Podcasts about state how certain schemes

As we enter this new year of 2025, Sophia Besch sits down with President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Tino Cuéllar. They take a step back at the year and look at the big themes and trends that are likely going to determine and underlie the discussions of the year ahead, from technology to political economy, democratic governance, and global power dynamics.Notes:Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy, Ecco, 2008.James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, Yale University Press, 1999.Álvaro Enrigue, You Dreamed of Empires, Riverhead Books, 2024.

Teil 2 des Gesprächs mit Christoph Sorg. Diesmal zur Geschichte der Planung im Kapitalismus und 'Finance as a form of planning'.   Shownotes: Christoph bei der HU Berlin: https://www.sowi.hu-berlin.de/de/lehrbereiche/zukunftarbeit/soziologie-von-arbeit-wirtschaft-und-technologischem-wandel-team/christoph-sorg Christophs Webseite: https://christophsorg.wordpress.com/ Christoph bei twitter (X): https://x.com/christophsorg Sorg, C. (2024). Postkapitalistische reproduktion. PROKLA. Zeitschrift Für Kritische Sozialwissenschaft, 54(215): https://www.prokla.de/index.php/PROKLA/article/view/2122 Sorg, C. (2023). Finance as a form of economic planning. Competition & Change.: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10245294231217578 Sorg, C. (2022). Failing to plan is planning to fail: Toward an expanded notion of democratically planned postcapitalism. Critical Sociology, 49(3), 475–493.: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08969205221081058 Sorg, C. (2022). Social movements and the politics of debt – Transnational resistance against debt on three continents. [open access]: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789048553273/social-movements-and-the-politics-of-debt Groos, J. und Sorg, C.(Hrsg.) (i.V., geplant für 2025). Creative Construction: Democratic Planning in the 21st Century and beyond. Alternatives to Capitalism Series. Bristol University Press. https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/creative-construction Sorg, C. und Groos, J. (Hrsg., im Erscheinen). ‘Rethinking Economic Planning'. Competition & Change Special Issue. Weitere Shownotes Engels, F. (1894). ‘Anti-Dühring (Herrn Eugen Dühring's Umwälzung der Wissenschaft)': http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me20/me20_001.htm   [Zitat “islands of conscious power in this ocean of unconscious co-operation like lumps of butter coagulating in a pail of buttermilk" aus] Robertson, D. H. (1923). ‚The Control Of Industry' S. 85: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.262304/page/n97/mode/2up Simon, H. ( 1991). ‚Organizations and Markets‘ (Journal of Economic Perspectives): https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.5.2.25 [Zu Dobbs Kritik der Neoklassik aus marxistischer Sicht s. etwa] Dobb, Maurice (1937) ‘Political Economy And Capitalism Some Essays In Economic Tradition': https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.263349/page/n1/mode/2up Zur Debatte zwischen Maurice Dobb und Paul Sweezy, siehe: https://classes.matthewjbrown.net/teaching-files/marx/dobb-sweezy-debate.pdf Block, F. (1977). ‘The Ruling Class Does Not Rule' (Socialist Revolution Nr. 33): https://www.sscc.wisc.edu/soc/faculty/pages/wright/SOC621/RulingClass.pdf Lindblom, C. (1982). ‘The Market as Prison' (The Journal of Politics Vol. 44, No. 2): https://web.archive.org/web/20170215043139/http://sites.uci.edu/ipeatuci/files/2014/12/Lindblom-Market-Prison.pdf Cummings, S. & Daellenbach U. (2009). ‘A Guide to the Future of Strategy?: The History of Long Range Planning': https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0024630108001234 Laibman, D. (2022). ‘Systemic Socialism: A Model of the Models': https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/siso.2022.86.2.225 Fisher, M. (2009). ‚Capitalist Realism – Is There No Alternative?': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalist_Realism Graeber, D. (2013). ‘The Utopia of Rules – On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy' (u. a. zum “Iron Law of Liberalism“): https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-the-utopia-of-rules Christophers, B. (2024). ‚The Price is Wrong - Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet': https://www.versobooks.com/products/3069-the-price-is-wrong Alami, I. & Dixon, A. (2019). ‘The Strange Geographies of the New State Capitalism': https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3457979 Schumpeter, J. (1939). ‘Business Cycles: A Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process': https://www.mises.at/static/literatur/Buch/schumpeter-business-cycles-a-theoretical-historical-and-statistical-analysis-of-the-capitalist-process.pdf Krippner, G. (2012). ‘Capitalizing on Crisis – The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance': https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674066199 Streeck, W. (2013). 'Gekaufte Zeit – Die vertagte Krise des demokratischen Kapitalismus‘ [Leseprobe mit Inhalt + Einleitung]: https://www.bpb.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/9783518585924.pdf Devine, P. (1988). ‘Democracy and Economic Planning: The Political Economy of a Self-Governing Society': https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340148308_Democracy_and_Economic_Planning_The_Political_Economy_of_a_Self-governing_Society [Zur Mont Pelerin Society, s. etwa] Mirowski, P. & Plehwe, D. (2015) ‘The Road from Mont Pèlerin – The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective‘: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674495111/html Braun, B. (2021). ‘Asset manager capitalism as a corporate governance regime': https://benjaminbraun.org/assets/pubs/braun_amc-as-corporate-governance-regime.pdf Braun, B. (2021). ‘Central bank planning for public purpose': https://benjaminbraun.org/assets/pubs/braun_central-bank-planning-public-purpose.pdf Polanyi, K. (1944). ‘The Great Transformation – The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time' [gesamtes Buch als pdf; u. a. Zitat S. 147 „Laissez-faire was planned; planning was not“]: https://inctpped.ie.ufrj.br/spiderweb/pdf_4/Great_Transformation.pdf Phillips, L. & Rozworski, M.(2019). ‘The People's Republic of Walmart – How the World's Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_People%27s_Republic_of_Walmart Sawyer, M. (1985). ‘Economics of Michal Kalecki': https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-349-18031-8 Quebec Solidarity Fonds/Fonds de solidarité FTQ: https://www.fondsftq.com/en/personal/choose-the-fonds/act-solidarity Sorg, C. (2022). ‘Social movements and the politics of debt – Transnational resistance against debt on three continents' [ganzes Buch als pdf, u. a. zur Bewegung Strike Debt in Kalifornien, die öffentliche Banken für eine sozial-ökologische Transformation einsetzt]: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/57298 Block, F. (2019). ‘Financial democratization and the transition to socialism' https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032329219879274 Roemer, J. (1996). ‘Equal Shares – Making Market Socialism Work': https://www.versobooks.com/products/1557-equal-shares Schweickart, D. (2011). ‚After capitalism‘: https://www.academia.edu/23023501/_David_Schweickart_After_Capitalism_New_Critical_Book4You_ Devine, P. (1988). ‘Participatory planning through negotiated coordination': https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Participatory-planning-through-negotiated-Devine/bb8dc49259c622084ff91404819d8e020e8dd776 Wright, E. O., (2010) ‘Envisioning Real Utopias': https://web.archive.org/web/20190927215917id_/https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ERU_files/ENVISIONING%20REAL%20UTOPIIAS%20--%20complete%20manuscript%2012-2008.pdf Zum Meidner-Plan in Schweden (1970er) siehe zum Beispiel: https://www.jacobin.de/artikel/rudolf-meidner-der-radikale-reformer-sozialdemokratie-meidner-plan-olof-palme Neil Warners Promotionsprojekt bei der London School of Economics: https://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/people/research-students/neil-warner/neil-warner Weber, I. (2021). ‘How China Escaped Shock Therapy – The Market Reform Debate': https://www.routledge.com/How-China-Escaped-Shock-Therapy-The-Market-Reform-Debate/Weber/p/book/9781032008493 Arrighi, G. (2008). ‘Adam Smith in Beijing – Die Genealogie des 21. Jahrhunderts‘ [gesamtes Buch verlinkt]: https://www.vsa-verlag.de/nc/detail/artikel/adam-smith-in-beijing/ Pomeranz, K. (2000). ‘The Great Divergence: Europe, China, and the Making of the Modern World Economy': http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Pomeranz2000.pdf Scott, J. (2008). ‘Authoritarian High Modernism‘ (Kapitel 3 aus dem Buch Seeing Like a State – How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed): https://faculty.washington.edu/stevehar/Scott.pdf   Thematisch angrenzende Folgen S01E59 | Joscha Wullweber zu Zentralbankkapitalismus: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s01/e59-joscha-wullweber-zu-zentralbankkapitalismus/ S02E48 | Heide Lutosch, Christoph Sorg und Stefan Meretz zu Vergesellschaftung und demokratischer Planung: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e48-heide-lutosch-christoph-sorg-und-stefan-meretz-zu-vergesellschaftung-und-demokratischer-planung/ S02E09 | Isabella M. Weber zu Chinas drittem Weg: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e09-isabella-m-weber-zu-chinas-drittem-weg/ S02E33 | Pat Devine on Negotiated Coordination: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e33-pat-devine-on-negotiated-coordination/ S02E19 | David Laibman on Multilevel Democratic Iterative Coordination: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e19-david-laibman-on-multilevel-democratic-iterative-coordination/ S02E08 | Thomas Biebricher zu neoliberaler Regierungskunst: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e08-thomas-biebricher-zu-neoliberaler-regierungskunst/ S02E47 | Matt Huber on Building Socialism, Climate Change & Class War: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s02/e47-matt-huber-on-building-socialism-climate-change-class-war/ S03E17 | Klaus Dörre zu Utopie, Nachhaltigkeit und einer Linken für das 21. Jahrhundert: https://www.futurehistories.today/episoden-blog/s03/e17-klaus-doerre-zu-utopie-nachhaltigkeit-und-einer-linken-fuer-das-21-jh/ Future Histories Kontakt & Unterstützung Wenn euch Future Histories gefällt, dann erwägt doch bitte eine Unterstützung auf Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/FutureHistorie Schreibt mir unter office@futurehistories.today Diskutiert mit auf Twitter (#FutureHistories): https://twitter.com/FutureHpodcast auf Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/futurehistories.bsky.social auf Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehpodcast/ oder auf Mastodon: https://mstdn.social/@FutureHistories Webseite mit allen Folgen: www.futurehistories.today English webpage: https://futurehistories-international.com/  Episode Keywords #ChristophSorg, #JanGroos, #FutureHistories, #Podcast, #Sphärentrennung, #Planung, #SozialistischePlanung, #KapitalistischePlanung, #Unternehmensplanung, #StaatlichePlanung, #Neoliberalismus, #Neoliberalisierung, #Hoch-Moderne, #Zentralbankkapitalismus, #Finanzkapitalismus, #Zentralbankplanung, #Vergesellschaftung, #Meidner-Plan, #Kapitalstreik, #Marktsozialismus, #SozialeBewegungen, Sozial-ökologischeTransformation, #Finanzialisierung, #Asset-ManagerKapitalismus, #Postkapitalismus, #IronLawOfLiberalism, #StrategischesManagement, #Governance, #Deregulierung, #Staatsausgaben, #Fiskalpolitik, #Staatsquote, #Bidenomics, #CapitalistRealism, #Liberalismus, #Staatskapitalismus, #De-risking, #Markt-Koordination, #StrikeDebt, #BenjaminBraun

In one of his final extended interviews, which was recorded three years before his recent death, the late anthropologist James C. Scott and Yascha Mounk discuss the need to be vigilant about the ways in which states do violence to individuals and societies. James C. Scott was the Sterling professor of political science and anthropology at Yale University. Scott is the author of major works including Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed and Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and James Scott discuss whether we ought to give "two cheers" for anarchism, why the state is here to stay, and the ongoing crisis in Myanmar.  This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: podcast@persuasion.community  Website: http://www.persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields, and Brendan Ruberry Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk & @joinpersuasion Youtube: Yascha Mounk LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew L. Wilson is an Author and Professor of History of Christianity as well as host of The Disentanglement Podcast, exploring privacy tech and the surveillance state. We discuss in detail severals books about the origin of the state and money, including James C Scott's, “Seeing Like A State”, Rees-Mogg and Davidson's “The Sovereign Individual”, and David Graeber's “Debt: The First 5,000 Years”. We discover some interesting parallels between the unconfiscatable nature of Bitcoin and the origins of state power with its ability to tax easily countable grain crops versus something like a potato which grows underground. We also talk about the history of the printing press as it relates to inflation within the church, and Andrew's personal proof of work undertaking a 1000-mile pilgrimage in the footsteps of Martin Luther from Germany to Rome. Connect with The Transformation of Value Follow me on twitter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/TTOVpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Nostr at: npub1uth29ygt090fe640skhc8l34d9s7xlwj4frxs2esezt7n6d64nwsqcmmmu Or send an email to hello@thetransformationofvalue.com and I will get back to you! Support this show: Bitcoin donation address: bc1qlfcr2v73tntt6wvyp2yu064egvyeery6xtwy8t Lightning donation address: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠codyellingham@getalby.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PayNym: +steepvoice938 PayNym Code: PM8TJhcUCtSvHe69sod9pzLCBKg6GaogsMDwfGNCnL4HXyduiY9pbLpbn3oEUvuM75EeALxRVV3Mfi6kgWEBsseMki3QphE8aC5QDMNp9pUugqfz1yVc ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Geyser Fund⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you send a donation please email or DM me so I can thank you! Links: Here I Walk: A Thousand Miles on Foot to Rome with Martin Luther Andrew L. Wilson - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28280211-here-i-walk The Disentanglement Podcast - https://podcastindex.org/podcast/5245113 libgen.is - The Pirate Bay for literature The Classical Tradition: Greek and Roman Influences on Western Literature by Gilbert Highet - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1731808.The_Classical_Tradition Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20186.Seeing_Like_a_State Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34324534-against-the-grain A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. , - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/164154.A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6617037-debt The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age by James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82256.The_Sovereign_Individual The Network State - https://thenetworkstate.com/ e-Residency of Estonia - https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/ Mother Earth Mother Board by Neal Stephenson - https://archive.is/19Msi

