George Mack — The Game of Life (Infinite Loops CLASSICS)

Hello everyone, Jim here. We're taking a brief break from new episodes to spotlight a golden oldie from the Infinite Loops archive. This conversation from December 2023 remains one of my favorites. Fresh episodes return next week, but first, enjoy this conversation with the inimitable George Mack.

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Writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and master of mental models, George Mack returns to discuss the top 0.1% of ideas he’s ever come across, from treating life as a video game to spotting high-agency individuals.

Important Links:

• George’s Twitter
• The Lindy Library
• Roy: A Life Well Lived (Rick and Morty)
• How to Spot High Agency People
• The Mack Meditation
• What is ignored by the media — but will be studied by historians?
• The Early-Late Razor

Show Notes:

• Treating Life as a Video Game
• Finding the Important Metrics
• Embrace Momentum; Embrace Constraints
• How to Spot High Agency People
• How to Increase Your Agency
• The Mack Meditation & Silence as Alpha
• Why Pessimism vs Optimism is the Wrong Debate
• The Future of Media
• What is Ignored by the Media but will be Studied by Historians?
• The Reddit to Facebook Continuum
• George’s Most Midwit Opinion
• Randomness & Feeding the Algorithm
• How to Retain Curiosity
• George as Emperor of the World

Books Mentioned:

• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner
• Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine; by Derren Brown
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Secret; by Rhonda Byrne
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World; by David Deutsch