Made You Think

We, human beings, are a species that's not only capable of acting on hidden motives—we're designed to do it. Our brains are built to act in our self-interest while at the same time trying hard not to appear selfish in front of other people. And in order to throw them off the trail, our brains often keep "us," our conscious minds, in the dark. The less we know of our own ugly motives, the easier it is to hide them from others. Self-deception is therefore strategic, a ploy our brains use to look good while behaving badly.

In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss The Elephant in the Brain Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson. In this book the authors dig into the true motives that drive our decisions and behaviors.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Being selfish without noticing it
• Outsmarting other humans
• Gossiping, signalling and laughing
• The truth about Rolex watches (and is not about time precision)
• Metrics used to measure a charity effectiveness
• Mona Lisa conspiracy theories

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Elephant in the Brain Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro, a cited book that explains the true language of our body, as well as our episode on Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, another book that talk about different types of signalling.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• The Redistribution of Sex - Robin Hanson's Tweet [1:18]
• Jordan Peterson about the Toronto school shooter [2:00]
• Chinese app to watch attractive women [3:18]
• PornHub [3:35]
• Melting Asphalt – Kevin Simler's Blog [4:20]
• PayPal Mafia [23:40]
• Spotlight Effect [24:26]
• Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying on the Joe Rogan Experience - hot vs beautiful [30:25]
• Game of Thrones [40:40]
• Uber [4224]
• Bill Simmons Podcast [47:33]
• Game of Chicken [47:55]
• Birchbox [57:01]
• Superbad film [1:06:48]
• Harvard students case publishing offensive memes in a private Facebook group [1:10:02]
• Buzzfeed [1:25:00]
• Pavlovian Theory [1:29:57]
• Mona Lisa ashes vs replica [1:35:14]
• Against Malaria Foundation [1:40:07]
• Good Street [1:41:14]
• Effective Altruism [1:42:04]
• Give Well [1:42:09]
• Red Cross [1:46:30]
• Susan G Komen Charity [1:46:50]
• United Way [1:47:30]

• The Elephant in the Brain Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson (Nat's notes)
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [6:56] (Nat's notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2)
• Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [6:56] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Daily Rituals by Mason Currey [7:47] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Chimpanzee Politics [14:20]
• 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [24:14] (Nat's notes) (Neil's notes) (book episode)
• Lying by Sam Harris [38:18]
• Switch by Chip and Dan Heath [40:26]
• Lord of the Rings [40:40]
• What Every Body is saying by Joe Navarro [1:03:20] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson [1:21:50] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [1:25:14] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Antifragile by Nassim Taleb [1:25:14] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [1:53:02] (Nat's notes) (book episode)

• Kevin Simler
• Robin Hanson
• Jordan B. Peterson [] (on Twitter) (12 Rules episode)
• Adil Majid [38:29] (Crypto episode)
• Sean Spicer [54:00]
• Donald Trump [54:00]
• Ronaldinho [1:13:37]
• Geoffrey Miller [1:33:53]
• Alex Jones [1:39:21]
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb [1:49:11] (Antifragile episode) (Skin in the Game episode)

4:50 – "Elephant in the brain, n. An important but unacknowledged feature of how our minds work; an introspective taboo". Is there a survival advantage to not being too much introspective? Pros and cons of meditation. Stated reasons for doing things when we interact with other people. The effect of open offices, cafes and music on Neil.

9:17 – Underlying motives of our actions. Figuring out other people: what's making them tick? Example: parents who believe that college is a good idea for their kids, once they already paid. Starting a bitcoin mining company to pay studies at CMU.

11:41 – Thesis outline: we all have selfish modisms. However:

1. People are judging us all the time.
2. Because they are judging we are eager to look good. It's better if we don't show our selfishness.
3. This applies not just to our words, but also to our thoughts.
4. In some areas of life, especially polarized ones like politics, we're quick to point out when others' motives are more selfish than they claim. But in other areas, like medicine, we prefer to believe that almost all of us have pretty motives.

12:51 – #1 Animal Behavior. Biological social reasons for selfish modisms. Social grooming. The monkeys example: they over spend grooming others, much more than really needed and they'll fight to groom the higher rank monkeys. Analogies with employees in the corporate context. We do things that on the surface look pro social, but in reality we are just looking to increase our social standing. Altruistic behavior is not quite what it seems.

15:18 – Altruistic babblers example: these birds work to earn "prestige" in their community. Prestige will give them more mating opportunities. Analogies with student and religious groups. Knowledge suppression: we hide our big motivators from ourselves because other people are better at reading to our intentions. For example we can read bad sellers.

19:06 – #2 Competition. We are more selfish than we let ourselves think. Evolution first was about competition with the environment. Since we outsmarted other animals, we evolve to outsmart other humans. Unconsciously we try to increase our elements of social status: dominance (intimidate others) and prestige (being an impressive human being).

23:04 – Envy. "But the prestige-seeking itself is more nearly a zero-sum game, which helps explain why we sometimes feel pangs of envy at even a close friend's success". Signalling. The most honest signals are expensive. Nowadays being in shape is more expensive than being fat. Facebook and Instagram as tools for signalling. The King and the whisperer.

26:46 – Deceiving signals. Digital Nomads showing off while not being able to support themselves in the US. Behaviors that can be explained by competitive signalling. Luxury consumption is our version of the peacock tail. No one buys a Rolex to tell the time. There is sexual sense to men paying for the first meal on a date. Hot vs Beautiful: most products are advertised to make women hotter than attractive, and that may be a cause of unhappiness.

33:21 – #3 Norms. Gossiping and reputation. Gossip is to tell our group other people is not following norms. We lose reputation when others gossip of us. Gossip is cross cultural, and it seems to exist to enforce reputations and norms. Useful and harmful gossiping. Gossiping as valuable recommendations of people to employ and work with.

37:27 – Gossip are learned behavior or inherited genetics? Gossiping to get attention. Arguments that telling small lies in front of friends erodes your reputation and trust. Telling small lies to ourselves to prove ourselves an action we took. Analogies to the book: Chip & Dan's elephant and the writer in Switch, Plato's horses and the chariot driver.

41:01 – #4 Cheating. In order to cheat people, we need to be able to hide our intentions because we are good at sniffing out cheaters. Drinking in public, hiding the bottle in brown paper bags. Pipes and vape pens for... tobacco? Finding ways to encourage good behavior that one wouldn't do otherwise. Recycling.

44:09 – Tangent. Danish study on grocery bags: plastic bags beat paper bags 40 to 1. Electric cars CO2 impact much larger than gas cars.

47:53 – #5 Self Deception. Convincing others that you had sabotaged yourself, and the best way to convince someone for something is for you to actually believe it. Iran's nuclear deal with the US. North Korea wanting to be taken seriously. Looking like the mad man in town. Closing or degrading a channel communication. Strategic ignorance. Avoid looking at kidnappers face.

52:02 – #6 Counterfeit Reasons. We make up reasons to explain why we do things or why we want things. Split brain patients test. Narrative fallacy. Making up reasons to deny a disability. Press secretary. Sean Spiner on the podium trying to explain Trump's decisions. We accentuate and exaggerate our pro-social motives and downplay our ugly selfish ones.

55:32 – Sponsor! Scentbird. Monthly subscription for premium perfumes and colognes, delivered at your door in convenient packaging for only $15/mo! Avoid the weird and bulky shapes of perfume bottles. Scentbird has a very compact and handy rechargeable cartridge system. Neil is using Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue which is very summery. Nat buyed Gin by Commodity, Bergamote by Commodity, and Encens by Rag & Bone. Use our code to get 50% off the first month.

Neil is drinking Milk Oolong from Cup & Leaf Tea (a tea that tastes milky but doesn't have milk!). You can reinfuse Oolong up to 5 times! Try it iced too. Cup & Leaf will give a 10% lifetime discount to its first 100 customers. The Cream Earl Grey is great too. Replace-your-coffee and MYT kits coming soon.

1:03:11 – #7 Hidden motives in everyday life. Body Language. Cue is like a signal but it only provides value to the receiver. Catching cues reading other people while playing poker. Eye contact ratio while speaking and listening is a sign dominance.

1:06:12 – #8 Laughter. "We laugh far more often in social settings than when we're alone—30 times more often". Laughter is a social way of initiating play with each other. Flirting with the edges of acceptable behavior. Comedians can talk things in ways no one else can talk in public. Laughing seems to come from an instinct. Great apes laugh too. Oscar Wilde said, "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh; otherwise they'll kill you". Making offensive statements in a playful manner with friends.

1:11:39 – Theory that laughter relieves nervous energy. Comedians make jokes about things they really don't believe, but many people extrapolates them wrongly. Laughter to test relationships with new people. Argument that humor normalizes bad behavior. Rape jokes. Jokes in the wrong audience.

1:22:49 – #9 Conversation. Conversation is not primarily an exchange of information, but mainly we do it to prove we are a reliable and good source of information. The backpack full of tools analogy. Reading and curiosity. Staying on topic, but not repeating ourselves.

1:27:43 – #10 Consumption. We buy things to look good. Prius example: it was designed ugly on purpose. Lifestyle ads. Corona beer theories: the first, Pavlovian, associating Corona and the beach, the second, one would buy Corona worrying about what others may associate the brand with. Super Bowl ads. BMW have to show their ads to poor people as well, so rich people associate the brand with luxury. Car ads reinforcing owners' believes. Products can be marketed for utility or lifestyle. Guinness and Budweiser have the same amount of calories, but they are marketed and perceived differently (surprisingly, Guinness is very keto-friendly).

1:33:33 – #11 Art. We find waste sexually attractive, because wasting resources is kind of a proof of wealth. People that hold a group in conversation are attractive. We tend to value art because we associate effort and skill with it. Mona Lisa's ashes and replicas survey. Is it the real Mona Lisa in the Louvre? Motivations behind mass shooters. Dinosaurs bones in museums. Conspiracies.

1:39:54 – #12 Charity. People donate in very inefficient ways. Donating for malaria vs high schools. Ivy League schools as hedge funds with an educational side. Comparing malaria deaths with other diseases that lower the quality of life. Is it dollar-to-lifes the best metric to look at when donating? The problem with Red Cross and other famous non-profits. Hollywood movies as non-profits.

1:49:34 – #13 Education. Kids don't learn much in class compared to unschooled ones. National GDP does not rise with education, but individual earning does. School seems more a filtering mechanism where, if you graduate from Harvard it doesn't mean you learned a ton but that you survived it. School as domestication. The most performant students are those more domesticated.

1:52:08 – Required attendance shows that the teacher is insecure of being interesting. Learning topics through other mediums than class subjects. School is more a signalling tool to show conformity to society and employment. For parents, it's a tool to brag that "made it". School may be useful from a network standpoint. Why we haven't franchised the Ivy League.

2:01:54 – #14 Medicine. We get much more medicine than we need mostly as a way to show we take care of each other. Medicine is great for saving lives, but doesn't perform well on life and quality of life extension.

2:03:21 – #15 Religion. Proving you are a member of the community by sacrificing part of your freedom, time, resources and even identity.

