
  
• Can you versus can’t you read people’s mind
  
• Jim throwing big fancy words like “Phylogenetic inertia”
  
• Corn: The apex predator
  
• Self-serving nature of memetic theory
  
• The Mirror Philosophy
  
• What is a “creator”?
  
• Communication theory by Gregory Bateson
  
• The Founding Murderer
  
• Consequences of eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge
  
• "The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.”
  
• Hot media vs. Cool media
  
• The Wire, and dumb Stringer
  
• The state of accreditation
  
• Balancing mystery with transparency
  
• Knowing pop culture as a status symbol
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Science of Storytelling; by Will Storr
  
• The Status Game; by Will Storr
  
• Happy; by Derren Brown
  
• The Selfish Gene; by Richard Dawkins
  
• Steps to an Ecology of Mind; by Gregory Bateson
  
• War and Peace; by Leo Tolstoy
  

• Meme-ing: As a finance insider and outsider
• Wall Street's culture
• Current state of financial education
• Growing the "Liquidity" brand
• Elon Musk's meme game
• And a LOT more!

Zachary Resnick is the Managing Partner and co-founder at Unbounded Capital, a trumpet player and composer, and a poker enthusiast. We speak with Zach about:

• Scaling issues with BTC
  
• Why isn't Bitcoin SV the prominent Bitcoin?
  
• The best use-cases for Bitcoin SV
  
• Can Bitcoin SV survive a govt. attack?
  
• Jazz music, Poker, and much more!
  

Follow Zachary on his Twitter at https://twitter.com/TrumpetisAwesom and know more about Unbounded Capital at https://unboundedcapital.com/

Douglas A. Boneparth is the President at Bone Fide Wealth, Founder at CryptoDrip, and co-author of the book ‘Millennial Money Fix’.

Follow Douglas on his Twitter at https://twitter.com/dougboneparth, CryptoDrip at https://twitter.com/cryptodripxyz and know more about Bone Fide Wealth here: https://bonefidewealth.com/

Show Notes:

• Writing a book with your spouse
  
• "Killing your darlings"
  
• Humor as a marketing strategy
  
• Generating leads with Twitter and SEO
  
• Scaling a financial planning business
  
• Demystifying financial jargon
  
• Dealing with the 2020 crisis
  
• Doug's introduction to Bitcoin
  
• The Web 2.0/Web 3.0 bridge
  
• Crypto Drip: A coffee-based NFT collection
  
• Trusting the trust-less system
  
• Gamestop-AMC saga
  
• Responsibilities of a fiduciary
  
• Earning the Right to Invest
  
• How NOT to suck on Twitter
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Millennial Money Fix; by Douglas A. Boneparth and Heather Boneparth

• Dylan’s Twitter
• Essayful
• Write of Passage

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

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

Nat & Martha Sharpe have been a creative team for over a decade. Nat was a film school graduate and Martha a storytelling enthusiast. They fell in love while filming a musical parody of "Beowulf" with their friends.

After another comedy and two documentaries, they started having children. Focus shifted from art to survival. Together, they learned to code, got off food stamps, and traveled around America in an RV. Today, Nat and Martha homeschool their 5 kids and are eager to explore alternative education, expand their comfort zones, and—as always—make movies.
Nat & Martha were the first recipients of an O’Shaughnessy Fellowship, which is a one-year program for ambitious people who want to build something great. Fellows receive a $100,000 grant and access to OSV’s network of founders, investors and experts to support them in bringing their projects to life.

Nat & Martha are using their fellowship grant to study and make documentary films of alternative childhood education schools.

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson

Kevin is a Computer Scientist, part-time lecturer at Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and research partner at OSAM. Our discussion with Kevin revolves around:

• What is Machine Learning (ML)?
  
• Biases in ML algorithms
  
• Application of ML in medicine, markets, and sports
  
• Parallels in Fantasy Sports and Investing
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Follow Kevin on his Twitter at https://twitter.com/kczat and read OSAM's research articles at: https://osam.com/Commentary

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

Important Links:

• John’s Website
• John’s Twitter

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Title: 

Description:
Sam McRoberts is the CEO of VUDU Marketing, an SEO agency and author of the book ‘Screw the Zoo’, a book that helps you “escape from your cage, free your mind, and take over the world.” You can contact Sam on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Sams_Antics and get his book at https://screwthezoo.com/

Show Notes:

• Life as a digital nomad
  
• Role of video games in children’ education
  
• The Great Unwashed
  
• Running an SEO consultancy
  
• Jed McKenna — A fictional character?
  
• Being kind to everyone
  
• Importance of curation in social media
  
• Bot infestation in Twitter
  
• Free will vs. Nature of reality
  
• Surrender comes after enlightenment, not before
  
• Memory as a latticework
  
• Shannon Limit
  
• Love as detachment
  
• Perseverance and survivorship bias
  
• The Original Sin
  
• Another dark age?
  
• To mute, or to block?
  
• Virtual Reality and Robots
  
• Psychedelics
  

Books Recommended:

• The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch
  
• Cloud Atlas; by David Mitchell
  
• Screw the Zoo; by Sam McRoberts
  

Nick Maggiulli is a financial educator, author of the blog “Of Dollars and Data”, and the newly released book “Just Keep Buying: Proven Ways To Save Money And Build Your Wealth.”

