The Aarthi and Sriram Show

Rio Ferdinand is a football legend who spent over a decade playing for Manchester United and was a cornerstone of the England national team. With six Premier League titles, two League Cups, and a UEFA Champions League trophy under his belt, Rio is no stranger to the highs and pressures of elite football. He joined Sriram and Aarthi for a deep dive into the trials and tribulations of a career in competitive sports, the mental and physical demands of playing for one of the world’s most prestigious clubs, and the new wave of young athletes rising to stardom. From his experiences with legends like Sir Alex Ferguson to his thoughts on modern football, Rio shares what it takes to truly be the greatest, not just in sports, but in life.

Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:03) The English experience during the Euros

(3:21) What’s it going to take for England to bring it home

(7:19) Jude Bellingham is different

(9:23) What separates young prodigies that make it vs. those that don’t

(12:01) The all-timers are not normal

(15:17) Underdog mentality and fighting for recognition

(17:13) Handling the pressure of playing for Man Utd

(19:18) Rio rewatches the 2008 UCL Final

(21:06) Rio learned this while playing for Sir Alex

(21:38) How Sir Alex managed the egos of the best players

(28:17) A great team needs experienced players

(30:43) Mbappe’s challenge ingraining to Real Madrid

(34:06) Parallels between sports and tech

(38:06) Tech CEOs and founders are receptive to Rio’s opinions

(40:39) Clubs still need to improve how to connect with fans

(41:23) Ted Lasso and Rio’s new show

(42:10) Ronaldo smashes YouTube records

(42:48) Ryan Reynolds and Wrexham are modeling the way for football clubs

(48:17) Changing the conversation around mental health in sports

(54:52) Rio’s penalty-taking strategies

(57:40) How Rio would fix Man Utd

(59:33) Biggest lesson from running a restaurant

(1:00:47) Rio defends ballet

(1:01:59) Meeting a young Drake at Old Trafford

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

A math undergraduate from the University of Waterloo, Hudhayfa Nazoordeen, constructed a miniature fusion reactor, known as a fusor, in his bedroom. He completed the project over several weeks, utilizing the Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI assistant from Anthropic, which he provided with relevant data. In a series of tweets, he detailed the entire process of building the reactor from start to finish.

Show notes:

(00:00) This is an unusual episode

(01:20) Welcome HudZah to the show!

(01:35) Who is HudZah?

(02:35) Using AI tools natively

(03:49) Using Claude to build an MVP in one minute - Page Summarizer project as an example

(05:12) What is a nuclear fusor?

(06:10) Does Hudzah have any prior knowledge to build a nuclear fusor?

(07:10) Why build a nuclear fusor in your dorm room?

(08:40) Using Claude to build the nuclear fusor

(11:18) Week to week progress

(13:50) Is building a nuclear fusor safe? 3 ways to die!

(16:00) Why use Claude Sonnet? Power of Projects in Claude.

(18:50) Trusting your AI model and why is it ok

(20:40) Feature requests for Claude

(21:45) What’s next in the process to build a fusor?

(22:50) How are people reacting?

(23:10) Tyler, if you’re watching, please fund Hudzah!

(24:40) How are people using AI tools natively?

(28:48) Learning from kids

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

Sriram and Aarthi are joined by Martin Casado, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to discuss the future of the AI Safety Bill SB 1047. A bill that sets out to regulate AI at the model level, is now slated for a California Assembly vote in August. If passed, one signature from Governor Gavin Newsom could cement it into California law.

Show notes:

(00:00) Trailer and intro on SB1047

(00:43) Welcome Martin Casado of a16z

(2:30) What is SB1047?

(4:10) What is the origin of SB1047 bill?

(6:14) Should AI be regulated?

(10:20) Is AI a paradigm shift?

(13:36) Who is funding this bill? ‘Baptists vs bootleggers’ and Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence book being the origin point.

(16:35) Scott Wiener’s support of the bill

(19:34) Open source benefitting software world and risks to open source due to this bill

(22:10) Are large models more dangerous?

(24:10) Is there a correlation between size of models and risk associated?

(26:45) How would Martin frame any regulations on AI? What’s a better way

(28:46) Nancy Pelosi opposes the bill. Some famous researchers are for the bill. Who comprises the two opposing camps and what is the motivation?

