Problems Sighted

Russell "Russ" Alan Poldrack is an American psychologist and neuroscientist. He is a professor of Psychology at Stanford University. In this episode we talk to him about the progression of neuroscience and the problems in which it's conducted. We talk about the potential to cure diseases and advance computing and the problems that need to be solved to get there. If neuroscience or medicine is off interest to you, this is an episode you must listen to. Special Guest: Russell Poldrack.

Nan is the managing director at Obvious Ventures, a venture capital firm that brings #worldpositive entrepreneurs together to solve humanity's biggest problems. Nan holds a BSE in computer science from the University of Michigan and is also an adjunct lecturer of Applied Symbolic Systems in Venture Capital & Entrepreneurship at Stanford University. Today our interview with Nan focused on the work that he does for Obvious Ventures and is stocked with invaluable advice on where to get ideas for projects and how to turn those ideas into #worldpositive companies. Stay tuned for content about what "industrial IQ" and "legacy sectors" are, and how leveraging them can help you to develop a playbook for digitizing old businesses and having positive social impact. Special Guest: Nan Li.

Zav is one of the most "in" people in tech right now. Holding a Master's in Computer Science from Stanford, Zav is a partner at Lux Capital, which is a VC firm focused on investing in emerging tech from the most innovative sectors. At Lux, Zav's been drawn to companies that use AI and machine learning to make the experience of life better, and has led investments in entrepreneurs doing so in everything from neural nets to medicines for rare diseases, and from quantum computing and to tax preparation. Zav has also applied his knack for philosophy towards drafting Lux's theses on Genetics, Synthetic Biology, and Blockchain, which basically means he knows what to look for in emerging startups in those sectors. When we googled Zav and really understood the depth and breadth of his skillset, we knew we had to tailor our discussion with him towards the more philosophical, and strategic parts of his work. As we sat down with him in Lux Capital's nice Menlo Park office space and chugged down our free sparkling waters we realized that we needed to pry Zav open and really touch on the parts of his work that truly drive humanity forward. So stay tuned for a great conversation about how, what and where to look for the right ideas that have a lot of impact, the problems with investing in these big ideas, and how AI / machine learning, quantum computing, crypto and emerging technology will shape our very immediate future. Special Guest: Zavain Dar.

Jo Boaler is all about math. An author, educator and founder from Britain, Jo is currently a mathematics professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education and an activist for math education reform. She leads youcubed, an organization aimed at promoting real and fun learning of math to children, which hearing about to us was incredibly interesting, given that we've both seen first-hand the failure of public systems to deliver a proper math education. Im sure most of you would agree that, whether or not you were "naturally" good at it, math was probably the least well-taught and most boring class in school. It can be really de-motivating to not actually get a math concept and then not have fun at all while failing at learning it. Jo was super insightful when it came to these very real, very widespread problems in education and has a stellar track record of improving results and attitudes around math to back up her insights. Special Guest: Jo Boaler.

Graham is an investor and entrepreneur and the former CEO of Rackspace, a San Antonio based cloud computing company. He is currently promoting the civic development of downtown San Antonio and is really passionate about fostering a healthy environment for cities of the future. He's been involved in past efforts to build a better San Antonio with SA2020, he started Geekdom, a coworking space for entrepreneurs, and is very enthusiastic about reorienting cities and the social lifestyle to fit the innovation of tech. This episode was a super super in depth conversation that really hit on tangible, large scale problems with society, cities, tech, building the future, and more. Tune in for a really intellectually stimulating episode. Special Guest: Graham Weston.

Education, learning, and the leaders of the future. The children of today will be the Elon Musks and Elizabeth Warrens of tomorrow—and yet, we still educate them within a flawed system. When it comes to learning and the psychology behind child development, Mason Hartman is at the forefront of thought leaders. Motivated by the vast potential of children to achieve greatness, Mason is incredibly passionate about spurring change within these systems so as to ensure a better future for us and for our children. Tune in to hear her thoughts on child learning and development, how to best change current systems of education, and to join us in supporting the solving of the very real, very profitable problems that plague education. Special Guest: Mason Hartman.

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." When you imagine our future, what do you see—flying cars, robot kitchens, maybe even life on Mars? To Michael Solana, host of Anatomy of Next and VP of Founders Fund, the most important thing for creating the future is having a plan. No matter which sectors of the world you are excited to see the future of, good planning is a hard prerequisite. As the creator of a podcast that focuses on the future, Mike has great insights and strong intuition as to what we need to create the best one possible. Listen to hear his thoughts as they apply to the future of capitalism, social media, energy, space and much more. Special Guest: Mike Solana.

We all hear about problems with Russia in the current political climate, but there is much more to the story. We sat down with Michael McFaul, former Ambassador to Russia to talk about problems with Russia, Russian investment in US companies, social media, and we we also touched on how many students and young people are staying away from the public sector, a shift that could hurt us for decades. Special Guest: Michael McFaul.

Product building is like art, and with art comes a mass of problems with philosophy and building choices to ensure your product is right for the space. We sat down with Brian Norgard, Angel Investor and former CPO of Tinder and talked about problems in product building, what tools are needed to help this process, problems targeting and delivering to customers, angel investing and what’s needed to facilitate the process, problems with the crypto space, remote work, and more. This episode is full of pure insight and passion for products. Special Guest: Brian Norgard.

There are a lot of problems when it comes to Silicon Valley, the heart of innovation — research scientists with inadequate design software, companies that aim to solve problems that aren’t really problems, and a culture that promotes these debatably bad ideas. The list goes on. Our episode with Riva touches on problems with broader society too: philosophy, what changes the media needs to see, and how to speed up the progression of science and the pursuit of knowledge. Special Guest: Riva Tez.

Whether you are in primary school, higher education, or one of the many up and coming alternatives, I think it's clear for many that education is filled with problems. We sat down with Austen Allred, CEO of Lambda School, to talk about these problems. Austen highlighted problems in education curriculum, the misalignment of incentives, and what he and his team at Lambda School still need to help education. Austen highlighted three big problems that people need to work on and fix. From tapping into India's labor market, making immigration easier, and making income verification better in the many areas Lambda school has yet to tap into. These problems are huge for Lambda School and the education space in general. These are the real opportunities and problems that people who want to affect education need to tackle before we can really see a reshaping of the space. Special Guest: Austen Allred.

100 trillion. One hundred trillion dollars. This is the amount of wealth controlled by institutional investors (pension funds, family offices, sovereign wealth funds of the world). They are rife with problems though—from misalignment of incentives to invest in long term projects, to the difficulty in acquiring talent, to the complete lack of tools and technologies that could power and reshape this space. We sat down with Dr. Ashby Monk, Executive Director of Stanford's Global Projects Center, to discuss these issues and hear how others can contribute to fixing these problems. Special Guest: Ashby Monk.

When it comes to tangible problems in the world, it's pretty hard for the average person to get to know the ins and outs of them without a connection to the industry. And that's why we are here — to knowledgeably complain; to provide a space to learn, to digest, and to hopefully get you inspired to work on your next project. Talking with everyone from education CEOs, former ambassadors, investment professionals, government leaders, and more about the why's, the who's, and the what's of problems they've seen in the world. We want our listeners to better understand the problems of today and build a community around fixing them. So whether you're here to dive deep with us into problems just out of casual interest, or want to leave each episode with a new perspective and inspiration to work on a problem you discovered, tune in each week as we talk to our guests about problems and do some good ol' knowledgeable complaining.