Michael Nielsen (@michael_nielsen), research fellow at Y Combinator Research, joins Erik for a wide-ranging discussion about a variety of topics, including:

* Why the top names in the S&P 500 change over time, but the top names in global university rankings don’t — and how to fix that.

* How Michael thinks about the role of risk in science, and why he'd like to see more risk-taking.

* Memory, including how to improve yours and why professional athletes seem to have such good ones.

* The “compliment deficit” in the world and how to fix it.

* The silver lining of the Bay Area housing problem.

* The reproducibility problem in social science.

* Why he’s a fan of chaos.

…and much more.

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Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.