Dan Wang, author of "Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future," joins me to explore why China builds while America blocks, how lawyers strangled U.S. infrastructure, and why Connecticut trains run slower than they did in 1914. Dan lived through China's trade war, Zero COVID, and the exodus of 15,000+…
"The point of [writing] is to give you power." ~ Alex Danco explains his role, and the impact great writing can have for founders... Full video: https://youtu.be/1y7KpHPuQO0
"She does speeches on a regular basis that have quite tremendous impact, you know, a long time later, and it's not because she's trying to reach a large number of people. It's because she's trying to reach a very specific group of people" ~ Alex Danco on how top execs…
"[The elite class] largely communicated, particularly through speeches... [which] is a medium that communicates the notion that I am in service to you..." ~ Alex Danco on the power of the right medium 👇 Full video: https://youtu.be/1y7KpHPuQO0
"The point of VC is to give founders legitimacy... I think legitimacy is fundamentally how you get capitalized." ~ Alex Danco on VCs as legitimacy banks... Full video: https://youtu.be/1y7KpHPuQO0
It’s Alex Danco’s landmark 10th appearance on Infinite Loops! He joins the show to discuss his move from Shopify to a16z (where he'll be building out their editorial operations), the power dynamics between VCs and founders (the kings and priests of our era), communication theory and the power of speechwriting,…
"The fact that everybody can execute means that something else is going to have value...just because execution is cheap and easy and just because you can see output...you remain blinded to what now becomes valuable." ~ Sangeet Paul Choudary on the vibe coding paradox... Full video: https://youtu.be/puMSLID_rsc
"This idea of the bundled degree, bundled education, bundled job ... all of that will have to be completely unbundled." ~ Sangeet Paul Choudary on the slow 'clock speed' of our institutions, and what we'll have to do in the age of AI... Full video: https://youtu.be/puMSLID_rsc
"When answers become cheap (as they do with an LLM and we can generate answers on the fly), asking the right question is the new scarcity." ~ Sangeet Paul Choudary's words of wisdom for knowledge workers... Full video: https://youtu.be/puMSLID_rsc
"The real value of the container actually got unlocked when trucks, trains and ships agreed on a common format...[it] suddenly made logistics and shipping end-to-end reliable." ~ Sangeet Paul Choudary on the transformative power of the container...
Sangeet Paul Choudary — AI and our System Reshuffle | Episode 282 Description: Sangeet Paul Choudary: bestselling author of Platform Revolution and Reshuffle, and senior fellow at UC Berkeley, joins the show to challenge the conventional wisdom about AI's impact on our economy. Rather than focusing on AI as artificial…
Michael Dean explains why the thesaurus fails — it gives clouds of synonyms without telling you when to use one over another. His solution: a re-architected dictionary built on 500 core antonym pairs, with synonyms arranged by nuance. Full Video here: https://youtu.be/CqiQ62NlCxk #infiniteloops #infinitel88ps #infiniteloopsepisode
Michael Dean explains why conditional logic — simple if-then statements — might be the most powerful upgrade to the “human OS.” Instead of bulk-subscribing to identities, break them down conditionally. It’s the kernel of cognitive liberty: thinking for yourself, embracing nuance, and finding freedom in complexity. Full video here: https://youtu.be/CqiQ62NlCxk…
Michael Dean talks about writing as the process that reveals what you think. But editing actually changes how you think. Jim O’Shaughnessy adds why reading aloud and rewriting drafts are essential to the craft. Full video here: https://youtu.be/CqiQ62NlCxk #infiniteloops #infinitel88ps #infiniteloopsepisode
Michael Dean explains why chatbots feel sycophantic and how a simple prompt change could turn them into real partners for thinking. State your assumptions, so they tell you where you’re wrong. Full video here: https://youtu.be/CqiQ62NlCxk #infiniteloops #infinitel88ps #infiniteloopsepisode
Michael Dean — architect-turned-writer, O’Shaughnessy Fellow, and creator of Essay Architecture — joins the show to explore the hidden structures beneath nonfiction and why essays, like buildings, can be designed with patterns rather than left to inspiration. We discuss the origins of Essay Architecture, Michael’s 27-pattern framework that maps essays…
"I love fear. There's almost no quicker path to becoming who you want to be in the world, to finding your own freedom, than following that fear and going into the places that you're scared." ~ Joe Hudson on his love of fear. 👇👇 Full video: https://youtu.be/X4b7klWuTDw
"There is probably 20 to 30% of the hyper successful people just fully driven by passion and love and curiosity" ~ Joe Hudson on how most successful people are often driven by shame, not curiosity 👇👇 Full video: https://youtu.be/X4b7klWuTDw
"As a venture capitalist, the number one thing that you have to invest in is great entrepreneurs because everything pivots, everything changes. The markets shift, the technology changes. So you need a great entrepreneur. It's the number one thing." ~ Joe Hudson on investing in great entrepreneurs 👇👇 Full video:…
"Should is a version of shame obligation, which actually creates stagnation. And so it's just a really ineffective way of actually getting what you want. Shoulding yourself just doesn't work. And you don't need to be a scientist. You can just look at your 3-year-old or your 5-year-old and say,…
What happens when a self-described "not very good" venture capitalist discovers he has an extraordinary gift for coaching the world's most successful CEOs? Joe Hudson joins Infinite Loops to share his unconventional journey from Alaska fishing boats to Hollywood directing to Silicon Valley boardrooms, ultimately finding his calling in helping…
"Can you imagine any startup in Silicon Valley that advertised jobs that said you have a 1 in 5 chance of dying at some point due to the job?" ~ Michael Gibson on how hardship can sometimes be extremely compelling ...
"There is this sense that people don't have agency to solve problems in the world. We meet young people and I guess they're lost to the Borg because they'll tell us that climate change means doom for mankind." ~ Michael Gibson on the need for storytelling to motivate us away…
"Genuineness is so important to what we do at 1517.... [and] the 'misfit toys' [people] I think [are] great because those people can't help but be themselves. And other people probably don't even know what to do with [them]. But we're here for that.” ~ Danielle Strachman on the joy…