This third episode of How to be Good Ancestors on Indonesia will zoom into the architectural scale to look at another form of debt: the act of disseminating building knowledge as a form of epistemic imposition. We will be revisiting Indonesian colonial history with architectural historian David Hutama Setiadi focusing on design pedagogy. Together we will unpack the ways in which systems of knowledge were imposed through new ways of building generated by capitalist ideology, revealing the complicity of drawing methods and classification systems in marginalising the Metis, an unstructured type of knowledge learned through embodied experience. We will also be discussing the possibilities of reversing the logics of the episteme. How to be Good Ancestors means rereading our past to disentangle future possibilities from systems of oppression. In this podcast series, hosts and AA students Ferial Massoud, Maria Putri and Aude Tollo retrace the common histories of three nominally decolonised states – Burkina Faso, Egypt and Indonesia – through the systems of debt servitude to which they were condemned in the wake of their independence, and which they remain subject to today. We ask: what are the spatial and material consequences of these systems and how can we begin to undo them? Show Notes:- David Hutama Setiadi, Building Practice in the Dutch East Indies: Epistemic Imposition at the Beginning of the 20th Century, 2023- Summarised version of David's book: https://ar.fa.uni-lj.si/2020/re-drawing-javanese-building-practice- James C Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, 2020- Richard Sennett, The Craftsmen, 2008- Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, ed, The Invention of Tradition, 2012- Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz, 1973- Jean Couteau, Tubuh, Moral dan Jiwa Zaman, 2019 About A Line Traced:As our society continues to unveil fractures within its social and political systems, A Line Traced aims to examine topics that are immediate, prescient and impact the build environment in ways that require urgent architectural responses. An AirAA podcast recorded, mixed, edited and distributed from the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which is based in Bedford Square in London. Special thanks to Thomas Parkes for his contribution to the production of our episodes. Visit air.aaschool.ac.uk to find out more.

Bojan Tunguz is a senior systems software engineer at NVIDIA, quadruple Kaggle grandmaster, former top 10 Amazon reviewer, and former physicist. He joins the show to discuss the problems that LLMs can't solve, the speed of AI progress, why he homeschools his kids, how to win Twitter, and more! Important Links: Twitter Substack 40 AI Use Cases Show Notes: Becoming a Kaggle Grandmaster Hyper-Competitive Learning From Physics to Data Science How Natural Language Processing Has Evolved The Problems That LLMs Can't Solve The Future of the Centaur Model AI as a Creativity Extender Why Bojan is Homeschooling His Kids The AI Feedback Flywheel How Quickly Will Different Sectors Be Transformed By AI? Disruption vs. Destruction Is AGI possible? AI Use Cases: Mental Health & Elder Care How to Win Twitter Why Bojan Became a Top 10 Amazon Reviewer Bojan's Favorite Books Bojan's Current Side-Project Bojan As Emperor of the World MORE! Books Mentioned: Lolita; by Vladimir Nabokov The work of Haruki Murakami The work of Milan Kundera The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature; by Steven Pinker Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed; by James Scott

Mark Hansen joins Nikita Roy to discuss how generative AI can enhance data journalism, particularly by accelerating coding tasks. The discussion also addresses bias and privacy concerns associated with AI models.Mark is the East Coast Director of The Brown Institute for Media Innovation, a collaborative initiative between Columbia Journalism School and Stanford's School of Engineering. Mark began his tenure at Columbia Journalism School over a decade ago, serving as a Professor and teaching computational and data journalism courses.An investigation in one of his classes examining the bot economy behind the sale of fake followers on Twitter garnered significant attention. It became a front-page story in the New York Times and was part of a package of stories that secured the 2019 Polk Award for National Reporting. Additionally, it was shortlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.Mark Hansen earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Davis.Referenced:Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh StarSeeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. ScottData Feminism by Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren KleinThoughts or questions? You can reach us here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jim talks with Michael R.J. Bonner about the ideas in his book In Defense of Civilization: How Our Past Can Renew Our Present. They discuss the meaning of civilization, Gobekli Tepe, why technological change didn't bring about civilization, how civilization produces clarity, beauty, and order, why civilization is preferable to the alternatives, the limits of cities, the dynamics of collapse, Francis Fukuyama's end of history idea, revivals, how interconnectivity leads to fragility, the Bronze Age collapse, the collapse of Rome, cultural pluralism & academic freedom in the 9th century, the paradoxical outcome of the Renaissance, the rediscovery of Aristotle, combining Enlightenment clarity with medieval expansiveness, the evils of postmodernism, the dark side of Romanticism, the basis of religious belief, public ritual vs religious belief, futurism, the limits of skepticism, wokism as a religion, the need for grand narratives, a common humanity, and much more. Episode Transcript In Defense of Civilization: How Our Past Can Renew Our Present, by Michael R.J. Bonner Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, by James C. Scott JRS EP 190 - Peter Turchin on Cliodynamics and End Times The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End, by Neil Howe JRS Currents 100: Sara Walker and Lee Cronin on Time as an Object The Collapse of Complex Societies, by Joseph A. Tainter JRS EP 106 - Michael Strevens on the Irrational History of Science Dr Michael Bonner is a Canadian communications and public-policy expert with more than a decade of service in federal and provincial government. He is a historian of ancient Iran, holds a doctorate in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford, and is a contributing editor to The Dorchester Review. His new book In Defense of Civilization: How Our Past Can Renew Our Present was published by the Sutherland House in April of 2023.

Jessica Kerr (known to computers everywhere as @jessitron) is a software developer, speaker, and symmathecist. (A symmathesy is a learning system composed of learning parts. To her, each software team is a symmathesy composed of the people on the team, the running software, and all of their tools.) @jessitron is another of those people who apply ideas from outside software to software, including in her role as a developer advocate at Honeycomb, a company that aims to make the workings of software visible to its developers. Were she not engaging, personable, and enthusiastic, she'd be scarily like me. This conversation is about C. Thi Nguyen's book Games: Agency as Art, whose blurb starts, "Games are a unique art form. Game designers don't just create a world; they create who you will be in that world. They tell you what abilities to use and what goals to take on. In other words, games work in the medium of agency."Jessitron linksjessitron.com (symmathesy)MastodonTwitterHer calendar for observability office hoursReferencesC. Thi Nguyen, Games: Agency as Art, 2020Pandemic (cooperative board game), 2008Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais, Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow, 2019John Kay, Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly, 2010The "Farm to Tabor" podcast episode: "Donut science, cars, & grassfed beef", 2018James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, 1998In the podcast, I mentioned classic English country gardens. I riffed a bit on Tom Stoppard's play "Arcadia". It "explores the relationship between past and present, order and disorder, certainty and uncertainty. It has been praised by many critics as the finest play from 'one of the most significant contemporary playwrights' in the English language. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it one of the best science-related works ever written." I cut the riff out because – embarrassingly – I couldn't remember the names of either the play or its author. From personal experience, I can recommend this full cast performance for a road trip. On that trip, we also listened to the Alzabo Soup podcast's multi-episode commentary. Photo credit: me

Jim talks with Rafe Kelley about the parkour-based movement system he created and teaches, Evolve Move Play. They discuss electromagnetic pulses, combining parkour & martial arts, the importance of nature exploration for children, the historical roots of parkour, using limbs to overcome obstacles, what makes parkour natural, rough play as an antidote to infantilization, healthy play culture, humans as arboreal animals, the quantification of extreme sports, love & amateurism, ekstasis, building selves worth esteeming, the professionalization of sexuality, dangers of AI porn, building alternative communities, building virtues, values, and norms, EMP as virtue development, parkour as an exemplar of GameB, procedural, perspectival, and participatory knowing, the embodiment of virtue, music & community-building, and much more. Episode Transcript Evolve Move Play Workshops JRS Currents 010: Tyson Yunkaporta on Humans As Custodial Species Sand Talk, by Tyson Yunkaporta Rafe Kelley - TreeRunner (YouTube) Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, by James C. Scott Rafe Kelley is the creator of the Evolve Move Play method. A method incorporealatoring elements of play, natural parkour [treerunning], rough-housing, movement games, athletic development, body integrity and antifragility practices for resilience, working with fear and its repatterning, rewilding, ecological knowledge and anthropology, systems theory and motor learning perspectives of skill acquisition. Besides the personal physical feats of high degree and the hard work of art formation involved in EMP, Rafe is passionate about community fostering. He has created what is one of the best movement and related fields podcasts to these ends; and hosts retreats to foster human connection on top of many workshops taught.

James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, 1998.XKCD, Always try to get data good enough that you don't need to do statistics on it.Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883.Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961.Rosa Luxemburg, Organizational Questions of Russian Social Democracy, The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions, The Russian RevolutionCreditsImage of a cow being given a physical exam ("bright or dull") courtesy Dawn Marick.

James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, 1998.Paul McCauley has used the idea of eidolons in more than one series. (Two that I know of.) The most recent is in his "Jackaroo" series of two novels and a few shorter pieces. The first of the novels is Something Coming Through. Here's a review. "Something Happened Here, But We're Not Quite Sure What It Was" is a short story that I think stands alone. I quote from the second Jackaroo novel, Into Everywhere, but I wouldn't read it first unless you're a fan of Gene Wolfe and like figuring out the backstory yourself. E. H. Gombrich, The Story of Art, 1995Paul Feyerabend, Bert Terpstra (editor), Conquest of Abundance: A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being, 2001Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, 1972. CreditsWorker and Kolkhoz (collective farm) Woman Monument from C.K. Leung, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Although I don't dwell on it in this episode, Scott uses the Soviet collective farm as a big example of a failure of Seeing Like a State.

James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, 1998.The Mastodon companion to this podcast: social.oddly-influenced.devCreditsSatellite image of Brasilia courtesy Axelspace Corporation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wir beschäftigen uns heute mit dem Konzept der Zeitbögen von Anselm Doering-Manteuffel. Dieser ordnet das 20. Jahrhundert entgegen der immer noch vorherrschenden Zäsuren von beispielsweise 1945. Genauer gesagt teilt er es in 3 Zeitbögen ein, die mehrere Jahrzehnte überspannen. Grundlage für diese Einteilung sind immer unterschiedliche Leitideen und Basisprozesse, die in den Einheiten gleich bleiben. Ob wir das Konzept sinnvoll finden, welche Zeiten und leitenden Ideen die Zeitbögen überhaupt umspannen und warum wir das Konzept wichtig finden erfahrt ihr in dieser Folge. Wer Gast sein möchte, Fragen oder Feedback hat, kann dieses gerne an houseofmodernhistory@gmail.com oder auf Twitter an @houseofmodhist richten. Literatur & Quellen: Bauman, Zygmunt: Globalization. The Human Consequences. Columbia University Press, 1998. Bauman, Zygmunt: Modernity and the Holocaust. Cambridge, 1989. Broberg, Gunnar & Tydén, Mattias: Eugenics in Sweden. In: Broberg, Gunnar & Roll-Hansen Nils: Eugenics in the welfare state. Sterilization policy in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. East Lansing: Michigan State Univ. Press, cop. 2005, 77-150. Biebricher, Thomas: Die politische Theorie des Neoliberalismus. Suhrkamp, 2021. Club of Rome, Publications: https://www.clubofrome.org/publications/ Doering-Manteuffel, Anselm: Die deutsche Geschichte in Zeitbögen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Doering-Manteuffel, Anselm: Die Zäsuren des deutschen 20. Jahrhundert und das Erkenntnisproblem der Zeitgeschichte, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQKHurpFvu0 Doering-Manteuffel, Anselm: Katholizismus und Wiederbewaffnung : die Haltung der deutschen Katholiken gegenüber der Wehrfrage 1948 - 1955. Mainz, 1981. Doering-Manteuffel, Anselm: Konturen von Ordnung in den Zeitschichten des 20. Jahr- hunderts, in: Etzemüller, Thomas (Hrsg.): Die Ordnung der Moderne. Social Engineering im 20. Jahrhundert, Bielefeld 2009, S. 41–64. Etzemüller, Thomas: Social Engineering. Version 2.0, in: Docupedia-Zeitgeschichte, 2017, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14765/zzf.dok.2.1112.v2 Fischer, Alfons: Grundriß der sozialen Hygiene, Karlsruhe, 1923. Grotjahn, Alfred: Hygiene der menschlichen Fortpflanzung. Berlin, 1926. hooks, bell: Die Bedeutung von Klasse: Warum die Verhältnisse nicht auf Rassismus und Sexismus zu reduzieren sind. Unrast Verlag, 2021. Leendertz, Ariane: Zeitbögen, Neoliberalismus und das Ende des Westens, oder: Wie kann man die deutsche Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts schreiben?, VfZ 65 (2017), S. 191-217. Levine, Philippa: The Oxford handbook of the history of eugenics New York. Oxford University Press, 2010. Kaspari, Christoph: Der Eugeniker Alfred Grotjahn (1869-1931) und die “Münchner Rassenhygieniker”: Der Streit um „Rassenhygiene oder Eugenik?“ Medizinhistorisches Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3/4 , 1989, pp. 306-332. Lundberg, Urban & Åmark, Klas: Social Rights and Social Security. The Swedish Welfare State 1900 – 2000. Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 1.26, Nr. 3, 2001, pp. 159-176. Scott, James C.: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press, 1998. Schleiermacher, Sabine: Sozialethik im Spannungsfeld von Sozial- und Rassenhygiene. Der Mediziner Hans Harmsen im Centralausschuß für die Innere Medizin. Husum, 1998. Weindling, Paul: International Eugenics. Swedish sterilization in Context Scandinavian Journal of History, Vol. 1, Nr. 2, 1999 pp. 180-197. Weiss, Sheila Faith: The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany. Osiris, Vol. 3, 1987, pp. 193– 236.