In this episode, we talk with Nick about the robust empirical research that has gone behind the insights and ideas presented in his new book!

You can follow Nick on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dollarsanddata and buy his book at https://ofdollarsanddata.com/justkeepbuying/

Show Notes:

• Coming up with title of the book
  
• The save-invest continuum
  
• Is buying a house a good investment?
  
• Debt: Good or bad?
  
• On being shaped by our experiences
  
• One path the wealth creation?
  
• 2020 vs 2021 as an investment year
  
• Handling emotions during a bear market
  
• Importance of diversification
  
• The ideal asset allocation
  
• The Great Reshuffle
  
• The argument against stock picking
  
• Negative yield bonds
  
• Lump sum vs. DCA
  
• Index investors or momentum investors
  
• Life as a growth, and value stock
  

Books Mentioned:

• Just Keep Buying; by Nick Magguilli
  
• Security Analysis; Benjamin Graham
  
• The Intelligent Investor; Benjamin Graham
  
• Influence; by Robert Cialdini

My friend Barry Ritholtz has spent his career being an astute market observer, investigating behavioral finance and data analytics. He runs Ritholtz Wealth Management which has been named ETF Advisor of the Year, Financial Times Top 300 Advisors, and one of America’s fastest-growing RIAs. He’s also the host of Masters in Business, Bloomberg Radio’s most popular podcast (50+ million streams/downloads), which he started way back in 2014.

In his new book, How Not To Invest, Barry emphasizes how avoiding rookie mistakes can significantly help you do better financially. He blends engaging stories with data-driven insights, and explores overlooked aspects of behavioral finance, psychology and the market. Reading his book is like having a casual drink with an experienced, wise, and honest friend.

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

Important Links:

• Blog
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Ritholtz Wealth Management

Show Notes:

• How Amateurs Win
• Managing Emotions When the Market Goes Down
• If You Can't Afford a Financial Advisor Yet…
• Notable Financial Innovations
• Barry’s Transition from a Trader to an Investor
• Varieties of Investor Personas
• What To Do When Randomness Derails Your Plans
• Finding Your Own Maintainable Processes
• Having Reliable Information Sources
• Barry As World Emperor

Books Mentioned:

• How Not to Invest: The Ideas, Numbers, and Behaviors That Destroy Wealth - And How to Avoid Them; by Barry Ritholtz
• Winning the Loser’s Game; by Charley Ellis
• How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life; by Thomas Gilovich

In this episode of Infinite Loops we have Sahil Lavingia with us. Sahil is the founder and CEO of Gumroad, and author of the book “The Minimalist Entrepreneur”.

• The rise, and fall, and rise of Gumroad
  
• Physical vs. Digital Communities
  
• Befriending ‘volatility’
  
• Applications of Web 3
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Follow Sahil on Twitter at https://twitter.com/shl and buy his book from Amazon at amzn.to/2ZnIGOl

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Julia is the co-founder of Rosetta Analytics Inc, “an alternative asset manager that is pioneering the use of advanced artificial intelligence to build and actively manage liquid investment strategies.”

Prior to co-founding Rosetta, Julia served as President of Wilshire Consulting and was a member of Wilshire’s Board of Directors and Consulting Investment Committee.

Julia joins the show to take a deep dive into deep reinforcement learning and Rosetta’s pioneering work using AI as the basis of its investment strategies.

Important Links:

• Rosetta Analytics
  
• Julia’s LinkedIn
  

Show Notes:

• Julia’s journey from Wilshire to Rosetta
  
• Defining deep reinforcement learning
  
• AI and non-linear thinking
  
• Using adaptive models
  
• Overcoming the human need for ‘why’
  
• Pitching deep reinforcement learning models to new investors
  
• Telling positive stories about AI; improving our discourse
  
• “Wake up and look for the joy”; “overcoming fear is the biggest barrier to success”
  

Books Mentioned:

• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
  
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
  
• The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny; by William Strauss and Neil Howe
  

• Journey from employment, to consulting, to entrepreneurship. 
• Productizing yourself
• Building a brand
• Overcoming fear and imposter syndrome
• Process vs. Goals
• And a LOT more!

Ethan Mollick is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. He also leads Wharton Interactive, an effort to democratize education using games, simulations, and AI.

When Ethan started his Substack One Useful Thing in November last year, he was planning on writing about a different management paper every post.

Then, in Ethan’s words, the arrival of ChatGPT turned him from “an AI-skeptic to an AI-believer.”

Over the last few months, Ethan has been explaining the rapid developments in the AI industry, documenting how he has incorporated AI into his teaching, and providing practical guides to how we can use AI in our daily lives.

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

David Perell is prolific writer and online educator, who runs a writing school called “Write of Passage”. David also hosts the “The North Star Podcast” featuring interviews with writers, athletes, and entrepreneurs.

