In this episode we talk about one of our favorite places on Earth - the small seaside town of Muizenberg. We talk about the develop works that are planned and what a upgraded town would look like. We talk about the challenges and some of the wider issues facing this project and then give some optimistic outlooks on anyone can build anything better with just a little bit of effort.

Outline

(0:00) Simplification as the ultimate location for design and how it relates to simple places, brutalism. (2:58) Modern life an utilitarianism of dustbins and the beauty of small towns. (6:04) Specificity vs working at scale with the lowest common denominator & adding character to buildings similar to Thailand. (8:38) The introduction (8:55) How privacy is similar to being forced to build your house in a specific way. (10:32) Talking about the tampon towers in Vredehoek and unpleasant architecture. (11:38) What's happening at surfer's corner right now and the definition, what is the essence of Muizenberg to somebody? (14:11) Laying out the challenges of how the town is designed. (15:48) Similarities to Strand beachfront on the other side of False Bay. (17:35) An idea of a park and a promenade and making things better. (18:20) The citizen participation process is underway in Muizenberg. (18:56) Constraints on such a small town come into this - does tourists mean there's more money?? (20:00) Inevitable that we have to figure out cars, parking & trade-offs. (21:29) Making long-term decisions vs ideology and the downside of loads of people. (23:01) We're getting back onto train transportation again!. (24:10) MVP for a safe train trip mobile app. (26:30) How to improve connection between the train station and the beach. (27:20) Citizen participation and information access needs to be improved! (29:47) Airbnb driving up housing prices Edinburgh (the South Africa one) and getting stuff done. (31:30) Is there a complacency or a challenge of organizing people in a particular direction? (33:35) The bystander effect and what is the future of seaside towns? (35:15) Open co-working spaces of the future. 

Resources

In this episode we do a take on housing. What are the challengers that renters and landlords face in this changing world. We talk about the effort that goes into building, operating and living in an apartment in the city with a few stories here and there.

Outline

(0:25) Herman talks about his think carpet and his new home. (2:05) What about steepness?? (3:20) It kicks off on the topic of housing. (3:40) Why the city and not the suburbs? (5:30) Moving back into London was a struggle & how to move country / house. (9:10) Adaptability & flexibility when moving home and in general. (10:50) Challenges of property and buy-to-let in London. (12:30) Rental protections and building more housing. (14:02) Reality of building flats and housing and how hard it is to do. (15:30) Herman's laptop just crashed!! (16:10) Continuing on how hard it is to build houses. (18:00) Living in a flat compared to electric vehicles. (19:35) Other things need to think about the utilities that support houses & economy of scale. (21:50) Buy vs rent and an owner mentality. (23:30) Having a great sense of place and the security of it and leasehold vs freehold. (26:05) How people in Dubai live. (27:25) Are we scared of changing the character of Cape Town & home owners association. (29:40) New buildings being built in Cape Town. (30:55) The idea of home renter associations and bringing people together for a cause. (32:55) Thinking about the home owners revolt. (35:44) Herman making his home more livable. (37:00) Developments around the city and becoming more pedestrian focused city.

About the Episode

In this episode we dive into the topic of personal finance, how to ensure that you don't run out of money at the end of the month, the importance of income rather than saving as a means of accumulating wealth and some topics here and there about how to generate value in this modern world.

Outline

(0:00) How to start the conversation about personal finance. (1:30) A concept, how does inflation work? (4:30) Putting money to work as a solution and using stocks as a way to make money with your money. (7:00) Buying vs renting and delayed gratification. (9:50) What about the FIRE movement? (11:50) High housing prices, saving for retirement & increasing income. (15:00) Importance of cashflow (16:30) Herman drops some opinions on investing in stocks. (18:35) ETFs vs starting a business. (20:45) Correction!! it would be 120% ROI soz :) (21:30) Accumulating wealth via properties and leverage. (23:15) How would you know you've "made" it? (24:40) Some advice on money vs happiness and finding the minimum amount needed to live. (26:38) How to increase your income and get more cash? (28:13) On getting a university degree in South Africa vs United States. (29:05) Supply and demand for skills, picking a career & value to work ratio. (31:40) Gigs vs small businesses vs startups. (33:50) Generating value via bootstrapping on your physical input. (37:00) Building an emergency fund if you have a job & paying yourself first. (40:10) Emergency funds as a way of building a risk appetite. (43:35) The hedonic curve of getting building up income and getting wrecked in US & UK. (45:40) Using percentage of salary to baseline certain expenses. (48:00) Candle charts too early is not good and a thought experience about time in the market.