This week we are joined by Shep Melnick to discuss Title IX's origin and how it's interpretation has transformed over time. Recommendations: Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters by Deborah Stone On Thinking Institutionally (On Politics) by Hugh Heclo Sexual Assault on Campus: Defending Due Process by Tamara Rice Lave Terri Schiavo case

I am speaking today with Thea Snow, Director with the Centre for Public Impact for Australia and New Zealand. Thea's worked previously as a lawyer, a civil servant, and as part of the Nesta Innovation Foundation in the United Kingdom. In our conversation today, we talk about reimagining government and the role of collaboration in that reimagining, about storytelling, sense-making, and imagining, and about complexity in systems change. I'm sure you'll enjoy our conversation. Some links to some of the things we discuss during this episode: Thea SnowNesta – The Innovation FoundationCentre for Public ImpactBook: Thinking in Systems, A Primer by Donella H. MeadowsWebinar: Reimagining Government 2022: An ANZOG and Centre for Public Impact SeriesAustralia and New Zealand School of GovernmentAustralian Centre for Social InnovationCassie RobinsonGeoff MulganOctavia E. ButlerOtto ScharmerHand Up Malee - Collective Impact InitiativeMichael Quinn Patton on Utilization-Focused EvaluationBlog: The (il)logic of legibility - why governments should stop simplifying complex systems by Thea SnowBook: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. ScottFunding Program: Stronger Places, Stronger PeopleCertainty Artifacts blog by Thea SnowBook: Radical Help by Hilary CottamYour host for the Cool Collaborations podcast is Scott Millar. Scott is the principle of Collaboration Dynamics, where he often works as a "peacemaker" by gathering people with different experiences and values and helping them navigate beyond their differences to tackle complex problems together. 

Why is the world looking more and more like the paranoid delusions of 19th century mental patients? Why do political systems of disparate ideologies converge on the same nightmarish outcomes, always accompanied by cheerful rhetoric about the scientific perfection of society? Is it easy to distinguish the philosophy of Descartes from the ramblings of a psychotic? This episode is a mashup of Iain McGilchrist's The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World and James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, examining the brain science of authoritarian high modernism, the ideology Scott describes as uniting Lenin with Le Corbusier. From the clearcut to the resettlement camp to the factory farm, from the sterile visions of the urban planner to the disembodied eye which frequently appears in the drawings of psychotics, let us examine the nightmare world we inhabit: the world of the left brain hemisphere trapped in itself...

Dr Beth Tellman is the Chief Science Officer at Cloud2Street, a company focused on flood monitoring using mostly satellite imagery. They recently published their “Global Flood Database” - featured in Nature  - containing 15 years of data on 913 floods with human settlement maps across 169 countries.In this episode we talk about Beth's journey to starting Cloud2Street, what being a scientists means to her, as well as what the impact of the Global Flood Database has been. We talk on what one needs to do to actually have an impact; the role data science modelling but also insurance both have and how they work hand in hand. We touch on the open-science approach Cloud2Street is taking, all the while being a privately held for-profit company.---Find previous episodes and other show notes at mindsbehindmaps.comIf you'd like to help me out, please consider leaving a review directly on the website, or on Apple Podcast.---About Beth:TwitterLinkedInCloud2StreetTime stamps3:27 - Conversation begins, Beth presents herself7:55 - Why be a scientist?10:57 - Cloud2Street12:19 - Building a company as a scientist16:37 - Global Flood Database20:41 - Impact doesn't only come from better algorithms24:12 - Impact of publishing the Global Flood Database28:37 - Creating the Database33:30 - Why insurance is important39:58 - Making sure Data & Maps are actually useful45:21 - How accurate does it need to be to solve the problem?50:07 - Finding the right metric54:42 - Cloud2Street's Business Model1:03:48 - Open Science in a private company1:13:33 - Using / Finding the best data for the job1:20:39 - Communicating limitations1:24:02 - Book recommendationsShownotes:Global Flood DatabaseARC: African Risk CapacityIEEE Podcast episode with Beth: Down to Earth S2:EP2Media recommendations:Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas PikettySeeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. ScottWinners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand GiridharadasThis Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi KleinPlease feel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastWebsite

▼概要 年内最後の更新ということで、今年の読んだ中でおすすめの本を紹介します。 リスナーの皆さん、沢山聞いていただきどうもありがとうございます！ 来年も幅広く本を紹介していくので、お楽しみに！(二ノ宮) ▼紹介した本 思いがけず利他   中島岳志 https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4909394591/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_91MT4E60QHD8MVYWBJBR 私は男でフェミニストです   チェ・スンボム https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/479071764X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_60YCQY2AZX256DS57SZ9?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 Hooked ハマるしかけ 使われつづけるサービスを生み出す[心理学]×[デザイン]の新ルール   ニール・イヤール https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4798137863/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_4A987S0TZRMK1CX9MEY9 Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00D8JJYWA/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_Q8D7AGDN4QR1CSDWB8G7 ▼お問い合わせフォーム Book Club は、個人と社会の様々な事象に対するリテラシーがついてしまうブックキュレーションプラットフォームとして、様々な本を紹介しています。 番組へのお便りを下記フォームより募集しております！ https://docs.google.com/forms/u/3/d/e/1FAIpQLSclBYuhmEUi_NFP4jUQq-19ajMK2NDo5WUArYc5jtVb_7dR0A/viewform?usp=sf_link

Welcome to Part 2 of my interview with the inimitable Rory Sutherland. Rory is the Global Vice-Chairman of renowned ad agency Ogilvy, has a brain the size of a football and talks BS like the best of them.For those of you who listened to Part 1 of my interview with Rory, you'll remember that we paused with my question about Rory's own susceptibility to decision making biases. We pick up immediately with his answer to that question.In this episode, we discuss:Kahneman and susceptibility to decision making biases Solving cryptic puzzlesThe difference between music that's listenable to and endlessly re-listenable to andDeciding how to move houseBooks referenced in the podcastSeeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, by James C. ScottThe Choice Factory, by Richard ShottonThe Silo Effect: The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers, by Gillian TettThe Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World, by Nicola RaihaniComing next weekPart 2 of my interview with Rory's great friend, my new friend, the charming and eloquent Paul Craven. If you missed the teachings of Paul last week, pick it up here.Subscribe to my Sunday newsletterFor those here who aren't already subscribed to Sunday BS: Behavioural Science Curios, here I share 3 ideas, thoughts or provocations from my readings of the last week. Some will be expansions from my podcasts, others will reflect my wider BS reading and thinking.It's short, sharp and fun. And will make you sound clever in meetings on Mondays! Give it a go.

My guest today Michael Mayer, is the founder and CEO of Bottomless, a company that automatically replenishes your coffee supply where I am both an excited investor and customer. Today's conversation is about tactical lessons Michael has learned while building the business. We talk about identifying an addressable problem, how to avoid solving for bottlenecks that don't yet exist, and how to iterate through problems before scaling. As yet another example of a self-taught entrepreneur, it's inspiring to hear Michael's mindset for problem-solving. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Michael Mayer.    For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. -----   This episode is brought to by Dell Technologies. Upgrade your business during Dell Technologies' Black Friday in July event. Get savings up to 50% off AND take your office with you with Windows 10 Pro. To learn more, call a Dell Technologies Advisor at 877-ASK-DELL or check out the deals at https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/deals.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2, HIPAA, or ISO 27001 reports at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder's Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick.    -----   Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:45] - [First question] - How he got into this space in the first place and found the problem Bottomless would eventually solve [00:08:43] - What he would do better the second time if he had to find a problem and narrow his focus all over again [00:09:49] - The most notable lessons learned about data legibility beyond the scale [00:10:15] - Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed [00:13:01] - Overview of building the first Bottomless hardware prototype  [00:14:29] - First steps of physically assembling the first scale and learning fabrication [00:17:40] - Roughly how long it would take to build scales in the beginning [00:18:30] - How long the company was bootstrapped  [00:20:41] - Making the pivot to seeking out investor support [00:29:03] - The often overlooked role of social capital as a startup founder [00:31:00] - Importance of following niches and passions [00:32:15] - His philosophy in successfully scaling the production side of the company [00:34:45] - Lessons learned from bottlenecks and their utility in founder growth [00:36:52] - The problem of supplier legibility and improving it [00:40:14] - Understanding USPS predictability as a product input [00:43:03] - Always problems to solve and the fractal nature of them [00:46:13] - Challenges of hiring staff in the tech space [00:50:15] - Lessons learned about personal bottlenecks and the need to evolve alongside your company [00:52:21] - Monitoring your informational inputs and their role in shaping your mindset [00:55:58] - Closing thoughts on the business boss battles founders face [00:57:38] - Why society writ large should perceive starting a company as status-enhancing [00:59:44] - What bottlenecks for Bottomless may present themselves in a year from now  

I denne episoden snakker Lars med Simon Malkenes om skole og historien til endel av de ideene og retningene som preger dagens skoletenking. Simon Malkenes er som kjent lærer, han jobbet 20 år i osloskolen, hvor han deltok aktivt i skoledebatten med bøkene Bak fasaden i osloskolen (2014) og Det store skoleeksperimentet (2018), og nå er han doktorgradstipendiat ved NTNU og skriver om privatisering og skole.  I denne episoden drøfter vi hvordan ideer om humankapital og utdanningsøkonomi har fått prege vårt syn på skole og utdanning stadig mer siden andre verdenskrig, OECDs rolle i denne utviklingen, og hvordan dette kommer til uttrykk i dagens fokus på internasjonale tester, fremfor alt PISA.  Vi snakker også om den offentlige debatten om den norske skolen, om skoleforskernes rolle, om at det egentlig ikke bør være skolens rolle å utligne forskjeller, livsmestring og endel annet.  Nevnte bøker og artikler: Hanushek, Eric; Wössmann, Ludger, (2015), The Knowledge Capital of Nations: Education and the Economics of Growth, The MIT Press Madsen, Ole Jacob, (2018), Generasjon Prestasjon - Hva er det som feiler oss? Universitetsforlaget Madsen, Ole Jacob (2020), Livsmestring på timeplanen. Rett medisin for elevene? Spartacus Forlag Malkenes, Simon, (2014), Bak fasaden i Osloskolen, Res Publica Malkenes, Simon, (2018), Det store skoleeksperimentet. makt, barn og forretningshemmeligheter i «verdens beste skole», Manifest Forlag Sandel, Michael, (2020), The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Kindle Edition Scott, James C., (1998), Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, Yale University Press  Vogt, Kristoffer Chelsom (2017b), "The post-industrial society: from utopia to ideology",  Work, employment and society, 2016, Vol. 30(2) ss.366–376 Vogt, Kristoffer Chelsom; Lorentzen, Thomas; Hansen, Hans-Tore, (2020), "Are low-skilled young people increasingly useless, and are men the losers among them?" Journal of Education and Work Tre bokanbefalinger fra Simon: Les historiker Ola Innsets bok Markedsvendingen : nyliberalismens historie i Norge (Fagbokforlaget 2020), les minst en bok av Hannah Arendt, og lær livsmestring av den argentinske forfatteren Jorge Louis Borges' fantastiske bok Labyrinter.  ---------------------------- Logoen vår er laget av Sveinung Sudbø, se hans arbeider på originalkopi.com Musikken er av Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, se facebooksiden Nygrenda Vev og Dur for mer info. Ekstra musikk er laget av Lars.  ----------------------------  Takk for at du hører på. Ta kontakt med oss på vår facebookside eller på larsogpaal@gmail.com Det finnes ingen bedre måte å få spredt podkasten vår til flere enn via dere lyttere, så takk om du deler eller forteller andre om oss.  Både Lars og Pål skriver nå på hver sin blogg, med litt varierende regelmessighet. Du finner dem på disse nettsidene: https://paljabekk.com/ https://larssandaker.blogspot.com/   Alt godt, hilsen Lars og Pål

Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier's urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural "modernization" in the Tropics—the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry? In this wide-ranging and original book, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. Centrally managed social plans misfire, Scott argues, when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not—and cannot—be fully understood. Further, the success of designs for social organization depends upon the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge. The author builds a persuasive case against "development theory" and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects. He identifies and discusses four conditions common to all planning disasters: administrative ordering of nature and society by the state; a "high-modernist ideology" that places confidence in the ability of science to improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large- scale interventions; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pbliving/support

Einar Høst is the guest of this week. He is challenged with the heuristic “It's easier to keep a system working than to fix it after you break it” from the Embedded Artistry repository (https://embeddedartistry.com/blog/2018/04/26/embedded-rules-of-thumb/). Einar describes how feedback cycles are critical to keeping a system working and how complex systems evolve from simpler systems, connecting both, how our engineering practices can support a reliable software development process. Einar shares the pivotal moment in his career with us where he realised that collaboration was vital for success in the software industry.  Einar recommends: Data and Reality: A Timeless Perspective on Perceiving and Managing Information in Our Imprecise World by William Kent Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott Einar W. Høst (@einarwh) is a software developer at NRK, the Norwegian public broadcaster. He enjoys domain modelling, API design and computer programming. He thinks that programs should be written for people to read and also for machines to laugh at.

