Infinite Loops

John Fio is an inventor and entrepreneur who has bootstrapped four products that have collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. He joins the show to discuss why ideas are harder than execution, what he learned from being Justin Bieber's intern, what most people get wrong about Kanye West, why magic is real, and what the success of Barbie and Taylor Swift can tell us about the future. Enjoy! Important Links:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• MoonPals
• Fio Creations

Show Notes:

• From Bieber's Intern to Moon Pals
• Ideas Are Harder Than Execution
• Kickstarting Gravity Blankets
• How to Have a Good Idea
• Kanye West & the Creative Process
• The Wizard & the Warrior
• Magic is Real
• Social Situations Are a Departure From the Truth
• Moon Pals, Barbie, Taylor Swift & the Dawn of a New Paradigm
• Long Tails, Curation & Good Taste
• John as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism, by Howard Bloom.
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow

James Pethokoukis is a policy analyst, official CNBC contributor, and Dewitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the creator and writer of the Faster, Please! newsletter, which is dedicated to "discovering, creating, and inventing a better world through technological innovation, economic growth, and pro-progress culture." James joins the show to discuss his new book, The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised. Important Links:

• Faster, Please!
• The Conservative Futurist
• WTF Happened In 1971?
• Tinkered Thinking — White Mirror
• The Great Reshuffle
• Bono On Nuclear Energy
• Our World in Data

Show Notes:

• What Happened to America?
• Up Wing vs. Down Wing Thinking
• AI as a General Purpose Technology; Regulatory Capture
• Technological Proficiency & Problem Solving
• How to Reframe Tomorrow
• "Be Like the Blade of Grass"
• Green Shoots of Optimism
• AI as a Lifelong Learning Instructor
• We Are the Economy
• Three Policies That Could Change the Future
• James as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised; by James Pethokoukis
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner
• The Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision Of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom

Bojan Tunguz is a senior systems software engineer at NVIDIA, quadruple Kaggle grandmaster, former top 10 Amazon reviewer, and former physicist. He joins the show to discuss the problems that LLMs can't solve, the speed of AI progress, why he homeschools his kids, how to win Twitter, and more! Important Links:

• Twitter
• Substack
• 40 AI Use Cases

Show Notes:

• Becoming a Kaggle Grandmaster
• Hyper-Competitive Learning
• From Physics to Data Science
• How Natural Language Processing Has Evolved
• The Problems That LLMs Can't Solve
• The Future of the Centaur Model
• AI as a Creativity Extender
• Why Bojan is Homeschooling His Kids
• The AI Feedback Flywheel
• How Quickly Will Different Sectors Be Transformed By AI?
• Disruption vs. Destruction
• Is AGI possible?
• AI Use Cases: Mental Health & Elder Care
• How to Win Twitter
• Why Bojan Became a Top 10 Amazon Reviewer
• Bojan's Favorite Books
• Bojan's Current Side-Project
• Bojan As Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Lolita; by Vladimir Nabokov
• The work of Haruki Murakami
• The work of Milan Kundera
• The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature; by Steven Pinker
• Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed; by James Scott

Julie Fredrickson is a former founder and the Managing Partner of Chaotic Capital, an "early stage fund for companies that adapt our lives and systems to the opportunities that chaos brings." She joins the show to discuss the Great Weirding, becoming a playable character, how the market provides a muse, the power of preparation, and more! Important Links:

• Website
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Chaotic Capital
• The Great Weirding; by Venkatesh Rao
• The Thinker and The Prover

Show Notes:

• Julie's Origin Story
• The Difference Between Hippies and Tech
• "Circumstances change. Humanity does not. Plan accordingly."
• The Great Weirding
• The Myth of the Perfect Past
• How to Become a Playable Character
• The Weirdo Lighthouse
• The Power of Showing Up
• How Julie Assesses Founders
• Talent Doesn't Matter
• The Market is the Muse
• "In the beginning, there was the word"
• Preference Falsification vs. Revealed Preferences
• Julie's Revealed Preferences
• "Prepare, and the opportunity will come"
• Silicon Valley Is an Idea, Not a Place
• The Open-Source Ethos
• Julie as Empress of the World

Books Mentioned:

