Becoming Creature

Eggprophet arrives and reveals the long-awaited story behind the name!

We discuss being a hot girl, the dimensions of whimsy twitter, what’s up with the typos?, choosing happiness, epistemology, farming, morality, and much more.

We hope you enjoy,

Nick

People mentioned in this episode include @solar_trex, @eigenrobot, @cheascake, @@myceliummage, @bungoman, @amirism_, @nickcammarata, @leo_tenebrae, and @maximummungus and Gregory Bateson

Sources mentioned in this episode include:

Seven Sermons to the Dead

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The Master and His Emissary

Ethics and Second-Order Cybernetics

Aesthetics of Change

Many Lives, Many Masters

The Nature of Personal Reality

Your Body is your Subconscious Mind

Seeing like a State

Finite and Infinite Games

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Goddess of oblins @Goblinodds does a reversal on me, spending half the episode asking ME questions!

We play 36 Questions to Love, talk about bedpanning toward enlightenment, do a series of movie reviews, discuss psychedelics, pychotherapy, ingroup sociology, Borderers, and how we are probably never going to be best friends (typical best friend behavior)

Mentioned in this episode are @karmacustodian, @teddyraccovelt, @eigenrobot, @selentelechia, and of course, Camille Paglia

We hope you enjoy

Relevant Links

Coming Soon

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In my first-ever uncut, unedited, unaltered episode I pursue the present with Tasshin Fogleman. You can follow Tasshin on twitter @tasshinfogleman and read his writing on his website Tasshin.com

This is the first episode I’ve ever done with no notes or preparation. I challenged James Stuber to do a video that was more difficult for him than usual which he completed on his youtube channel. I loved seeing James tackle this, and decided to do the same in this most fitting of contexts. It was an interesting challenge, and it was deeply rewarding for me and, I hope, very entertaining for Tasshin.

In this episode we cover:

* The phenomenology of meditation

* The practice of interviewing

* What was it like to be at a monastic academy

* How does Buddhism need to adapt to modern problems?

* Why might Buddhists need a teacher? What’s wrong with solo practice?

* How does someone find a mentor?

* What can someone do to have a better relationship with the sexuality?

* How should one think of sexual desire from a Buddhist perspective?

* Does the ultimate success of Buddhism mean the annihilation of the human species?

* Tasshin responds to @teddyraccovelt’s claim that suffering is required for a human, meaningful life

* How does one approach the concept of productivity in a way that is more humane and less dehumanizing?

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Scott ‘Lithros’ Hansen does a deep dive on family and fantasy, ethics and ethos, morality and moloch. He answers questions like:

* What is a Lithros?

* Is it horrible to start a family?

* Is it good that parents are miserable?

* What is the problem with law school?

* Why should anyone learn about ethics?

* Why is knowing things is arrogant?

* How does ethics allow you to do immoral acts?

* Why is justice bad?

* Is it important to be evil?

* What media is the cornerstone of your personal ethical framework?

* Why is fiction is better than nonfiction if you want to understand morality and ethics?

* What is Law, its purpose, and what is the role of force in law?

* How does power work in society? How would should respond to it?

* What was the result of the 17th amendment and what should we do about it?How might senility affect the political process?

Scott is brilliant and attacks my questions with incredible force!

Enjoy!

-Nickido

P.S. Make sure you listen to the end ;)

Selected links from this episode:

(coming soon)

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Theodore ‘Teddy’ Raccovelt aka @TeddyRaccovelt, writer of The Bully Pulpit, joins me to shoot the shit while talking about every important topic there is.

We discuss!

* Satire

* America’s demented Congress

* The purpose of suffering

* Why being High IQ is problematic

* Why imperialism is good

* How Jesus is the biggest loser

* Why both rationalists and post-rationalists are mentally ill

* What feminism gets wrong

* Why people should have babies

* Polyamory, Marxism, Capitalism, the Social Sciences, G.K. Chesterton, Jordan Peterson,

:breathes: and, like, a LOT more.

This is a thicc, thicc episode you do not want to miss.

Much Love

—The Nickerino

P.S. Please send me feedback! I’d love to hear from you.

