Welcome to another episode of everyone’s favorite ramshackle financial podcast. Shane is out this week so we’ve got Mr. Kurtis in the hot seat. Big billionaire news this week as the founder of the puffy financial bro vest company Patagonia decides to give away his three billion dollar fortune. That’s nice of him. Speaking of nice billionaires, we’ve got the Adobe acquisition of Figma for a cool $20 billion. AJ has some thoughts about the transaction and how it will impact employees who have stock options. This one is priceless.

Links

Ethereum switches to proof-of-stake consensus after completing The Merge

Ethereum completes the “Merge,” which ends mining and cuts energy use by 99.95%

Bank of America to offer zero-down payment mortgages in certain Black and Hispanic communities | CNN Business

Billionaire No More: Patagonia Founder Gives Away the Company

How about that $20B Figma-Adobe deal?

PayPal Mafia Lands Another Hit With Adobe’s $20 Billion Figma Acquisition

Is this the greatest crossover event in history? Fresh from their individual appearances on Infinite Loops, Trung Phan and Rob Henderson join forces to discuss TV, film, and why Rob still hasn’t seen Apocalypse Now. Important Links:

• Rob’s Substack
• Rob’s Twitter
• Trung’s Substack
• Trung’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• Hearts of Darkness: one of the craziest stories in Hollywood history
• The beginning of TV’s golden age
• Breadth or depth? The two paths to prestige TV
• What TV can teach you about elite America
• The two ways of watching prestige TV
• How TV shows program us
• The decline of event TV
• Recurring themes and HumanOS
• Succession and signalling
• The Great Reshuffle and Substack
• The 70s: one of the worst American decades of all time
• What will TV be like in 10 years’ time?
• Challenge yourself with art
• Broaden your content horizons

Books Mentioned:

• Heart of Darkness; by Joseph Conrad
• Unflattening; by Nick Sousanis
• The Iliad; by Homer
• The Odyssey; by Homer
• The Da Vinci Code; by Dan Brown
• Infinite Jest; by David Foster Wallace

TV Shows and Films Mentioned:

• Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
• Apocalypse Now
• The Shield
• The Godfather
• The Sopranos
• Seinfeld
• All In The Family
• The Wire
• The Simpsons
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• Mad Men
• Game of Thrones
• The West Wing
• Roseanne
• Power Rangers
• The O.C.
• Breaking Bad
• Better Call Saul
• The Truman Show
• Back to the Future
• I Love Lucy
• Succession
• Will and Grace
• Severance
• House of Cards
• Stranger Things
• Office Space
• Euphoria
• Avengers: End Game
• Top Gun Maverick
• The Office
• Parasite

Nick Gillespie is the host of the Reason Interview and an editor at large at Reason. Nick is one of the most interesting libertarian thinkers in America, and has been described by the New York Times as being to libertarianism “what Lou Reed is to rock ‘n’ roll, the quintessence of its outlaw spirit". Important Links:

• Nick’s Substack
• Nick’s Twitter
• Nick’s Podcast
• Reason

Show Notes:

• Is libertarianism dead?
• Saying what you think
• The case for rational optimism
• Labels and empathy
• President Nixon, the Great Reshuffle, Bitcoin
• Bureaucracy and responsiveness
• The rapidly changing world
• Prohibition and legalisation
• Why America does not have enough immigration
• The enfranchising power of social media
• Obscenity and moral panics
• Empathy with the dispossessed
• And MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong with America; by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
• The Rational Optimist; by Matt Ridley
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
• The Population Bomb; by Paul Ehrlich
• The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch
• Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy; by Joseph Schumpeter
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
• The War on Alcohol; by Liza McGirr
• Immigration and Freedom; by Chandran Kukathas
• The Illuminatus! Trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
• What It Means to be a Libertarian: a Personal Interpretation; by Charles Murray
• Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society; by Tipper Gore
• Ulysses; by James Joyce
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
• Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown

Will Storr is an award winning journalist and author. His book ‘The Status Game’ transforms our understanding of human nature by demonstrating how our unconscious desire for status ultimately drives our behaviour. Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wstorr?s=21&t=ZdtIqP9eE3_a5qZocDjEXQ
• Website: https://willstorr.com
• The Science of Storytelling: https://www.thescienceofstorytelling.com

Show Notes:

• Will’s origin story
• The strange case of David Irving
• The fundamental nature of status games
• The Stanford prison experiment and dominance games
• The status games played by cults
• Luxury beliefs
• Why we are all moral hypocrites
• The importance of being funny
• Social status and socioeconomic status
• Human OS and the education system
• How status seeking leads to the “very best of human nature”
• The murderous nature of reputation destruction
• The post WW1 humiliation of Germany
• Loaded magazine
• Finding the true reason behind seemingly crazy beliefs
• The value of religion
• Trading status
• Spreading humility
• Why we could be wrong about our closest beliefs

Books Mentioned:

• The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science; by Will Storr
• The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History; by Howard Bloom
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich
• The Science of Storytelling; by Will Storr
• Slaughterhouse-Five; by Kurt Vonnegut
• Selfie: How We Became so Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us; by Will Storr
• The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It; by Will Storr

Vitaliy Katsenelson is the CEO of a value investment firm IMA, author of two books on investing, and a recently published non-investing book named “Soul In The Game”. Known for his uncommon common sense, Forbes magazine called him "The New Benjamin Graham." Vitaliy loves to read, listen to classical music, play chess, and write about life, investing, and music. Important Links:

• Blog: https://contrarianedge.com/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/vitaliyk
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/vitaliyk
• IMA: https://imausa.com/
• Favorite classical music website: https://myfavoriteclassical.com/
• “The Gateway Drug to Classical Music” Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tfsohjLty6IK2b2B8AGE0

Show Notes:

• Coming to America from Soviet Russia
• How movies shape perception
• Two frameworks to understand the mind
• Programming yourself with the words you use
• The Thinker and the Prover
• Abracadabra—I create as I speak
• Four modes of communication
• Not letting an idea become your identity
• Writing about both sides of the argument
• Reality is nuanced
• Depersonalize your arguments
• A mathematical formula to determine outcomes
• Table cloth model of investing
• Event, Judgement, Reaction framework
• Reframing your worries away
• Is the USA still the best place to be for talented people?
• Elon Musk’s distinctiveness
• Favorite classical composers
• Opera as a plunger for the writer's block
• Introducing kids to classical music
• The best financial advice Vitaliy ever got
• Can money buy happiness?
• Experiencing self vs. remembering self
• Traveling is an antidote for monotony
• Going outside your myopic circles
• “The Gateway Drug to Classical Music” playlist
• And MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• Soul In The Game; by Vitaliy Katsenelson
• Think Again; by Adam Grant
• Influence; by Dr Robert B. Cialdini
• The Wealthy Barber; by David Chilton
• Gödel, Escher, Bach; by Douglas Hofstadter
• How to Win Friends & Influence People; by Dale Carnegie

Dennis McKenna is the founder of the McKenna Academy and has conducted research in ethnopharmacology for over 40 years. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute, and was a key investigator on the Hoasca Project, the first biomedical investigation of ayahuasca. Important Links:

• McKenna Academy: https://mckenna.academy/
• ESPD 55 (Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs): https://espd55.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DennisMcKenna4
• ICEERS (International Center for Ethno-botanical Education, Research, and Service): https://www.iceers.org/

Show Notes:

• ESPD 55 conference
• Goals of the McKenna Academy
• How psychedelics affect our relationship with nature
• Bridging the gap between ancestral and moderns scientific knowledge
• Psychedelics on the safety scale
• Nixon’s war against drugs
• Fear of persecution in the medical community
• LSD being really responsible for the birth of modern neuroscience
• DMT reopening the door to clinical research
• Using psilocybin for end of life applications
• Psychedelics are not just “band-aids”
• Dissipation of knowledge among indigenous tribes
• Reality hallucination
• Therapeutic utility of psychedelics
• Future of psychedelic research
• Making psychedelics more accessible
• Protecting endangered plants
• Forming alliances with indigenous communities

Books Mentioned:

• The Immortality Key; by Brian Muraresku
• How to Change Your Mind; by Michael Pollan
• Psychology and Alchemy; by Carl Jung

David Perell is prolific writer and online educator, who runs a writing school called “Write of Passage”. David also hosts the “The North Star Podcast” featuring interviews with writers, athletes, and entrepreneurs. Important Links:

• Website: https://perell.com/
• Writing School: https://writeofpassage.school/
• Friday Finds Links: https://perell.com/friday-finds-links/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/david_perell