Important Links:

• Website: https://perell.com/
  
• Writing School: https://writeofpassage.school/
  
• Friday Finds Links: https://perell.com/friday-finds-links/
  
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/david_perell
  

Show Notes:

• Origins of “Write of Passage”
  
• Writing leads to thinking
  
• David’s ever expanding portfolio
  
• Live the life that you teach
  
• Applying lessons from Disneyland to a writing course
  
• Four Seasons of writing education
  
• Ana’s success with David’s course
  
• Writing as a career transition
  
• Average course cohort age
  
• Building a personal monopoly
  
• Advice for an aspiring creator
  
• Dive into the work of the people you admire
  
• Managing fear of creating in public
  
• The network age
  
• Building a product for high-schoolers
  
• Finding your tribe on the internet
  
• Going against the trend with long-form essays
  
• Checklists and prescriptions
  
• The cover band strategy for investing
  
• Building an internet native education system
  
• Schools stifling creativity
  
• The Never-Ending Now
  

Books Mentioned:

• Zero to One; by Peter Thiel
  
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
  
• The Status Game; by Will Storr
  
• Invest Like the Best; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
  

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

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

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

Mark Daniel is the co-founder and managing partner of the investment firm Digital, whose portfolio extends across accelerated computing, gaming, crypto, social networking, AI, extended reality, cybersecurity, creator tools, spatial computing, and immersive learning.

Back in 2013, he was also one of the very first recipients of a Thiel Fellowship.

This was a fun one. Mark joins the show to discuss why podcasts are dangerous (😬), why content creators should have a 10 post limit, how he identifies kaleidoscopic aliens to invest in, and MUCH more.

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

Important Links:

• Digital
• Mark’s Twitter
• Mark’s LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• Why podcasts are dangerous
• Why content creators should be limited to 10 posts
• Advice is simple; life is hard
• How to find a kaleidoscopic alien
• How to win the great game
• Mania-immune investing
• Jim’s “I’m a sports guy” algorithm
• What beliefs would you die for?
• What have you unlearned in the past year?
• The fragility of morality
• Passion as a forcing function
• Movie recommendations: My Dinner With Andre & Elevator to Gallows
• Mark as World Emperor
• MORE!

Books & Articles Mentioned:

• How to Be Successful; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• How to Win Friends and Influence People; by Dale Carnegie

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

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

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

• Infinite Loops Substack

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

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

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

• Writing and earning on Substack
• Going from 'Platform owning people', to 'People owning platforms'
• The end state of publishing
• Tips for new writers
• Getting good at cold outreach
• And a LOT more! 

Jesse Livermore (pseudonym), a Research Partner at OSAM, is back to Infinite Loops for his second appearance to talk about:

• Payments in the Metaverse
  
• Crypto regulation
  
• Incentives of governments vs. corporations
  
• Rise of online education
  
• Universal Basic Income
  

Follow Jesse on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Jesse_Livermore), and check out his writing here http://www.philosophicaleconomics.com/.

In this episode we spoke with Tim Urban, founder and writer at Wait But Why? In this super episode Jim and Tim discuss:

• The story of us
• Managing and taming our biases
• Flat earthers and how we’re no different
• Overcoming our outdated mental hardware
• and MUCH more.

Follow Tim on Twitter (Twitter.com/waitbutwhy) and check out his site (waitbutwhy.com)

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with Pete Weishaupt. Our conversation with Pete covers:

• Starting an e-commerce business
• Running cheap experiments
• How to leverage Twitter
• Behavioral economics
• And much more

Follow Pete (https://twitter.com/peteweishaupt) on Twitter, and read his blog herehttps://maverickmedia.substack.com/.

• Needs vs. Desire
• The current state of social media
• 'Celebristan' and 'Freshmanistan'
• How to identify fake "experts"
• Scapegoating and Mimetic Violence 
• And a LOT more!

Frederik is the author of the “Neckar’s Insecurity Analysis” newsletter where he writes about great investors, innovators, masters of the inner game. We talk about:

• Trying to “fit in”
  
• The Great Reshuffle
  
• Destroying your ideas and starting afresh
  
• Synthesizing knowledge
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Follow Frederik on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NeckarValue and subscribe to his newsletter at neckar.substack.com

In this episode of Infinite Loops we have Tom Morgan with us. Tom is the Director of Content and Communications at the The Knall/Cohen/Pence Group and a stellar knowledge curator. We speak about:

• Following your interests
  
• Operating in complex adaptive systems
  
• Winner-take-all effects in the creator economy
  
• Rethinking 'Education'
  
• Flaws in binary thinking
  
• And a LOT more!
  

Follow Tom on his Twitter here: https://twitter.com/tomowenmorgan and read his articles at: https://thekcpgroup.com/resources

Michael Strong has spent decades quietly revolutionizing education by designing innovative schools and programs built around agency, critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity.

He is the founder and CEO of The Socratic Experience, a virtual school that equips students for lifelong happiness and success through Socratic dialogue.

Alongside his work in the US, he has educational consulting experience in multiple developing nations.

And… he’s a fellow Minnesotan!

Michael joins the show to discuss whether Socratic education can scale, the benefits of the Mormon model, why high agency is the default, and MUCH more!