Selected links from this episode:

The Bully Pulpit Blog

G. K. Chesterton

‘That Hideous Strength’ by C.S. Lewis

‘The Screwtape Letters’ by C.S. Lewis

The Last Dance

@ChaosPrime

@Selentelechia

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Johnny ‘@Generativist’ Nelson joins me on this wonderful episode. We do a deep dive into how beliefs and trust shape individuals and relationships, especially through the lens of social networks.

Johnny builds virtual things to simulate concrete ones. You can find his writing on his website generativist.falsifiable.com. Johnny is a Computational Social Scientist working with Data Science. He has experience at the CATO Institute, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and spent some time at our favorite George Mason University. He’s a multiple-time founder, most recently of Practical Theta and Abreka.

I was fascinated to learn so much about social interaction from Johnny. I ask him about things like:

* How to we live a healthier life that includes online social networks?

* What are Collision Spaces?

* What can we do about echo chambers and polarization?

* What’s wrong with the social sciences?

* What is the role of trust and commitment in developing relationship depth?

* How should we think about the scarcity of attention?

We also discuss New York, Rationalism, Twitter, Facebook, the future of social networks, books, and much more!

Happy Easter!

Nick

Selected links from this episode:

Johnny’s Website

My episode with @Liminal_Warmth

My episode with @Visakanv

My episode with @Eigenrobot

@Sonyasupposedly, @theAnnagat, @chaosprime

The Noosphere

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven Peck

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

The Origin of Wealth by Eric Beinhocker

The Red Queen by Matt Ridley

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

Get full access to Becoming Creature at becomingcreature.substack.com/subscribe

I am joined by the incredible @Visakanv, author of Friendly Ambitious Nerd, blogger, youtuber, infovore, and an absolutely prolific writer.

This one is a MUST-listen. It was such a pleasure to see Visa’s gears turning as I threw wave after wave of questions at him.

* How do you get an audience with a king?

* How can being an outsider make you stronger?

* How do we nourish long-term relationships?

* What have Visa's spiritual or psychedelic experiences been like?

* What is the biggest difficulty in Visa's life right now?

* How can you create your own structure to produce what you love?

* Why and how should we practice unlearning?

We discuss Visa’s relationship with his wife, his relationship to music, thinking about thinking, and a TON of other topics.

Tune in, you’re in for a treat.

Later,

Nick

Links mentioned in this episode

Visa’s Website

Visa’s Youtube

Friendly Ambitious Nerd

Threadhelper

Radiohead - OK Computer

Tim Minchin - If I Didn’t Have You

Lewis Thomas - The Lives of a Cell

@Cantide1

Get full access to Becoming Creature at becomingcreature.substack.com/subscribe

This week listen to my interview with the wonderful @liminal_warmth!

We talk about

* Limm’s Podcast, Chaotic Thinking

* How should we think about Magic?

* Why isn’t Magic taken very seriously?

* The dangers of pursuing both Enlightenment and Magic

* Transitioning and Limm’s post-transition lived experience

* Society’s lopsided approach to gender issues

* Limm’s new desert base

* UFOs and Aliens

* What we should know about getting into writing

* Video games, especially World of Warcraft

and much more

We hope you enjoy!

—Nick

Mentioned on this episode:

Chaotic Thinking by Liminal Warmth

LiminalWarmth.com by Liminal Warmth

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram

JEKsite.org

@Cowtung

@Darbradawn

@strangestloop

@MaybeGray

Get full access to Becoming Creature at becomingcreature.substack.com/subscribe

I am back with my interview with @eigenrobot. Eigen has his own podcast which you should definitely check out!

We talk about

* Eigen’s life growing up

* How he met his wife

* Some of his thoughts on parenting

* How to decide who to follow on twitter

* Bluechecks and journalism

* The problem with the social sciences

* Politicians

* Anime

* GMU

* Nicholas Nassim Taleb

* Midwesternism

* and just about everything else

We hope you enjoy

Mentioned this episode

Bonfire of the Vanities

Indexicality

Les Misérables

Get full access to Becoming Creature at becomingcreature.substack.com/subscribe

This week I have the incredible @karmacustodian!

He just oozes positivity, check it out!

We discuss:

* Running a business

* Learning better

* Improving how we approach health

* Buddhism

* Samsara

* Cutting through spiritual materialism

* Honesty and lying

* Marie Kondo

and much more

We hope you enjoy!

—Nick

Get full access to Becoming Creature at becomingcreature.substack.com/subscribe