“I see the Mormons having designed a brilliant technology of agency and self-empowerment.” ~ Here's Michael Strong (@flowidealism) on the strength of the Mormon model... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/lets-get-socratical-ep-252 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJB2vFmIcg
"Both the term 'teen' and 'adolescent' were invented in the early 20th century. We didn't even use to have concepts for these..." ~ Michael Strong Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/lets-get-socratical-ep-252 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJB2vFmIcg
“Who are you going to kick out?” ~ Michael Strong dishes out some surprising advice for community builders... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/lets-get-socratical-ep-252 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJB2vFmIcg
Michael Strong has spent decades quietly revolutionizing education by designing innovative schools and programs built around agency, critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity. He is the founder and CEO of The Socratic Experience, a virtual school that equips students for lifelong happiness and success through Socratic dialogue. Alongside his work in…
"Never let the quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough." ~ Sahil Bloom's sage words of advice Links, transcript, and highlights to the full episode: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/a-multitude-of-wealth-ep-251
"There will be a last time that your friends get together for that annual trip. There will be a last time that you're able to go for a walk with your parents. And you never know when that last time is..." ~ Stark but true words from Sahil Bloom on…
"Early on the curve of income, money and happiness are very strongly correlated... [so] what happens is we get patterned in those early years into saying more money = more happiness." ~ Sahil Bloom on how we can be trapped in a problematic mindset Links, transcript, and highlights to the…
"I think about content, I think about idea sharing. I think about this information economy that we live in now and it is the most remarkable time to be alive." ~ Sahil Bloom on why idea sharing triggers a positive energy chain reaction
Sahil Bloom, a prolific creator, founder and investor, has mastered the art of translating complex ideas about wealth and success into wisdom that resonates with millions. His newsletter, The Curiosity Chronicle, grew from just 100 readers to over 800,000 subscribers in three years - a testament to his ability to…
"If you're not happy [...] how much of your week are you spending doing the very obvious things that tend to make people happy?" ~ Seth Stephens-Davidowitz on why the path to happiness may be more obvious than you think... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/who-makes-the-nba-ep-250 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLxgFHzHLU&t=3s
Social media: "My husband is the best, the greatest, so cute, adorable." Private search: "My husband is a jerk." ~ Seth Stephens-Davidowitz on the stated preferences of social media vs the revealed preferences of search... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/who-makes-the-nba-ep-250 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLxgFHzHLU&t=3s
"You don't want to do things that are necessarily really hard for you or really lean into your disadvantage even if it would make a better story..." ~ Seth Stephens-Davidowitz on leaning into your unfair advantage... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/who-makes-the-nba-ep-250 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLxgFHzHLU&t=3s
"If you're under six-foot tall, you have less than one-in-a-million chance of making the NBA. If you're seven feet or above, you have a one-in-seven chance..." ~ Seth Stephens-Davidowitz on why tall basketball players don't need to be that talented... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/who-makes-the-nba-ep-250 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLxgFHzHLU&t=3s
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a data scientist and bestselling author, is known for his brilliant use of data to upend conventional wisdom - often with humorous, surprising, and occasionally shocking results. His latest book, Who Makes the NBA, uses data to interrogate some of basketball’s biggest questions, consistently yielding unexpected insights. Here’s…
“Look again at the universe. Is it behaving like a bag of chemicals randomly chosen with random properties, or is it behaving like a f*cking dog? It's behaving like a dog.” ~ Julian Gough 🐶 Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/the-egg-and-the-rock-ep-249 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ5inYnDWWA&t=3s
"They don't have stars in the sky. They don't see a sun, they can't see planets. Would they ever dig through the ice a hundred miles and then fall into space?" ~ Julian Gough on the strange life of subterranean ice aliens... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/the-egg-and-the-rock-ep-249 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ5inYnDWWA&t=3s
“Eventually, we're going to tap anything that doesn't break the laws of physics.” ~ Julian Gough on why human progress bends toward man-made black holes... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/the-egg-and-the-rock-ep-249 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ5inYnDWWA&t=3s Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ5inYnDWWA&t=3s
“The scientific method is in conflict with human nature. [...] So what you end up with is social ape dynamics inside scientific fields, that can lock them off from truth over time." ~Julian Gough on how new sciences descend from "start-up energy to corporate bloat..." Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/the-egg-and-the-rock-ep-249…
Julian Gough sums up his career as follows: “ I just sit in my room and write.” Well, I think being an acclaimed children’s author, novelist, radio and stage playwright, poet and top ten Irish musician is a little bit more impressive than he’s letting on… Oh, and I didn’t…
"The thought goes, if something is valuable to the world, you should be able to capture enough of its value to make it a good investment...” Here's Ben Reinhardt on why tech people don't do philanthropy... Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/speculative-technologies-ep-248 Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49KOKVnGJAg&t=2426s
Here's Ben Reinhardt on Andrew Carnegie's lessons for government + philanthropy partnerships... "Carnegie would go to these towns and he'd say, 'Hey, I will pay for this library to be built, but you, the town, need to commit to paying operational expenses for this library.'" Links, highlights & transcript: https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/speculative-technologies-ep-248…
“Many people in tech made a lot of money because someone in the past did really important research. And that person is not going to be able to capture the value of their research, because often there'll be someone who tried something, it failed, but it gave someone else the…
"It's ultimately an outgrowth of philosophy [...] And so there's this heavy focus on novelty. There's this heavy focus on, 'Oh, what's interesting?' [...] It's not well suited for what I would call invention or the creation of new useful technologies where it doesn't matter how new the idea is."…
Ben Reinhardt is the founder of Speculative Technologies “a nonprofit industrial research lab that’s working to unlock a wonderful, abundant future through technologies that don’t have a home in other institutions.” He has previously worked at NASA and Bay Area startups/VC firms, founded a startup building robotics for eldercare, and…