Utopia is Now

Alex Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School and the author of the book, "Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit". He is an expert in corporate governance, executive compensation, corporate social responsibility, and behavioral finance. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, at the World Bank Distinguished Speaker Series and in the UK House of Commons, and given multiple TED Talks. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS. Learn more about Alex at: alexedmans.com

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introduction

05:51 - Laurie Hodrick's Influence on Alex

09:41 - What drives Alex as a Professor?

12:46 - Role of Technology in Dissemination of Knowledge

18:36 - About Alex's Book - Grow the Pie

21:10 - Addressing the Dilemma of Purpose vs Profits

24:23 - Short-term vs Long-term Value

29:13 - Grow the Pie Mentality for Individuals and Startups

32:25 - Using Metrics to get Feedback

37:10 - Can we rely on companies to stay committed? (Corporate Ethics)

45:18 - What does Alex's Utopia look like?

Mentioned in the Podcast:

1) Laurie Simon Hodrick is a Visiting Professor of Law and Rock Center for Corporate Governance Fellow at Stanford Law School, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the A. Barton Hepburn Professor Emerita of Economics in the Faculty of Business at Columbia Business School.

2) 10 Questions: www.ft.com/content/c5c386a8-64fb-11e0-9369-00144feab49a

3) Mathew Syed - Matthew Syed is an author and highly acclaimed speaker in the field of high performance. He has written six bestselling books on the subject of mindset and high performance – Rebel Ideas, Bounce, Black Box Thinking – and has worked with many leading organizations to build a mindset of continuous improvement.

4) Quantified Self Revolution - The Quantified Self is an international community of users and makers of self-tracking tools who share an interest in “self-knowledge through numbers." quantifiedself.com

5) Merck & Co., Inc - d.b.a. Merck Sharp & Dohme outside the United States and Canada, is an American multinational pharmaceutical company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

6) Unilever - Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch multinational consumer goods company headquartered in London, England, and Rotterdam, Netherlands.

7) Paul Polman - Paulus Polman is a Dutch businessman. He is a former Procter & Gamble president for Western Europe. In 2006 Polman joined Nestlé as chief financial officer and became vice president for the Americas in February 2008

8) Alan Jope - Alan Jope is a Scottish businessman, and the CEO of Unilever since January 2019, succeeding Paul Polman.

9) Roy Vagelos - Pindaros Roy Vagelos, better known as P. Roy Vagelos or Roy Vagelos, is an American physician and business executive, who was president and chief executive officer and chairman of the American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Since 1995, Vagelos has served as chairman of the board of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

In this episode, we explore the question: how do we optimize the human experience and create balance in our lives? We discussed topics such as success, passions, struggles, being in the present, and creating better life experiences overall.

Ryan is a current undergraduate student at Babson College and owner of Grow Your Ohana: a social media marketing agency that helps businesses involved in revolutionizing Hawaii's local economy. Ryan loves learning, creating, and training, and spends his time doing things like coding, reading, writing, swimming, and thinking. Learn more about Ryan here: ryancombes.com 

Join our community:  https://forms.gle/3gmq2WahzJZZ9Bny9

Instagram: @utopiaisnow 

Twitter: @UtopiaIsNow 

Timestamps/Chapters  

_____________________ 

0:00: How to Optimise the Human Experience? 

5:56: Principle 1: Iterate your Definition of Success 

19:08: Principle 2: Surrender to the Now 

40:23: Principle 3: Be Respectfully Curious and Question your Motives 

1:08:15: Principle 4: Embrace Humility 

1:27:11: What does Ryan's Utopia look like? 

Books/People Mentioned  

______________________ 

Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson 

Derek Sivers: Derek Sivers is an American writer, musician, programmer, and entrepreneur, best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians. 

Scott Adams: Scott Raymond Adams is an American artist and creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. His Dilbert series came to national prominence through the downsizing period in 1990s America and was then distributed worldwide. 

Tim Ferriss: Timothy Ferriss is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, and lifestyle guru. 

Range by David Epstein 

Immanuel Kant: Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one of the most influential figures in modern Western philosophy. 

The Kingdom of Ends: The Kingdom of Ends is a thought experiment centered on the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Kant introduced the concept in his Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. The thought experiment proposes a world in which all human beings are treated as ends, not as mere means to an end for other people. 

Man Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl 

War of Art by Steven Pressfield 

Elizabeth Lesser: Elizabeth Lesser is the co-founder and senior adviser of Omega Institute, the largest adult education center in the United States focusing on health, wellness, spirituality and creativity.