In this episode we talk about the darker side of the internet, the topic of scams. We uncover some of the scams that we've be affected by over the years and the types of scams that are out there. We also give a few top tips on how to stay vigilant online and avoid getting taken for a ride!

Outline

(0:45) Talking about Jim Browning and something you do when you're ill. (2:44) Some interesting tools to tackle scammers. (5:12) The episode has started and we have an ad! (6:12) Scams and the internet are almost synonymous. (7:14) A scam that Jason was involved with. (10:45) A really easy scam and how casinos work. (12:40) How similar gamification can arise in the online multiplayer gaming industry. (14:45) Ponzi and Pyramid Schemes (16:35) Herman's first time getting scammed. (20:55) An in-person scam in Bali. (23:58) Jason gets scammed in Turkey. (25:50) The type of cons that really get under Herman's skin. How you can edit web pages to fool old people. (28:15) One top tip to protect yourself online - know how scammers filter targets. (31:29) How to be suspicious online with passwords and credit card details. (33:05) HTTPs online and the not so secure nature of it. (34:45) Maximum return on investment on the internet and the close!

We continue on the topic of longevity, this time we focus on human longevity. We talk about some of the types of illnesses we get as we age and some of the processes that can make life after 30 harder. We chat about some of the approaches we take and how we think about health, exercising and staying on track with exercise.

Outline

(0:00) Working hard at the gym. (2:44) Herman takes a big leap forward. (4:35) We kick things off and start talking about longevity in humans. (5:58) What does your penultimate decade look like? (8:45) Jason is in a small town in Barcelona with a load of old age homes. (11:55) Aerobic capacity, VO2 max measurements and working backwards and why marthons are bad ideas. (14:55) What exactly is aging from a genomic perspective? (18:05) The top down approach from a disease perspective. Top causes of death in South Africa. (19:35) How to approach health as a 30 year old and environmental stressors. (23:20) Where did we come from as a species? (26:35) What do we do now as a practice and how do we take a baseline? (31:35) What is the best exercise to do? (35:30) The third important thing about longevity. (36:35) Keeping busy as a way to keep going on and three ways to categorize how to approach health. 

In this episode we talk about product longevity, drawing on a number of examples of where it works and where it doesn't. We talk about natural longevity and answer some questions about things that last a long time. Enjoy!

This is first part of a two part series on the topic of longevity!

Episode Outline

(0:00) Banter about heaters, heat and cold and insulation. (3:20) Long cold intro about heat exchangers. (4:42) Finally we start the episode about longevity (5:13) Smartphone longevity as a starting point with Apple (6:50) and getting a new phone that's the same from Samsung. (8:40) Frying pans last forever and some advice on how to buy products. (10:13) Terry Pratchett & Capt. Samuel Vimes' boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness. (11:52) An alternative point of view arises. (13:25) Economies of scale inside a product leads way to a higher quality product and some examples in the auto industry (14:00) Jaguars are very nice cars Herm - what about Toyota though? (15:10) What Jason gets excited about Product Development. (15:40) There is an example from Cuba. (16:18) Alternative example of Tesla and getting feedback. (16:52) Car value can fluctuate over time in the secondary markets and when is optimal time to sell a new vehicle? (18:15) Suzukis vs Mercedes Benz and the upkeep that's involved. (19:30) Phone components that can be reused and marginal value in circular economies. (21:32) Apple repairability challenges and benefits. (22:08) John Deere tractors with high tech gadgetry and service plans causing spike in old tractor prices. (23:08) Rolls Royce use-case and their new business models in farming, air transport & industrial settings. (26:40) The topic of jelly fish and the worlds oldest creatures. (28:12) Anti fragile and robustness and jelly fish in warming oceans.... and sharks! (29:47) Coming back to the frying pan as an optimal solution to cooking and dealing with changing environment! (31:20) The longevity of nature and evolution. (32:30) Carcinization and life evolving to crabs more often than is comfortable. (32:25) How would you store something for a very long time? (35:40) The huge ice vault and wiping out humanity. (37:25) Nice close off from Herm!