02:15 - David’s Superpower: Being Confused * Norms of Excellence (https://notebook.drmaciver.com/posts/2020-05-31-09:20.html) * The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance (https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314) 11:56 - Daily Writing * David’s Newsletter: Overthinking Everything (https://drmaciver.substack.com/) * Unfuck Your Habitat (https://www.unfuckyourhabitat.com/) 15:47 - Learning to Be Better at Emotions 23:22 - Achievement and Joy as Aspirational Goals * [Homeostasis vs Homeorhesis](https://wikidiff.com/homeostasis/homeorhesis#:~:text=is%20that%20homeostasis%20is%20(physiology,to%20a%20trajectory%2C%20as%20opposed) * Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming by Agnes Callard (https://www.amazon.com/Aspiration-Agency-Becoming-Agnes-Callard/dp/0190639482) * Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott (https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-like-State-Certain-Condition/dp/0300078153/ref=sr_1_2?crid=HEYGC212F6SG&dchild=1&keywords=seeing+like+a+state+by+james+c+scott&qid=1613057768&s=books&sprefix=seeing+like+a+state%2Cstripbooks%2C164&sr=1-2) * Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein (https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Investigations-Ludwig-Wittgenstein/dp/1405159286/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JRUU030WBCWQ&dchild=1&keywords=philosophical+investigations&qid=1613058025&s=books&sprefix=philos%2Cstripbooks%2C209&sr=1-1) Reflections: Jessica: Trying not knowing yourself. Rein: You shouldn’t be the owner of all your desires. Instead, you should measure your life by how well you follow the intentions that arise out of your values. Jacob: Thinking of yourself as the sum of all of the habits you maintain or don’t. David: The [Homeostasis vs Homeorhesis](https://wikidiff.com/homeostasis/homeorhesis#:~:text=is%20that%20homeostasis%20is%20(physiology,to%20a%20trajectory%2C%20as%20opposed) distinction, and cleaning a home as an ongoing process. This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep (https://twitter.com/therubyrep) of DevReps, LLC (http://www.devreps.com/). To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode) To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps (https://www.paypal.me/devreps). You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well. Transcript: SPONSORED AD: Whether you're working on a personal project or managing enterprise infrastructure, you deserve simple, affordable, and accessible cloud computing solutions that allow you to take your project to the next level. Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Linode's Linux virtual machines and develop, deploy, and scale your modern applications faster and easier. Get started on Linode today with $100 in free credit for listeners of Greater Than Code. You can find all the details at linode.com/greaterthancode. Linode has 11 global data centers and provides 24/7/365 human support with no tiers or hand-offs regardless of your plan size. In addition to shared and dedicated compute instances, you can use your $100 in credit on S3-compatible object storage, Managed Kubernetes, and more. Visit linode.com/greaterthancode and click on the "Create Free Account" button to get started. JACOB: Hello and welcome to Greater Than Code, Episode 223. My name is Jacob Stoebel and I'm joined with my co-host, Rein Henrichs. REIN: Thanks, Jacob and I'm here with my friend and also stranger because we haven't done this together in months, Jessica Kerr. JESSICA: Thank you, Rein! And Iím really excited today because our guest is David MacIver. Twitter handle, @DRMacIver. David MacIver is best known as the developer of Hypothesis, the property-based testing library for Python, and is currently doing a Ph.D. based on some of that work. But he also writes extensively about emotions, life, and society and sometimes coaches people on an eclectic mix of software development, intellectual, and emotional skills. As you can probably tell, David hasn't entirely decided what he wants to do when he grows u and that's the best because if you had decided well, then so few possibilities would be open. David, hello! DAVID: Hi, Jessica! Great to be here. JESSICA: All right. I'm going to ask the obligatory question. What is your superpower and how did you acquire it? DAVID: So as you saw me complaining about on Twitter, this question doesn't translate very well outside of the United States. JESSICA: Yeah, which is fascinating for me. DAVID: I'm a bit too British to say nice things about myself without sounding like I'm being self-deprecating. JESSICA: Self-depreciating it is! DAVID: [laughs] So I thought about this one for a while and I decided that the answer is that I'm really good at being confused and in particular, I have a much more productive response to being confused than it seems like most people do because basically, the world is super confusing and I think I never know what's going on, but then I notice that I know what's going on and I look at it and I'm just like, ìHmm, this is weird, right?î And then I read a book about it, or I sort of poke at it a bit and then I'm not less confused, but I'm less confused about that like, one little facet of the world and have found ten new things to be confused about. [laughter] JESSICA: Nice. DAVID: Usually, I can then turn this into being slightly better at the thing I was previously confused about, or writing about it and making everyone else differently confused than they started with. JESSICA: Definitely confused. That is a win. That's called learning. DAVID: Yeah, exactly. [laughter] This is where a lot of the writing you were talking about comes from and essentially, about 2 years ago, I just started turning these skills less on software development and more just going like, ìLife, it doesn't make sense, right?î [laughter] And noticing a whole bunch of things, I needed to work on and then that a lot of these were shared common problems. So I am, if anything, far more confused about all of it than I was 2 years ago, but I'm less confused about the things I was confused about that and seem to be gradually becoming a more functional human being as a result of the process. So yay, confusion. JESSICA: That superpower, the productive response to confusion, ties in with your reaction to the superpower question in general, which is as Americans, we're supposed to be ñ we want to have power. We want to be special. We want to be unique. We want to make our unique contribution to the world! And as part of that, we're not comfortable being confused because we need to know things! We need to be smart! We need to convey strength and competence and be the best! I hate the superlatives. [laughter] I hate the implied competition there, but instead, we could open our hearts to our own confusion and embrace that. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. DAVID: One of the things that often comes up for me is it's a thing that I think is slightly intentioned with this American tendency youíre pointing at, which is that I kind of want to be the best, but I don't really want to be better than other people. I just want to be better than I am now. I wrote a post a while ago about neuromas of excellence like, what would a community look like, which helped everyone be the best version of themselves and one of the top lists was basically that everyone has to be comfortable with not being good at things, but another is just that you have to not want to be better to the other people. You just need want to be better. Again, this is where a lot of the writing comes from. I've just gone, ìWell, this was helpful to me. It's probably helpful to other people.î That's not as sense of wanting to change the world and wanting to put my own stamp on things and it does require a certain amount to self-importance to go, ìYes, my writing is important and other people will like to read it,î but then other people like to read it so, that's fine and if they don't, that's fine, too. JESSICA: Well, you didn't make anyone read it, but you did start a newsletter and let people read it. JACOB: Is this weird thinking reflect a journey that you took in your life? Because I think about my company and my team and how incredibly generous everybody is and even still, I just find it's natural to compare myself to everyone else and needing to not be on the bottom. Part of me wonders if that's just like a natural human tendency, but just because it's natural doesn't make it so. JESSICA: Way natural American. JACOB: Yeah, basically I'm asking how do I stop doing that? [laughter] DAVID: It's definitely not something I've always been perfectly good at. But I think the thing that helped me figure out how to do this was essentially being simultaneously at the bottom of the social rung, but also super arrogant. So it's your classic nerd kit thing, right? It's completely failing at people, but also going, ìBut I'm better than all of you because I'm smart,î and then essentially, gradually having the rough edges filed off the second part and realizing how much I had to learn off the first part. I think sometimes my attitude is due to a lot of this is basically, to imagine I was a time traveler and basically going back in time and telling little David all the things that it was really frustrating that nobody could explain to me and I sadly haven't yet managed to perfect my time machine, but I can still pay it forward. If nobody was able to explain this to me and I'm able to explain it to other people, then surely, the world is a better place with me freely handing out this information. I don't think it's possible, or even entirely desirable to completely eliminate the comparing yourself to others and in fact, I'd go as far as to say, comparing yourself to others is good, but I think theÖ JESSICA: Itís how do we have a productive response to compare ourselves to others? DAVID: Yeah, absolutely. There's a great section in The Inner Game of Tennis, which is a book that I have very mixed feelings about, but it has some great bits where he talks about competition. If you think of a mountain climber, a mountain climber is basically pitting themselves against the mountain, right? They're trying to climb the mountain because it is hard and you could absolutely take a helicopter to the top of the mountain, but that wouldn't be the point. It's you're improving yourself by trying a hard thing. I mean, you're improving yourself in the sense that you're getting better at climbing mountains. You might not be improving yourself in any sort of fully generalizable way. JESSICA: Okay. [laughter] DAVID: When you are playing tennisóbecause this is a book about tennisóyou are engaged in competition with each other and you're each trying to be better than the other. In this context, essentially, what you are doing is you are being the mountain for each other. So you are creating the obstacles that the other people overcome and improve themselves that way and in doing this, you're not just being a dick about it. You're not doing this in order to crush them. You're doing this in order to provide them with the challenge that lets them grow. When you think about it this way, other people being better than you is great because there's this mountain there and you can climb it and by climbing the mountain, you can improve yourself. The thing that stops everyone becoming great is feeling threatened by the being better rather than treating it as an opportunity for learning. JESSICA: Yeah, trying to dynamite the mountain instead of climbing it. Whereas, when you are the mountain for someone else, you can also provide them footholds. Rein, do you have an example of this? REIN: I sure do, Jess. Thanks for asking. So I was just [laughs] thinking while you were talking about this, about the speed running and speed running communities. Because speed running is about testing yourself against a video game, which in this case, serves the purpose of the mountain, but it's also about competing against other speed runners. If it was purely competitive, you wouldn't see the behaviors, the reciprocity in the communities like sharing speed running strats, being really happy when other people break your record. I think it's really interesting that that community is both competitive, but there's also a lot of reciprocity, a lot of sharing. JACOB: And it's like the way the science community should work. It's like, ìOh, you made this new discovery because of this discovery I shared with you and now I'm proud that my discovery is this foundation for all these other little things that now people can be by themselves in 10 seconds instead of 30.î JESSICA: Yeah. Give other people a head start on the confusion you've already had so that they can start resolving new confusions. DAVID: Yeah, absolutely. Definitely one of my hopes with all of this writing is to encourage other people to do it themselves. Earlier this year, I was getting people very into daily writing practices and just trying to get people to write as much as possible. I now think that was slightly a mistake because I think daily writing is a great thing to do for about a month and then it just gets too much. So I will probably see if I can figure out other ways of encouraging people to notice their confusion, as you say, and share what they've learned from edge. But sadly, can't quite get into do it daily. JESSICA: This morningís newsletter you talked about. Okay, okay, I can do daily writing, but now I want to get better at writing. I've got to go do something I'm worse at. DAVID: Yeah, absolutely. I think daily writing is still a really good transitional stage for most people. To give them more context for this newsletter for people listening. Basically, most of my writing to date, I just write in a 1- or 2-hour sitting from start to finish. I don't really edit it. I just click publish and I've gotten very good at writing like that. I think that most people are ñ I mean, sometimes it's a bit obvious that I haven't edited it because they're obvious typos and the like. But by and large, I think it is a reasonably high standard of writing and I'm not embarrassed to be putting it out in that quality, but the fact that I'm not editing is just starting to be sort of the limiter on growth for me. It's never going to really get better than it currently is. It's certainly not going to allow me to tackle larger projects that I can currently tackle without that editing skill. JESSICA: [laughs] I just pictured you trying to sit down and write a book in one session. [laughter] And then you'd be tired. DAVID: Yeah. I've tried to doing that with papers even and it doesn't really work. I mean, I do edit papers, but Iím very visibly really bad at editing papers and it's one of my weaknesses as a academic is that I still haven't really got the hang of paper writing. JESSICA: Do you edit other people's papers? DAVID: I don't edit other people's papers, but I provide feedback on other people's writing and say, ìThis is what worked for me. This is what didn't work for me. Here are some typos you made.î It's not reading as providing good feedback on things, that is the difficult part of editing for me. It is much more ñ honestly, it's an emotional problem more than anything else. It's not really that I'm bad at editing at a technical level. I'm okay at editing at a technical level. I just hate doing it. [laughs] JESSICA: That is most problems we have, right? DAVID: Yeah. JESSICA: In the end, itís an emotional problem. DAVID: Yeah, absolutely. I think that is definitely one of the interesting things I've been figuring out in my last 2 years of working on learning more about emotions and the various skills around them is just going, ìOh, right. It's not this abstract thing where you are learning to be better at emotions and then nothing will change in your life because you're just going to be happier about everything.î I mean, some people do approach it that way, but for me, it's very much been, ìOh, I'm learning to be good at emotions because this really concrete problem that I don't understand, it turns out that that's just feelings.î [laughter] It's like, for example, the literature on how to have a clean home, turns out that's mostly anxiety management and guilt management. It's like fundamentally cleaning your home is not a hard problem. Not procrastinating on cleaning your home is a hard problem. Not feeling intensely guilty and aversive about the dirty dishes in the sink and is putting them off for a week. I don't do that. But just as a hypothetical example. [laughter] I mean, not a hypothetical example, I think a specific example that comes from the book, Unfuck Your Habitat, which is a great example of essentially, it's a book that's about it contains tips, like fill the spray bottle with water and white vinegar and also, tips about how to manage your time and how to deal with the fact that you're mostly not cleaning because of shame, that sort of thing. Writing books are another great example where 80% about managing the feelings associated with writing; it turns out practical problems pretty much all come down to emotionsóat least practical life problems. REIN: Sorry, I was just buying Unfuck Your Habitat real quick. [laughter] DAVID: It's a good book. I recommend it. JESSICA: Our internal like emotional habitat and our external habitat are very linked. You said something earlier about learning to be at emotions is not just you're magically happier at other things in your life change. DAVID: Yes. I mean, I think there are a couple of ways in which it manifests. One of them is just that emotions often are the internal force that maintains our life habits. It's you live in a particular way because moving outside of those trained habits is scary or aversive in some way. Like the cleaning example of how, if your home is a mess, it's not necessarily because you don't know how to make your home not a mess. Although, cleaning is a much harder skill than most people treat it as speaking as someone who is bad at the practical skills of cleaning, as well as the emotional side of cleaning. But primarily, if it were just a matter of scale, you could just do it and get better at it, right? The thing that is holding you in place is the emotional reaction to the idea of changing your habits. So the specific reason why I started on all of this process was essentially relationship stuff. I'd started a new major relationship. My previous one hadn't gone so well for reasons that were somewhere between emotional and communication issues, for the same reason basically every relationship doesn't go so well, if it doesn't go so ñ Oh, that's not quite true. Like there are actual ñ JESSICA: Some people have actual problems. [chuckles] But these things are. I mean, our emotions really, as sometimes we treat them as if they're flaws. As if our emotions are getting in our way is some sort of judgment about us as not being good people, but no, it just makes us people. DAVID: For sure. JESSICA: So you started on this journey because of the external motivation of helping someone you're in a relationship with, because it's really hard to do these things just for ourselves. DAVID: It is incredibly hard to do things just for ourselves. I guess, that is exactly an example of this problem, right? It's that there is a particular habit of life that I was in and what I needed to break out of that habit of life was the skills for dealing with it and then figuring out these emotional reactions. But unfortunately, the thing that the habits were maintaining, it was me not having the skills and so having the external prompts of a problem that was in the world rather than in my life, as it was, was what was needed to essentially kick me out of that. Fortunately, it turns out that my standard approach of reading a thousand books now was one that worked for me, in this case. I probably haven't read a thousand books on this, but that certainly worked. JESSICA: It wouldnít surprise me. [laughs] DAVID: I read fewer books than people think I do. I may well have read more than a hundred books about emotions and therapy and the like. But I probably haven't, unless I cast that brush really broadly, because I mean, everything's a book about emotions and therapy, if you look at your right. REIN: Have you read any books by average Virginia Satir? [laughter] DAVID: I don't know who that is, I'm afraid. JACOB: Drink! REIN: Excellent! Excellent news. [laughter] JESSICA: Itís about Virginia Satir, right? REIN: Virginia was a family therapist who wrote a lot about processing emotions and I have been a huge fan of her work and it's made a huge difference in my life and my career. So I highly recommend it. DAVID: Okay. I will definitely hear recommendations on books. What's the book title, or what's your favorite book title by? REIN: I think I would start with The Satir Model, which is S-A-T-I-R M-O-D-E-L. The Satir Model, which is about her family therapy model. JESSICA: Chances are good, you've read books based on her work. I was reading Gerry Weinberg's Quality Software Management: Volume Two the other day, which is entirely based on The Satir Model. REIN: Yeah. He was a student of hers. One of the things that she likes to say is that the problem is never the problem, how we cope is the problem. JESSICA: Can we have a productive response to the problem? DAVID: Yeah, that absolutely makes sense. I think often, the problem is also the problem. [laughter] JESSICA: It's often self-sustaining like the habits you're talking about. Our life habits form a self-sustaining system and then it took that external stimulus. It's not like an external stimulus somehow kicked you in the butt and changed you, it let you change yourself. DAVID: Yes, absolutely. I guess what I mean is ñ so let's continue with the cleaning example. The problem is that your flat is messy and your flat is messy because of these life habits, because your emotional reactions to all these things. If you do the appropriate emotional work, you unblock yourself on shame and anxiety around a messy flat, and you look around and you've