2:04:10 – #16 Politics. We often vote to show loyalty to a community. You'd better don't want everyone to participate in an election, especially if they'll vote the opposite candidate you'll vote. Cheering for your party, as in sports.

2:06:31 – #17 Conclusion. It's easy to spot others doing it, it's difficult to pick up ourselves doing it. "The biggest lesson from Part I is that we ignore the elephant because doing so is strategic. Self-deception allows us to act selfishly without having to appear quite so selfish in front of others. We have a gaping blind spot at the very center of our introspective vision. If we're going to second-guess our coworkers and friends, we shouldn't give ourselves an easy pass. In fact, knowing about our own blind spots should make us even more careful when pointing fingers at others".

2:07:56 – Support us by buying the book through our Amazon affiliate link. Support us by buying stuff from our sponsors, Perfect Keto for all your keto diet needs, Kettle & Fire for grass fed bone broth, Four Sigmatic for delicious mushroom coffee and other low caffeine drinks.

If you enjoyed this episode and want to read along with us, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

Jurgis, too, had heard of America. That was a country where, they said, a man might earn three roubles a day; and Jurgis figured what three roubles a day would mean, with prices as they were where he lived, and decided forthwith that he would go to America and marry, and be a rich man in the bargain. In that country, rich or poor, a man was free, it was said; he did not have to go into the army, he did not have to pay out his money to rascally officials—he might do as he pleased, and count himself as good as any other man.

In this episode of Made You Think, we discuss The Jungle by Upton Sinclair It is a novel that portraits realistically the life at the time of immigrant families. Aimed to promote socialism, it ended conceiving the first laws of consumer protection in the United States after the scandal created by the revelation of meat packing malpractices.

"Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money—I will work harder. Jurgis."

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• The 3-day weekend
• A list of malpractices in the meatpacking industry that ended
• Embalmed meat killing soldiers in Spain
• Children labor in tech startups
• Monstrous sized apples and food stamps diets
• Businesses taking advantage of illegal immigrants
• Fiverr ads in NY and the Gig economy

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, counterpoint to The Jungle, a book that vows for Capitalism, as well as our Recap episode, where we summarize our first 20 books, all under the effects of alcohol :).

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• Lacroix [0:41]
• Pure Food and Drugs Act [2:46]
• Meat Inspection Act [2:46]
• Kettle & Fire [48:26]
• Food stamps don't cover the cost of healthy eating [49:01]
• Costco [50:43]
• Peter Attia at the Joe Rogan experience - Cocaine Revolutionized Surgery [59:19]
• Snus – Chewing Tobacco [1:01:28]
• Lindy Effect [1:02:34]
• Verizon AT&T-Time Warner Trust [1:14:17]
• Interstellar [1:15:52]
• North Star Podcast [1:17:29]
• Foxconn [1:19:50]
• Nike [1:19:50]
• Patreon [1:38:19]
• Distracted Boyfriend meme - Socialists vs. reality [1:42:17]
• Uber [1:50:25]
• Fiverr Ads in NY [1:50:25]
• UpWork [1:51:28]
• Hinge [2:01:55]

• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Nat's notes)
• Uncle's Tom Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe [3:20]
• Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott [3:52]
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [4:11]
• The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker [24] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis [25:]
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [37-42] (Nat's notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2)
• Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [1:03:18] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Leverage Points by Donella Meadows [1:22:15] (article episode)
• The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson [1:23:32]
• Animal Farm by George Orwell [1:44:49]
• The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell [1:48:12] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson [1:49:38] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Das Kapital by Karl Marx [2:04:37]
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy [2:05:22]
• Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [2:05:35]

• Upton Sinclair
• Adil Majid [37:42]
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb [56:01] (Antifragile episode) (Skin in the Game episode)
• Chris Christie (sports betting in New Jersey) [56:52]
• Neil deGrasse Tyson [1:17:02]
• David Perell from the North Star podcast [1:17:29]
• George Orwell [1:44:21]
• Jordan B. Peterson [1:45:16] (on Twitter) (12 Rules episode)
• Warren Buffet [1:46:23]
• Elon Musk [2:04:05] (on this podcast)
• Jeff Bezos [2:05:06]

0:00 – The Jungle It is a book commonly read in High School, but probably the intention gets missed when read young. The content of the story is very dark. At first it seems to be a book about the terrors of the meat industry, but Sinclair aimed at the perils of Capitalism. It shows the problems with pure Laissez-faire economic systems (while other books as Atlas Shrugged critique Top-Down economies).

4:28 – Sinclair was upset that his book didn't meet the goal to promote socialism, all it had was the effect of changing how the US regulates the meat industry. The value of safety nets and consumer protection laws.

7:14 – We didn't had weekends as we know them today. Some people suggest we will be able to mitigate some of the effects of automation by shortening the work week even more. Some startups and companies already offer Summer Fridays, where employees take Friday off. This is backed by noticing that does not affect productivity.

11:47 – Sinclair disavowed Socialism, he said it was not well implemented. Also, that Unions are an equally corrupt part of the system too. However, the book seems quasi religious, as lacks critics to Socialism.

14:39 – The book tells the story of Jurgis, who decides to move from Lithuania to Chicago with his family. He first feel betrayed with his friend, which he thought was rich. At that time, moving was one-way, people didn't have the money to travel back. The experience to moving to a completely extraneous place you never saw and with different language. Practically there is no culture living in complete isolation today, given the spread of the Internet and the English language.

20:02 – Jurgis gets his first job is sweeping guts and parts of cattle into a pit. The joy of having a job and the feeling of being settled. Not being paid for partial clock ours or waiting ours. Investment banking seems like a modern upper middle class version of the same problem.

25:44 – No security. Jurgis get injured and rests at home, without being paid. Hard work spirit. "Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money—I will work harder."

26:05 – Sinclair attacks meritocracy. It's not those who work hard that are the ones who are wealthy. The people who had made it are not the people who'd done a good job, it's the people who'd figured out how to rig the system. Meritocracy, honesty (or dishonesty), conditions at birth and luck as the shapers of one's future. Reconciling the victim mentality with the meritocratic attitude.

28:45 – White privilege is probably true, but people started very poor and developed wealth through generations. The leap from "making money to stay alive" to "making money and build wealth". College funds compounding.

32:52 – Part of why we create wealth is to pass it to our children. Taking out inheritance plus giving immigrants upper-middle class quality of life from the start, as Socialism suggest, would take out incentives to create wealth. Socialism as the evolution of King-and-Serve model, in the way that somebody else take care of you once you pay the access to the system.

35:30 – Parents that bring their kids to America but want them to maintain their customs of origin. Contingencies buying a house. Having to send the kids to sustain the mortgage payment. Our senses ignore the static, concentrate on changes.

38:45 – Child labor was common 100 years ago. Is it OK to forbid child labor? Imposing modern values to pre-modern societies. China negating climate protocols. What if children work in tech positions at startups?

43:36 – How bad the meat packing industry was in terms of what went into the final product. A list of malpractices in the meat industry. Embalmed meat killing soldiers in Spain. Poisoned bread for rats. Sausages diluted with potato flour. Diluted or doctored food. The bargain of the peasant and hunter-gatherer lifestyle vs modern society.

49:01 – Optimizing food stamps to get the best diet. Why produce are not nutritious any more. Charging crops by weight as a bad incentive to produce nutritious crops. Size difference between wild and domesticated fruit species. Comparing fruits with candies and soda. Coca tea good for altitude sickness.

56:00 – Drugs and gambling becoming ubiquitous in the US. Libertarian trend legalizing gay marriage, suicide, drugs, poker and weed, MDMA. Cocaine and marijuana schedules for trials for medical treatments. Consuming opioids and tobacco in natural form, reducing cancer and other unwanted long term effects. Overdosing sugar.

1:03:18 – Jurgis back to the job market at Packagetown, finds a job in the fertilizers plants.

1:05:27 – Scentbird: monthly subscription for premium perfumes and colognes, delivered at your door in convenient packaging and at incredible rates! Nat's favorite is Blue by Chanel, Neil's using Dolce & Gabbana's Light Blue. Use our code to get 50% off the first month.

1:08:43 – Jurgis passes through jail. Spoiler alert! Jurgis is blacklisted from all jobs and becomes a bum. Parallel between the beef trust and the communications trust. Jurgis finally gets a better job in Downtown.

1:18:09 – When the supply of work is much greater than the demand. Working by the day. Immigrants taking US jobs working in illegal conditions. Unfair systems that can't be fixed by just replacing the pieces at the top. Businesses aren't much penalized, individuals are, when talking about illegal immigrants.

1:24:24 – The Government job to protect citizens. Markets can take care of most of their problems, but sometimes rules are needed. GMOs at Walmart.

1:26:24 – Jurgis loses all his family and becomes a bum, a modern version of the hunter gatherer. Jurgis gets into the underground. Suggestion that the only way to get rich in America is by breaking the law.

1:32:52 – Jurgis gets back in a meat packing business, but in a better position. Finally gets out of Chicago.

1:35:35 – The book slides down into Socialism. Blind political speeches. Distinguishing Socialism from Communism. Free associations and Patreon. Degrees of Libertarianism. Anarchism. Countries not implementing Socialism properly argument.

1:42:17 – Is Socialism impossible because of Human nature? Strong man arguments for and against Socialism. Orwell and Peterson common background at the Socialist Party. Socialism as a satisfying and seductive system for the intellectual part of our brains.

1:46:00 – Top-down beats Bottom-up messy chaos on paper, but the opposite happens in reality. We tend to give more importance to things that can be measured, but that doesn't mean unmeasured things doesn't exists. Argumentative tactics. The miss of a Socialist hero in the plot. The Gig economy.

1:53:14 – Sinclair shows that each individual who is involved in the system is following the incentives they have. Seeing a true need for government.

1:54:08 – Sponsors! Scentbird. Only $7.50 for your first month subscription using our code. Kettle & Fire's grass fed bone broth to reconstitute your gut health, up to 28% discount plus free shipping using our code. We highly recommend the mushroom chicken and mushroom flavor. Get 20% off for your keto related products on Perfect Keto. Exogenous ketones supplements, and MCT oil to supplement your good fat needs. Drink Four Sigmatic, delicious mushroom coffee. Try their new Golden Latte Mushroom Mix with shitaki and turmeric, and the Chai Latte Mush with turkey tail and reishi. None of these have caffeine, ideal to drink them the whole day. Get 20% off your first order from Cup & Leaf. Try the Cream Earl Grey and the Lopson su chong, the whiskey of black teas. Get the black tea sampler to try all black teas. De-fund Bezos' rocket company by using our Amazon affiliate link. Hit us up on Twitter (Neil, Nat).

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

"When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty."

In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi. Musashi was the greatest Samurai ever, famous for winning over 60 samurai duels. In this book he uses the art of sword fighting to develop a set of principles that can guide you through your personal and professional life.

Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Strategy in business and in life
• Lots of Japanese aphorisms
• Giving excuses when failing
• The importance of mastering different skills
• How it'll look like when we reach 100 podcasts

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi!

