Modest Conversations - The Information

Sam and Erik discuss ISAs / and the future of equity investing in people / personal income vs. debt financing.

Tim and I discuss some of the thinking around his new book WTF - What’s The Future and Why It’s Up To Us. We talk in particular about our world of runaway objective functions, and the role human agency must play to manage to a future we want vs. one we do not.

Tristan Harris, former Google design ethicist and critic of the attention economy, discusses modern persuasive design and digital addiction. He explains how immersion, social persuasion, AI personalization, and device defaults amplify attention capture. They explore harms to shared reality, risks for kids, and bold fixes like attention taxes, humane defaults, and conversational interfaces.

Kortina and I discuss how much of modern life is about lines. As consumers we wait on line for restaurants, takeoff windows, and countless other experiences. As producers many of us - not just ER doctors - spend a good percentage of our 'working' time waiting for work to do and under-utilized. We discuss how technology and technology design is impacted by and impacts the nature of lines and waiting on them for producers and consumers.

Blake joins to discuss the human side of technology - growth mindset, failure, and success. How do the people who build technology, and the ways they collaborate on teams, and the culture of tech companies define the products that come out?

Erik and I discuss the ins-and-outs of Homo Deus, which has become extremely popular in Silicon Valley. What is the thesis? What is the appeal? What makes sense and what is a stretch?

Zach Smith joins for a Modest Conversation on the making of the Tree of Ténéré at Burning Man. Where the project came from, trials and travails of getting it done, and thoughts on doing large scale art projects at Burning Man

Racquel joins to talk about all that is changing in the world of oncology, and why she things we are entering the golden age of oncology.

Alyssa joins for a modest conversation about technology is changing how we relate to nature, the environment, climate change, extinction, and more.

Alexia and I discuss the last week in Crypto and Bitcoin Cash. What does it look like when there is a pattern for faster innovation without 'consensus' in the cyrpto world? How does it change the power and importance of exchanges?