The Local Maximum with Max Sklar

Today's guest is Foursquare Principal Engineer and Unfolded Founder Isaac Brodsky, talking about the mission of location visualization and how this was achieved by tiling the world with Hexagons using the H3 open source framework and Foursquare's Hex Tiles. We learn a lot about the geometry of the globe!localmaxradio.com/248 Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Headlining today is Elon Musk's re-takeover of Twitter, after seemingly backing out earlier. Updates from the war in Ukraine. Paypal says it will fine you $2500 if you say certain forbidden things - but then quickly backtrack. Biden's administration aspires for new "AI" regulations - and finally - Ziph's Law is the distribution of the week! Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Today's Guest is AJ Jacobs, author of The Puzzler: One Max's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life. Max and AJ talk about what he's learned about puzzles on the way, the benefits and strategies of problem solving, and finally wade into the sleeping beauty problem probability controversy. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Max starts with a brief news update on ethereum, and then moves to the Kolmogorov axioms of probability. What is an axiom system anyway - and why would someone want to change it? Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Phyl Terry - a pioneer in customer experience for decades - talks to Max about how he has applied these principles to crack the job search (and even revolutionize it!) in the new book "Never Search Alone". Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Todays guest is CEO and co-founder of Conexus, the first spinoff of the MIT math department that takes discoveries in high level mathematics (category theory) and applies them to make databases intelligent across many industries. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

This week's news update starts with a discussion of an AI project that won an art competition, followed by Cloudflare's decision to block access to one of its clients. The probability distribution of the week is the roll of a pair of dice, and we down a deep philosophical rabbit hole that leads to the multiverse. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Today's guest is Žiga Fajfar, a tech entrepreneur who is focusing on scaling Flowout, who talks to Max about the "no-code" trend in building software. Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Max looks at what's next in the Cryptocosm following the recently declared "winter". He covers the complicated Ethereum merge as well as the government crackdown on tornado cash and what that means for privacy.Distribution of the week: Multinomial Distribution Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe

Over the weekend, listeners and friends gathered in Rollinsford New Hampshire to discuss technology, ideas, and predictions. We ended up getting on stage and running a free-for-all panel where participants and Max discuss the issues of the day Get full access to The Local Maximum at localmaximum.substack.com/subscribe