The teacher cannot force learning on the student, and the student cannot learn in isolation: "The teacher is as a needle, the disciple is as thread. You must practice constantly."

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Way of Zen by Alan Watts, a book that about Buddhism and mastering skills, as well as our episode on Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey, another book starts with a specific activity to infer global principles.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• Kindle [0:49]
• Quip Toothbrush [11:58]
• ButcherBox [11:58]
• Kettle & Fire [11:58]
• Perfect Keto [11:58]
• Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee [11:58]
• Cup & Leaf [11:58]
• Uber [14:42]
• Black Mirror [15:16]
• Jocko Podcast [17:46]
• Virtue Signalling [42:59]
• Joe Rogan's Podcast [47:08]
• Haidong Kumdo [49:10]
• Tailored Fit [53:48]
• ModCloth [53:48]
• Chess [57:11]
• Go [57:11]
• StarCraft [58:13]
• DOTA [58:13]
• Lyft [59:19]
• Tesla [1:00:31]

• The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi (Nat's notes)
• Musashi the Novel by Eiji Yoshikawa [1:25]
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [2:51]
• Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [2:51] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [2:51] (Nat's notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2)
• Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee [3:56] (Nat's notes)
• Levels of the Game by John McPhee [7:11]
• The Inner Game of Tennis [7:33] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Principles [7:52] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Mastery by Robert Greene [8:00] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [8:08] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Letters from a Stoic by Seneca [19:03] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Way of Zen by Alan Watts [19:39] (Nat's notes) (Neil's notes) (book episode)
• Lanterns on the Levee by William Percy [25:23]
• Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [26:19] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne [34:35]
• Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James [34:57]
• 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [35:33] (Nat's notes) (Neil's notes) (book episode)
• The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene [35:38] (Nat's notes)
• Tao Te Ching by Laozi [45:27] (Nat's notes)
• Finite and Infinite Games [1:08:54] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [1:12:23]

• Miyamoto Musashi
• Rumi, Persian Poet [2:21]
• Bruce Lee [3:56]
• Lucius Annaeus Seneca [19:03]
• Robert Greene [36:40]
• Jocko Podcast [37:42]
• Nathan Latka [38:58]
• Elon Musk [1:00:06] (on this podcast)
• Sebastian Marshall [1:11:15] (on Nat Chat)
• Jocko's book on the Tim Ferriss' blog [1:11:28]
• Adil Majid [1:15:14]

3:14 – Musashi's background and how he became the most famous samurai. In this book he writes about strategy and philosophy through the lens of sword fighting. His writing style starts with examples at micro level and unfolds them into general principles. Development of the Niten Ichi-ryū school, the style of fighting with one short and one long sword. Books that use sports or physical activities as a canvas to explain strategy, psychology, and philosophy.

9:45 – Sponsor time! Scentbird. Online subscription plan to receive at home all perfumes you want to try. Go to Scentbird, build your queue, and get 50% OFF with the coupon mentioned in the episode. They don't take much space in or bag, so very convenient to travel with. Very helpful if you want to go into subscription mode for everything in your life like Nat.

12:40 – Time period where guns were spreading but swords were still popular.

15:26 – Ground. Foundation for the other books and the most applicable to real world problems beyond sword fighting. Four personas: the gentlemen, the farmers, the artisans and the merchants. The teacher can be guidance but one has to move through the process. Symbiotic relationship between teacher and student.

19:16 – "The way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death". Does acceptance of death make you a better warrior? "The Dojo" example applied to Marketing. There are so many marketing gurus pushing for their school as it is the only true alternative, while they are truly looking for profit.

23:12 – "This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry". It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn. You can't allow yourself to fail without trying everything you have at your disposal. Romanticizing failures and not learning from them. The fine line of failure and ego protection. Not going all in gives you an excuse if you fail.

26:23 – "It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first". Everything is hard when you start. Having a diversity of abilities. In sports, a winning strategy is to water the opponents favorite strategy. Having a favorite weapon or skill is a weakness. Bruce Lee's fighting against his own Martial Arts school, by following his philosophy of non-philosophy. Coping other does not make sense because what works for others may not work for you.

31:39 – Water. "With water as the basis, the spirit becomes like water. Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea". Being able to break over the rocks and not being stopped by them. Being able to work around an obstacle and being fluid. The difference of learning indoor techniques with learning into the wild. Book summaries visitor stats.

36:56 – Our private behavior and public behavior should be the same at all times. Instagram and social media push us to build a fake personality, and pretend we are a different person from what we really are. Me too stuff. White people trying to win points between minorities.

43:45 – "In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things". Japanese aphorisms. Detaching from personal feelings to get the big picture. How Rogan can make so many podcasts.

48:15 – Fire. Here Masashi starts to get very technical on fighting. Training to the point it becomes an innate knowledge. You know when something is natural to you when you have a hard time explaining it. The best mentor is not someone far along and super successful but most of the times, just a few steps ahead from you.

55:12 – Methods to slow down enemies' attacks. Attacking first, counter attacking, and attacking at the same time. Maintain control of your position. It is bad to be led about by the enemy. Taking the initiative may have psychological advantages by not being responsive to the enemy but making him responsive to you. Acting vs reacting. Having the enemy to respond to your moves so they don't have time to develop their strategies. Staying relevant and on the news in order to push the competition to show their cards.

1:01:46 – Wind. "Crossing at a ford". Knowing when to enter in a negotiation, in a position of strength. Having the discipline to delay to act when it's the right time. Being able to put oneself in the enemy's shoes. Criticizing other schools.

1:08:00 – Void. Conventional and unspoken knowledge. True mastery is something you cannot put into a book, it has no end. Anti dogma.

1:14:08 – Sponsors. If you want to smell lovely and have an easy solution for all your perfumes and colognes needs checkout Scentbird. Use our code to get 50% off your first month subscription. Get your mushroom coffee from Four Sigmatic. They have a new Think blend! Try also the Cordyceps blend, their Reishi blend for sleep. Nat is drinking Lapsang Souchong black tea from Cup & Leaf. It tastes like a brandy, whisky, smokey dark liquor flavor scotch. Try the Earl Grey cream one too! Kettle & Fire has mushroom-chicken bone broth available on their site now! Great flavoring. You may get up to 28% off your first ordering using our code. Nat likes to cook with their beef broth and Neil turns his quinoa in a nutritional powerhouse. Perfect Keto is perfect if you are trying to get into keto. Check out their ketones supplements and their exogenous ketones. They have a mocha flavored MCT oil powder. It's of the best kind of fats, and you can mix it in your smoothies, have it straight in the morning, or mix it with athletic greens. Use our Amazon link to help support the show. Hit us up on Twitter (Neil, Nat).

Join the mailing list to participate of the next Q&A episode and recommend us books to discuss.

"If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders—what would you tell him to do?" "I . . . don't know. What . . . could he do? What would you tell him?" "To shrug."

In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat discuss Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, a piece of philosophy disguised as a novel. Probably the 10th longest book in Latin language, Atlas Shrugged is a controversial, polarizing book that attacks Socialism, references Postmodernism and develops Objectivism, Rand's philosophical system.

So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Money as the root of all evil or source of all good
• Why academics and politicians see successful businessmen with distrust
• Wealthy kids arguing for socialism
• The truth about law (spoiler: you are not obliged to obey it)
• A 3 hour long discourse
• Writing sex scenes

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson, a book that foresee how governments will react with new tech, as well as our episodes on Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (part 1 & part 2), a book about the power of myths and humans collaborating for a greater outcome.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• Ford [11:11]
• Delta [11:11]
• American Airlines [11:11]
• Cup & Leaf – Nat's Tea Project [24:05]
• Effective Altruism [32:03]
• CMU [33:09]
• Tony Robbins on the Tim Ferriss Show [34:22]
• UBI – Universal Basic Income [35:52]
• Crypto episode [36:48]
• Patreon [37:30]
• Drizly and Minibar [42:56]
• AirBnB [44:09]
• Uber [45:32]
• IRS [46:25]
• Neil Soni on Nat Chat [55:30]
• Harari on UBI [56:33]
• Al-Qaida [1:02:40]
• ISIS [1:02:40]
• Amazon [1:05:02]
• NASA [1:06:16]
• SpaceX [1:06:16]
• Boeing [1:05:40]
• Voldemort Effect [1:15:17]

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Harry Potter [6:49]
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [20:47] (Nat's Notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2)
• Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins [34:22]
• Sovereign Individual [36:48] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Finite and Infinite Games [41:55] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [42:44] (book episode)
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand [1:17:59]

• Ayn Rand
• List of Atlas Shrugged characters
  • Francisco d'Anconia
  • Hank Rearden
  • Dagny Taggart
  • John Galt
• Plato [5:10]
• Socrates [5:20]
• Tony Robbins [34:22]
• Peter Thiel [48:30]
• Aristotle [50:40]
• Ron Paul [1:09:23]
• Nathaniel Brandon [1:17:02]
• Leonard Peikoff [1:17:45]
• Simone de Beauvoir [1:21:07]

6:55 – The structure of the book is an interwoven of essays spoken by the characters. Re-reading the book may help understand better the concepts.

9:05 - The book starts with a parallel world set in the 50ties, with two kinds of people: the industrious productive ones running big infrastructure businesses of the Nation, and the socialists, government ones (described as parasites). The main plot is that the productive ones start disappearing, and the socialists intervene to try to keep the economy running and avoid collapsing.

13:19 – The idea is that the more one tries to control the economy, the worst it's going to get. The example of limiting book sales to 10k.

15:24 – Introducing the characters of Francisco d'Anconia and Hank Rearden. Money as the root of all evil. Criticism of money made by people that never understood how someone actually makes money.

19:00 – Tangent. Most of the critiques to money as the origin of all evil originates between academics or congressman, people that project their experiences "playing politics" and assume businessmen are filthy rich because of a more aggressive political game.

21:11 – Examples of activities that make money without creating value. High frequency trading, hardcore rent seeking. The money test, or how to know if you are effectively creating value. Feeling guilty when asking money, cutting through bullshit.

25:05 – Counter-argument: money as the source of all good. Money allows us to cooperate.

29:47 – We don't see that many successful people in business arguing for socialism. On the opposite side, we can see many wealthy kids arguing for socialism. Why people in the artistic communities advocate for socialism while earning millions on performances. The different approach to socialism between wealthy kids and kids with scholarships. Forced redistribution may not be sustainable in the long term.

34:22 – Tony Robbins about the ideal amount to tax, so to pay for public services, and not to discourage taxpayers to fly away. Striking a fine balance is even more important when technologies that enable us to avoid taxation are widely available.

38:28 – Hank put on trial by the government. The nature of laws is that they have to be enforced by force. Most people won't voluntarily do what government order them to do unless pointed with a gun.

42:56 – Most people think of laws and rules as things they have to follow, instead of options that have consequences. The idea that a rule is just something that typically advantageous to follow. Startups influencing how new rules for grey areas will be legislated. Why NY regulators don't go after illicit listing on AirBnB.