saw you've processed all these emotions. You fixed how you respond to the problem and it turns out your flat is still messy and you still have to clean it. I think emotional reactions are what either ñ Iím making it sound like emotional reactions are all negative and I really don't mean that. I mean, that way is just ñ JESSICA: Oh, right because once you've dealt with all that shame and the anxiety and stuff, and maybe you've picked up your flat some, and then you come in and you have groceries and you stop and you immediately put them away and you get a positive, emotional feeling from that as you're in the process of keeping your flat tidy. The emotions can reinforce a clean flat as well. DAVID: Yeah, absolutely. I think this is something that has always been one of my goals more than it is what am I active? JESSICA: No, I love this distinction that you're making here. Is it a goal or is it something I'm activelyÖ? The word goal is [inaudible]. DAVID: Yeah. So I think for me, one of the other problems, other than the relationships it starts, was me essentially realizing that my emotional experience, it wasn't bad. I mean, it wasn't great, but I wasn't actively miserable most of the time, but it also just didn't have very many positive features, which it turns out is also a form of depression. It's very easy to treat depression as just like you're incredibly sad all the time, but that doesn't have to what it can be like flatness is. So I think very much from early on in my mind was that the getting better at emotions wasn't just about not being anxious. It was also about experiencing things like joy, it was about being happier and I think having this as sort of an aspirational goal is very, very motivating in terms of a lot of this work and in terms of a lot of trying to understand all of this, because I think I don't want to be miserableóit only gets you so far. If you have a problem that you're trying to solve, and that turns out to be an emotional block, you have to actually wants to solve the problem. It's like, I think if you don't want to clean the flat, then it doesn't matter how much you sort of fix your anxiety around that. You're still just going to go, ìOkay. I'm no longer anxious about this messy flat. That's great,î and your flat is going to stay messy because you don't actually want it not to be and that's fine. JESSICA: Itís just fine, yeah. Who cares? Especially now. DAVID: Unless it becomes a health hazard, but yeah. [laughter] DAVID: Certainly like thereís ñ JESSICA: If you're affecting the neighboring flats with your roaches, thatís fine. DAVID: [laughs] Yeah. JESSICA: So you were talking about joy as an aspirational goal, but it's not the kind of goal where you check the box at the end of the year and declare yourself worthy of a 2% raise. DAVID: [laughs] No, absolutely not and I think for all big goals, really, I find that I want to be very clichÈ and say, it's the journey, not the destination. JESSICA: But it is! No, it totally is! DAVID: Yeah. JESSICA: See, the word goal really irks me because people often use it to mean something that you should actually reach. Like write every day per month, that's a goal that you find benefits from hitting, but feelings of joy are, as you said, aspirational. I call it a quest, personally. Some people call it a North Star. It is a direction that can help you make decisions that will move you in that direction, but if you ever get thereÖ No, that doesn't make sense. You wouldn't want to exist in a perpetual state of joy. That would also be flat. [laughs] DAVID: No, absolutely. And I think even with big but achievable goals, it still is still quite helpful to treat them in this way. So for one, quite close to my heart right now, a goal of doing a Ph.D. I think you've got a 3-, 4-year long project in the States, I think it's more like 5 or 6 and if you treat the Ph.D. as it's pass/fail, like either you get the Ph.D. or those 3 or 4 years have been wasted, then that's not very motivating and also will result in, I think, worst quality results in work. Like the thing to do is ñ JESSICA: Like anxiety, stress, and shame. DAVID: Yeah. Yeah, very much so. [chuckles] So just thinking in terms of there's this big goal that you're trying to achieve of the Ph.D., but the goal doesn't just define a pass/fail; it defines a direction. Like if you get better at paper writing in order to get your Ph.D., then even if you don't get your Ph.D., you got better at paper writing and that's good, too. JESSICA: Because the other outcome is the next version of you. DAVID: Yes, exactly. JESSICA: Itís about who does this aspirational goal prompt you to become? REIN: This reminds me of the difference between homeostasis and homeorhesis. Homeostasis is about maintaining a state; homeorhesis is about maintaining a trajectory DAVID: That makes sense. Yes, very much that distinction and also, one of the nice things about this focus on a trajectory is that even if a third of the way through the trajectory, you decide you don't want to maintain it anymore and actually you're fine where you are. This goal was a bad idea or you've got different priorities now, possibly because a global pandemic has arrived and has changed all of your priorities. Then you still come all that way. It's like the trajectory doesn't just disappear backwards in time because you're no longer going in that direction. You've still made all that progress. Youíve still got to drive some of the benefits from it. JESSICA: Yeah. There's another thing that maybe it's an American thing, or maybe it's wider than that of if it doesn't last forever, then it was never real, or if you don't achieve the stated goal, then all your effort was wasted. DAVID: Yeah. I don't think itís purely an American thing. It's hard to tell with how much American pop culture permeates everything and also, I shouldn't say that although I'm quite British, I am also half American. So Iím a weird third culture kid where my background doesn't quite make sense to anyone. But yeah, no, I very much feel that. This idea that permanence is required for importance and it's something that every time I sort of catch myself there, I'm just like, ìYeah, David, you're doing the thing again. Have you tried not doing the thing?î [chuckles] But it's hard. It's very internalized. JESSICA: If you clean your flat and a week later, it's dirty again. Well, it was clean for a week. That's not nothing. DAVID: Yeah. I do genuinely think that one of the emotions that people struggle with cleaning. Certainly, it is for me. JESSICA: Oh, because it's a process. It is not a destination. Nothing is ever clean! DAVID: Yeah. JACOB: I think of myself sometimes as I want to be the kind of person that always has a clean home, as opposed to, I like it when my house is clean. JESSICA: Yeah. Is it about you or is it about some real effect you want? JACOB: Yeah. Is it about like the story that that I imagine I could project if I could project on Instagram because I'm taking pictures of my pristine house all the time, or is it just like, I like to look around and see things where they belong? DAVID: Yeah. I'm curious, does this result in your home being clean? JACOB: No, it doesnít and thatís sort of the issue that I'm just realizing is it's not actually a powerful motivator because it's just not possible trying to imagine that I could maintain homeostasis about it. It's not a possible goal and so yeah, it's not going to happen. REIN: Yeah. The metaphor here is it changes motion, but it's always happening so it's more like the flow of time than motion through space. JESSICA: Itís not motion, too. REIN: Actually staying the same is very hard to do and very expensive. DAVID: Absolutely. JESSICA: No wonder it takes all of our feelings to help us achieve it. [chuckles] DAVID: So the reason I was asking by the way about whether this idea of being the sort of person who has a clean home is effective is that this ties in a little bit to what today's newsletter was about. There's this problem where when you have self-images that are constructed around being good at particular things, being bad at those things is very much, it's a shame trigger. It's essentially, you experienced the world as clashing with your conception of yourself and we get really good at not noticing those things. You see this a lot with procrastination, for example, where you are putting off doing a thing because it does force you to confront this sort of conflict between identity and reality. I think sometimes, the way out of it is just to identify less with the things that we want to achieve in the world and just try and go, ìI'm doing this because I want to and if I didn't want to, that would be fine, too.î Essentially, becoming fine with both an outcome and failing to achieve that outcome is often the best way to achieve the outcome. JESSICA: So practicing editing in order to practice editing, whether you achieve writing a book or not, whether you're good at it or not, and it does come back to the journey. If what you're doing is a means to an end and yet not in line with that end, it often backfires because the means are the end. In the end, they become it. So having a clean house is stupid. That's not a thing. Picking up is a thing. That's something you can do and what I am picking up. True fact! [laughs] You don't have to worry about whether you can, are you doing it? All right then, you can! Whereas, having a clean house is not a thing. DAVID: Very much. This kind of ties into the comments about books earlier, where you were talking about how many books I read, and one of the things that I think very much stops people from reading books is the idea that oh God, there are so many books to read, I'll never get through all of them. JESSICA: If I started, I have to finish it. DAVID: Oh, yeah. I mean, people definitely shouldn't do that; books are there to be abandoned if they're bad. JESSICA: I read a lot of chapter ones. DAVID: Yeah. I have a slightly bad habit of buying books speculatively because they seem good and as a result, I think my shelf of books that I'm probably never going to get around to read, but might do someday and might not and either is fine is probably like a hundred plus books now. JESSICA: I love that shelf. I have big piles everywhere. [laughs] There's always something to read wherever I sit and most of it, I will never read, but it's beautiful. DAVID: I'm currently in a very weird experience where I write, for possibly the first time in my life, I have more bookshelf space than books. JESSICA: Huh, that's not a stable state. DAVID: No, no. This will be fixed by the time I leave this flat. The piles will return. JESSICA: You will maintain the trajectory. DAVID: Yeah. [laughs] Because I'm just reading. I can read these as many books because I just sit down and read and at some point, I will finish a book or I will abandon the book and both are fine. But I think if you treat this as a goal where your goal is to read all the books, then that's not the thing and also, I think people go, ìMy goal is to read a hundred books a year,î or I don't know how normal people guesstimates are. JESSICA: Itís like, is it really or itís their goal to learn something. DAVID: Yeah, exactly. JESSICA: And the means is reading books. DAVID: Yeah. I think if one instead just goes, ìI like reading and it's useful so I'm going to read books,î you'll probably end up reading a lot more than setting some specific numerical goal. Also, you run into sort of Goodhart's law things where if your goal is to read a hundred books in a year, great buy the Mr. Men set. But wait, it's not a thing in ñ the Mr. Men are a series of kidsí books which tells ñ JESSICA: With the big smiley face? DAVID: Yeah. Exactly, that's the one. [laughter] You can read a hundred of those in a weekóI assume there are hundred Mr. Men books, I don't actually knowóand youíll probably learn something. JESSICA: Then again, you might choose Dynamics in Action, never get through it, and then feel bad about it, and that would be pointless because you learned more from the introduction than you did from the Mr. Men series. DAVID: I don't think I've even opened my copy of Dynamics in Action. I think you recommended on Twitter or something and I was just like, ìThat does sound interesting. I will speculatively buy this book.î JESSICA: It's a hard book. DAVID: Yeah. It's far from the hardest book on my shelves, but it's definitely in the top. I'm going to confidently say top 20, but it might be harder than that. I just haven't done a comparative analysis and I don't want to overpromise. [laughter] JESSICA: The point being read books because you want to know. DAVID: Yeah. JESSICA: Or sometimes because you want to have read them. That's the thing. There's a lot of things I may not want to pick up, but I do want to have picked up and I can use that to motivate me. DAVID: Yeah, and even then, there are two versions of that and both are good, actually. I think one of them sounds bad. One version is you want to have read it because you want to understand the material in it and the other one is just, you want to be able to say that you have read it and thus, you ñ and probably for the status game and also, just sort of as a box ticking, like I think ñ JESSICA: Oh, itís not completely wrong. DAVID: No, it's not completely wrong. JESSICA: You still get something out of it. DAVID: Yeah. JESSICA: On the other hand, if you want to read it because you want to be the kind of person who would read it. I don't know about that one. DAVID: Yeah, I agree. I thinkÖ JESSICA: Then again, life habits. Sometimes, if you want to be the kind of person who picks up and so you fake it long enough to form the habit, then you are. DAVID: Yeah, absolutely and I read a book recentlyóof course, I didóby Agnes Callard called Aspiration, which I'm glad I read it. I cannot really recommend it to people who aren't philosophers, because there's a thing that often happens with reading analytic philosophy, where the author clearly has a keen insight into an important problem that you, as the reader, lack and the way they express that insight is through an entire bookís worth of slightly pedantic arguments with other analytic philosophers who have wrong opinions about the subjects. JESSICA: Half of Dynamics in Action is like that. DAVID: Yeah, I think it very complicated. REIN: Was it written as a thesis? DAVID: I don't think so. I'm not certain about that, but it might've been. It ended up being quite an influential book and I think she was mentioning that there's going to be a special issue of a journal coming out to recently about essentially, its impact and responses to it. But I think it's just genuinely that analytic philosophers had a lot of really wrong opinions about this subject. So the relevance of this is the idea she introduces the book is that of a proleptic value where ñ JESSICA: Proleptic, more words. DAVID: Proleptic basically, I think originally comes from grammar and it means something that stands in place for another thing. A proleptic value is what you do when you're engaged in a process of aspiration, which is trying to acquire values that you don't currently have. So she uses the example of a music student who wants to learn to appreciate the genre of music that they do not currently appreciate and they find a teacher who does appreciate that genre and they basically use their respect for that teacher as a proleptic value. They basically say, ìI don't currently value this genre of music, but I trust your judgment and I value your opinion and I will use your feedback and that respect for you as a value that stands in place of the future value of appreciating this genre of music that I hope to acquire.î So I think this thing of reading a book because you want to be the sort of person who reads that kind of book can have a similar function where even though, you don't really wants to read the book, that process of aspiration gives you a hook into becoming the sort of person who does want to read the book. JESSICA: That's like being the mountain for each other. DAVID: Yeah. JESSICA: In some ways. You're not going to get a view yet. You're only 10 feet off the ground, but meanwhile, just climb to climb because it's here. DAVID: Yeah. I'm not necessarily very good at being the sort of person reading books for this reason. Partly because there are so many books, I have so many other reasons to read, but yeah. JESSICA: Yeah, you're fine. You don't need more reasons to read a book. DAVID: [laughs] But I think two books that I have read mostly to have read them rather than necessarily because I was having an amazing time and learning lots of things reading them are Seeing Like a State by James Scott, which it's a good book. I don't think it's a bad book, but it is very much a history book that also has a big idea and there are like 70,000 blog posts about the big idea. So if you're going and wanting just the big idea, read one of the blog posts, but I'd seen a reference so many times and I was just like, ìYou know, this seems like a book that I should rate,î and my opinion is now basically that like, if you like history books and if you want lots of detail, then yeah, it's a great book to read. If you just want the big idea, donít. JESSICA: Right, because other people have presented it more succinctly, which probably happens with your Aspiration book that you talked about. DAVID: I would like it to happen with the Aspiration book. The Aspiration book is only a few years old. JESSICA: You've written a ñ oh, okay, so it's too soon for that. So you'll write about it, if you haven't yet. DAVID: Yeah, I havenít yet. Looking at it, it was published in 2018 and you have the paperback from 2019. So this is really cutting-edge philosophy to the degree that there is such a thing. [chuckles] JESSICA: Yeah. Oh no, what do you mean? [inaudible]. REIN: Seeing Like a State is. DAVID: Well, I've had this argument with philosopher friends where I was arguing that it was a thing and the philosopher friend was just like, ìIs it a thing, though?î Because the interesting thing about philosophy is just that it never goes out to date. People are sort of engaging with the entire historical cannon so the question is not does new philosophy get done? The question is more, I think is this less ñ? JESSICA: This isnít really a cutting edge. DAVID: Yeah, exactly. JESSICA: Itís more kind of a gentle nuzzling. DAVID: [laughs] Yeah. But also, is this more cutting edge than, I don't know, reading Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics? I don't know. JESSICA: Philosophy [inaudible]. DAVID: Yeah, I personally think that there is cutting-edge and this is on it, but plenty of room for philosophical dialogue on that subject if you can sort of dig Socrates up and ask him about it. [laughter] Yeah, and speaking of philosophy, the other book that I have read essentially to have read it rather than because I was getting a lot out of it was Wittgensteinís Philosophical Investigations where I essentially read it in order to confirm to myself that I had already picked up enough Wittgenstein by osmosis that I didn't really need to read it, which largely true. JACOB: This is the part of the show where we like to reflect on what we took from everything and just wrap things up a little bit. JESSICA: I have one thing written down. We talked a bit about who you are and who you want to be as a person, and how sometimes what you want to do is in conflict with how you think of yourself. Like, when you think of yourself as good at something, it's hard to be bad at it, long enough to learn better. It occurs to me that in our society, we're all about getting to know yourself and then expressing your true self, which is very much a homeostasis more than a homerhesis. But what have we tried not knowing yourself? What if we tried just like, I don't know who I am and then I can surprise myself and have more possibilities. That's my reflection. REIN: All of this discussion about happiness and pleasure, and diversion and striving reminds me a lot of Buddhist philosophy, or what I should say is, it reminds me a lot of my very limited understanding of Buddhist philosophy. Specifically, this idea that you shouldn't judge your life by the outcome of your preferences; that you shouldn't identify yourself with your wants and cling to the outcome of things. You can acknowledge that these things have happened and you can avoid unpleasant things, but you shouldn't be the owner of all of your desires. Instead, what you should do is measure your life by how well you follow the intentions that arise out of your values. JACOB: Yeah. Maybe to put another way, I'm starting to think maybe I could think of myself as the sum of all of the habits I maintain or don't, and try to think of outcome of those habits as what a lagging indicator, I guess, or as a secondary and think more of myself like, ìWell, what are the things that I find I am naturally doing and if I'm not, what can I do to just try to enforce it for myself that I'm going to do that more?î Or maybe I don't care. DAVID: So I'm not finding myself with sort of a single cohesive summation of the conversation, but I've really enjoyed it and there's been a couple of things I'm going to take away from it and mull over a bit more. I really liked the homeostasis versus homeorhesis distinction. I'd obviously heard the first word, but not the second word and so, I'm going to think about that a bit more. Sort of tying onto that, I very much liked Jessica's point of how a clean home isn't really a thing, you can only do cleaning and thinking much more in terms of the ongoing process than trying to think of it as a static goal that you are perfectly maintaining at all times. Slightly orthogonal in relation to that, but I'm also just going to look up Satir as an author and maybe read some of her books. [chuckles] REIN: Yay! DAVID: Because as we have established, always up for more reading. [laughs] JACOB: That should wrap up our Episode 223. I'd like to thank David for joining us and weíll see you next time. Special Guest: David MacIver.