Oussama Wadani is a creative mind who is artistically inclined, passionate about photography, dancing, writing; painting, music, and natural lighting. 

In this episode, we asked the questions: What is the greatest mystery/unknown to mankind? What is death? What is life? How are you living your life? What are you living it for?

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction to Death: Unknowns & Fears 

4:46 Mystery of Consciousness, Socrates' Apology, Life after Death  

7:24 Secularism, Religion, Morality  

9:48 Afterlife: Searching for the Truth through Religion vs Atheism as a spectrum 

12:21 Parallels between Sleep & Death as a form of Surrender 

14:30 DMT, Melatonin, Death & Sleep, Surrendering vs Discipline - Liminality 

17:26 Dreaming, Mini-Deaths & Nature of Reality 

28:39 Overcoming the Fear of Death  

30:12 Stoic take on Death & Need to Extending Life  

34:51 Death, Fear, Religion & Ritualized Surrender  

38:15 Marcus Aurelius' Meditations on Death - Being Forgotten  

41:04 Can we truly be forgotten? Memory, Life, and Death - 3rd Law of thermodynamics 

43:30 Eternalizing the self - Legacy - Entropy - Existential Questions of Life: Soft/Optimistic Nihilism 

47:30 Greatness is not wanting to leave a legacy 

49:25 Immanuel Kant: Motivations, Teleology & Legacy  

51:22 Buddhist Meme 

52:44 Legacy, Transcending the Human Body, Technology & Music & VR 

57:40 Technological Utopia vs Dystopia - Black Mirror - San Junipero  

1:00:52 Technology, Legacy, Human Agency, Death & Life & Philosophy 

1:07:23 Connecting it all: Unknown Unknowns - Pursuit of Truth 

1:11:30 Hedonism, Pursuit of Extreme Pleasure vs Health - Oscillating between Dualities 

1:16:57 Reconciling the Paradoxity & Finding the Meaning of Life 

1:20:13 The Churning of the Ocean of Milk: Hindu Mythology & Co-Existence of Contraries  

1:22:27 Life before Life: Ouss' Mom's Story 1:28:24 Getting over Fear: Life before and after Death  

1:30:18 Cyclical Nature of Reality: Daoism & Water Cycle 

1:32:00 Where did we come from? 

1:36:55 What are the implications of this conversation? Now what? 

1:45:20 What does Ouss' Utopia look like?  

1:54:45 Closing Thoughts  

People/Literature Mentioned:

1) Socrates 

2) Nitzche - 'God is Dead' 

3) Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime & Punishment 

4) Dr. Rick Strassman 

5) Andy Clark & David Chalmers  

6) Kevin Kelly 

7) Black Mirror: San Junipero  

8) Søren Kierkegaard

9) Marcus Aurelius - Meditations 

10) Joseph Cambell 

11) Albert Einstein - 3rd law of thermodynamics - conservation of energy 

12) Buddha 

13) Immanuel Kant 

14) George Orwell 

15) Rudolf Steiner

16) Alain De Botton - How Proust Can Change Your Life 

17) Marcel Proust 

Akoua is a technology enthusiast, particularly with the application of predictive analytics and modeling in finance and business. She is also a curious mind that loved to read, learn and discuss philosophical ideas. 

Timestamps:

0:00 Akoua's Story: Recognising Ignorance, Pursuit of Knowledge & Human Progress 

9:04 How do we deal with Imperfect Technologies? 

13:07 Technology as a double-edged sword & a Skeptic view of a Utopia 

21:27 Perfectionism vs Imperfection(ism) 

30:17 AI, Autonomous Vehicles & Ethics 

38:45 Merging the Boundaries between Humans & Technologies 

48:19 Human Dependence on Technologies 

55:44 Power Dynamics, Decentralization, Blockchain & Balancing Dualities 

1:09:36 Akoua's Vision of a Utopia 

1:17:00 Final Thoughts 

People/Movies Mentioned: 

1) Steven Pinker 

2) Jason Silva quoting Matt Ridley 

3) Elon Musk: Tesla & Neuralink 

4) Socrates 

5) Seneca: On the Shortness of Life 

6) The Social Dilemma 

7) The Terminator  

A question we were left with to ponder upon: How can technology be used to enable the synchronization and connection with the inner world, to enable holistically human development?

Kate is a law graduate at the University of Technology Sydney. Her interests range from law, management consulting, psychology, and philosophy.   