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

Important Links:

• Michael’s Substack
• Twitter
• The Socratic Experience

Show Notes:

• One book a night and mental chess - a Minnesotan childhood.
• Can Socratic education scale?
• Are we entrenching a new elite?
• Why high agency is the default
• Creating new subcultures & the benefits of the Mormon model
• Experimenting our way to prosperity
• Tearing down the citadel, secret censorship & claiming the moral high ground
• Prediction markets & why we should be betting on our reputation
• The heroic tradition of reason
• Michael as World Emperor
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Dr. Semmelweis vs. the World (Infinite Loops Substack)
• Ignore. Fight. Ridicule (Infinite Loops Substack)
• The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice; by Michael Strong
• Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World's Problems; by Michael Strong and John Mackey
• The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen; by Robert Epstein
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior; by Christopher Boehm
• Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions; by Todd Rose
• Can Gambling Save Science? Encouraging an Honest Consensus; by Robin Hanson
• Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life; by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant's Guide; by Bill McGuire
• Think in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts; by Annie Duke
• The Ultimate Resource; by Julian L. Simon
• Keep Your Identity Small; by Paul Graham

Trung T. Phan is a creator in the tech, business, and media space. His Twitter threads are full of knowledge and humor, and he also co-hosts the “Not Investment Advice” podcast. Follow Trung on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan and subscribe to his newsletter at https://trungtphan.com/subscribe/

Show Notes:

• Trung’s Vietnamese origins
  
• Humor in your talent stack
  
• Asymmetric returns of creating content online
  
• The power of memes
  
• Getting a CFA
  
• Going back to writing movie scripts
  
• Succeeding in the creator economy
  
• How to acquire people’s attention
  
• Creating content on LinkedIn and Facebook
  
• The importance of traveling
  
• Donald Trump’s popularity in SE Asia
  
• History is not black or white
  
• Steve Jobs with the Picasso
  
• How a Microsoft guy catalyzed the iPad
  
• Musk’s space meeting with Bezos
  
• Not letting complacency set in
  
• Putting historical dates into perspective
  
• Structuring speech to persuade
  
• Jim not dissing Plato
  
• Making Ted Lasso likable in 157 seconds
  
• And MORE!
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Status Game; by Will Storr
  
• The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch
  
• Virus of the Mind; by Richard Brodie
  
• The Republic; Plato

David Ha is the Head of Strategy at Stability AI, and one of the top minds working in AI today. He previously worked as a research scientist in the Brain team at Google.

David is particularly interested in evolution and complex systems, and his research explores how intelligence may emerge from limited resource constraints. He joins the show to discuss the advantages of open-source models, modelling AI as an emergent system, why large language models are bad at maths and MUCH more!

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

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

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

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

Cliff Asness is the Founder, Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer at AQR Capital Management. Prior to co-founding AQR Capital Management, he was a Managing Director and Director of Quantitative Research for the Asset Management Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Cliff joins the show to discuss FTX, AMC , why hedge funds aren’t hedging, the role of index funds and a whole lot more.

Important Links:

• Cliff’s Twitter
  
• Cliff’s Blog
  
• AQR Capital Management
  
• Do Hedge Funds Hedge?
  

Show Notes:

• Cliff’s take on FTX and crypto
  
• The AMC saga
  
• HODL and the MOASS
  
• Finding the right media format for substantive investment conversations
  
• Thoughts on the value spread
  
• “We don’t want a world where markets are perfect”
  
• Hedge funds aren’t hedging
  
• The role of index funds
  
• Never override a model
  
• “Study statistics and stick to your principles”
  

Books Mentioned:

• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy

Christine Benz is the Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning at Morningstar, where she has spent over three decades helping investors navigate the complexities of financial planning. She is also the author of "How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement" and serves as the president of the John C. Bogle Center for Financial Literacy.

Before focusing on retirement planning, Christine worked as a fund analyst, bringing a unique perspective that combines deep investment knowledge with practical financial wisdom.

Christine joins the show to discuss why retirement isn't just about hitting your "magic number," how to overcome the psychological barriers to retirement spending, why keeping your inner circle vibrant is crucial for long-term happiness, the surprising power of lifetime giving, and MUCH more.

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

Important Links:

• Website
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• Retirement Focus: Finances or Lifestyle?
• Bring Your Kids In The Loop
• Embrace the Challenges of Social Health
• A Day in The Life of a Retiree
• Defaulting People Into Saving
• Genesis of the FIRE Movement
• Horsemen of The Investment Apocalypse
• The Delicate Balance of Investment Buckets
• Dodging A Single Point of Failure
• How to Sniff Out Fishy Financial Advice
• The Saver vs the Investor Personality Type
• Keeping Up With Mr. Market
• Annuities: The Low-Risk Underdog
• Christine as World Emperor

Books / Authors Mentioned:

• How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful, and Wealthy Retirement; by Christine Benz
• The works of Jonathan Franzen

Is this the greatest crossover event in history? Fresh from their individual appearances on Infinite Loops, Trung Phan and Rob Henderson join forces to discuss TV, film, and why Rob still hasn’t seen Apocalypse Now.