• Bad Predictions: 2000 Years of the Best Minds Making the Worst Forecasts; by Laura Lee
• The History of the Peloponnesian War; by Thucydides
• Republic; by Plato
• American Cycles of History: According to the Fourth Turning Generational Theory and The Boomer Soul 1946-2022; by William H. Van Marter Jr.
• William Blake vs the World; by John Higgs
• Julie, or the New Heloise; by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• The End of History and the Last Man; by Francis Fukuyama
• The Peripheral; by William Gibson
• Neuromancer; by William Gibson
• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human, and How To Tell Them Better; by Will Storr
• Class: A Guide Through the American Status System; by Paul Fussell
• What Works on Wall Street: The Classic Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• Singularity Sky; by Charles Stross
• Marxism and Modernism; by Eugene Lunn
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom

Danny Miranda's ambition is to sell out Madison Square Gardens for a live edition of his podcast. Now, on episode 402 (and counting), he is getting closer to that goal every week. He joins the show to discuss the art of interviewing, why he's attracted to the light, his favorite questions, and more. Important Links:

• Danny's Twitter
• Danny's Website
• Wisdom Unleashed

Show Notes:

• Fancy a phone call? The power of human interaction
• What Danny has learned from 397 podcasts
• The Art of Interviewing
• Finding "the thing"
• How has Danny changed deciding his aim was to sell out Madison Square Garden?
• Danny's research process
• "I'm attracted to the light"
• When did things go wrong?
• Podcasting as idea collecting
• In-person vs Zoom
• The ability to speak to anyone in the world
• Danny's favorite questions
• The different types of podcast
• Why podcasts are like the printing press for audio
• The importance of connection
• What will podcasting look like in 2034?
• Always Be Closing
• Danny as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• How to Win Friends and Influence People; by Dale Carnegie
• Hidden Genius; by Polina Marinova Pompliano
• The Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• Jim's "Exploring the Dark" Reading List:
• Meditations; by Marcus Aurelius
• Heart of Darkness; by Joseph Conrad
• The Human Animal: A Personal View of the Human Species; by Desmond Morris
• Exploring the Shadow: Understanding and Addressing the Dark Side of the Human Psyche; by John C. Friel and Linda D. Friel (Article)
• Man's Search for Meaning; by Viktor E. Frankl
• The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious; by Carl Jung
• Memories, Dreams, Reflections: An Autobiography; by Carl Jung
• Beyond Good and Evil; by Friedrich Nietzsche
• The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil; by Philip Zimbardo
• Meeting the Shadow: Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature; edited by Connie Zweig and Jeremiah Abrams

Dror Poleg is an author, speaker, and researcher investigating technology's impact on the way people work, live, and invest. He joins us to discuss the relationship between AI and remote work, how cities are going to change, the internet's role as a matching engine, and MUCH more! Important Links:

• Dror's Website
• Dror's Twitter
• Our Great Reshuffle Series
• The Once and Future Liberalism; by Walter Russell Mead
• The Great Online Game; by Packy McCormick

Show Notes:

• The relationship between AI & remote work
• How remote work & AI will change our cities
• What cities will succeed in the new world?
• Remote work vs. Back to the office
• Uncertainty & the death of the "job"
• How to cure zero-sum thinking
• The economy doesn't need us all to be ambitious
• How work is going to change
• How AI will transform professions' scalability; the internet as a matching engine
• How Dror uses AI
• Unbundling ideas from execution
• The value of Twitter
• The tragedy of the uncommon
• The great online game
• UBI & the need for new social systems
• Dror as emperor of the world.
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Rethinking Real Estate: A Roadmap to Technology's Impact on the World's Largest Asset Class; by Dror Poleg
• After Office: A Survival Guide For Cities, Humans And Companies; by Dror Poleg
• The Longer Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand; by Chris Anderson

Our previous episode with Trung & Rob included the bombshell reveal that Rob had never watched Apocalypse Now. Nearly one year later, Rob and Trung make their triumphant return to the show to discuss the themes of the film, the lessons aspiring creators can draw from its troubled production history, the role of the Vietnam War in American cinema, and a whole lot more. Important Links:

• Rob's Substack
• Rob's Twitter
• Trung's Substack
• Trung's Twitter
• Our previous episode with Trung & Rob

Show Notes:

• Rob's homework assignment
• The two endings of Apocalypse Now
• Coppola's disastrous production process
• Should Willard have taken Kurtz' place?
• Draft dodgers: fear of death, or fear of social judgment?
• Different perspectives of American Empire
• The memory industry: Vietnam in film
• When condemning backfires
• The thin veneer of civilization
• Willard's moral injury
• Is pacificism sustainable?
• Art as a response to social conditions
• Telling the story vs romanticizing it
• Be careful what you wish for: The McKenna take
• When Jim was Jedpilled
• When Rob was Jedpilled
• The creative process: feeding the black box, becoming the vessel, and summoning the muse
• George Lucas' version of Apocalypse Now
• Cut scenes and time travel
• Trung & Rob as Emperors of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Enlightenment Trilogy; by Jed McKenna
• Heart of Darkness; by Joseph Conrad
• The Lucifer Principle; by Howard Bloom
• Howard Bloom hierarchies
• The Sympathizer; by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• The War of Art; by Steven Pressfield
• Moby-Dick; by Herman Melville
• The Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
• The Creative Act: A Way of Being; by Rick Rubin