Timestamps/Chapters 

0:00 - Introduction & The Panopticon Effect  

14:47 - Pursuing your passion vs pursuing a profession  

21:05 - New economic system of valuation: is there a better way to value professions?  

28:45 - Thoughts from a "disappointed idealist" on Utopia  

32:43 - Alternate political structures for the future  

39:46 - Skepticism, anti-intellectualism and the COVID-19 Vaccine  

47:40 - How can we create an assembly for fair, intellectual discussion 

53:17 - Shashwat & Kate roleplay - Do vaccines work?  

1:04:14 - Kate's Utopian future as a Law graduate  

1:10:33 - Do corporations have the capacity to help us achieve a Utopia?  

1:16:29 - What can we (everyday people) do to enact change?  

1:20:37 - Final thoughts

Books/People Mentioned:

1. The Panopticon Effect -2. Flow By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  

3. How Proust Can Change Your Life - Alain de Botton

4.Marcel Proust - Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu,, published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century  

5. The Value of Everything - Mariana Mazzucato  

6. The Good Ancestor - Roman Krznaric  

7. Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari  

Socrates - Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought.  

9. The Dialogues of Plato by Plato

Biel Casals is a Data Science student at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. His interests range from everything technology-related to economics, biohacking, and philosophy. He is also a fitness freak and DJ in his spare time.  

Timestamps/Chapters 

0:00 -  Introduction & the utility of podcasts  

06:04 - Biel's story  

12:25 - Identity, self-improvement and the pursuit of an ideal  

19:05 - Systems thinking  & marginal gains  

26:02 - The interconnection between future technology & self-improvement  

31:36 - Economic efficiency & the struggle to find balance  

37:12 -  How can we reach the 'Truth'? Thoughts from a data-science student  

56:34 - How concepts and language affect our reality  

1:05:37 - Bio-hacking, nootropics and the limitations of the human condition  

1:19:06 -  The future of the human experience & consciousness  

1:29:18 - Thoughts on Utopia & the future  

1:49:47 - Final thoughts  

Books/People Mentioned   

1. 'Utopia' by Thomas Moore  

2. Lex Fridman (https://www.youtube.com/user/lexfridman) -  is an AI researcher working on autonomous vehicles, human-robot interaction, and machine learning at MIT and beyond. Teaching: deeplearning.mit.edu.

3. Richard Dawkins - "Memes"  

4. 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear  

5. Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian-born political philosopher and cultural critic. He was described by British literary theorist, Terry Eagleton, as the “most formidably brilliant” recent theorist to have emerged from Continental Europe.  

6. Slavoj Žižek - "What is nature"? ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGeDAZ6-q4)  

7. Terence Mckenna was an American ethnobotanist and mystic who advocated for the responsible use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants.   

8.  Kevin Kelly is the founding executive editor of Wired Magazine and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Review. He has also been a writer, photographer, conservationist, and student of Asian and digital culture  

9. Kevin Kelly's "Technium" (https://palladiummag.com/2020/12/10/kevin-kelly-on-why-technology-has-a-will/)   

10. Andy Clark and David Chalmers - "The Extended Mind" (https://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/courses/concepts/clark.html) 

11.  Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test  

12. Joscha Bach is a cognitive scientist focusing on cognitive architectures, models of mental representation, emotion, motivation, and sociality  

How do individuals from completely different backgrounds arrive at similar conclusions? We explore this in further detail by looking back in time into Xavier and Shashwat's stories.  

Timestamps/Chapters

0:00 - Introduction  

2:25 - About Xavier, his interests, and his introduction to growing up in India  

5:31 - About Shashwat, his interests, and his initial foundations  

9:41 - Acceptance, flow, and culture -  Xavier's Upbringing in India.   

27:43 - Culture, language, and its impacts  

31:15 - Shashwat's story and experience with the Waldorf Education system  

45:10 - Are Steiner schools the answer to some of the education systems failures?  

51:46 - Dynamic Contraries   

55:43 - Xavier's metamorphosis and experience in alternate education  

01:07:46 - Shashwat's Metamorphosis     

01:17:57 - Diploma in Experiential Education & Practice (DEEP)  

1:23:20 - How our stories bring us to this point right now  

1:34:49 - So What?  How our stories bring us to the idea of Utopia   

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction  

01:28 - Alex and the origin of 'Utopia is Now'  

03:27 - What is Utopia?  

06:23 - Shouldn't we keep our focus on more pressing short-term goals, rather than a long-term utopia?  