47:24 – John Galt speech (spoiler alert). Layout of objectivism, Ayn Rand's main contribution to philosophy, as some sort of adaptation of Aristotelian ethics and metaphysics. In Rand's objectivism there can't be contradictions. Or, going against postmodernism, there is no complete subjectivity.

51:39 – Objectivism: Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification. Reality is not going to change if we hide away from it. Meaning of life and meaningful work as the purpose of life. Reason, purpose, self-esteem.

55:00 – Why people is unhappy with their job. Our jobs is where we spend most of our active ours, and if that is not purposeful, it's hard to be satisfied. Corollaries from Sovereign Individual. We are in a time where in response to new technologies, government reacts in a more socialist direction, so the more productive people go somewhere else. The importance of cryptocurrency in this movement vs gold.

59:52 – Logic against postmodernism. Not saying anything, keeping the mouth shut and dying, is the only way to fulfill the argument of objectiveness non-existence.

1:01:43 – The roles of governments. The need of a third-party force as a result of the concept of property. Protection, Roads, Public Parks: how would they work if left to private initiative. Social Security, a legalized Ponzi scheme, works only if enforced. Alternatives to Social Security and who pays for it.

1:11:29 – Tangent. Criticism to Atlas Shrugged as it doesn't convince someone who is convinced of the opposite. University is very liberal biased. It's very tough to get grants to do research that doesn't confirm liberal ideology.

1:13:56 – Outlawing ideas make them more compelling. The case of silencing gender differences.

1:16:43 – Diving into objectivism in School. The contrast of female characters of Ayn Rand books. Sex scenes and description of scenes.

1:22:11 – Tangent. Rand's sex scenes are more emotional-psychological than physical. Philosophy of love, related to the meaning of life. Love as a sense of achievement. Interpretations of love possession.

1:26:29 – Closing quote. "In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours."

1:27:30 – Sponsors! With Scentbird you select and queue perfumes you want to try, and receive them on a monthly basis. Their cartridge system is very convenient, very discounted and travel-friendly. Use the coupon mentioned in the episode to get 50% off on the first month. Perfect Keto's MCT oil is one of the best fats to keep a ketogenic diet. Their MCT oil powdered version is fantastic to mix in to your coffee drinks, or mushroom coffee. It is much easier than cutting a piece of butter, and it has a creamy texture. For the mushroom coffee, go to Four Sigmatic and get 15% off. Their mushroom coffee energizes you with less caffeine. Kettle & Fire for delicious, organic, grass fed, bone broth, good for getting the micronutrients that it's difficult to get if you don't eat organ meats. You can cook it, drink directly from the carton, or try it with cumin and chili, heat and sip it. It is shelf stable for a really long time. New sponsor! At Cup & Leaf you can find the finest teas reviewed by Nat, with a 20% off! Try the organic Earl Grey cream and milk Oolong, a pretty unique tea.

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

Solitude is what you have the least of here, especially as plebes. You don't even have privacy, the opportunity simply to be physically alone, never mind solitude, the ability to be alone with your thoughts. And yet I submit to you that solitude is one of the most important necessities of true leadership.

In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat cover the first speech on this show! Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz is a speech held by the professor at West Point Military Academy. In it, Deresiewicz goes against the common thinking that Yale's professors or MBAs are leaders, just because they are the best at following what they are told to do, and looks at solitude and moments of deep work the roots for true leadership.

Multitasking is not only not thinking, it impairs your ability to think. Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it. [...] Developing your own ideas. In short, thinking for yourself. You simply cannot do that in bursts of 20 seconds at a time, constantly interrupted by Facebook messages or Twitter tweets, or fiddling with your iPod, or watching something on YouTube.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Turning chaos into order vs maintaining the order
• The "clever" app that interrupts you to check if you are in the flow
• Guns and drug wars in Chicago
• Nat and Neil's rituals for solitude
• Why starting your podcast with your friends will bring you to the best of deep thinking
• A new sponsor that will make you smell better

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to read Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on The Way of Zen by Alan Watts, a book that lingers in the benefits of meditation, as well as our episode on Work Clean by Dan Charnas, a live episode with the author of the book brings the shows how to work and manage like a chef.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• William Deresiewicz on Nat Chat [2:12]
• On Political Correctness by William Deresiewicz [2:46]
• William Deresiewicz Speech at West Point 7:26
• Yale University [7:32]
• CMU - Carnegie Mellon University [7:56]
• McKinsey [12:35]
• Kanye West tweets [16:49]
• AirPods [20:14]
• Slack [23:36]
• Asana [23:36]
• IKEA [30:39]
• Salesforce [32:03]
• HelpSpot 32:28
• Ephemerality vs Value by Nat Eliason [37:29]
• Snapchat [37:40]
• Blinkist [38:43]
• Mentorbox [38:43]
• Joe Rogan and Colion Noir on Chicago's gang violence [47:22]
• Russell Brand - Legalisation of Drugs [48:47]
• Ron Paul's view on abortion [50:36]
• Stephen Colbert's The Late Show [51:52]
• Wait But Why articles on AI part 1 and part 2 [51:59]
• Melting Asphalt [52:25]
• Sam Harris' reply to Robert Spencer about immigration [52:32]

• Solitude and Leadership by William Deresiewicz
• Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [1:25] (book episode)
• Excellence Sheep by William Deresiewicz [7:38] (Nat's notes)
• Extreme Ownership by Jocko [11:34]
• 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [18:09] (Nat's notes) (Neil's notes) (book episode)
• Antifragile by Nassim Taleb [18:09] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [25:29] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• In Praise of Idleness [26:44] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Ulysses by James Joyce [27:08]
• Way of Zen by Alan Watts [30:08] (Nat's notes) (Neil's notes) (book episode)
• Work Clean [31:08] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• The Rise of Superman by Steven Kotler [34:23]
• Amusing Ourselves to Death [36:02] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [45:19] (Nat's notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2)
• The Riddle of the Gun by Sam Harris [47:10] (article episode)
• The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson [52:25]

• Sam Harris [47:10] (Guns episode)
• Kanye West [16:49]
• Jordan B. Peterson [17:09] (on Twitter) (12 Rules episode)
• Dave Rubin [17:21]
• Donald Trump [44:14]

3:13 – New sponsor! Scentsbird are the Netflix for perfumes. They will send you premium perfumes and colognes like Dolce and Gabbana, Chanel and Armani on a monthly basis. Their their cartridge system is very clever and light, super convenient and easy to carry even on airplanes (try getting big bottles on airplanes). Listen the episode to get 50% OFF the first month subscription.

7:13 – Leadership. "Excellence sheep" concept, or what people do to get a position at Yale. Being the best at following orders doesn't make you a leader. People's confusion between leadership and being good at what one is supposed to do. Turning chaos into order vs maintaining the order.

12:05 – West Point vs Yale Leadership concept. One line Commander's intent employees.

13:18 – Solitude. Bringing Chaos back to Order requires solitude and focus. Creative thinking is not possible nowadays unless we take the concentrated effort to avoid all kind of interruptions. Kayne West and Jordan Peterson on tour. Multitasking and interruptions vs learning.

16:29 – Generally, our first though may not be the result of our creativity, but a subconscious recall of someone else's idea. Places where many ideas come because we are concentrated (and not multitasking), even on other activities.

21:07 – Meditation and background processing. Tips for reducing notifications distractions. Training your friends to not expect immediate response. Following a team at bird's eye view without babysitting them.

25:00 – The effects of talking about ideas on this podcast.

27:02 – Good work starts slow and needs time to get up to the core ideas. Experiences writing good articles or books. Japanese Zen practices and working clean are part of the many activities that foster conditions for creative spark. Organizing the CRM.

33:43 – Different types of flow. Getting "lost" in a mindless activity or reading a fiction book that helps "defrag" your hard drive. The absurd notification app to check if you are in flow or not. Differences between a book and a tweet or the newspaper. Nat & Neil's secret to read 60 books a year like top performers CEOs.

Discover the fiction book we are reading listening to back episodes and participate of the give away!

40:43 – What is solitude: introspection, concentration of focused work, sustained reading. And... deep friendship. The traits of good long conversations with friends. Taking the part of the Devil's advocate, and the problem to link our identity with ideas. Not reasonable ideas are just as logical as reasonable ones, but with different inputs. Trump's voters example.

45:18 – Immigration. Extreme views like open borders and racism. Naturally moving toward the middle. Tailor-made narco-economy and guns in Chicago. The reason to legalize drugs. Libertarians against Abortion.

51:59 – The bad habit of everyone should have an opinion on everything. Replying emotionally on Twitter without being informed. Trump bringing peace in Korea.

57:07 – Solitude being the essence of leadership. Nat and Neil's rituals for solitude. Physical stresses that help freeing the mind.

1:01:40 – Sponsors! Scentbird is a monthly premium perfumes subscription service. It's very convenient, for guys and girls. Use the code mentioned in the episode to get 50% off on the first month. Go to Four Sigmatic for your mushroom coffee needs. Perfect Keto is the one-stop shop for all your ketogenic diet needs. Learn on their blog why MCT oils and powder are amazing fats for your diet. Kettle & Fire for your collagen ancestral needs. Try the meat one with quinoa. The chicken one is good for sipping. Amazon has crushed their earning thanks to the MYT affiliate link! Let your friends know about the show. Share angrily on Twitter as our show is antifragile.

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life. All that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." Albert Einstein

No books today, but a selected list of questions asked by Listeners! Neil and Nat answer one by one detailed questions about topics you had but they never talked about.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• What Neil and Nat do to survive
• Routines to get into flow
• Favorite podcast show and why they stopped listening to Tim Ferriss
• The future (and present of work)
• Balancing power and happiness

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to ask more questions replying the mailing list! (What? You still haven't signed up for the mailing list?!)