Important Links:

• Rob’s Substack
  
• Rob’s Twitter
  
• Trung’s Substack
  
• Trung’s Twitter
  

Show Notes:

• Hearts of Darkness: one of the craziest stories in Hollywood history
  
• The beginning of TV’s golden age
  
• Breadth or depth? The two paths to prestige TV
  
• What TV can teach you about elite America
  
• The two ways of watching prestige TV
  
• How TV shows program us
  
• The decline of event TV
  
• Recurring themes and HumanOS
  
• Succession and signalling
  
• The Great Reshuffle and Substack
  
• The 70s: one of the worst American decades of all time
  
• What will TV be like in 10 years’ time?
  
• Challenge yourself with art
  
• Broaden your content horizons
  

Books Mentioned:

• Heart of Darkness; by Joseph Conrad
  
• Unflattening; by Nick Sousanis
  
• The Iliad; by Homer
  
• The Odyssey; by Homer
  
• The Da Vinci Code; by Dan Brown
  
• Infinite Jest; by David Foster Wallace
  

TV Shows and Films Mentioned:

• Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
  
• Apocalypse Now
  
• The Shield
  
• The Godfather
  
• The Sopranos
  
• Seinfeld
  
• All In The Family
  
• The Wire
  
• The Simpsons
  
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
  
• Mad Men
  
• Game of Thrones
  
• The West Wing
  
• Roseanne
  
• Power Rangers
  
• The O.C.
  
• Breaking Bad
  
• Better Call Saul
  
• The Truman Show
  
• Back to the Future
  
• I Love Lucy
  
• Succession
  
• Will and Grace
  
• Severance
  
• House of Cards
  
• Stranger Things
  
• Office Space
  
• Euphoria
  
• Avengers: End Game
  
• Top Gun Maverick
  
• The Office
  
• Parasite
  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books & Articles Mentioned:

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

Max Arbitrage (pseudonym) is a doctor who is great at deconstructing complex health related issues and ideas down to the layman's understanding. We discuss:

•  mRNA vaccine technology
  
• Medical Insurance in the USA
  
• Increasing abstraction in the world
  
• Importance of non-information and focus
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Follow Max on his Twitter at https://twitter.com/max_arbitrage!

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books and Articles Mentioned:

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

Ana is a former teacher, an edu-preneur, and the Chief Evangelist at Synthesis School. We have a very intriguing discussion with Ana around:

• Idea and implementation of Synthesis School
• Increasing engagement and ownership among students
• Problems with the traditional education system
• How schools crush creativity
• Beginning of the end of the existing educational system
• And MUCH more!

Follow Ana on Twitter at https://twitter.com/anafabrega11, subscribe to her newsletter at https://afabrega.com/newsletter, and try out the Synthesis experience at https://synthesis.is/oshag

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

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

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

Meb Faber is co-founder and the Chief Investment Officer of Cambria Investment Management, author of multiple books, and host of “The Meb Faber Show” podcast. You can follow Meb on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MebFaber and know more about him and his work at https://mebfaber.com/

Show Notes:

• Replicating the Yale endowment
  
• Why investors won’t follow advice
  
• Importance of writing down your investment plan
  
• The challenges of buy and hold
  
• Learning from your losses
  
• Out of favor strategies
  
• A dividend strategy without dividends
  
• The branding issue with buybacks
  
• Harsh book reviews
  
• Investing in international markets
  
• Are we in an expensive downtrend?
  
• Stated vs. Actual preference
  
• Not betting on merely sentiment
  
• Robinhood with an educational spin

Creator and curator Liberty RPF returns for his second appearance on Infinite Loops. He and Jim discuss the art of curation, the opportunities and risks of AI, the curse of creativity, the future of learning, and MUCH more!

Dwarkesh Patel is the host of The Lunar Society podcast, where he interviews scientists, historians, economists, intellectuals, & founders about their ideas. He also writes about tech, progress, talent, science, and the long-term over at his Substack.

Dwarkesh has been described as “one of the best young podcasters alive”, and his Substack has been praised by the likes of Jeff Bezos, Paul Graham and Tyler Cowen.

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

After starting his career on a market stall in Essex, John Sills has spent the last twenty-five years working to make the world a better place for customers.

John is the Managing Partner at the customer-led growth company The Foundation, and his writing has also been featured in publications such as The Guardian and Management Today. He joins the show to discuss his thought-provoking and timely new book The Human Experience: How to make life better for your customers and create a more successful organization.

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group, joins us for an almost unprecedented third appearance on Infinite Loops. Our discussion with Rory centers on:

• The marketing of Saint Paul and religious leaders.
• Humor as a vehicle for effective messaging.
• The advantages and drawbacks of remote work.
• “Category” vs. “brand” advertising.
• And MUCH more!

Follow Rory on Twitter at twitter.com/rorysutherland and get his must-read book 'Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life' from Amazon.com

Brom Rector is the founder of Empath Ventures, a VC fund that in invests in early-stage psychedelics startups.

Prior to founding Empath, Brom sent several years as a portfolio manager and quantitative researcher.

Brom joins the show to discuss the current state of the psychedelics industry, the lessons learned founding a VC fund, the differences between psychedelics and cannabis, and a whole lot more.

