In this episode of Now I Get It, I explore why simply memorizing formulas in math—or blindly trusting any model—can lead to catastrophic outcomes. I take a hard look back at the financial meltdown and show how a lack of deep understanding, not just fraud, helped steer us into crisis. It wasn’t that the models themselves were flawed; it was that people used them without grasping their limits, breaking the very assumptions they were built on.

From there, I connect the dots to today’s frontier: artificial intelligence. We dive into how AI has evolved, from early struggles to today’s large language models, and why what looks like intelligence is often just really good pattern-matching (and yes, BS-ing). But the stakes are far higher than math class. Whether it’s driverless cars, legal briefs, or drones in warfare, AI is already reshaping society—and the real danger is how humans will choose to use it. I close with a challenge: educate yourself, because the future of AI depends on whether we use it wisely or repeat history’s mistakes.

In this episode, you will learn:

• (00:34) Why “just following formulas” in math can lead to real-world disasters
• (01:17) How the Quaker ethic of honesty once fueled prosperity—and why forgetting it hurt us
• (02:46) What went wrong with financial models during the meltdown and why users misunderstood them
• (04:12) The mechanistic view of intelligence and why building AI always takes longer than expected
• (05:40) How large language models mastered BSing—and why their “hallucinations” fool even experts
• (07:08) Why AI-driven drones and robots raise dangerous questions about life-and-death decisions
• (09:06) How society normalizes new tech—from Waymo cars to armed robots—and why awareness matters

Let’s connect!

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