This one was long enough, and book reviews sit poorly with podcasts in any event, that I decided to split it in two. This one has my monthly short personal update along with reviews for: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by: James C. Scott Status Anxiety by: Alain de Botton

Robby speaks with Kelly Sutton, Software Engineer at Gusto. They discuss how to deal with technical debt from the pre-product/market fit era, the benefits of monoliths and knowing when to begin abstracting to micro-services, and the challenges of keeping Ruby on Rails applications up-to-date. Kelly also gives advice for developers who want to convince stakeholders to invest in refactoring projects – a common challenge.Helpful LinksFollow Kelly on TwitterKelly's website[Book] Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. ScottTalk on Desirable TestsSubscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.

This live Sinica Podcast recorded in New York on March 6 features Samm Sacks, Cybersecurity Policy and China Digital Economy Fellow at New America. She and Kaiser Kuo discuss the many facets of U.S.-China technology integration and competition, touching on topics such as data security, artificial intelligence, and how to build “a small yard with a high fence.” What to listen for on this week’s Sinica Podcast: 11:04: Decoupling is a theme that has defined one of the more extreme potential outcomes of the fraying U.S.-China relationship. Are these conversations prevalent outside of Washington? What about the Silicon Valley tech community? Samm addresses these questions here, among others: “The reality is when we think about technology development, whether it’s joint research, supply chains, collaboration of sciences — these things don’t really map nicely onto political borders. And these are really diffuse networks that, when you try to decouple [them], there’s just a disconnect here.” 21:13: What is the relationship between technology companies and the Communist Party? What impact does China’s Cybersecurity and National Intelligence Law have on the companies’ supposed obligations to cooperate with authorities on sharing private data? When two passengers using Didi, a popular ride-share service in China, were killed, the company cooperated reluctantly, resulting in a bizarre legal limbo. Samm explains: “Chinese legal scholars were saying, wait a second, if Didi is to fall in line on this data-sharing agreement, that’s a violation of China’s Cybersecurity Law, because the Cybersecurity Law has a framework around the conditions where data is collected and shared. So again I think there’s a lot more churn than people understand.” 27:46: What is important data? China’s Cybersecurity Law has outlined broad data localization requirements. Does the government have the ability (or capability) to review the huge amounts of data going in and out of the country? Samm points out: “One of the outcomes I would look for if we were to see the so-called structural issues on the tech side, one would be is the Chinese government going to agree to allow more kinds of commercial data out of the country without these arduous security audits?” 34:41: Is China deliberately exporting its model of censorship to governments and countries throughout the world? What of the future of domestic surveillance in China? Who is discussing the ethical and legal implications of artificial intelligence being brought into everyday life and society, and where? Samm attended a Track 2 dialogue between Berkeley Law and Beijing University Law and discusses the conversations in the academic world regarding algorithmic bias, and contesting decisions made by artificial intelligence here. 40:58: Samm elaborates on the concept of “small yard and high fence.” What are some actionable items in the technological tussle unfolding between Washington and Beijing? She provides her guiding principle: “Having a constructive bilateral trade and investment relationship with China, particularly with technology, is in the interest of the United States. And we cannot take an approach that is going to use blanket bans and discrimination based on national origin. We need to use tools like law enforcement as the scalpel they were intended to be because of the integration of our two systems. Otherwise, we end up shooting ourselves in the foot.” Recommendations: Kaiser: Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, by James C. Scott. Samm: Catastrophe, a British sitcom available on Prime Video.

Discussing #Jobs #Data and #WhatsTheFuture with @TimOReilly #FutureOfData #Podcast In this podcast spends time to discuss his perspective on the future with data, analytics, AI, jobs and organization. He sheds light on what are somethings businesses could do to stay relevant and future proof. He discussed his book and shared some of the key insights relevant for anyone thinking of staying relevant in the World led by technology and impacting the future. A must video for anyone working! Tim's Book: WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us by Tim O'Reilly https://amzn.to/2N5WhOn Tim's Recommended Read: AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee https://amzn.to/2N8VGLL Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence by Ajay Agrawal and Joshua Gans https://amzn.to/2ugQBKr The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times by Giovanni Arrighi https://amzn.to/2ufhb6R Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth https://amzn.to/2LcbLQc Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas https://amzn.to/2utgeXF New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms https://amzn.to/2NbBJ77 Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott https://amzn.to/2ztnoRz The Struggle for Survival: An Historical, political, and Socioeconomic Perspective of St. Lucia by Anderson Reynolds https://amzn.to/2uqF22w Podcast Link: iTunes: http://math.im/jofitunes Youtube: http://math.im/jofyoutube Tim's BIO: Tim O’Reilly is the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc. His original business plan was simply “interesting work for interesting people,” and that’s worked out pretty well. O’Reilly Media delivers online learning, publishes books, runs conferences, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators. Tim has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. In 1993, he launched the first commercial, ad-supported site on the internet. In 1998, he organized the meeting where the term “open source software” was agreed on, and helped the business world understand its importance. In 2004, with the Web 2.0 Summit, he defined how “Web 2.0” represented not only the resurgence of the web after the dot com bust, but a new model for the computer industry, based on big data, collective intelligence, and the internet as a platform. In 2009, with his “Gov 2.0 Summit,” he framed a conversation about the modernization of government technology that has shaped policy and spawned initiatives at the Federal, State, and local level, and around the world. He has now turned his attention to implications of AI, the on-demand economy, and other technologies that are transforming the nature of work and the future shape of the business world. This is the subject of his forthcoming book from Harper Business, WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us. About #Podcast: #JobsOfFuture is created to spark the conversation around the future of work, worker and workplace. This podcast invite movers and shakers in the industry who are shaping or helping us understand the transformation in work. Wanna Join? If you or any you know wants to join in, Register your interest @ http://play.analyticsweek.com/guest/ Want to sponsor? Email us @ info@analyticsweek.com Keywords: #JobsOfFuture #FutureOfWork #FutureOfWorker #FutuerOfWorkplace #Work #Worker #Workplace

This podcast spends time discussing Tim O'Reilly's futuristic perspective on data, analytics, AI, jobs, and organization. He sheds light on what are somethings businesses could do to stay relevant and future proof. He discussed his book and shared some of the key insights relevant to anyone thinking of staying relevant in the World led by technology and impacting the future. A must video for anyone working! Timeline: 00:28 Tim's journey. 06:03 Tim's current occupation. 10:50 Interesting work for interesting people. 15:08 Thinking behind the title "What's the future". 23:41 Culture and technology evolution. 26:29 Creating value for the shareholder. 35:06 Learning a new skill. 38:12 Labor and technology. 47:07 Investing in humans or technology? 56:02 The role of AI in Media. 59:45 How can an employee stay relevant? 1:04:28 Tim's favorite books. 1:09:38 Key takeaways. Tim's Book: WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us by Tim O'Reilly https://amzn.to/2N5WhOn Tim's Recommended Read: AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee https://amzn.to/2N8VGLL Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence by Ajay Agrawal and Joshua Gans https://amzn.to/2ugQBKr The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times by Giovanni Arrighi https://amzn.to/2ufhb6R Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth https://amzn.to/2LcbLQc Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas https://amzn.to/2utgeXF New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--and How to Make It Work for You by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms https://amzn.to/2NbBJ77 Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott https://amzn.to/2ztnoRz The Struggle for Survival: An Historical, political, and Socioeconomic Perspective of St. Lucia by Anderson Reynolds https://amzn.to/2uqF22w Podcast Link: https://futureofdata.org/discussing-jobs-data-and-whatsthefuture-with-timoreilly-futureofdata-podcast/ Tim's BIO: Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc. His original business plan was “interesting work for interesting people,” which worked out pretty well. O'Reilly Media delivers online learning, publishes books, runs conferences, urges companies to create more value than they capture, and tries to change the world by spreading and amplifying the knowledge of innovators. Tim has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. In 1993, he launched the first commercial, ad-supported site on the internet. In 1998, he organized the meeting where the term “open source software” was agreed on and helped the business world understand its importance. In 2004, with the Web 2.0 Summit, he defined how “Web 2.0” represented not only the resurgence of the web after the dot com bust, but a new model for the computer industry, based on big data, collective intelligence, and the internet as a platform. In 2009, with his “Gov 2.0 Summit,” he framed a conversation about the modernization of government technology that has shaped policy and spawned initiatives at the Federal, State, and local level and around the world. He has now turned his attention to the implications of AI, the on-demand economy, and other technologies that are transforming the nature of work and the future shape of the business world. This is the subject of his forthcoming book from Harper Business, WTF: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us. About #Podcast: #FutureOfData podcast is a conversation starter to bring leaders, influencers, and lead practitioners to discuss their journey in creating the data-driven future. Wanna Join? If you or any you know wants to join in or sponsor, Email us @ info@analyticsweek.com Keywords: #FutureOfData #DataAnalytics #Leadership #Futurist #Podcast #BigData #Strategy

My guest this week is a bundle of curiosity, and that is one of the nicest things I could say about someone. For several years, Tren Griffin has been writing a weekly blog post that highlights things he has learned from various investors, businesspeople, musicians, comedians, and more. Lately, he has also been tackling individual businesses, and broad topics like scaling, competitive forces, and product market fit. Tren’s full time job is serving as a director at Microsoft. He’s also worked with or for several well know businesspeople and investors like Craig McCaw, and written several books including one on lessons for entrepreneurs, one on Charlie Munger, and another on negotiation.   We discuss value creation vs. value capture, alpha in investing, sales, hip hop, and why he’d teach high school students about convexity through a drunk driving analogy. I could have talked to Tren for much longer than I did, but sadly, we both had flights to catch.  If you take anything away from this, I hope its just how much fun it is to just be curious about business, and how you can learn a tremendous amount if you just keep reading about the things that interest you and talking to others. Please enjoy my conversation with Tren Griffin. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 2:26 – (First question) –  key levers of the universal business model 4:26 – How do you know when you’ve achieved real value creation 6:24 – Importance of value capture and how they enhance value creation              6:31 – Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future 9:08 – Price power 10:28 – Are discussions of moats more useful to businesses than to investors 13:12 -  What Tren learned during his early years working with Craig McCaw             16:28 – The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success 16:36 – The skill of capital allocation 18:37 – How would Buffett and Munger bet on tech if they were starting out today and their philosophy of betting against change 21:57 – How Tren became so fascinated with Charlie and what he’s learned from him             22:32 – The Alchemy of Finance             23:17 – Damn Right: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger             23:19 – Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger 25:21 – Most memorable moment or lesson from Charlie 28:19 – There are more pockets of Alpha 19:20 – How he thinks about factor investing 31:25 – What are the scalability features that make a business attractive 31:28 – A Dozen Attributes of a Scalable Business 35:37 – Exploring some of the other important levers of businesses, such as subscriptions, customer acquisition cost, and more.             36:20 – Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In 37:11 – Wholesale transfer pricing 39:18 – Pros and cons of subscription business models 43:14 – Magic of getting products distributed 44:58 – Best sale Tren’s ever made 46:46 – Most important lesson for young people 49:01 – Any businesses that are piquing Tren’s interest right now 50:16 – Tren’s interest in hip-hop and how it helps him reach more people 53:49 – A look at some interesting quotes from Jim Barksdale 58:22 – Learning by doing             1:00:48 – Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed 1:01:06 – Period of his career that he felt most alive 1:03:03 – Advice for young people thinking about business and entrepreneurship 1:04:56 – Why are so few people passionate about what they do for a living 1:10:44 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Tren   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag  