Important Links:

• Empath Ventures
  
• Brom’s LinkedIn
  
• Brom’s Twitter
  
• The Brom Podcast
  

Show Notes:

• How Brom became interested in psychedelic investing
  
• Psychedelics and the mental health epidemic
  
• Depoliticising psychedelics
  
• Empath Ventures’ business model
  
• How we can scientifically improve psychedelics
  
• The influence of hippie culture
  
• A contrarian view on Big Pharma
  
• The potential benefits of ibogaine
  
• The differences between cannabis and psychedelics
  
• Do some people not react to psychedelics?
  
• Brom’s thoughts on microdosing
  
• Lessons learned from founding a VC company
  
• The benefits of Rule 506(c)
  

Books Mentioned:

• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence; by Michael Pollan
  
• Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection; by John E. Sarno MD

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books and Articles Mentioned:

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

In this episode of Infinite Loops we invited Adam Townsend back on to speak exclusively about Sales, and why it is so important. In this conversation, we cover:

Follow Adam on Twitter at https://twitter.com/adamscrabble .

Diane Macedo is a news anchor at ABC News and author of the newly-released book "The Sleep Fix". Diane helps us understand many sleep disorders and their solutions, and other topics like:

• Are 'Insomnia' and 'Sleep deprivation' the same?
  
• Sleep efficiency
  
• Journaling to help you sleep
  
• How effective are sleep aids?
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Follow Diane on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dianermacedo and purchase her book at https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/thesleepfix

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

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

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

Description:
George Mack is a creator who writes about the intersection of mental models, marketing, and technological tools and tactics. His marketing agency “Multiply” has helped grow some of the fasted growing businesses in the world backed by VCs like Stripe, YC, Sequoia, and LVMH.

• George’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/george__mack
  
• George’s newsletter: https://emailoctopus.com/lists/6d23df04-dff2-11ea-a3d0-06b4694bee2a/forms/subscribe
  
• Multiply Marketing: https://www.multiply.marketing/
  

Show Notes:

• Specific knowledge and technology
  
• Rise of TikTok
  
• Bringing people closer to tech
  
• Regulation slowing down tech innovation
  
• High agency filters
  
• A self-made teenage billionaire?
  
• New forms of education
  
• Word of mouth 2.0
  
• The best marketer doesn’t look like a marketer
  
• Elon’s 21 second pause
  
• Optimizing for luck
  
• The smart friend razor
  
• Superpower in being weird
  
• How to build a porn site
  
• Assess others to assess yourself
  
• The issue with personality tests
  
• Advice to the young
  

Books Mentioned:

• Zero to One; by Peter Thiel
  
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
  
• The Bhagavad Gita
  

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books & Articles Mentioned:

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

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with Michael Batnick, Director of Research at Ritholtz Wealth Management. In this conversation, we cover:

 Follow Michael on Twitter at https://twitter.com/michaelbatnick , and find his blog here The Irrelevant Investor.

In this episode of Infinite Loops, we speak with Packy McCormick, author of the Not Boring newsletter. We discuss many aspects of the Great Reshuffle like:

• UBI with crypto
  
• Designing new money
  
• How to increase crypto adoption
  
• Will NFTs go mainstream?
  
• Future of work and workspaces
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Follow Packy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/packyM and subscribe to his newsletter at https://www.notboring.co/

Ahead of the release of the next episode of his lecture series on René Girard, Johnathan Bi returns for his second appearance on the show. He and Jim discuss Girard, prestige, innovation, AI, and much more. Enjoy!

Important Links:

• Johnathan’s website
  
• Johnathan’s Twitter
  
• Johnathan’s lecture series with David Perell
  
• Our research note on Johnathan
  
• Johnathan’s first appearance on the show
  

Show Notes:

• The Girardian notion of prestige
  
• What proof is there for mimesis?
  
• The difference between mimesis and status signalling
  
• Philosophical critiques of Girard
  
• Girard on innovation
  
• Historical understandings of innovation
  
• A conversation between a pessimist and an optimist
  
• AI, progress and the panopticon
  
• Could we ban innovation?
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
  
• The Alchemy of Finance; by George Soros
  
• The Laws of Imitation; by Gabriel Tarde
  
• When These Things Begin: Conversations with Michel Treguer; by René Girard
  
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
  
• The Invention of Improvement: Information and Material Progress in Seventeenth-Century England; by Paul Slack
  
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future; by Peter Thiel
  

In this unique episode of Infinite Loops, Tren Griffin returns to the podcast, but this time as the co-host. Tren asks Jim a series of thought-provoking questions that cover topics like (Jim got a few questions to Tren as well):

• The importance of asking "why"
• Treating failures as lessons
• How writing helps in detecting blind-spots in your thinking
• Courage, and to go all-in! 
• Munger, Buffett, Gates, Jobs, and A LOT more! 

Follow Tren on Twitter (https://twitter.com/trengriffin) and read his blog at: https://25iq.com/

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

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

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

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

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

Jeremiah Lowin is the founder & CEO of Prefect, a dataflow automation company. Jeremiah joins Jim for his second appearance on Infinite Loops to discuss executing, storytelling, artificial intelligence and, of course, puns.