(33:10) Why does Pelosi oppose the bill?

(35:00) Leopold Aschenbrenner and “Situational Awareness” paper

(37:20) Non-system people viewing systems - computer systems are not parametric but sigmoidal.

(41:30) AI is the ultimate ‘Deus ex machina’ (God in the machine)

(44:15) Sriram compares AI regulations to Game of Thrones episode

(46:00) Anthropic’s investment in AI safety

(48:15) If you’re an AI founder, what can you do about this bill today?

(50:00) Why is this bill a personal issue for Martin?

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

A crash course for founders from Marc Andreesen, Vinod Khosla, Stephen Wolfram, Palmer Luckey, and Aravind Srinivas.

Show notes:

(0:00) Marc Andreessen’s idea maze breakdown

(5:29) Vinod Khosla wants you to be internally motivated

(6:42) Stephen Wolfram explains how to think

(8:47) Palmer Luckey’s three tips for young entrepreneurs

(13:02) Aravind Srinivas’ advice for students

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

Kyla Scanlon⁠ ⁠is an economic commentator who joins Sriram and Aarthi to discuss the disconnect between the economy and consumer sentiment. Kyla is also the author of her brand new book 'In This Economy' which reveals the hidden forces driving key economic outcomes, the most common myths to steer clear of, and the dusty, outdated assumptions that constrain our political imagination, offering a bold new path to building a prosperous society that works for everyone.

Show Notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:14) How would Kyla fix the U.S. economy?

(4:05) Why home ownership might NOT be the best way to build wealth

(10:26) Leadership gap left by Steve Jobs at major tech companies

(13:11) Why Kyla wrote a book

(17:33) What people get wrong about Gen Z

(22:55) The difficulties of measuring the economy

(27:55) Living in a post-truth society

(30:03) The end of monoculture

(34:00) Kyla’s video-creation strategy

(35:33) Current state of social media platforms

(38:44) Kyla’s bold 2024 prediction

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

Show Notes:

(0:00) Audio issue

(0:51) Introduction

(3:40) Deals are long-term relationships

(6:02) Facebook-WhatsApp acquisition story

(12:04) The most important part of deal-making

(16:44) Don’t come off as desperate

(19:35) Maintaining momentum during a deal

(25:53) Know everything about the person you’re dealing with

(33:37) How we closed our London home

(37:54) Mistakes we often see

(44:40) Managing emotions while deal-making

(50:19) What to do if the deal falls through

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(0:56) Prioritize hiring yourself

(5:37) Always keep looking for talent

(8:10) Align incentives with your hire

(15:05) How to find the best hires

(19:15) How to run a good loop

(29:51) Reference checks are underrated

(37:25) How to close the hire

(45:45) Conclusion

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

Show notes:

(0:00) Naveen’s background

(5:32) Where Generative AI is today

(8:00) ChatGPT-4o and Google I/O announcements were NOT fundamental shifts

(9:38) Has generative AI scaling hit a wall?

(16:34) AI pretraining difficulties

(22:49) General AI vs. specialized AI

(25:55) Biggest opportunities for generative AI startups

(29:15) AI hardware landscape

(33:23) How open source AI companies can compete with closed models like OpenAI?

(38:59) Why Naveen doesn’t use AI in his home

(40:22) Is open-sourcing AI dangerous?

(43:46) Advice for founders

(47:00) Naveen sold to Intel too early

(51:09) The pace of AI innovation

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA

Sriram and Aarthi break down popular audience questions about jobs, work-life balance, and more.

Show notes:

(0:00) Intro

(2:21) Advice for our younger selves

(13:20) Betting on yourself

(23:19) Benefits of taking more shots

(28:59) Work-life balance

(33:32) Aarthi’s hot take

(35:45) Time to switch jobs?

(47:21) Our unpopular opinions

Other episodes you might enjoy:

EP 76 - How To Fix Legal Immigration In America

EP 74 - How To Fix Google's WOKE AI Disaster

EP 63 - Lessons From Networking In Silicon Valley

EP 59 - Why We Moved to London, The Elon Musk Book, Should You Get An MBA