Films, TV Shows & Podcasts Mentioned:

• Apocalypse Now; directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse; directed by Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper & Eleanor Coppola
• The Vietnam War; directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
• Platoon; directed by Oliver Stone
• The Wolf of Wall Street; directed by Martin Scorcese
• Wall Street; directed by Oliver Stone
• The Social Network; directed by David Fincher
• Born on the Fourth of July; directed by Oliver Stone
• The Deer Hunter; directed by Michael Cimino
• A Clockwork Orange; directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Patton; directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
• Full Metal Jacket; directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Saving Private Ryan; directed by Steven Spielberg
• The Godfather & The Godfather Part II; directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• The Matrix; directed by the Wachowskis
• Rick and Morty
• Do We Get To Win This Time?
• Tetragrammation with Rick Rubin

"Who is America's best-known banker? That would be Jamie Dimon. But who is the richest? That would be Andy Beal, with an estimated net worth of $9 billion." Friend-of-the-show Frederik Gieschen joins us for an impromptu conversation about his article on the life and work of Andy Beal, the richest banker in America. Important Links:

• High Roller: Lessons from America's Richest Banker
• Frederik's Twitter
• Frederik's Substack
• Frederik's previous episode
• The Internet Contrarian

Show Notes:

• The Arena, the Maze, and the Labyrinth
• Why do myths endure?
• "You can't do a good deal with a bad person"
• America's richest banker: the Andrew Beal story
• Agreeableness, contrarianism, and accountability
• Thinking like a banker vs. thinking like an investor
• The random buzz generator: How to fight linear thinking
• The alchemy of success
• Bubbles: When heterogeneity becomes homogeneity
• "The higher you rise in a hierarchy, the less good the information you get."
• Deterministic vs. probabilistic thinking
• The difference between being an investor and being in the investing business
• The return of Andrew Beal
• The importance of agility
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Cosmic Trigger trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Aesop's Fables; by Aesop
• Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art; by James Nestor
• The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time; by Michael Craig
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life; by Alice Schroeder

Dr. Julie Gurner is a doctor of psychology and executive performance coach to top percentile executives, primarily in finance and technology. She is also the proprietor of the Ultra Successful newsletter, which delivers a weekly challenge pulled from global business leaders and designed to "help you unleash your power." Dr. Gurner joins the show to discuss the merits of being unreasonable, why your business should not be your identity, why niceness is overrated, and more! Important Links:

• Substack
• Twitter
• Website

Show Notes:

• Dr. Gurner's origin story
• How forensic psychology experience can help executive coaching
• Leaning into the 1%
• Why psychological tests are flawed
• The common traits of successful founders
• High performance & bottlenecks
• Why your business should not be your identity
• Data vs. emotion
• How Dr. Gurner applies her strategies in her own life
• Don't be nice
• Be unreasonable
• Social validation is not important
• How can you improve someone's communication skills?
• How Dr. Gurner would teach executive coaching
• The "no Plan B" mentality
• Can high energy be detrimental?
• How to unpack charisma
• How to turn down work
• Dr. Gurner's greatest satisfaction
• How has leadership changed in the last 20 years?
• Dr. Gurner as Empress of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Art of War; by Sun Tzu

Board Certified hypnotist & Goodwin Hypnosis founder Todd Goodwin joins us for his second appearance to discuss why we should treat the mind like a garden, why revelation is not the same as resolution, why labels can be counterproductive, and much more!

Important Links:

• Goodwin Hypnosis

• Goodwin Hypnosis' YouTube

• Todd's first episode

• Luca Dellanna's episode

• Our episode on Dr John Sarno

Show Notes:

• Treating the symptoms vs treating the cause

• Gardening the mind

• "Revelation is not resolution"

• Why aren't hypnosis & NLP more popular?

• Could Todd's work be filmed?

• Why labeling conditions can be counterproductive

• Clearing the emotional charge from traumatic memories

• Top-down vs. Bottom-up solutions

• Hypnosis as a way of reclaiming agency

• How we are shaped by childhood experiences

• Why we need a more compassionate criminal system

• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Healing Back Pain; by John E. Sarno