Carbon Capture Technologies

In this episode we digest some of the technological breakthroughs in the realm of carbon capture, from the organic to the inorganic and present some optimism on if we are able to meet climate change agreements globally!

Episode Notes

(0:00) Intro to the show. (1:40) Why do we need carbon capture? (5:15) Different classes of carbon capture, and what are some of the metrics to consider. (7:20) Some of the boundaries of developing this technology. (8:55) Organic mechanisms for carbon capture such as trees, why it's not enough. (11:15) Bio fuels as another organic mechanism, algae to extract carbon dioxide & putting it underground. (16:52) Basalt rock as a storage mechanism for carbon dioxide. (19:17) Converting carbon dioxide to starch & food for cattle and animal feed. (24:00) Jason isn't listening very carefully. (26:00) Inorganic mechanisms for carbon capture and creating a net-zero benzene source. (31:30) Conclusions and the optimistic side of this discussion and the close off.

In this episode, we talk about that rich, creamy liquid that is coffee. We talk about the different styles of coffee and coffee shops; drop a little into the history and how coffee affected the development of the new-world; talk about the effect of climate change on coffee production and some of the good and bad side-effects of having this drink as part of our lives.

Outline

(0:00) We bungled an episode!! (0:57) We're in, and episodes 30 at that. (1:30) Coffee Roasteries in Cape Town. (3:37) What would make a good coffee shop? (6:50) Jason's first cup of coffee. (8:40) Herman's early relationship with coffee. (9:55) Giving coffee to kids these days! (11:30) How does caffeine work? (15:00) Niccotene affect on caffeine half-life and the addiction effect. (17:20) Coffee effects on sleep. (18:10) Herman's current coffee habits. (20:20) A bit of nerding out on MokaPot and the Chemex. (23:00) How to tell you're in a good coffee shop? (24:15) We discuss our favorite coffee shops. (26:40) The benefits of coffee on health. (28:00) Leading into the coffee house as a topic. (30:00) Coffee as the best thing for the industrial revolution and for productivity in general. (33:49) The first coffee house in London. (35:10) Affect of climate on coffee and Herman's trip to a coffee plantation. (37:00) Talking about Fair-trade coffee. (40:25) Talking about different coffee regions. (42:25) Different coffee varieties. (44:00) Coffee prices (46:30) [CORRECTION] Last time coffee was this pricey was in Sept 2011. (47:55) What do we think of flat whites and how to get burned.

In this episode we talk about AI and the intricacies of building machines and systems that interact with the world in a way similar or better than us humans. We play around with Siri and we give some examples of things we're really looking forward to in the future of this awesome technology! 

Transcript

(00:00) Herman talks about his train adventures. (2:35) Defining some terms that we hear often. (4:25) Simplifying what machine learning actually is in a mathematical sense. (07:45) Extending basics to Natural Language Processors. (10:26) Convincing humans that an AI is real and how to move beyond the Turing test. (11:45) The movie Her with Scarlett Johansson and some philosophical ramifications for when we reach the singularity. (14:10) What happens when the AI has access to the internet? (16:15) Leading into the ideal of the fourth industrial revolution. (18:00) Difference between robots and AI systems. (20:00) The idea of mechanization as a true challenge. (23:00) The next generation of Siri and the knock-on effect of good AI. (25:00) Taking into account biases in ML algorithms and the idea of explainability in AI. (27:05) Spell check is a form of AI. (28:00) NVidia as a graphics card company but also some of their AI endeavors. (30:40) Automatic real creation from a set of images - truly useful tools. (32:35) Deep fakes and adversarial networks. (34:10) Jason's most sophisticated vision of where AI can be used. (37:00) Testing out Siri and closing.

Apologies for the poor sound quality in this episode

Should you rent or buy a house, and what are the pros and cons of both? In this episode we discuss:

🛖🏘🏢

If you want to leave us feedback, feel free to use the box in the episode page on Spotify! We're eager to hear what you think!