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, a book that discuss the crazy schedule creative people have to get into the flow, as well as our episode on Homo Deus by Yuval Harari where we talk about how AI may make humans useless.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• Unlimited Brewing [4:22]
• Made You Drink Beer. Coming Soon? [5:14]
• US regulation doesn't allow to sell beer online [5:14]
• Brewmaster' Reserve, Neil's beer blog [5:49]
• Neil Soni on Nat Chat [6:40]
• LegalZoom [8:45]
• Maryland Government incorporation website [8:47]
• Incorporate.com [9:51]
• W-2 Form [10:52]
• Nat Chat [11:22]
• Growth Machine [11:47]
• Nat's personal site [12:15]
• Wendy's Twitter campaign [16:52]
• Deep House Relax playlist [27:56]
• Asana [33:03]
• Evernote [33:12]
• Sam Sheridan [36:42]
• Fat Tony [40:05]
• PwC [52:33]
• Tiago Forte's Progressive Summarization [55:05]
• Flatgeologist [57:32]
• Slack [1:04:02]
• Vitalik Buteron, founder of Ethereum [1:10:53]
• Nat's articles on sex [1:14:21]
• Stamena app - Nat's app [1:14:21]
• Black Mirror [1:38:46]
• Trump-Miller story [1:41:55]

• Daily Rituals by Mason Currey [28:59] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb [32:21] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand [37:58]
• Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennet [38:07] (book episode)
• The Goal [44:29] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter [37:58] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Homo Deus by Yuval Harari [43:20] (book episode)
• Work Clean [44:29] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Principles [44:33] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene [46:30] (Nat's Notes)
• Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [48:12] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins [57:13]
• Finite and Infinite Games [57:42] (Nat's Notes) (Made You Think episode)
• 12 Rules for Life by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [58:06] (Nat's notes) (Neil's notes) (book episode)
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck [58:48] (Nat's notes)
• Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk [59:22] (Nat's notes)
• Deep Work by Cal Newport [1:03:01] (Nat's notes)
• So Good They Can't Ignore You [1:03:01] (Nat's notes)
• Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [1:10:10] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• The Sovereign Individual [1:19:29] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Mastery by Robert Greene [1:28:04] (Nat's notes) (book episode)

• Albert Einstein [0:00]
• Donald Trump [18:28]
• Elon Musk [18:28] (on this podcast)
• Dan Bilzerian [18:33]
• Adil Majid [19:17] (on this podcast 1, 2, 3)
• Pepper the Poochon [32:54]
• Taylor Pearson [44:20]
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb [48:02] (Antifragile episode) (Skin in the Game episode)
• Flatgeologists – Flat Earth Society [57:32]
• Jeff Bezos [1:11:31]
• Bill Gates [1:11:31]
• Mark Zuckerberg [1:11:31]
• Warren Buffet [1:11:31]
• Randall Eliason [1:42:42]

0:00 – Perfect drinks to enjoy the warm weather.

3:38 – Question #1. Why do you actually do for a living and how you've got there? Neil has a company that helps you build your brand beer, either for events (weddings, parties, conference, etc), venues (chef that wants to pair beers), and already established brands. How Neil bootstrapped his company while trying to have reduce his home brewing costs, and even before having customers. If you ask enough, you can see the Made You Drink beer soon.

"You don't know where things are going to go until you actually start working on them".

8:20 – Nat helps ecommerce and tech startups appear on the front page of Google and increase traffic from Google through SEO and content. Stats of his company.

1428 – Funny fact, Nat and Neil went to the same university in Pittsburg, and went through the same Startup Accelerator, but never met before. Why Twitter is the catalyst for the best friendships, and why it's so hard to monetize it. Paying twice to build and reach your audience on Facebook. Who controls Twitter and Facebook celebrities' accounts.

19:58 – Question #2. Favorite podcasts.

Mentioned

• Jocko Podcast
• Joe Rogan Experience
• Sam Harris' Waking Up
• Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
• Invest Like the Best podcast
• History on Fire
• Unchained
• A16z
• Kevin Rose
• Shane Parrish's The Knowledge Project
• Rhonda Patrick's Found my Fitness
• Bill Simmons Podcast
• Skip and Shannon: Undisputed Podcast
• Good Beer Hunting
• Brewers' Journal Podcast

Episodes: Jordan Peterson on Joe Rogan's, Daniele Bolelli from the Drunken Taoist on Joe Rogan's, Jordan Peterson's Biblical Series, Al Pacino and Kevin Durant on Bill Simmons'.

Recommended Tim Ferriss Episodes: Jamie Foxx, Jocko Willink, The Erotic Playbook of a Top-Earning Sex Worker (NSFW), Naval Ravikant, Peter Thiel, Dom D'Agostino, Kevin Rose, Kelly Starrett, Derek Sivers, Kevin Kelly, Ed Cooke

27:56 – Question #3. Routines to get into flow, specially If you need to write a 2-3000 words blog post. How much coffee Neil needs to get into flow. Neil's realization to keep going until getting a decent piece of work. The playlist to get into the mood. Nat tips: making super easy to start, getting all notifications off, being super clear on what are the next steps, changing context. The template Nat use for writing a massive article, and why he doesn't starts with the intro. The endure-for-20min-and-then-you-can-quit psychological trick. Being in-interruptible.

28:18 – Question #4. Is doing business an intellectual challenging activity? What if it is not? The overlap of intellectually curious people and entrepreneurs. Early days of a business are very intellectual and exploration, while growth stage is a lot tweaking and optimization. Why intellectual people have the need to compulsively start new companies. Books that coincided with the business stage. How to find motivation to start exploring.

48:23 – Question #5. Advice for college student graduating in 2018? What problems to work on? First thing: think before graduating. Find an internship that has the potential to get you full time, in an area you are interested in. The problem with Ivy League students going to Google, Facebook or big consulting firms. Realize how low risk your life is. Focusing on skills rather than problems. The awareness that you may not know what problems are out there.

55:05 – Question #6. How do you apply the insights from books? Start a podcast and speak with your friends every week :). How Nat takes detailed notes "reading" the book 4 times. Writing as an exercise to build the synopsis with other books' concepts. No need to change the structure of your business. New concepts are useful to see problems from different angles, not overhauling processes.

59:39 – Question #7. How to network online? Tips to connect through the most powerful platforms, Twitter and cold email.

1:02:59 – Question #8. Future of Work: Deep Work vs Shallow Work, solopreneurship, and attention deficit, etc. Trade off between Improved communication and increased interruptibility. The problem with open office workspaces. Trends: remote working, polarization of work between employees and contractors, performance based work environment. Before, power was a function of the organizational structure or buildings, now it's a function of ability or what you do, because it's much easier to show usefulness.

1:13:20 – Single person companies that make over $1 million a year. Personal branding. Having proof of concept on our own site.

1:14:21 – Nat's proof of concept that you can have 1 person business based on SEO. How Nat arrived to get 8k daily visitors by chance writing sex articles.

1:19:00 – More trends about work: It will be possible for fewer people to do more. The Internet as the effect of compounding of technology. AI is starting to replace White collar jobs. How AI would be able to replace the 90% of the writing work right now.

1:28:04 – Question #9. Is there a trade off between happiness and achievement? Does a gain in power detract from happiness? The Internet gives us the ability to compare us to the whole world, in detriment of the in-group. Opportunity costs of least profitable ventures. The problem with Digital Nomadism. Considering second and third order effects in the happiness-power equation. The intersection between personal achievement and service to the community. What's happiness anyway? Doing sacrifices for achieving joy, as athletes do.

1:43:00 – Sponsors! Get new questions through the email list. Sign up. Find upcoming books, events, and know about new sponsors! A new cool sponsor coming. Hop on Four Sigmatic for their mushroom coffee and other mush wonderful goodness. Suggestion: enjoy an iced mushroom coffee Mocha flavor. Check Kettle & Fire for their delicious grass fed bone broth, one of the only companies that do this. Suggested: the beef for cooking, the chicken for drinking. Perfect Keto for all your ketogenic related needs. A ketogenic diet is high in fat, and your body burns ketones instead of glucose for energy. Some benefits include improved mental functioning, much lower hunger swings, and ancestral body functioning. The supplementary ketones are very useful to pop in and out the diet and speed the process. Definitely try the coffee or the sea salt chocolate. Leave reviews on iTunes. Everything you buy on Amazon through our link supports the show. Bookmark it with an emoji :).

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

"In the early twenty-first century the train of progress is again pulling out of the station – and this will probably be the last train ever to leave the station called Homo sapiens. Those who miss this train will never get a second chance. The main products of the twenty-first century will be bodies, brains and minds, and the gap between those who know how to engineer bodies and brains and those who do not will be far bigger than the gap between Sapiens and Neanderthals. In the twenty-first century, those who ride the train of progress will acquire divine abilities of creation and destruction, while those left behind will face extinction."

In this episode of Made You Think, Adil, Neil and Nat discuss Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. This book can be considered a sequel of Sapiens. In Homo Deus, Harari summarizes what has been the source and reference of our specie decisions and make predictions on how data and algorithms will shift humans as the source of power in our history.

"Yet in truth the lives of most people have meaning only within the network of stories they tell one another. Meaning is created when many people weave together a common network of stories. Why does a particular action – such as getting married in church, fasting on Ramadan or voting on election day – seem meaningful to me? Because my parents also think it is meaningful, as do my brothers, my neighbors, people in nearby cities and even the residents of far-off countries. And why do all these people think it is meaningful? Because their friends and neighbors also share the same view. People constantly reinforce each other's beliefs in a self-perpetuating loop. Each round of mutual confirmation tightens the web of meaning further, until you have little choice but to believe what everyone else believes."

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Religion as a body of beliefs and shared
• Anticipating Trump's election with the help of Facebook
• Humanism religion where humans replace Gods
• Brain vs Mind, Intelligence vs Consciousness
• Losing control over technology
• Challenges in medicine to make us immortal

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episodes on Sapiens Part I and Part II, a summary of Human history that will shape how you think, as another lenses through which you can look at reality.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• Google Maps Timeline [6:19]
• Pinked-Taleb argument about people dying from wars [9:34]
• Jiro Dreams of Sushi [18:40]
• Estée Lauder [18:58]
• Altered Carbon on Netflix [23:21]
• Aterol [25:16]
• Ether [34:43]
• Split Brain Experiment [48:14]
• Sunk Cost Fallacy [1:00:40]
• Universal Basic Income [1:09:11]
• Return of the city-state [1:13:44]
• Crypto episode [1:20:12]
• Gun Control episode [1:21:37]
• Cortana [1:23:54]
• Plato's Republic [1:24:20]
• Turing Test [1:28:00]
• Deepmind playing DOTA [1:29:48]
• Spire [1:30:33]
• Hang the DJ - Black Mirror episode where AI decides who you date and marry [1:34:27]

• Homo Deus by Yuval Harari
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [0:55] (Nat's Notes) (book episode part 1 & part 2)
• The Denial of Death [20:23] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [33:00] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Free Will by Sam Harris [40:52]
• Finite and Infinite Games [1:00:17] (Nat's Notes) (Made You Think episode)
• The Sovereign Individual [1:09:11] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• What Every Body is saying by Joe Navarro [1:44:57] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• Motivation Hacker by Nick Winter [1:44:57]

• Yuval Noah Harari (official website)
• Karl Marx [4:30]
• Donald Trump [5:37]
• Sam Harris [40:52] (Guns episode)
• Plato [1:24:20]

0:00 – Harari tries to write about the future but he knows there's no way to predict it. People in the '50s predicting flying cars and moon bases but nobody predicting the Internet. Communism example: it didn't take place effectively even if Marx predicted it. Narratives and stories affect how we view technology.

5:15 – It is much more acceptable to be critical about Social Networks today than it was 2 years ago. At the beginning everyone was considering only convenience. Privacy wasn't that much of an issue.

7:23 – Up until now the human agenda was: don't die, procreate, protect your tribe. The new agenda considers: how to become Gods. More power, more money, how we live forever.

8:12 – Humans collectively are concerned solving three things: Famine, Plague, War. All three seem to be controlled (until Black Swans happen) but they seem fragile.

12:58 – Modern Medicine has saved us from premature death, but haven't extended our lives by that much. We would be able to lengthen our live spans if we can re-engineer the length of splitting cells.