Important Links:

• Prefect.io
  
• Disney Research Hub
  
• The story of the fake statue of Venus
  

Show Notes:

• Slack, puns and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  
• Planning, executing and the story of Prefect in 2022
  
• Why naming things is a superpower
  
• If you can’t pivot, you’re dead
  
• Make original mistakes
  
• AI, storytelling, deep fakes and open source
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
  
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
  
• The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch

Dr. Pippa Malmgren is an economist, founder, keynote speaker & award-winning author.

She served President George W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President and on the National Economic Council. She was responsible for financial market issues during the Enron crisis, and was responsible for assessing terrorism risks to the economy after 9/11. She has also advised the US Cabinet.

Dr. Pippa’s most recent book, the Infinite Leader, won the International Press Award for the Best Book on Leadership for 2021.

Dr. Pippa joins the show to discuss why leadership has gone wrong, what she thinks of the recent UFO news, why we’re already in World War III, and a whole lot more!

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

mgren is an economist, founder, keynote speaker & award-winning author.

She served President George W. Bush as Special Assistant to the President and on the National Economic Council. She was responsible for financial market issues during the Enron crisis, and was responsible for assessing terrorism risks to the economy after 9/11. She has also advised the US Cabinet.

Dr. Pippa’s most recent book, the Infinite Leader, won the International Press Award for the Best Book on Leadership for 2021.

Dr. Pippa joins the show to discuss why leadership has gone wrong, what she thinks of the recent UFO news, why we’re already in World War III, and a whole lot more!

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Rohit is a VC and essayist who writes fascinating, thought-provoking essays on complexity, progress, innovation and technology over at Strange Loop Canon.

He joins the show for a second time to discuss the lessons learned from the FTX meltdown, why there isn’t a philosophy of business, creating an AI picture book, and a whole lot more.

Important Links:

• Rohit’s Twitter
  
• Rohit’s Substack
  
• Our research note on Rohit
  

Show Notes:

• What can VCs learn from FTX?
  
• FTX, hubris and good manners
  
• “Don’t let anyone push you into a decision that you don’t want to make”
  
• Signing up to the right narratives
  
• Why you can’t beat the market
  
• Why isn’t there a philosophy of business?
  
• Markets, desire and innovation
  
• How AI allows us to talk to machines in our language
  
• The complexities of the AI sentience debate
  
• How AI unlocks new outlets for creativity
  
• The need for positive stories
  
• The three components of innovation
  
• “Curiosity is a shit starter”
  
• Finding new ways to create community
  
• Openness and experimentation
  
• MUCH more!
  

Books Mentioned:

• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
  
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
  
• Unflattening; by Nick Sousanis
  
• Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the 20th Century; by Brad DeLong
  
• American Gods; by Neil Gaiman
  
• Lessons: A Novel; by Ian McEwan

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

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

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

As Chamath Palihapitiya put it back in April 2021, 10-K Diver is “one of the best fintwit accounts on Twitter.” 10-K Diver loves breaking down complex financial topics and helping people understand them via engaging Twitter threads.

You can follow 10-K Diver on Twitter at https://twitter.com/10kdiver and read all his threads at https://10kdiver.com/twitter-threads/

Show Notes:

• Curating aggressively
  
• Is there a long term plan?
  
• Reasoning from the first principles
  
• Volatility tax
  
• Do markets have a memory?
  
• Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE)
  
• Mental models for investing
  
• Premeditating
  
• Jim’s GIF game
  
• Is it a Lindy or a turkey?
  
• The ‘Money Concepts’ show
  
• Benefits and pitfalls of leverage
  
• What’s next for the 10-K diver?
  

Books Mentioned:

• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator; by Edwin Lefèvre
  
• Happy; by Derren Brown

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with Phil Pearlman. We discuss:

• What Phil has learned from studying the Tao
• The narratives you tell yourself
• The most important rule: Don’t suck
• How marketing & finance has evolved over Phil’s career
• And MUCH more…

Follow Phil on Twitter (https://twitter.com/ppearlman) to stay up to date on all of his exciting projects.

Dr Michael Donnino is the founder/director of the Psychophysiologic Research Group, and the first person in the country to complete a residency/fellowship program leading to board certification in internal medicine, emergency medicine, and critical care.

Liz Wallenstein is a licensed mental health counselor who has trained in, among other areas, the methodology of ‘TMS Mind Body-Connection’.

Liz and Dr Michael join the show to discuss the profound influence of Dr John Sarno on their lives, and the potentially transformational power of ‘Mind-Body’ therapies.

Important Links:

• The Mind-Body Group
  
• Michael’s Twitter
  
• Liz’s Website
  
• Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
  

Show Notes:

• Introductions to Dr. Sarno
  
• The relationship between our emotional and physical reactions
  
• Reasons to be hopeful
  
• Emotions and conditioning
  
• A response to the sceptics
  
• The societal costs of chronic pain
  
• Mental health: moving beyond diagnostic labels
  
• Long COVID and mind-body syndrome
  
• The future of psychophysiological research
  
• What does the medical community think of mind-body syndrome?
  
