Show Notes: 

• Spiritual background of his childhood (05:30) 
• Discipline to do good work (06:10) 
• Mentor: Albert-László Barabási (09:30) 
  • How do you demand excellence? 
• Musing on the competitive mentality (11:45) 
• Relevance of science is a very social dimension (12:30) 
• What he tells his students (13:30) 
• Adapting as an individual (14:45) 
• MIT Media Lab Collective Learning Group (17:00) 
• The Last Dance documentary (18:30) 
• The Playbook documentary series (18:40) 
• Complexity (21:00) 
  • Fractals, iterating functions, and chaos
  • Lorenz
  • Feigenbaum
• Book: Why information grows (26:45) 
  • What is information?  
• Book: How humans judge machines (30:20) 
  • Why has knowledge not made it everywhere?  
• TED Talk: “A bold idea to replace politicians” (34:20) 
  • Rethinking democracy and technology 
• Trusting technologies (36:45) 
• Counterfactuals (37:00) 
• What is intelligence? (38:15) 
• Failure that set up for later success (41:15) 
• Reorienting yourself (42:30) 
• Morning routine (45:30) 
• Acting on first emotion (48:00) 
  • Do not lose the emotional energy that comes with creativity - it is fleeting and love is going to fade, so be romantic while love is there 
• Lightning Round (40:15) 
  • Books: Blank Slate (Steven Pinker), the Righteous Mind (Jonathan Haidt), and the Secret of Our Success (Joseph Henrich) 
  • Passion: Writing 
    • Janna Levin (astrophysicist and writer): A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines
  • Heart Sing: Review of economic complexity 
  • Screwed up: Ability to accept things he has screwed up 
• Find guest online: 
  • Website
  • Twitter: @cesifoti
  • https://www.judgingmachines.com/
• 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series