16:03 – For people over 40, there's a high probability they'll die because of heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer, and suffer cognitive decline. The challenge with cancer, a disease of aging, is that its origin is not unique, there are many reasons one can get cancer. What happens when we become immortal or live much longer than we do today. Incentives to improve, competition against technology, and appreciation of life under eternal conditions.

25:00 – Historically we manipulated environment to fit us. In the future it seems we will try to manipulate us to transcend the environment. States regulating bad drugs that threaten stability and allowing and even encouraging those that strengthen social order and productivity. Overusing medical advancements not to cope with a disability, but to surpass the norm (Viagra example), creates a race to the bottom: if you are not cheating you are in disadvantage. Legalizing steroids.

30:04 – First part: How Homo Sapiens conquered the World. You can skip this part if you have read Sapiens or listened to our episodes on it (part 1, part 2). The modern manifestation of Religion, which is Humanism, is what this book focuses on. Progression: agriculture revolution gave rise to Teism religions. The scientific revolution gave birth to Humanism religion where humans replace Gods. We look humans as the source of power. Examples of Humanism: Liberalism, Communism, Nazism. "Everything that happens in the cosmos is judged to be good or bad according to its impact on Homo sapiens"

31:46 – Critiques to Humanism. Reliance that there's something special with humans. Mind or consciousness for modern religion is the equivalent of the soul for ancient ones. Brain vs Mind. The concept of mind doesn't square with anything scientific.

35:06 – Knowing exactly how the mind works, would affect our day to day living? Do we perform conscious choices under free will or are we subject to environment and past experience? How to interpret "negative" actions like murdering or hard ones like starting a company even when we don't need to. Free will as an evolutionary result to improve survivability.

40:48 – Examples against free will. First mover concept. Regardless we have or not free will, we still are responsible for our lives. Punishment should be still used to protect society from bad not-free-will behavior.

46:34 – Deciding to do something is based on our own desires. But probably we never decided what our desires are. Concept of Intersubjective Entities. Money has value only because most of us believe we can trade with it. Life meaning exists only within the network of stories we tell one another.

51:55 – Second Part: How we measure ourselves. Physical things can be measured and interpreted unequivocally, but other concepts as school performance, change based on the yard stick we use. Intersubjective believe that living longer is better, instead of shortly and intensely. Science and religion viewed not as opposites but as complements of each other.

56:28 – Religion-Science dichotomy. Aiming to maintain social structure vs looking to acquire power to solve world problems like famine, diseases and fights.

1:01:04 – Development of Humanism. Liberalism (orthodox humanism): focus on the individual liberty. Two sprouting: Socialist Humanism (communism) which says human experience is shared among societies, and Evolutionary Humanism (Nazism) which focuses on the Sapiens supremacy. If Germany had won in WW2, we would see Nazism (Evolutionary Humanism) as a positive thing. What makes our morals true or objective.

1:07:26 – The trend towards Liberalism is a natural consequence of technological evolution. What happens when we begin this phase of transcendence? Many social developments seem to be sons of the current economic forces. Slavery ended and women gained the right to vote because it was better for the overall Economy, not because of a genuine interest of their lives. Governments give only people rights because they need them to pay taxes. Problems with UBI, incentives to become an artist or entrepreneur, and stability. Wars don't happen if there is no economical benefit.

1:13:20 – City States. City majors seem more important than State governors. Belong feelings to cities and not the country. When a Government is losing power it creates a conflict. City States would not exist as they existed in the past or as an equivalent to today's Countries. The rise of Digital Governments.

1:18:38 – Slow government is good because you don't want incompetence spreading fast. Big Companies are gaining Nations-like power. Google is much faster at predicting an epidemy than UK's Health System. The thread is Corporate regulations moving faster than Governments. Democracy looks like the worst kind of government, except all the other ones.

1:23:10 - Third Part: When humans lose control. Beyond Humanism. Individual vs Dividual: the Experiencing Self and the Narrating Self. Plato's Rationality, Energy Spirit, Desires chariot analogy. Tech intelligence is/will be better than Human intelligence, but consciousness will be optional. Consciousness as an emergent property of processing speed. Current improvements in AI are geared to improve sales, rather than improving the solutions to our needs. Foretelling Trump's use of Facebook in the 2016 political campaign.

1:30:33 – More and more our decisions are made by machines and data. Apps that decide for us: Uber and Diet apps examples. Letting machines monitor health parameters and suggesting habits. If we rely too much on others to make decisions for us, we lose that "muscle". The "attention helmet" makes people less patient to confusion, doubts or contradictions.

1:33:55 – Apps that shift from an Oracle service to an Agent service. Consult vs Entrust. Situations in which our trusted app would interact on our behalf: scheduling a meeting, job application, dating.

1:35:41 – Tinder on autopilot. Dieting app hooked up with a micro-needle patch that trace your blood glucose needle and prevents you from breaking a diet.

1:39:55 – Dataism, the New Religion. Data and algorithms will be the supreme force and we will trust them as the new Bible. Liberalism is completely challenged by Life Sciences. 3 points, I'm an individual, I've a single essence, myself is completely free. Science says we are just a set of bits dominated by algorithms. The tech sector seems to be unattached to the emotional consequences of the things they are arguing for. What do we care more, the objective truth data reality or the subjective experiences of individuals.

1:43:21 – Are emotions the result of data processing in the background? Moving more and more to data-based decision algorithms. Would you ask your Google Home / Alexa to move to NY?

1:50:03 – Dataism extreme form. Algorithms would own everything like corporations do today. Software eating the world. From the Data viewpoint, we can see our whole specie like a single processing system. The end goal of Data is to create the Internet of all things, a completely interconnected system of consciousness.

1:53:01 – "These three processes raise three key questions, which I hope will stick in your mind long after you have finished this book:

1. Are organisms really just algorithms, and is life really just data processing?
2. What's more valuable – intelligence or consciousness?
3. What will happen to society, politics and daily life when non-conscious but highly intelligent algorithms know us better than we know ourselves?"

1:53:59 – Sponsors! Kettle & Fire delicious bone broth is excellent if you are feeling sick. You can toss it directly into the microwave. Try it with cumin and ginger, a nice spicy treat for the end of the day. Get advantage of the free shipping. Four Sigmatic mushroom elixirs and coffee. Nat's on the subscription plan, which is a great deal because you can pick different flavours and get them every 30 days. Try the new Mocha flavor, with cocoa and chaga. Subscription gives you 20% off. Perfect Keto for all your keto needs. Look out for our next keto episode. Grab their Exogenous Ketones, their Keto Pre-Workout, their Collagen blend, and their Protein Powder. You can't get knocked out. Buy everything through Amazon as Adil using our affiliate link. Bookmark this link. Subscribe to mailing list to participate to the show as people in the next episode has done. Your feedback is instrumental to this show. Let us know of books or article ideas.

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

Today, we are used to thinking about the whole planet as a single unit, but for most of history, earth was in fact an entire galaxy of isolated human worlds.

In this episode of Made You Think, Adil, Neil and I continue to discuss Sapiens by Yuval Harari. In this second part we cover the most recent part of Human and Society evolution and how we moved from scattered collection of isolated human beings to a cohesive global civilization.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the daily life of most humans ran its course within three ancient frames: the nuclear family, the extended family and the local intimate community. Most people worked in the family business or their neighbours' family businesses. The family was also the welfare system, the health system, the education system, the construction industry, the trade union, the pension fund, the insurance company, the radio, the television, the newspapers, the bank and even the police. Yet throughout history, such imagined communities played second fiddle to intimate communities of several dozen people who knew each other well. The intimate communities fulfilled the emotional needs of their members and were essential for everyone's survival and welfare. In the last two centuries, the intimate communities have withered, leaving imagined communities to fill in the emotional vacuum. The two most important examples for the rise of such imagined communities are the nation and the consumer tribe.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Cognitive Dissonance as a survival feature of human beings
• The absurd of national identity when talking about ethnic cuisine
• Industrial Revolution, Internet, and the re-framing of communities
• Who was the first guy to circumnavigate the world
• How merchants shaped today's world
• Meaning of Happiness

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Sapiens by Yuval Harari!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, a book that covers Postmodernism, a kind of Religion according to Harari, as well as our notes on The Way of Zen, to know more about Buddhism and the search of Peace.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee [0:45]
• Polytheism [13:46]
• Christianity [13:46]
• Judaism [13:46]
• Muslim [13:46]
• Mahomet [13:46]
• Janaism [19:01]
• Buddhism [19:40]
• Postmodernism (Discipline and Punish episode) [24:59]
• Pepe the Frog Meme [27:29]
• Was Magellan the first person to circumnavigate the globe? - Ask History [33:30]
• Tea if by sea, cha if by land: Why the world only has two words for tea [35:50]
• Crypto episode [40:00]
• Ethereum [40:30]
• Mechanical Turk [45:41]
• Fancy Hands [45:41]
• Netflix [48:30]
• ESPN [48:30]
• Twitch [49:31]
• /r/The_Donald sub-reddit [52:42]
• Woman subreddit forgetting her passport in Japan [55:25]
• The Yacht Week [1:00:00]

• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (Nat's Notes) (book episode part 1)
• Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [24:59] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins [24:59]
• Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [13:58] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• The Way of Zen by Alan Watts [21:43] (Nat's Notes) (Neil's Notes) (book episode)
• Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam [51:58]

• Yuval Noah Harari (official website)
• Adil Majid [0:36] (Crypto episode)
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb [27:29] (Antifragile, Skin in the Game)
• Barack Obama [15:56]
• Constantine the Great [15:56]
• Richard Dawkins [24:59]
• Carl Jung [24:59]
• Jordan B. Peterson [24:59] (on Twitter) (12 Rules episode) (Order and Chaos)
• Pepe the Frog Meme [27:29]
• Ferdinand Magellan [33:30]

1:37 – The Arrow of History. How we moved from scattered collection of isolated human beings to a cohesive global civilization.

2:11 – From considering cognitive dissonance a bug of our mind to a feature that helps us manage contradictory beliefs. Examples: Democrats and Republican, Religion, and positions on immigration examples. The truth is that we don't think in binary.

6:35 – "Traditional" ethnic recipes are made with non traditional ingredients. The idea of national identity fall into the absurd. Countries that claim an identity did not exist 200 or 300 years ago.

11:06 – The result of today's globalization comes from 3 groups: Money, States, and Religion. Commerce would be the first thing that started tying people together. Money as the foundation of States and Religion.

15:56 – The moment religions scaled. How Christianity may have spread to support Constantine the Great's plans for the Mediterranean. The traits of "successful" Religions.

19:56 – Tangent. Buddhist Monks that accept and inflict violence. Zen Buddhism.

21:16 – Politics in the new Religion. Constitution as the new God. Ways Catholicism's circumvented monotheism to absorb local religions.

24:38 – The challenge of growing and functioning all together. Science, the secret of success. Memetics vs Postmodernism.

25:33 – Globalization leading us to two concurrent and opposing directions: integrating us on a global scale (access to the same stores/products/music/culture) while dividing us in islands (internet groups). Subcultures. Turning point where we assumed we know what was in the world, to assume we didn't. Maps with empty spaces example.