• Doing the inner work that’s needed to heal
  
• The future of mind-body treatments
  
• The importance of sincerity
  

Books Mentioned:

• Your Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma; by Bessel van der Kolk;
  
• Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine; by Candace Pert
  
• Healing Back Pain; by John E. Sarno
  
• The Screwtape Letters; by C.S. Lewis
  
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
  
• The Great Pain Deception: Faulty Medical Advice Is Making Us Worse; by Steve Ozanich
  
• Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient; by Norman Cousins

James Pethokoukis is a policy analyst, official CNBC contributor, and Dewitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the creator and writer of the Faster, Please! newsletter, which is dedicated to “discovering, creating, and inventing a better world through technological innovation, economic growth, and pro-progress culture.”

James joins the show to discuss his new book, The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised.

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Nick Gillespie is the host of the Reason Interview and an editor at large at Reason. Nick is one of the most interesting libertarian thinkers in America, and has been described by the New York Times as being to libertarianism “what Lou Reed is to rock ‘n’ roll, the quintessence of its outlaw spirit".

Important Links:

• Nick’s Substack
  
• Nick’s Twitter
  
• Nick’s Podcast
  
• Reason
  

Show Notes:

• Is libertarianism dead?
  
• Saying what you think
  
• The case for rational optimism
  
• Labels and empathy
  
• President Nixon, the Great Reshuffle, Bitcoin
  
• Bureaucracy and responsiveness
  
• The rapidly changing world
  
• Prohibition and legalisation
  
• Why America does not have enough immigration
  
• The enfranchising power of social media
  
• Obscenity and moral panics
  
• Empathy with the dispossessed
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America; by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
  
• The Rational Optimist; by Matt Ridley
  
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
  
• The Population Bomb; by Paul Ehrlich
  
• The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch
  
• Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy; by Joseph Schumpeter
  
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
  
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
  
• The War on Alcohol; by Liza McGirr
  
• Immigration and Freedom; by Chandran Kukathas
  
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
  
• What It Means to be a Libertarian: a Personal Interpretation; by Charles Murray
  
• Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society; by Tipper Gore
  
• Ulysses; by James Joyce
  
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
  
• Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown

Tom Morgan, Director of Communications & Content at The KCP Group, joins us for his second appearance at Infinite Loops to discuss:

• The trillion-to-one ratio of attention
  
• "Love" as a compass for growth
  
• Religions and Traditions
  
• Enlightenment vs. Adulthood
  
• And MUCH more!
  

Follow Tom on his Twitter at https://twitter.com/tom_morganKCP and read his brilliant essays at https://thekcpgroup.com/insights

• Role of women in early Christianity
• Mysticism of the ancient wine
• The political war on drugs
• The rise of Archeochemistry
• Classical education in the 21st century
• And a LOT more!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books & Articles Mentioned:

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

Title: 

Description:

Lulu Cheng Meservey is the Chief Communications Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Activision Blizzard.

She joins Infinite Loops to provide us with a masterclass in communications for startups. A must-listen for current and aspiring founders.

Important Links:
 • Lulu’s Twitter
 • Lulu’s Substack

Show Notes:
 • Why people write hit pieces
 • The insurgency framework
 • How to access your audience’s neural real estate
 • How to develop a spontaneous elevator pitch
 • Tips for becoming better at reading the room
 • Speak directly and take the hits
 • Defining business objectives
 • Learning from other industries
 • Personalising your message
 • Overcoming resistance to the unknown, what Christianity can teach us about comms
 • Escaping corporate jargon
 • How comms resembles rugby
 • Taking ownership of comms
 • Moving to a new model of comms
 • “Don’t let things happen to you. Go and happen to things.”

Books Mentioned:
 • The Network State: How To Start a New Country; by Balaji S. Srinivasan
 • The Hero with a Thousand Faces; by Joseph Campbell

Michael Breitenbach is Senior Vice President within the Chief Investment Office at Bank of America Global Wealth and Investment Management, where he is responsible for leading development of quantitative infrastructure and machine learning models for evaluating both internally and externally covered investment offerings.

He is also the man behind an extremely popular anonymous Twitter account that many of you will be familiar with (see if you can guess which one…)

Michael joins the show to discuss the FTX fallout, the current state of the crypto industry, the rise of AI compliance, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

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

Show Notes:

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

Books Mentioned:

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

Dave Nadig is the CIO & Director of Research for ETF Trends and ETF Database. However, our conversation with Dave takes a curious turn and instead of ETFs, we end up discussing about:

• Tokenizing everything

• Left vs. Right brain thinking

• Working on the limitations of Web 3.0

• Role of psychology in asset valuation

• And MUCH more!

Follow Dave on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DaveNadig and know more about ETF Trends at https://www.etftrends.com

In this episode of Infinite Loops we spoke with Tyrone Ross. We discuss:

• Tyrone’s inspiring journey
• Empowering youth through financial literacy
• The power of gratitude
• Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
• And MUCH more…

Follow Tyrone on Twitter (twitter.com/tr401) to stay up to date on all of his exciting projects.