 “Order and chaos are the yang and yin of the famous Taoist symbol: two serpents, head to tail. Order is the white, masculine serpent; Chaos, its black, feminine counterpart. The black dot in the white—and the white in the black—indicate the possibility of transformation: just when things seem secure, the unknown can loom, unexpectedly and large. Conversely, just when everything seems lost, new order can emerge from catastrophe and chaos. For the Taoists, meaning is to be found on the border between the ever-entwined pair. To walk that border is to stay on the path of life, the divine Way. And that’s much better than happiness.” In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and I discuss​ 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. In his book, Peterson –a professor at the University of Toronto, and a practicing psychologist who has spent his life studying mythology psychology, religion and philosophy– writes about discipline, freedom, adventure, and responsibility, distilling the world’s wisdom into 12 practical and profound rules for life. "Winning at everything might only mean that you’re not doing anything new or difficult." We cover a wide range of topics, including: Free speech and the nature of truth Why post-modernists are right… to an extent How to be a winning lobster Positive feedback loops and your own heaven and hell Why danger is important Appreciating the moment but planning for chaos And much more. Please enjoy, and be sure to grab a copy of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a book whose concepts will similarly change your outlook, as well as our episode on The Power of Myth, to further learn the power of mythology can be relevant to our everyday lives.   Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more.   Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show: Peterson’s Patreon page [5:21] C-16 Amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Bill [5:40] Interview with Peterson on Joe Rogan's podcast [06:23] Pareto distribution [13:21] Virtue Signalling [17:05] Positive Reinforcement Loop [30:20] Mushroom Coffee [31:28] Perfect Keto [31:28] Ship of Theseus [34:40] Slaying the Dragon Within Us [38:35] Self Authoring [49:57] Growth Machine [54:21] Greatness All Around Us by Neil Soni [55:18] Space X’s Falcon Heavy [1:01:47] Positive reinforcement training [1:13:55] Voldemort Effect [1:19:11] Crony Beliefs Podcast by Kevin Simler [1:20:37] BlackRock [1:22:34] Columbine Killers [1:25:05] Puja [1:34:32] The Marshmallow Experiment [1:36:16] Cain and Abel [1:38:42] Entropy [1:48:47] Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber [1:58:20] The Office - TV Series [2:00:51] Dominance Hierarchy [2:05:16] Jumanji (2018) [2:07:39] Jordan Peterson on the Jocko Podcast [2:32:03] Psychological Significance of Biblical Stories [2:32:13]   Books mentioned: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene [03:20] (Nat’s Notes) Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [04:23] Emergency by Neil Strauss [13:59] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott [16:12] Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter [16:57] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 by William Manchester [1:00:20] Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson [1:02:58] The Inner Game of Tennis [1:07:21] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Annaeus Seneca [1:07:44] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio [1:08:14] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Work Clean by Dan Charnas [1:09:44] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb [1:10:55] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Finite and Infinite Games by James C. Carse [2:03:10] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Emoji Dick by Fred Benenson [2:28:53] Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb [2:29:43]   People mentioned: Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, @jordanbpeterson Charles Darwin [09:30] (Darwin’s Dangerous Idea episode) Jacques Derrida [10:22] Charles Murray [19:26] Nassim Nicholas Taleb [26:39] (Antifragile episode) Sam Harris [38:20] Dave Rubin [38:20] Winston Churchill [1:00:20] Elon Musk [1:01:47] (on this podcast) Jeff Bezos [1:01:47] Naval Ravikant [1:02:19] Steve Jobs [1:02:42] Lucius Annaeus Seneca [1:07:44] Carl Jung [1:09:13] Dan Charnas [1:09:48] Kevin Simler [1:21:25] Laurence Tosi, AirBnB’s ex-CFO [1:24:00] Karl Marx [1:40:20] Ray Dalio [1:43:39] (on this podcast) Robert Greene [1:43:47] (on this podcast) Daniel Tosh [2:01:53] Louis CK [2:01:53] Chris Rock [2:01:53] Alfred Adler [2:08:35] Sigmund Freud [2:08:35]   Show Topics 01:00 - The title of the book is misleading, and surprising if you know Peterson’s other work. But don’t judge a book by it’s cover, this is a very detailed and valuable work.   03:39 - Peterson is a practicing psychotherapist and also a lecturer. He’s has spent most of his life studying religion and mythology. 05:26 - Peterson’s notoriety because of his opposition to a bill in Canada that essentially makes calling somebody by the wrong gender pronoun a hate crime. He was opposed on the grounds of free speech and argues that you can’t compel anyone to use any specific word. 07:11 - Peterson fights against the post-modernist idea that nothing is true, everything is subjective. He believes that postmodernism has taken the idea of subjectivity and pushed it too far.   09:00 - Math is something we’ve discovered, not a human invention. Fundamental nature of numbers is unchanging. Argument linking math and logic to patriarchy and power.   11:14 - What is the goal of the postmodernists? If you continually tear down the hierarchy then at some point the oppressors become the oppressed.   12:41 - Communist China is what you get if you tear down an authority that is there due to the natural order. There will always be a Pareto distribution. If you try to perfectly level the playing field you end up with a controlling regime.   17:05 - Peterson is harsh against virtue signalling. Is the goal of most postmodernists just to 'look moral'?   18:11 - Science should not be ideology driven. It's still science. Nobody wants to talk about sex and race in terms of science. Charles Murray example where he researched IQ differences across different races. He proved there were differences and he's been treated as a bigot because of this.   22:50 - Peterson does a great job at maintaining what the science says about us as humans. What that means in what we should do in our day to day.   25:12 - The rules of the book come off as simple but there's a lot of rich material underneath them. The titles of the rules are there to remind you of the big idea, as easy to remember snippets.   27:03 - Rule 1: Stand Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back. How lobsters are similar to humans. How to look like a winner. Positive reinforcement loop. Head off depression.   31:28 - Sponsor. Hack your physio-psychological behavior by waking up at the same time every day and have breakfast. Get some mushroom coffee and keto from the MYT support page. Support the podcast and you'll become a winning lobster.   34:40 - Lobsters brain reaction when losing. All the cells in your body recycle every seven years. The ship of Theseus: if every cell in your body is different in seven years are you still the same person?   38:00 - Breaking out of the negative loop. Slaying the dragon within us. Problems get bigger until you acknowledge them.   40:16 - The subjective truth is still truth. Rules don't become useless because there is an exception to them. As Peterson says, the truth is fluid.   43:23 - Noah; predicting floods doesn't count, building arks does. If you get your house in order now, when total chaos comes, you'll be ready.   44:03 - Rule 2: Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible for Helping. Internal tyrant - we are too harsh on ourselves. The result is that we inevitably rebel. Our two selves end up hating each other.   45:48 - Prescriptions for medicine for pets gets filled much more frequently than medicine for humans. People better at taking care of their pets than they are of themselves.   47:57 - Think about what is good for you rather than what would make you happy. What might my life look like if I were caring for myself properly?   50:35 - Rule 3: Make Friends with People Who Want the Best for You. One bad apple spoils the bunch example.   51:30 - If you have friends who are obese or who smoke there is a higher chance you will become obese or start to smoke! Normalising effect, it's not bad it's just what everyone else is doing. You become the five people you spend the most time with. Be selective!   55:02 - If your friends do good, you do good. If you live in a place where there are a lot of people you don't want to be like, read more books, like Andrew Carnegie and Jay-Z.   1:00:29- Rule 4: Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday, Not Who Someone Else is Today. Comparing to others is a fallacy, you always lose. No matter how far along you are you'll still have someone to be jealous of.   1:02:19 - Naval Ravikant: Being jealous of someone is really silly because you can't pick and choose parts of someone else's life. Steve Jobs was miserable, he never enjoyed his money.   1:03:50 - Sponsor. Take a shot of Kettle and Fire Bonebroth.   1:04:21 - Feeling good when you find something bad of someone who you are jealous. If you always win or always lose, it's no fun, but a video game at just the right difficulty is perfect. Similarly, comparing yourself to who you were yesterday is the perfect opponent.   1:07:44 - Seneca: Don't compare yourself to what others have, compare yourself to who you were before. Grand Theft Life! Control the machine, don't operate it.   1:09:19 - Most people don't find God because they don't search low enough. There's an ideal to reach for in everyday life.   1:09:48 - Daily practice is a version of God in the everyday and mundane. Gratefulness journal. Figure out what things make you feel better. Your emotional response. Dopamine and serotonin.   1:13:42 - Rule 5: Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything that Makes You Dislike Them.   1:13:55 - Positive reinforcement training. Attention as a currency of reward - effective reinforcement in humans. If you ignore people, they'll quickly understand that they shouldn't repeat whatever it was that made you ignore them. Beware of conversational one-upmanship.   1:16:43 - If someone does something you don't like, just tell them.   1:19:28 - People tie ideas to their identity and get offended. Some can't hold two competing ideas in their head at once. If you get emotional about an idea, that's generally a bad sign.   1:20:37 - Crony Beliefs. If you react to information with disgust or outrage that’s a sign that there's some belief you hold which is not based on logic and reasoning. In-group acceptance, virtue signalling, desire to be accepted.   1:24:18 - Trojan Horse strategy. A lot of hyper-feminist young men do it as a way to get in with women. Weasely.   1:25:05 - Rule 6: Set Your House in Perfect Order Before You Criticize the World. Columbine killers said the world is so bad, it shouldn't exist, they want to burn it all down and take everyone with them. All of us, on some level, have these impulses when things don't go right.   1:27:04 - Make your bed, create order and not chaos. Take ten minutes and get back to inbox zero. Part of your brain is latently working on it, so work on it yourself. Set aside times for worrying and forget it the rest of the time.   1:30:13 - Extreme ownership, don't worry about what anybody else did wrong or what other people could be doing, focus on what you can do. Don't rail against society. You have to recognise the monster within you in order to really be a good person.   1:32:14 - Floods are going to come, it's your fault for being unprepared. Just because something is unlikely doesn't mean you shouldn't have a plan in place.   1:34:08 - Rule 7: Pursue What is Meaningful (Not What is Expedient). The role of sacrifice in ancient societies.   1:35:09 - Preparing for the future. Giving up greater comfort now for something further down the line. Ceremonies as reminders.   1:36:14 - Kids who were able to hold off eating a marshmallow as they would get two later did better in future life. Delayed gratification. Sacrificing impulses leads to richer life.   1:38:42 - Cain and Abel. Sometimes sacrifices are rejected and we don’t know why. There’s wisdom in fairy tales. “Religion is the opiate of the masses”. Do what’s meaningful and not expedient.   1:42:14 - Rule 8: Tell the Truth, or at least Don’t Lie. Lean towards truth instead of trying to tell a story. Acknowledge the problem. Problems are often improved by simply talking.   1:43:39 - Dalio: An honest interpretation of the world is necessary. Robert Greene: Interpret the world honestly. We run from scary truths but knowing the truth is almost always better. If there’s a problem you’re not acknowledging, your brain interprets it as the sum of all the possible problems. Dragons or squirrels.   1:45:14- You can’t just tell the truth to other people, you also have to tell it to yourself. Entropy: things tend towards chaos. Things will go wrong if you don’t do anything about them. One state of order, infinite states of chaos. Do the dishes.   1:51:33 - Rule 9: Assume that the Person You Are Listening to Might Know Something You Don't. 3 categories of conversations: exchanging information; one-upmanship; mutual meditation. Figuring out what the map looks like.   1:54:36 - Most people can be interesting if prompted the right way and if you’re actually listening. Try saying something controversial. If you don’t talk about it, that encourages people not to talk about it. The tyranny of the minority. Be willing to offend people.   1:58:37 - Differences in interests between men and women. We have to be honest before we can talk about the implications of things. How we as conscious beings can recognize negative urges under the surface and still function in society.   2:00:46 - Part of the job of comedy is to be on the edge of order and chaos. They’ve found the line and they know how to walk it. They say what everyone is thinking! Playing with boundaries as Infinite players.   2:03:09 - Rule 10: Be Precise in Your Speech. Don’t mold your opinions to try to get approval from those around you. Be honest. Deal with that as it comes. Be open to being corrected.   2:04:28 - Rule 11: Do Not Bother Children when they are Skateboarding. Initially confusing. Danger has a value in teaching kids. Adult efforts to make children safer are often misguided. Let people fail.   2:06:15 - There will always be a dominance hierarchy. This danger and experimentation is how we find our place in it. How we expand in it. The hierarchy is a natural result of us testing ourselves. You can’t have equality and freedom. There are many different hierarchies.   2:06:54 - The pursuit of goals is what makes life meaningful. There is no reason to have goals if there’s nothing to win at. You can’t create meaning if you can’t strive for anything.   2:09:04 - Controversial topics that shouldn’t be. Use of personality as an excuse from taking care of yourself. Be healthy and make yourself more desirable. Removing danger is dangerous.   2:11:14 - We use our middle school years to figure out the rules of society. Two year-olds aren’t malicious, they’re just testing the limits.   2:12:28 - It’s important for men to be men. Women will find 85% of men below average in terms of attractiveness. To be attractive, be the best version of yourself you can be.   2:14:11- Life competence matters. There should be true rewards for success, and true consequences for failure. People need to be able to fail. Pain is useful.   2:15:36 - Peterson’s comments are tailor made to get taken out of context. Example of “women can find meaning in childbirth” and “the pay gap”.   2:17:29 - The game that we’re measuring when we measure income is just one game, and is not meaning for life. There are other places to find meaning. Women express alternative places they can derive meaning. Reverse societal pressure to say that some women are “too good” to want to raise a family.   2:21:36 - Sponsor. Perfect Keto pizza!.   2:22:08 - Women can win in men’s arenas. Men can’t win in what are typically considered women’s arenas. Men get flak for being in traditionally female roles (e.g. nurse, school teacher).   2:23:48 - Rule 12: Pet a Cat When You Encounter One on the Street. There are going to be a lot of horrible times in your life so when you get the opportunity to experience something good you should take it.   2:25:09 - Cats are the most perfect metaphor for nature, for being. They interact with humans but are not as fully domesticated as dogs are. If you pet a cat you’re getting an opportunity to appreciate being and nature. The dog will always run up to you and be happy to see you but that is not how reality is. Mutually assured non-destruction.   2:27:30 - Gratefulness. Appreciate a good cup of coffee or time with your family. Times are great right now but they won’t always be. Enjoy not being in chaos. Don’t be a turkey.   2:30:16 - Returning to chaos and order. We rise to the level of our training. Get into improving habits while the world is still in order.   2:32:13 - Don’t just sit at home watching YouTube, go and do something damnit! Is Peterson a heretic? He’s figured out how to monetize haters.   2:51:30 - Sponsors. Drink Mushroom Coffee from Four Sigmatic with cordyceps and chaga for evening working out. Go to Perfect Keto for your keto needs. Check Perfect Keto’s new liquid MCT oil good for pre-workout. Kettle on Fire’s Bone Broth is excellent to get back in your diet. Buy Jordan Peterson’s book and everything else using our Amazon link. Leave a review on iTunes. Subscribe to the email list for bonus materials and more tangents. Tell people. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com

What does this “Fifth Wave” mean for democracy? Is this a change libertarians should feel good about? Will it lead to more freedom?Show Notes and Further ReadingMartin Gurri, The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium (book)A selection from the book is available here: “How a Tsunami of Information Inspired the Revolt of the Public”James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (book)Martin Gurri blogs at The Fifth Wave. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scott is the distinguished Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology and is Director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University. The author of several books, such as Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed; The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia; Domination and the Arts of Resistance; and Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, Scott is recognized worldwide as an authority on Southeast Asian, peasant, and agrarian studies. His research concerns political economy, comparative agrarian societies, theories of hegemony and resistance, peasant politics, revolution, Southeast Asia, theories of class relations and anarchism. He is currently teaching Agrarian Studies and Rebellion, Resistance and Repression. Scott is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has held grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation, and has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Science, Science, Technology and Society Program at M.I.T., and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He received his bachelor's degree from Williams College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. The lecture is sponsored by the UNE Department of Political Science and the Student Club “People of Politics.”