Dialectic

Michael Dempsey (Website, X) is an investor, writer, technologist, and Managing Partner of Compound, an early-stage, thesis-driven, research-centric investment firm.

Michael and Compound invest in seed and pre-seed science and technology companies in categories like healthcare and biotech, machine learning and AI, robotics, and crypto. He writes prolifically across a range of topics and I've always admired his ability and tenacity to think about the future and paint an optimistic, yet grounded view of where things are going. He's deeply reflective and wise, and I've known both his dedication to craft and the size of his heart for nearly a decade as a friend.

Timestamps:

• (0:00): Technology, Science, and Cultural Change
• (08:37): Inflection Points and seeing the present vs. predicting the future
• (13:00): Being original and/or contrarian; what is "alpha"
• (16:58): "Post-science projects"
• (21:54): Technological timing and false inflection points
• (34:44): Heroes, Talent, Elon, and Zuck
• (45:30): Founders of the future will spike on creativity
• (49:46): Fighting decay
• (55:53): Future shock: "time is collapsing"
• (1:06:56): The future of humanity and our biology
• (1:12:16): Bryan Johnson and biological experimentation
• (1:14:48): AI Therapy
• (1:19:38): Vtubers, digital influencers, and pseudonymity online
• (1:26:19): Authenticity online: "Being known is being loved
• (1:31:57): Discipline, Curiosity, and Writing
• (1:36:29): Inertia and Friendship
• (1:44:44): A life of Craft

Resources & Links:

• On Inflection Points

• Signal vs. Noise, Market Efficiency, & Evolving Alpha
• Power & Technology
• Moral obligations when investing in the future & The Vulnerable World Hypothesis
• Serendipity in Venture Capital is BS…(and other views on the seed VC landscape)
• Being Known is Being Loved
• Inertia, mortality, & Friendship
• A Biohacker Future by Compound

• The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 1 - Wait But Why

Dialectic is available on all platforms.

Jason Liu (Website, X, Github, Newsletter) is a technologist, consultant, teacher, and friend.

He spent the first part of his career as a machine learning engineer, mostly at Stitchfix, only to run into a wall: a hand injury that prevented him from being able to write any software for over a year. Fortunately, he's not so one-dimensional, and spent time reclaiming somatic experience in learning to free-dive, train Jiu-Jitsu, and return to the pottery practice he developed in art school, all while reckoning with big questions of ambition, purpose, and self-fulfillment. Since then, he's built a consulting practice helping modern AI companies better implement RAG (retrieval-augmented generation), avoid system design mistakes, hire elite talent, and build for an LLM-centric world. He maintains a large structured output library called Instructor with about 1m downloads per month, writes prolifically (which he does entirely via voice input with LLM editing, as we discuss), tweets semi-manically (he's grown to 30K followers on X with the simplest strategy I've ever heard anyone articulate—tweeting 30K times), and teaches courses on RAG and online consulting. Finally, my man can yap. He was a perfect first guest because he has no shortage of ideas but comes at nearly everything with a beginner's mindset.

Timestamps

References