Show Notes:

• Origins of “Write of Passage”
• Writing leads to thinking
• David’s ever expanding portfolio
• Live the life that you teach
• Applying lessons from Disneyland to a writing course
• Four Seasons of writing education
• Ana’s success with David’s course
• Writing as a career transition
• Average course cohort age
• Building a personal monopoly
• Advice for an aspiring creator
• Dive into the work of the people you admire
• Managing fear of creating in public
• The network age
• Building a product for high-schoolers
• Finding your tribe on the internet
• Going against the trend with long-form essays
• Checklists and prescriptions
• The cover band strategy for investing
• Building an internet native education system
• Schools stifling creativity
• The Never-Ending Now

Books Mentioned:

• Zero to One; by Peter Thiel
• One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
• The Status Game; by Will Storr
• Invest Like the Best; by Jim O'Shaughnessy

Shreyas Doshi is a startup advisor who has formerly worked in the product teams of tech firms like Stripe, Twitter, Google, Yahoo. He regularly writes about product, strategy, org psychology, leadership, and life! Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/shreyas
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreyasdoshi

Show Notes:

• Shreyas’s childhood
• Operating with the owner mindset
• The LNO framework
• Getting good at leveraging time
• The antithesis principle
• Having a great manager
• Individual vs. group decision making
• “Apple Pie” positions
• Beware of certainty theater
• Social media: A global intelligence network
• Minimizing your opportunity costs
• The issue with following the rubric
• Lessons from school at the workplace
• Learning to unlearn
• Tao Te Ching on leadership
• Being an invisible leader
• Tight vs. weak grip
• And MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Science of Storytelling; by Will Storr
• The Status Game; by Will Storr
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu

Our recurring guest (who rarely recurs these days), Alex Danco, comes back for his sixth appearance on Infinite Loops! Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alex_Danco
• Website: https://alexdanco.com/
• Newsletter: https://danco.substack.com/

Show Notes:

• Our planned, but unplanned conversations
• Pink Floyd were philosophers
• From Heraclitus, to Lao Tzu, to Gita, to Deutsch
• Where does decision making come from?
• Projection 101
• Can you versus can’t you read people’s mind
• Jim throwing big fancy words like “Phylogenetic inertia”
• Corn: The apex predator
• Self-serving nature of memetic theory
• The Mirror Philosophy
• What is a “creator”?
• Communication theory by Gregory Bateson
• The Founding Murderer
• Consequences of eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge
• "The most entertaining outcome is the most likely.”
• Hot media vs. Cool media
• The Wire, and dumb Stringer
• The state of accreditation
• Balancing mystery with transparency
• Knowing pop culture as a status symbol
• And MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Science of Storytelling; by Will Storr
• The Status Game; by Will Storr
• Happy; by Derren Brown
• The Selfish Gene; by Richard Dawkins
• Steps to an Ecology of Mind; by Gregory Bateson
• War and Peace; by Leo Tolstoy

Johnathan Bi started out getting trained in Mathematics, and then eventually went on to study Philosophy and Computer Science at Columbia. He hosts a lecture series on René Girard’s Mimetic Theory and is also a founding member of Lonsdale Investment Technology. Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnathanBi
• Lecture series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qu6vBebwwg
• Website: https://johnathanbi.com/
• Lonsdale Investment Technology: https://www.longterm.com/

Show Notes:

• Becoming pessimistic with age
• Humiliation always comes back to bite you
• How Jonathan got introduced to Buddhism and Girard
• Why Jonathan left academia
• The driving human emotion
• Has modernity ignored the “spirit”?
• Girard’s apocalyptic predictions
• Wild, wild west of capitalism
• The mystery with the discovery of the skull
• What does eugenics say about science?
• Science becoming dictatorial
• Buddhism figuring out the inner telescope
• Physical vs. metaphysical desires
• Mimesis in asset valuation
• Price to magic ratio
• Nietzsche's will of power
• Is delusion bad?
• Can internet lead to greater violence?
• “The Buddhist Solution”
• Girard—A rescuer of spirit
• And MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Status Game; by Will Storr
• The Struggle for Recognition; by Axel Honneth
• Sapiens; by Yuval Noah Harari
• The Science of Storytelling; by Will Storr
• The Origin of Species; Charles Darwin
• Untimely Meditations; by Friedrich Nietzsche