The 90s were a good time to be a teenager. It was interesting because it was like, it was boring in a certain way. You can't get kids excited about this. This is not something that people care about that much. And it's kind of boring unless you can find some significance of it. That is what politics was in the 90s. But I also think that if you looked at objective measures of, you know, depression and what have you, I think teens are like more depressed, whatever nowadays. The 90s is actually a pretty good time.
Topics:
(5:53) - Start of Balaji Interview
(6:24) - How would you introduce yourself to a stranger?
(8:19) - Do you think of your work as “whatever it takes” to advance your ideology?
(10:05) - What would you like to see most achieved?
(13:14) - What are the things you believe you are the best at?
(20:52) - What are the ideas you are most confident telling others that you know for certain?
(30:22) - Balaji’s upbringing & growing up in an age before the internet
(1:03:35) - Have you always been like this? Was there an inflection point that made you who you are today?
(1:11:41) - Are there any formative media, movie or books that really had an impact on you growing up?
(1:19:15) - Doing math as a hobby & philosophical frameworks
(1:29:19) - The Feynman Lectures & Magic the Gathering
(1:51:29) - Were there any inspirations you looked to in your transition into entrepreneurship?
(1:56:45) - What do you consider your career or body of work?
(2:07:20) - Where have you seen some of the bigger obstacles in your career?
(2:25:57) - Wealth, Burn Rate, and feeling “free to speak your mind”
(2:38:40) - How are you spending time and resources to have an impact according to your mission?
(2:50:56) - Are you trying to start your own network state or help people start theirs?
(2:55:06) - What’s your process with getting up to speed on new technologies?
(3:00:23) - What do you think about the trade-off between focusing on learning vs. when to start doing?
(3:03:50) - Countries that impacted Balaji’s philosophy
(3:08:33) - Balaji’s predictions on what Eric chose to have in the book
(3:13:13) - What are the mental models or heuristics you use most often?
(3:19:21) - Eric’s Themes of Balaji’s work
(3:28:14) - What is your definition of technology?
(3:36:09) - Do you believe a startup is synonymous with a great new technology?
(3:37:20) - The co-evolution of technology and humanity & Youth-Extension
(3:43:34) - The long-term battle for Network systems
(3:45:50) - What do you envision transhumanism looking like?