28:25 – Space exploration and old World exploration is driven by greed and money. Science and dominance comes as an effect rather than a cause.

35:30 – Tangent. How tea got into India. Origin of Tea.

37:09 – Merchants and Capitalism. The importance of credit to enable entrepreneurship and permit the development of the current world. Crypto may spread with the availability of cryptocredit.

41:12 – War of merchants. The history under Wall Street. Why the British took Hong Kong. The main problem with pure market capitalism is that it's going to create growth, but we are not sure if it is in a good direction. People blinded by Capitalism.

47:00 – Industrial Revolution. Mentality shift to optimize for our own pleasure rather than building something bigger than ourselves. Gunpowder and steam engines example. E-Sports may lead the trend to monetize attention.

50:48 – Internet and micro-communities replacing local intimate physical ones and old "imagined" ones like States. Peculiarities, power, and limits of such communities. Some people argue that the Donalds subreddit was one of the big factors to turn Trump president.

57:11 – The costs and levels of different levels of communication: personal meeting, phone call, texting. The pattern that occurs with new technologies. Being aware and controlling unwanted effects of tech, to not fall tangled in it.

59:55 – Happiness. The lottery ticket and car accident examples. Happiness as a function of baseline, and framed under objective conditions vs subjective expectations. Effects of the Internet and Social Media on nowadays expectations. Buddhism goals and nuances of the translation of old Sanskrit to current languages.

1:08:08 – Sponsors! Here ends Sapiens. Check the 1st part or buy Homo Deus (kind of a 3rd episode on Sapiens) and prepare for the next episode. We were enjoying Cordyceps Elixir Mushroom Coffee from Four Sigmatic. We also suggest the Adaptogen one. Get 10 to 15% discount with our link. Also, try Jocko White Tea (buy it using our Amazon link). Always, Perfect Keto for all your ketosis needs. Really good products to get into and sustain ketosis. They have keto friendly protein powder, MCT oils, and nice pre-workout boost. Kettle & Fire is our provider of fine bone broth. They've got beef, chicken, chicken with mushroom. It helps you get over the flu and is a perfect treat for a cold night. Get up to 33% OFF with our link or get it at Whole Foods. Give us a review on iTunes, tell your friends, register to the email list and you'll know about books that are coming.

Hit us up on twitter, @nateliason, @therealneils, and @adilmajit.

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

Three important revolutions shaped the course of history: the Cognitive Revolution kick-started history about 70,000 years ago. The Agricultural Revolution sped it up about 12,000 years ago. The Scientific Revolution, which got under way only 500 years ago, may well end history and start something completely different. This book tells the story of how these three revolutions have affected humans and their fellow organisms.

Sapiens by Yuval Harari is one of those books that shapes how we think, as another lenses through which we can look at reality. It's central theme is the evolution of Human History, and gives special importance to myths and shared ideologies. It explains how shared myths underlie human narrative and everything we find meaningful. There's a lot of power in these shared ideas because they end up regulating how a society and people function.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• The power of shared myths and their impact in Human History
• The Cognitive, Agricultural, and Writing Revolutions
• Why Sam Harris and Jordan B Peterson quarrel each other
• Why Agriculture counterintuitively fucked us up
• Self-perpetuating ideas and cultures
• Ideas to reduce the wealth gap

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, about why hunters are in better shape than gatherers, and The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, another book that explains the influence of shared mythology.

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• Cryptocurrency [0:36] (theme episode)
• Age of Empires [11:55]
• Why everything might have taken so long [12:14]
• 23andMe [17:56]
• Aquatic Ape Theory [27:08]
• Zoroastrians [28:31]
• Ubermensch [41:41]
• Ancient data, modern math and the hunt for 11 lost cities of the Bronze Age [1:02:52]
• Pareto Distribution [1:25:08]
• Hardcore History Podcast by Dan Carlin [1:31:29]

• Sapiens by Yuval Harari (Nat's Notes)
• Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennet [1:54] (book episode)
• Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter [1:54] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Finite and Infinite Games [1:54] (Nat's Notes) (Made You Think episode)
• The Selfish Gene [4:10]
• Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault [4:21] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Rare Earth [7:50]
• The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell [23:16] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Primitive Mythology by Joseph Campbell [28:41]
• What Every Body is saying by Joe Navarro [39:23] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• The Denial of Death [59:45] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant [1:25:45]
• Leverage Points by Donella Meadows [1:26:34] (article episode)
• The Sovereign Individual [1:30:33] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Emergency [1:30:33] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [1:33:15]

• Yuval Noah Harari (official website)
• Adil Majid [0:36] (Crypto episode)
• Sam Harris [34:33] (Guns episode)
• Jordan B. Peterson [34:33] (on Twitter) (12 Rules episode)
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb [35:25] (Antifragile episode)
• Jocko [51:51]
• Peter Thiel [1:07:34]
• Stephen Hawking [1:08:58]

[1:29] The mechanism of shared myths where you end up doing what other people tell and reinforce about you scales very well to micro (relationship disputes) and macro levels (political movements).

[5:48] How meaningless we humans are as a species. Being just like another animal. The path to genetic and technical advantages. The role of fire that helps us consume less energy when digesting food. Energy that can go to our relative big brains.

[11:08] Agriculture seems to have sprung out all around the globe at the same time. The increasing pace of progression between ages. Domestication of wild plants and animals did not increase in the last 2000 years.

[16:12] Tolerance and the extinction of Neanderthals. Two theories about the extinction of Neanderthals. The first based on the intolerance trait of Sapiens, leads to think they were the target of the most significant ethnic-cleansing campaign in history. The second, less probable, talks about interbreeding and mingling. French vestiges in Vietnam.

[21:39] Cognitive, the first revolution, defined by language. We switch by chatting about resources or danger, to be able to communicate richly about abstract ideas. Shared methodology becomes our main competitive advantage in nature, with the ability to pass out knowledge. Poetry as a mnemonic technique (ability to remember more).

[24:26] Challenges in interpretation of spoken languages. The Bible example. Jesus walking on water can be translated to walking by the water. There exist some evidence that The Big Flood really existed.

[27:08] Why there's a limit to the size a community can bond together and the the role of religion or "shared myths and methodology" to get past this number. The fact that Sapiens were able to cooperate in larger groups may be one of the reasons they wiped out Neanderthals, despite their physical and mental superiority.

[33:30] What reality means for Harris, Peterson, Taleb, and Hirari. The roots of the Sam Harris and Jordan B Peterson disagreement may lie on the definition of reality. Porcupine example: a lot of people believes porcupines shoot their quills, which is not true, but helps us not to get injured. There are too many variables to consider when interpreting our environment, but our minds can feel something is odd even if we can't rationalize it.

[40:11] How some Cultures are able to self perpetuate. Islamism vs Judaism.

[43:10] The omission of evidence does not mean omission in reality. The only evidence that has survived is the one recorded in physical devices. All immaterial things went lost. Stone Age should be called the Wood Age.

[45:31] Agriculture. History's biggest fraud: The agricultural revolution didn't led to a better life, but to an explosion of population and diseases. Agriculture societies are more fragile. Introduction of the concept of private property. Differences between hunters and gatherers, and losing skills. In Social Media, as in Agriculture, is difficult to see the end game. Successful Evolution is generally counted by numbers, not quality of life. We think that we domesticated other species, but it seems we domesticated ourselves.

[54:53] As gatherers we are more prone to less Black Swans, but more variability. History of yeast and weed domestication.

[59:45] Pyramids as objects of cult. Past and modern pyramids. Multiple levels of games to conquer pyramids. Nomadic Lifestyle as a cult.

[1:02:52] The Writing Revolution. The first use of writing was financial accounting records. The origin of different bases for counting. Base 6 or 24 for hours in a day, base 10 related to our digits, base 2 as a valid alternative.

[1:05:09] Writing originated because of agriculture. Phoenicians were prolific writers, but their main support was papyrus which went lost. On the contrary, Egyptians wrote less but on walls, so we have much more records from them. Ways to codify an idea understandable by every creature and the NASA experiment. Would aliens look to us as annoying spiders or cute kittens?

[1:12:40] The idea of justice is alien to history. Theories of male dominance in human history. Comparisons to other mammals that form non-male societies.

[1:20:34] Institution of family related to the concept of private property. Marriage is thought to be beneficial for women, but there's a theory that states is much more beneficial for (loser) men

[1:24:05] The role of shared myths to perpetuate the status quo. Wealth goes to wealth, poverty back to poverty. The correcting mechanism trickle and stop. Ideas to stop wealth differences should reduce the compounding effect of each situation. Taxing more capital gains and less income tax, or distinguishing between founder's capital from investor capital may level the ground between rich and poor and stop self-perpetuating statuses.

[1:32:06] Here ends Part 1 of Sapiens. Pick the book and read the rest before Part 2 comes out. Sponsors! Buy a Canon EOS D5 through Amazon and help us support the show. Kettle & Fire is our provider of fine bone broth. They've got beef, chicken, chicken with mushroom. It cures disease, or at least there's no side effect when trying to cure from sickness with it. Get up to 33% OFF with our link. Four Sigmatic make great mushroom drinks, elixirs, coffee, and chocolates. We suggest the Adaptogen, and the Cordyceps to picnic up later in the day. Get 10 to 15% discount with our link. Perfect Keto is for all your ketosis needs. Really good products to get into and sustain ketosis. They have keto friendly protein powder, MCT oils, and nice pre-workout boost.

Give us a review on iTunes, tell your friends, but not on facebook because Nat deleted his profile.

Register for the email list and you'll know about books that are coming.

Hit us up on twitter, @nateliason, @therealneils, and @adilmajit.

Traditionally, power was what was seen, what was shown and what was manifested and, paradoxically, found the principle of its force in the movement by which it deployed that force. Those on whom it was exercised could remain in the shade; they received light only from that portion of power that was conceded to them, or from the reflection of it that for a moment they carried. Disciplinary power, on the other hand, is exercised through its invisibility; at the same time it imposes on those whom it subjects a principle of compulsory visibility. In discipline, it is the subjects who have to be seen.

In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and I discuss Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault. In this book Foucault discusses the history of, and differences between, discipline and punishment. We find that, despite being one of the founding fathers of postmodernism, Foucault's ideas are reasonable and well thought out.

"In monarchical law, punishment is a ceremonial of sovereignty; it uses the ritual marks of the vengeance that it applies to the body of the condemned man; and it deploys before the eyes of the spectators an effect of terror as intense as it is discontinuous, irregular and always above its own laws, the physical presence of the sovereign and of his power."

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Freedom of speech vs. Freedom from offense
• Whether language is interpreted by the speaker or the receiver
• Hierarchy in modern society
• A gruesome public execution
• How obtuse writing is intellectual signalling by serious philosophers

And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on The Riddle of the Gun about other types of Freedom, and Daily Rituals, about artists and geniuses that achieve great things because of their "discipline".

Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.

