Roon — On Shape Rotators, AGI & Tenet (Infinite Loops CLASSICS)
Infinite Loops
Hello everyone, Jim here. We're taking a brief two-week break from new episodes to spotlight a couple of golden oldies from the Infinite Loops archive. Years later, these remain some of my favorite conversations. We’ll be back soon with fresh episodes, but in the meantime, enjoy this trip back to November 2023, when we welcomed the one and only Roon. _________________ AI researcher, memelord extraordinaire, and techno-optimist Roon joins the show to discuss coming up with the shape rotator vs. wordcel meme, what an AGI world could become, and why Tenet is Christopher Nolan’s best movie....
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Gurwinder Bhogal's Guide to Modern Survival (Infinite Loops CLASSICS)
Infinite Loops
Hello everyone, Jim here. We're taking a brief two-week break from new episodes to spotlight a couple of golden oldies from the Infinite Loops archive. Years later, these remain some of my favorite conversations. We’ll be back soon with fresh episodes, but in the meantime, enjoy this trip back to August 2024, when we welcomed the one and only Gurwinder Bhogal. _________________ “We have created for ourselves a world that we didn't evolve for.” Gurwinder Bhogal is, for my money, one of the most independent, original and insightful thinkers you’ll find in our corner of the internet. He...
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Joe Hudson — The Art of Accomplishment (EP. 280)
Infinite Loops
What happens when a self-described "not very good" venture capitalist discovers he has an extraordinary gift for coaching the world's most successful CEOs? Joe Hudson joins Infinite Loops to share his unconventional journey from Alaska fishing boats to Hollywood directing to Silicon Valley boardrooms, ultimately finding his calling in helping high-performers unlock their deepest potential. This conversation dives deep into Joe's revolutionary three-center approach to human development—working with the head, heart, and nervous system simultaneously to create lasting transformation, and MORE!...
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Michael Gibson & Danielle Strachman — The 1517 Rebellion (EP.279)
Infinite Loops
Michael Gibson and Danielle Strachman, co-founders of 1517 Fund, join the show to discuss their rebellion against higher education, why universities stifle creativity, why IQ doesn't correlate with innovation, and how betting on "misfit toys" is the way to go—plus we explore Girardian mimesis, the perishable nature of creativity, the laziness of pessimistic storytelling and MORE! I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our . Important...
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Ed Latimore — The Art of Self-Transformation (EP.278)
Infinite Loops
Ed Latimore: boxer, physicist, and author of Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business makes his third appearance on the show to discuss hard-won wisdom about impulse control, self-forgiveness, the challenges of modern parenting and why being discerning (not judgmental) about your social circle might be the simplest rule for a better life. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our . Important Links: Ed’s Previous Appearances: , Show...
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Sam Arbesman — Science, Complexity and Humanistic Computation (EP.277)
Infinite Loops
Sam Arbesman, complexity scientist, author of "The Magic of Code," and scientist in residence at Lux Capital, joins me for a wide-ranging exploration of how we navigate an increasingly complex world that often exceeds human comprehension. We dive into the oral traditions that preserve crucial scientific knowledge, why cognitive diversity trumps demographic diversity, the forgotten innovations hiding in technological history, and Sam's vision for "Maxis 2.0". This conversation had everything—from science fiction's cultural impact to the philosophy of intellectual humility. Sam and I...
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Nick Maggiulli — Climbing the Wealth Ladder (EP.276)
Infinite Loops
Nick Maggiulli, data scientist turned financial writer and COO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, joins me to discuss his latest book,The Wealth Ladder, which presents a six-level framework for building and managing wealth. Warning: this episode will upend what you think you know about money. We explore why atypical results require atypical actions, how income and not budgeting is the real unlock for wealth mobility, and how many financial myths persist simply because they feel good. Nick also shares the personal rules he lives by, how wealth changes meaning, and why being rich doesn’t guarantee...
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Lawrence Yeo — The Inner Compass (EP.275)
Infinite Loops
Lawrence Yeo — writer, illustrator and author of “The Inner Compass” — joins the show to discuss the power of intuition in an uncertain world. We explore why embracing uncertainty leads to greater curiosity, how social conditioning pulls us away from our true north, why doing things for their own sake builds authentic conviction and how journaling the "whys" rather than the "whats" can transform your self-awareness. This conversation flowed so naturally we jumped right in without a formal introduction! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways,...
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Will Storr—The Status Game (Infinite Loops CLASSICS)
Infinite Loops
Hello everyone, Jim here. We're taking a brief two-week break from new episodes to spotlight a couple of golden oldies from the archive. Years later, these remain some of my favorite conversations. We’ll be back soon with fresh episodes, but in the meantime, here's my September 2022 chat with the always interesting Will Storr. _________________ Will Storr is an award winning journalist and author. His book ‘The Status Game’ transforms our understanding of human nature by demonstrating how our unconscious desire for status ultimately drives our behaviour. Important Links: ...
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Rupert Sheldrake — On Scientism, Morphic Resonance and the Extended Mind (Infinite Loops CLASSICS)
Infinite Loops
Hello everyone, Jim here. We're taking a brief two-week break from new episodes to spotlight a couple of golden oldies from the Infinite Loops archive. Years later, these remain some of my favorite conversations. We’ll be back soon with fresh episodes, but in the meantime, enjoy this trip back to February 2024, when we welcomed the one and only Rupert Sheldrake. _________________ Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of 9 books and over 100 scientific papers. A critic of what he sees as the scientific establishment’s dogmatic dedication to materialism, he is perhaps best known for his...
info_outlineAs a former quant with six grandkids, my spidey-senses started tingling as soon as I heard about Ben Orlin’s mission to make math fun.
A native of St.Paul, Ben is a math educator and popularizer who is known for his “Math With Bad Drawing” blog and book series. Today’s conversation revolves around his excellent, original new book Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language, which reframes math as a language, complete with nouns, verbs and grammar.
Like any mathematician worth his salt, Ben loves games, which he sees as ‘puzzle engines’. No wonder then that our conversation meandered and unfolded like a satisfying puzzle, touching upon rich concepts. We discussed making sense of sampling through fantasy towns where 70% of inhabitants are lawyers (not a town I’d like to be in), threw in a bit of Lewis Carroll to discuss the assumptions built into propositional logic (sometimes it really is turtles all the way down) and pitied the Welsh kids learning how to count (keep listening to know what that means).
I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did! For more thoughts on the episode, the full transcript, and bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go; “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.
Important Links:
Show Notes:
- A Mathematician’s Obsession
- The Language of Algebra
- What the Tortoise Said to Achilles
- The Concrete and the Abstract
- Games As Puzzle Engines
- We’re not Built to Understand Base Rates
- Why We Always Think About Samples Incorrectly
- Randomness and Wikipedia Rabbit-holing
- Counting in Different Languages
- The Concept of Zero
- Negatives as the Mathematical Language of Opposites
- Mathematical Escape Rooms
- Why Is the World Comprehensible?
- Discussing Infinity on Infinite Loops
- The Deep Mathematics of Music
- Ben As Emperor of the World
Books Mentioned:
- Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language; by Ben Orlin
- Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas That Shape Our Reality; by Ben Orlin
- Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea; by Charles Seife
- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
- Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain; by Oliver Sacks