A true polymath, Moran started out in the Israeli military, in one of their elite intelligence units. Then ended up working as a hacker in computer security. And to this day is still in demand for that, but he had a weird experience when Francis Crick told him to junk hacking and get into working on neuroscience, and he did.

And so Moran’s had this amazing career some of the research that underpins things like Neuralink. These days, he’s a professor in the business school at Columbia, where we recorded this conversation. I can’t tell you how delightful Moran is. Super smart. Very insightful. Incredibly curious. He is difficult to pin down whenever I’m with him.

He is somehow so good at asking questions and picking my brain that I hardly ever get to pick his brain. So the podcast was a perfect excuse to put him on the spot and I’m really thrilled that we get to share this with you guys. You’ll notice that Moran still has a bit of an Israeli accent and he talks faster than anybody I’ve ever met. So most of you guys are used to putting podcasts on 2X. This one you might want to put on 0.5X.

Important Links

• Moran’s Website

Moran on Wikipedia

About Moran Cerf

Moran Cerf is an American-French-Israeli neuroscientist, professor of business (at Colombia University), investor and former hacker.

Recorded on February 10, 2024