• North Star podcast [12:30]
• Hardcore History podcast episode [14:15]
• Egalitarianism [26:28]
• Turnover in the richest people [29:15]
• The Panopticon [33:18]
• Nat Chat with Adil Majid [37:47]
• Machiavellism [38:35]
• Growth Machine [38:44]
• Self-driving cars [44:20]
• Slate Star Codex [46:56]
• Black Mirror [57:13]
• Unregistered podcast [58:00]
• UK man arrested for making offensive joke [1:08:56]
• V for Vendetta (2005) [1:11:30]
• Students no longer support free speech [1:12:00]
• Kaepernick kneeling during anthem [1:13:32]
• Cognitive dissonance [1:21:36]
• Power Law distribution [1:23:40]
• Bruno Mars' cultural appropriation [1:27:32]

• Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault (Nat's Notes)
• Daily Rituals by Mason Currey [5:47] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• The Stoics [7:16]
• The History of Sexuality by Michel Foucault [9:26]
• Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician by Michihiko Hachiya [20:06] (Nat's notes) (book episode)
• The Riddle of the Gun by Sam Harris [20:06] (book episode)
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari [21:12] (Nat's Notes)
• Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb [28:32] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• The Sovereign Individual [30:21] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell [31:28] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Recession Proof Graduate by Charlie Hoehn [35:40] (on Nat Chat)
• Seeing Like a State by James Scott [40:00]
• Albion's Seed by David Fischer [46:56]
• Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari [48:25]
• Godel Escher Bach [1:07:52] (Nat's Notes) (book episode)
• Das Kapital by Karl Marx [1:20:05]

• Michel Foucault
• Jacques Derrida [4:40]
• Immanuel Kant [5:20]
• Steve Jobs [5:25]
• David Perell [12:30]
• Emperor Hirohito [20:38]
• David Selverian [32:15]
• Charlie Hohen [35:40]
• Andrés, our Podcast Editor [36:37]
• Adil Majid [37:45]
• Eminem [39:58]
• Nietzsche [59:10]
• Aristotle [1:00:50]
• Stephen Fry [1:09:40]
• Ron Paul [1:09:55]
• Jordan Peterson [1:19:30] (12 Rules for Life episode)
• Karl Marx [1:20:05]

00:55 - We broke a record! Up to now, every book we've done we'd recommend - this one we don't recommend. We would not wish this book on other people.

01:20 - We'd intended to read a postmodernist book, having been so negative about them in the past, but it turned out this wasn't so much about postmodernism. While it doesn't have a lot of the key themes we see today in postmodernism, the ideas are still very relevant to the conflicts that are talked about. Big focus on power-dynamics.

02:35 - Foucault's not really arguing for anything in particular, it's more his interpretation of the history of punishment. The language is very verbose, it's almost unreadable. Derrida and Foucault are both famous for being difficult to read. Intellectual signalling. There's a temptation in philosophy to write like this.

05:30 - Fallacy of correlation: just because great people happen to have bad habits does not mean you must copy them to become great yourself. They were great despite the bad habits.

06:20 - The idea that if something is easily understood it's not suitable for teaching at uni.

07:40 - Kept pushing this episode back because it was a slog to get through the book. There are interesting ideas in it, regardless.

08:20 - The evolution of the prison system. The book is a four part history of discipline and punishment.

09:16 - This is said to be Foucault's best work. The writer was born in France and moved to Berkeley to teach, he was gay, and an early advocate for gay rights. He later moved to the San Francisco area to be around that scene. He eventually died of HIV/AIDS.

10:15 - Foucault's book The History of Sexuality book is very supportive of the non-heteronormative lifestyle which is where the postmodernists get a lot of their ideas about sexuality from.

10:50 - Sign up for our email list, we send out what books we are going to cover ahead of time and because of that we feel obliged to always finish a book. Sign up to help pressure us, it's a great email list.

12:00 - Possible follow-up episode for this that's more about postmodernism in general. Would be interesting to see a pro argument for it.

13:30 - Let us know on twitter (@nateliason) (@TheRealNeilS) if you'd like us to try out a slightly different format for the podcast where we do more of a deep dive into a school of philosophy, find out where it came from and its key ideas.

13:50 - The history of punishment. A brutal public execution with fireworks. One of the last public executions in France. Very graphic, an all day event that people traveled to see happen, in the 1750s. It was gruesome and every part of it got botched.

16:00 - In this section, Foucault says that punishment was historically a warning to others. Punishment was a way of the sovereignty speaking to the masses, saying to them what would happen if they out-stepped their boundaries.

17:30 - Part of what Foucault is arguing is that in the transition to prison, society moved from pure punishment - in which the person who commited the crime serves as a broader example to society - to rehabilitation of the individual.

18:00 - There is a thread of humanism in the book. The idea of rehabilitation is linked to the idea of every person having a soul that can be redeemed. The idea of making a person pay in life so that God would judge them less harshly in the afterlife.

19:00 - Believing in the value of people seems to be a major shift in humanity in the last 2-300 years, but this could equally just be a function of telling history. Previous societies more communal than the modern-day, individualistic US.

22:55 - Foucault points out here that while punishment was confined to those who did wrong, discipline became a part of life. All elements of society were built around these disciplinary structures.

23:40 - Punishment started as crimes against the sovereign and shifted to crimes against others. An individual has a place, but a place also has an individual. Everybody is integrated but also interchangeable and expendable.

25:35 - The strict imposition of hierarchy in all parts of life. Before, people could be punished for breaking the law but now you could be punished for only breaking societal norms. Start of a class system. Foucault suggests these are all artificial constructs imposed on us but that we all go along with. The postmodernist idea that the patriarchy is an artificial manifestation of power rather than an emergent result of inequality.

28:32 - Taleb said in Skin in the Game that it's not how close together wealth classes are that a society uses to measure its equality it's how easily there is movement between those classes. In Florence, the same few families are at the top of society since the 1600s.

29:15 - 80% turnover in the richest people in the last 20 or so years. Also above 50% of people will have at least one year of being in the top 5 income.

30:26 - Possibilities of a return to city-states.

31:28 - Any idle time is a waste. Punishment punishes you for not being somewhere you're supposed to be according to a timetable but discipline allows you to make a greater use of that time. Through discipline you can multiply your positive output, like negative reinforcement vs positive reinforcement.

32:15 - Apprenticeships are still around in the modern day only not codified as they were previously. Cold calling/emailing firms can work as a way in if you can offer them something valuable. Like Andrés, who puts together the podcasts.

39:58 - Some of Foucault's sentences are so long you need Eminem's lungs to read them out loud.

40:00 - Foucault says that buildings become designed to maintain control over the people within them. Cities that have emerged organically are very much unknowable from the top. So they are redesigned to zone them or make them into grids.

43:00 - Washington DC was designed from the top-down to be more organic feeling. Apparently they designed it to be hard to navigate to prevent invasions. In places like India, the cities have been constructed from the bottom up and so eCommerce is difficult as deliveries are really hard to do.

44:20 - Question of how self-driving cars will change the layouts of cities.

45:10 - There's no great way to take skyscrapers down or even deal with them when they age, they were never planned to be taken down. In Munich there are a lot of pedestrianized areas with pop-up bars and cafes.

46:55 - There were a few main groups who founded America including the Puritans, the Quakers and Catholics, a lot of whose beliefs are codified in law, leading now to a more socially conservative country compared to much of Europe.

49:50 - Ranks and hierarchies play on our nature as social creatures and our in-built desire to know where in the hierarchy we fit in. This can be seen in the importance of titles in big companies, how it's taken so seriously on the inside that from the outside it can seem almost funny. Titles are a cheap form of compensating somebody, like giving kids gold stars.

54:08 - Division is a big theme in the book. Among the Postmodernists the oppressor is like the entity that has the plague. Foucault calls out that humans have always had this distinction between good and bad, healthy and unhealthy. A tribal view. This is one of his ideas that we see the most in the modern day.

59:07 - Nietzsche was not a nazi, you can see how some of his ideas led to nazism but there is not a complete match up.

59:46 - There are a lot of things we think are normal now but were thought of abnormal in the past.

1:00:50 - Aristotle said that women can't think well enough to vote; he wasn't sexist, that's just what people thought at the time.

1:01:10 - People take Foucault's basic ideas too far when they say that all distinctions between individuals have to be disregarded. Foucault would say that it's wrong to say one difference is abnormal where the other is normal but differences in themselves are fine. The difference can't be argued but any judgement made on those differences is subjective.

1:03:00 - There was nothing objectionable in this book besides the writing style.

1:03:35 - The word "normal" is very loaded. Supermajority and outliers. Distribution judgements vs. value judgements. Gender normative views. It's all about terminology.

1:06:32 - Words shape people's thoughts, the use of words can change opinions and win arguments. People's interpretations of language shapes their worldview.

1:08:00 - Postmodernism treats language as interpreted by the receiver whereas in most of life we have to treat language as interpreted by the speaker.

1:09:36 - You don't have a right not to be offended. You can't have freedom of speech and freedom from offense. Freedom of speech is not there so people can talk about the weather.

1:10:40 - Germany has so many anti-Nazi laws meaning that people can go to prison for things they say. It is thought of as a free country but the interpretation of freedom is very different to that in America.

1:11:50 - It's strange that freedom of speech is something that needs to be defended.

1:13:44 - Virtue signaling with upper-middle class white kids feeling the need to do walkouts to defend minorities from being offended. Very patronizing and even offensive.

1:18:30 - Postmodernists say you have to not assume anyone's gender because gender is fluid, and people who decide to change gender are now that gender. Logic is a patriarchal concept! These ideas are not from Foucault so the modern postmodernists must be getting them from somewhere completely different.

1:19:30 - Jordan Peterson and Foucault would get along.

1:20:00 - The issue a lot of philosophers have where their ideas get taken way further past where they themselves drew their conclusions. Karl Marx, towards the end of his life recanted some of the more extreme ideas of Das Kapital.

1:20:44 - If there is something we are missing about these arguments, please let us hear about it, tweet us (@nateliason) (@TheRealNeilS)!

1:21:36 - A lot of the most post-moderny kids on campus are the outcasts.

1:25:40 - Racial jokes used to be part of bonding but now it seems that people are too afraid to say things.

1:28:12 - Closing thought: anytime you see a modern philosophy it's worth going to the original source.

1:30:00 – People that make this show happen: Perfect Keto is the one-stop shop for all your ketogenic diet needs. The ketogenic diet is really effective for weight loss. Perfect Keto's exogenous ketones helps you get into ketosis. Use the 20% coupon mentioned in the episode or go to www.perfectketo.com/think. Kettle & Fire bone broth helps you warm in this winter. Theory says we were scavengers and sucked up the bone colagens. K&F bone broth is excellent to get all those nutrients we don't get anymore. Also it helps combat modern diseases like small intestine bacterial overgrowth. The mushroom coffee from Four Sigmatic energizes you with less caffeine. Chaga mush, linesmain mush stimulants give a really nice buzz, and the Cordyceps elixir is a caffeine-free stimulant. They hot cocoas are instead relaxing and a good dessert They have a new matcha product. Finally, you can help the show for free shopping on Amazon through our affiliate link. Subscribe to the Mailing List to receive bonuses, giveaways, future episode links and more.

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com