12:15 - Climate change, Patagonia, Greenwashing and Corporate Ethics  

19:07 -  False Marketing, Social Media & Need for Decentralized Data-Driven Solutions & the Truth   

25:43 - Why big data isn't the complete solution to reduce poor decision-making  

32:57 - Education, Conditioning, Life and the Importance of Safety & Storytelling  

49:51 - Why is Utopia now? Physics, Reality, Religion   

01:02:05 - Alex's Utopian Idea: Profits, Passion, Purpose

Books/People Mentioned 

1) 'Utopia' by Thomas More  

2) Steven Pinker:  Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and popular science author.   

3) 'Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress' by Steven Pinker  

4) The Paris Agreement

5) Hans Rosling: Swedish physician, academic, and public speaker.   

6) Richard Layard: British labour economist, currently working as programme director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics   

7) 'Can We Be Happier? Evidence and Ethics' by Richard Layard    

8) 'Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think'  by Anna, Ola & Hans Rosling

9) Patagonia: Inc. is an American clothing company that markets and sells outdoor clothing  

10) Alex Edmans, Professor of Finance at London Business School.

11) Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit Book by Alex Edmans

12) James Clear: Author of the NYT bestseller, Atomic Habits (atomichabits.com)

13) Daniel Kahneman: is an Israeli psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics, for which he was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

14) 'Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success' Book by Matthew Syed

15) Derek Black:  a former American white supremacist, son of the founder of the Stormfront online community and godson of former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke. 

16) Experiential learning: a process of learning through experience, and is more specifically defined as "learning through reflection on doing".

17) 'Sapiens; A Brief History of Humankind' by Yuval Noah Harari

18) Waldorf education, aka, Steiner education:  based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy.

19) Rudolf Steiner: was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant

20) How creating an environment that allows for mistakes creates success (wired.co.uk)

21) Quote by Eduardo Geleano

Music Credits: A journey through the universe = Lesion X

'Utopia is Now' is a trans-disciplinary community dedicated to having deep discussions to stimulate and challenge our views on the world. Our goal is to reorient our focus to a better future while being in the here and now. This community is for curious minds who strongly feel a sense of duty to enact change. 

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction  

6:40 The Status Quo - Intergenerational Conflicts & Dualities   

10:05 Transdisciplinarity   

13:00 Dualities, Non-Duality, Yin & Yang   

15:05 Diversity in Perspectives, Thoughts, and People  

17:28 Utopia, the Truth & Transdisciplinarity   

20:17 The Issue/Problem at Hand  

21:57 Short Term vs Long Term (Acorns vs Marshmallows)   

24:58 Why the Human Condition limits us & our decision making  

28:51 Future vs Now (The Paradox)   

35:51 How to thrive: Futurism & Self-Transcendence as a means to Find a Purpose   

40:55 Who this podcast is for & finding our Telos  

42:40 Finding our Flow together through this Community & Taoism  

49:43 What can you expect from us?   

52:00 How we will create and become Art  

54:52 Wrapping Up

Books/People Mentioned

1) "The Good Ancestor" by Roman Krazniac (www.romankrznaric.com/good-ancestor)  

2) Transdisciplinarity by Jean Piaget (www.researchgate.net/figure/The-term-transdisciplinarity-was-coined-by-Jean-Piaget-in-the-1970s-to-describe_fig1_51492293)  

3) Quote on Jason Silva (www.wise-qatar.org/biography/jason-silva/)  

4) "Power of Now" by Ekhart Tolle (www.goodreads.com/book/show/6708.The_Power_of_Now)   

5) Sam Harris (samharris.org) & Russell Brand (russellbrand.com) - on Being in the Present  

6) Dr Bradford Skow on Time (www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2932870/Is-future-decided-New-theory-time-suggests-past-present-future-exist-universe.html)  

7) Abraham Maslow's Updated Hierarchy of Needs (bigthink.com/personal-growth/maslow-self-transcendence)  

8) "Telos" - Aristotle (philosophyterms.com/telos/)  

9) "Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (www.goodreads.com/book/show/66354.Flow)  

10) "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu (www.goodreads.com/book/show/67896.Tao_Te_Ching)  11) "Range" by David Epstein (www.goodreads.com/book/show/41795733-range)  

12) "Art" Illustration by Van James (vanjames.smugmug.com/)  

13) Quote on "Find the Others" - Timothy Leary (www.goodreads.com/quotes/514216-admit-it-you-aren-t-like-them-you-re-not-even-close)  

Music Credits: A Journey Through The Universe – Lesion X