Scott Aaronson — Quantumania (EP.240)
Infinite Loops
My guest today is Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist, OG blogger, and quantum computing maestro. Scott has so many achievements and credentials that listing them here would take longer than recording the episode. Here's a select few: Self-taught programmer at age 11, Cornell computer science student at 15, PhD recipient by 22! Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin. Director of UT Austin's Quantum Information Center. Former visiting researcher on OpenAI's alignment team (2022-2024). Awarded the ACM prize in computing in 2020 and...
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Danny Crichton — Player of Games (EP.239)
Infinite Loops
Danny Crichton is a man of many talents. He’s got a background in computer science, has worked in the worlds of foreign policy, was a managing editor at Techcrunch, and now serves as Head of Editorial at Lux Capital. As Lux’s de-facto games master, Danny also devises their Riskgames: strategic simulations that immerse players in complex scenarios reflecting real-world challenges and dynamics. These games – whose players include senators, major generals, congressmen and, think-tank CEOs – include scenarios like ‘Hamptons at the Cross-Roads’ (that deals with climate change and...
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Yuk Chi Chan — On Rockets, Dog Years & Robotic Space-Snakes (EP.238)
Infinite Loops
My guest today is the human Swiss Army Knife, Yuk Chi Chan, who has packed more into the last decade than many people do in a lifetime. Yuk Chi is the founder of Charter Space, the first British space company to graduate from the Techstars Space Accelerator. Before that, he served as an officer in the Singapore army (hmm, so maybe I should have described him as a Singaporean Army Knife) and practiced as a space lawyer (it’s funny how much cooler being a lawyer becomes when you preface it with the word “space”). Suffice to say, Yuk Chi knows a lot about space. We had a blast discussing...
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Dan Shipper — I, Writer (EP.237)
Infinite Loops
“Ignoring what is obvious incurs a huge cost. It requires you to go about your day numbing yourself to the reality of who you are and what you want—which is a waste of time for you and everyone around you. By contrast, admitting what is obvious is freeing and motivating. But it’s terrifying to do it. Sometimes the most obvious truths about ourselves are hard to see because the consequences of those truths seem so dire.” Those are the opening lines of one of my I’ve read in the last year, written by this week’s guest on Infinite Loops - Dan Shipper. Dan is the Co-founder and CEO of...
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Dr. Gena Gorlin — How to Build a Builder (EP.236)
Infinite Loops
My guest today is Dr. Gena Gorlin, a psychologist specializing in the unique needs of the ultra-ambitious. Unlike many in her field. Gena doesn’t aim to simply lift the floor of her clients’ ambitions — she wants to raise the ceiling. In this episode, she breaks down the “Builder Mindset” - a way of thinking that empowers people to live to healthier, happier, and more fulfilled lives. Over on our , we dig deeper into Gena’s ideas, exploring the perils of perfectionism, the allure of complacency, and why psychological perfection might be more achievable than you think. Important...
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Nir Eyal — How To Become An Indistractable Force (EP.235)
Infinite Loops
“Most people don’t want to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that distraction is always an unhealthy escape from reality.” My latest guest, , writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of , technology, and business. Nir previously taught as a at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. In our conversation, Nir gives it to us straight. Distraction is killing us, and stopping us from reaching our full potential. In a world that is constantly conspiring to keep us distracted, Nir provides an...
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Alex Danco — Finding Mystery in the Margin (EP.234)
Infinite Loops
As the saying goes, only three things in life are certain: death, taxes & Alex Danco. Armed with sizzling hot takes on the sad death of Twitter likes and a new secret weapon in the form of his catchphrase-turned-episode theme (“Without mystery, there is no margin”), Alex returns for his eighth episode. Despite our intentional lack of preparation, somehow this ended up as one our most cohesive conversations yet. As usual, we’ve included links and an episode transcript over on our , where we’ve also made the foolhardy attempt to distil one overriding theme from eight episodes of...
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Mike Maples, Jr. — How To Become a Pattern-Breaking Founder (EP.233)
Infinite Loops
Mike Maples, Jr., co-founding partner of the VC firm Floodgate, is the veteran seed investor behind some of the 21st-century’s great success stories, including Twitter, Twitch, and Applied Intuition. His book, Pattern Breakers (co-authored with Peter Ziebelman), articulates a new model of foundership, one built on the simple premise that transformative startups upend rather than improve current practices. My company, OSV, is built around my belief that the collapse of the old models presents enormous opportunities to those savvy enough to seize them, so I had a blast quizzing Mike on the...
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Ben Orlin — Math As Universal Language (EP.232)
Infinite Loops
As 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 , 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...
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Gurwinder Bhogal's Guide to Modern Survival (EP.231)
Infinite Loops
“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 returns to discuss how willpower and good old-fashioned human agency can help us reclaim our mental sovereignty and escape the “constant avalanche of concerns that are being vomited over us through our laptop screens, our phones, our TV screens, and in conversations.” For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other stuff designed to make you go, “Hmm,...
info_outlineMy guest today is Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist, OG blogger, and quantum computing maestro.
Scott has so many achievements and credentials that listing them here would take longer than recording the episode. Here's a select few:
- Self-taught programmer at age 11, Cornell computer science student at 15, PhD recipient by 22!
- Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin.
- Director of UT Austin's Quantum Information Center.
- Former visiting researcher on OpenAI's alignment team (2022-2024).
- Awarded the ACM prize in computing in 2020 and the Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize in Physics (under 40 category) in 2018.
… you get the point.
Scott and I dig into the misunderstood world of quantum computing — the hopes, the hindrances, and the hucksters — to unpack what a quantum-empowered future could really look like. We also discuss what makes humans special in the age of AI, the stubbornly persistent errors of the seat-to-keyboard interface, and MUCH more.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, some highlights from Scott’s blog, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!” check out our Substack.
Important Links:
- Shtetl-Optimized (Scott’s blog)
- My Reading Burden
- On blankfaces
Show Notes:
- So much reading. So little time.
- The problem of human specialness in the age of AI
- It’s always the same quantum weirdness
- Why it’s easy to be a quantum huckster
- Quantum progress, quantum hopes, and quantum limits
- Encryption in a quantum empowered world
- Wielding the hammer of interference
- Scientific discovery in a quantum empowered world
- Bureaucracy and blank faces
- Scott as Emperor of the World
- MORE!
Books Mentioned:
- The Fifth Science; by ****Exurb1a
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams