unSILOed with Greg LaBlanc

Robert J. Gordon, a Northwestern University professor specializing in labor and capital productivity, dives into the complexities of measuring economic health. He critiques GDP as a metric, highlighting its failure to capture societal progress. Gordon discusses the rapid growth era from 1929 to 1950 and questions whether AI can spark a new productivity boom. The conversation also uncovers how historical infrastructure developments and modern technology interplay to affect labor productivity and inequality, provoking thoughts on future economic trajectories.

In ancient times, debtors were treated with severe punishment, even sometimes being dismembered. So when did things start to shift towards debt forgiveness leading up to the modern-day concept of filing for bankruptcy?David Skeel is the S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. He’s the author of several books that look at the history of corporate law, debt, and bankruptcy, including Icarus in the Boardroom: The Fundamental Flaws in Corporate America and Where They Came From and Debt's Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America. He and Greg discuss the origins of debt forgiveness in the world, how Christianity and the Bible played a role in that shift, and the proper amount of risk corporate leaders should take. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:A biblical perspective on debt and bankruptcy17:40:  There's a verse in the Old Testament that says you cannot take as collateral a debtor's millstone. And the idea there is that is the tool of the trade. There's another verse that says if you take the debtor's cloak as collateral, you've got to give it back at the end of the day. The idea being that the debtor's going to need that to keep warm. Even going back thousands of years, a sense that there needs to be a balancing. You need to make it possible for creditors to get repaid, but you also need to be aware of the humanity of the debtor and the needs of the debtor.Debt is like sex and fire09:28: Debt is like sex and fire; both of them were important in the ancient world and are important now, but they also have some dangerous downsides if they're misused. And that's the picture you get of debt: that people need debt is inevitable, but it's easy for people to get in over their heads, and there needs to be a way to deal with that possibility.How do you respond to risk-taking?29:43: One simple response to the risk-taking concern is to be mindful of regulations that create bad incentives in that respect, such as tax rules. And also, things like disclosure can make a difference.Sometimes lots of failures is an indication of a good economy or a good system, not a bad one23:32: There is empirical evidence that shows that in countries where you have a more generous bankruptcy system and more generous availability of a fresh start, you do get more entrepreneurship. There is a direct relationship between the two, but risk-taking can sometimes be problematic.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Republic of Debtors: Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence by Bruce MannThomas H. JacksonBankruptcy Reform Act of 1978Guest Profile:Faculty Profile at University of PennsylvaniaDavid Skeel on XHis Work:Icarus in the Boardroom: The Fundamental Flaws in Corporate America and Where They Came From (Law and Current Events Masters)The New Financial DealDebt's Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in AmericaTrue Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World 

How much does venture capital actually have to do with finance? It turns out, not that much. Rather, venture capital has more to do with psychology, network theory, and organizational dynamics. Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He’s written numerous books, including The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future and More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite. He and Greg discuss how venture capital can be a form of finance without much finance, why governance plays such an important role in successful venture capital, and why other places have found it difficult to replicate the Silicon Valley model. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Embeddedness is essential for startup success 45:09: Most of the good GPs I wrote about in my book either had an engineering degree or some other skill which would add value to the portfolio company, maybe be an expert in go-to-market strategies. Secondly, they know something about business and finance; perhaps they have a business degree. Thirdly, they may have started a startup or been an early employee in a startup. So that experience from the inside of being an entrepreneur, and you don't need maybe all three of those things, but you probably might need two. That's the obvious thing. The less obvious thing is that You need to be what I call embedded. You need to be in a network which is going to be generating startup founders, and you need to have standing in that network. You need to have thought leadership such that the founders that emerge from this network are going to want to come to you for money because they're also going to want you as their advisor, and that embeddedness is super important.What VCs are looking for04:00: Credibility, storytelling, embeddedness in the network, a sense of vision, a sense of passion, and commitment from the founding team. These are what the Venture Capitalists are looking for.Is there any chance we could create a more factory-like system for identifying good investments and good founders and investing in them?41:42: I think fundamentally the things that AI will not cannibalize are things where human-to-human contact is super important, and that is true of venture investing because it is about a venture capitalist, a human being, meeting a startup entrepreneur. They have to agree that they're going to be partners together and that this is going to be something you can't exit very easily, and you're probably going to be meshed together if it goes well.Behavioral dynamics23:28: Behavioral dynamics are super interesting when you think about the question of whether solo venture capitalists—whether that's a good model—became fashionable in the last three, four, or five years. I think partly a function of the bull market leading up to 2021 because it was relatively easy to raise capital. If you had some decent claim to be embedded in the Silicon Valley ecosystem, you could go out as an individual and raise some money, and why not do it by yourself? But I think that when you're trying to make slippery judgments on early-stage ventures, which have no quantitative guidelines, as I began by saying, all you have is the ability to test your human judgment on a smart partner who will push back against you and say if they disagree. So I think the dynamics within venture companies like that Monday morning meeting when you decide what to invest in, you've got six or seven partners around the table. That's super important.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Ronald CoaseRegional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee SaxenianSequoia CapitalKleiner PerkinsGuest Profile:Professional Profile for Council on Foreign Relations His Work:The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New FutureMore Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations

Bent Flyvbjerg, Professor at Oxford University and the IT University of Copenhagen, discusses the influence of strategic misrepresentation on project outcomes, power dynamics within organizations, and case studies from Sydney Opera House, Pixar, and Amazon.

Emily Austin, Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University, discusses Epicureanism and its relevance today. Topics include comparing Stoicism and Epicureanism, the significance of shared meals, mitigating the fear of death, and living unnoticed in a hyper-connected world.

Christian Stadler, Professor of Strategic Management at the Warwick Business School and author of multiple books on strategy and success, discusses the challenges of idea generation in established companies and the benefits of promoting a culture of openness and reshuffling within organizations. They also explore the importance of involving different stakeholders in decision-making processes, the effectiveness of crowdsourcing, and the potential conflict between human nature and change.

Is History driven by heroic individuals or by variation and selection? What determines the speed of innovation? Matt Ridley is a science writer, journalist, and businessman. His books include The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, Genome, Nature via Nurture, Francis Crick, The Rational Optimist, The Evolution of Everything, and How Innovation Works.Matt and Greg discuss the integral role freedom, idea exchange, and trade play in driving innovation. They delve deep into the concept of creative destruction and how it's essential for large corporations to reinvent themselves to stay competitive or be allowed to cease to exist suddenly. Matt talks about the debate surrounding the origin of COVID-19, its implications for virology, and the spread of false information in our interconnected world. The discussion examines the controversial lab leak hypothesis and the impact of China's rise on global innovation.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Why is it that evolutionary thinking is like the gift that keeps on giving?02:25: The message of my book, "The Evolution of Everything," is that we don't want to let this insight remain confined to biology. It's just as useful as a way of understanding human society in lots of different aspects. Not just economics, but social change as well. Because really, the simple idea that if there's variation, if there's trial and error, if there's experimentation going on, then some ideas are going to survive at the expense of others. And that's going to lead to progressive adaptation. That's going to lead to progressive improvement in some technology, in some social habits, whatever it might be.Innovation is more about rearranging the world14:20: Recombination of existing genes is the main way that innovation happens in evolutionary biology, much more common than de novo mutation, and that's true of us too. Most of the new products we produce in the world by innovation are actually just the same old materials combined in new and interesting ways. Innovation is more about rearranging the world than it is about coming up with completely new things.Crony capitalism extends corporate lifespans, stifling innovation27:41: Crony capitalism, corporate favoritism, is a tried-and-true and tested way to stay in the game. But it tends to come at the expense of innovation, and it tends to leave you more and more vulnerable to collapse when you do. Get to face real competition. It tends to leave the company vulnerable to disappearing. Everybody thinks they know innovation, but only few people can pin it down30:46: The main reason we're living lives of far greater comfort than we did 500 years ago is still somewhat mysterious. We can tell you things like it needs freedom, it needs trial and error, and things like that, but we can't switch it on and off, let alone tell you when and where it's going to happen. In that sense, it's a surprisingly slippery thing, innovation. Everybody talks about it. Everybody thinks they know about it, but surprisingly, few people can really pin it down. And as I say, you can't put it in a mathematical model, at least not in a very convincing way.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Intentional stanceGreat man theoryFrancis CrickInfinite Improbability DriveMemeGeoffrey WestLinear modelFrancisco MojicaCOVID-19 lab leak theoryZoonosisMichael ShellenbergerGuest Profile:Speaker’s Profile on Chartwell SpeakersMatt Ridley's WebsiteMatt Ridley on LinedInMatt Ridley on XMatt Ridley on YouTubeMatt Ridley on TEDTalk Matt Ridley on Talks at GoogleHis Work:Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity EvolvesHow Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in FreedomThe Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas EmergeThe Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human NatureGenome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 ChaptersThe Origins of VirtueNature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us HumanFrancis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic CodeClimate Change: The Facts 2017

How does one tell the story of knowledge through the centuries? And what kind of knowledge is being discussed when looking at its history? Peter Burke, a professor of history at Cambridge University, has written more than 30 books over the course of his lifetime and has taken a special interest in studying the history of knowledge and polymaths. He and Greg discuss a couple of his major works like The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag and What is the History of Knowledge? (What is History?). They also discuss how the history of knowledge can not come without a history of ignorance, whether or not polymaths are a thing of the past, and if the aggregate amount of knowledge is increasing today.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Decision-Making, where history of knowledge meets general history39:59: I got into decision-making, and the nice thing about it is it connects history of knowledge with general history more clearly than other studies in the history of knowledge. So it breaks down one more barrier because one great thing about history in the last couple of generations is the interest of different historians in different other disciplines: economic historians studying economics, social historians studying sociology. The great price has been that in having a fruitful dialogue with their colleagues in the neighboring discipline, they no longer speak to other historical colleagues, but this history of knowledge and ignorance has the potential for connecting things. All these different practical areas where decisions are taken that is influencing the history of the world, and knowledge is playing this crucial part, or the absence of knowledge is playing this crucial part.What unique insights do historians offer to understand knowledge creation and innovation?48:30: Historians are people who specialize in telling you that the problem that you think is unique is one that has occurred a number of times in the past. And that's the most specifically historical. Otherwise, I think historians are like sociologists and even more like anthropologists because they try to understand the mindset of people in other cultures, and this is an absolutely indispensable kind of knowledge, which we need more and more in a globalizing world where we're constantly living. Meeting people from other cultures, constantly misunderstanding them, and constantly being misunderstood by them.How does the brain of polymaths work?21:17: Polymaths need a great power of concentration. So, they're described by their families and friends as they pick up a book, and they somehow sort of suck the contents out in half an hour, but they do this because they've got this incredible concentration. But because they're concentrating on the problem, and they're living in the everyday world, what other people notice is their failure: The failure of the polymaths to notice what's happening around them, absent-mindedness. But their mind, if it's absent from ordinary everyday life, is extremely present next to the problem they're trying to solve.New knowledge is always associated with new ignorance42:33: New knowledge is always associated with new ignorance, and this is inevitable given that human beings still sleep for eight hours a night except for a few polymaths. And they don't spend all their time acquiring knowledge. So if they acquire some of the new knowledge, for example, about IT, and then they've got less time to acquire some of the old knowledge.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Karl MannheimEdward ShilsGottfried Wilhelm LeibnizPierre BourdieuThomas AquinasLewis MumfordCs lewis discarded image Guest Profile:Faculty Profile at Cambridge UniversityHis Work:Ignorance: A Global HistoryThe Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan SontagThe Art of ConversationWhat is the History of Knowledge? (What is History?)French Historical RevolutionThe Italinan REnaissanceWhat is Cultural History?Social History of KnowledgeFortunes of the CourtierEyewitnessingCultural Hybridity

Nowadays, if someone wants to make a lot of money in finance, they don’t go and work for investment banks. The real money to be made is at private equity firms. With most of these firms controlling a huge percentage of the country’s overall GDP and doing so largely unchecked, is it time to take a hard look at the systems that protect and allow these actors to flourish?? Brendan Ballou is special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. His book, Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America, takes a hard look at the way private equity firms operate and the laws they exploit.  He and Greg discuss what sets private equity firms apart from other financial institutions in America, the ways private equity firms avoid liability when things go wrong, and what reforms are needed to the systems that essentially allowed private equity to become the beast that it is today. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:Private equity as an institution is unique05:31: Private equity as an institution is unique for three reasons. One is that private equity owners tend to invest for just a few years, so you're talking about a three, five, or seven-year time horizon. Two is that private equity firms tend to load up the companies they buy with a lot of debt and extract a lot of fees. And the magic trick, as you probably know, a lot of these private equity deals is when they load these companies up with debt; for the acquisition, it's the company that holds the debt, not the private equity firm. So if things go badly, it's the company that's on the hook. It's not the private equity owners and investors. And then the third thing, and this is what really interests me as a lawyer, is private equity firms are enormously successful at insulating themselves legally from the consequences of their portfolio company's actions. So, if something goes wrong at a portfolio company, someone is hurt, or an employee is taken advantage of, whatever it happens to be, it's very hard to hold a private equity firm responsible.Is private equity an extreme version of capitalism?03:44:  Private equity is an extreme version of capitalism, for better or for worse...It's not an extreme form of capitalism. It's a deviation or a perversion of capitalism by the specific laws and regulations that we have that incentivize short-term term investing, reliance on debt, and insolation from liability. We've created these legal structures that allow certain people to capture all the upside of our economy if things go well, but walk away if they don't.Short-term gain versus long-term success12:17: The time frame that you've got for an investment changes your perspective on what you're going to do with it, whether you're going to jack up prices for the short term, even if it means that you're going to lose customers for the long term, underinvest in your employees and your innovation, even if it means that you might be scooped by the competition in a few years, and so forth.How are private equity firms compensated?31:00: Private equity firms are compensated on a 2-in-20 model: 2% of the profits above a certain threshold, 20% of the profits above a certain threshold, and 2% of the assets under management every year. The carried interest loophole says that both of those should be treated as capital gains rather than ordinary income, and capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income. That's pretty much all the money that a private equity executive typically makes. So, leaders of private equity firms have historically paid a lower tax rate than the firefighters and teachers that they nominally serve.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Other People's Money And How The Bankers Use It by Louis BrandeisThe Modern Corporation and Private PropertyPeter Whoriskey’s story on the Carlyle Group for The Washington PostWorth RisesSIFIsGuest Profile:Brendan Ballou on LinkedInBrendan Ballou on X His Work:Plunder: Private Equity's Plan to Pillage America

Ever wondered why some people seem to have an aversion to gesturing while speaking? Or did you know that even in the absence of sight, human beings instinctively use gestures to communicate?Susan Goldin-Meadow is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago and also the author of the books Thinking with Your Hands: The Surprising Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our Thoughts, The Resilience of Language, and Hearing Gesture: How Our Hands Help Us Think.Susan and Greg take a deep dive into the integral role of gestures in language acquisition, especially during early childhood. They also discuss the striking similarity of key gestures across various cultures, indicating a shared linguistic heritage, the fascinating evolution of various sign languages, and the unique ways they convey information distinctly from spoken language. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:On integrating gesture with speech34:21: What gesture is really good at is integrating with speech. It needs to be integrated with speech. It's one of the reasons co-speech gesture is useless for deaf kids because they can't hear the speech, and then they see all of these things that we do, and they think, and so what they come up with is quite different from co-speech gestures. So, co-speech gesture is co-speech gesture and needs to be thought about along with speech. So, taking away speech isn't going to do it. If in fact, you tell people, "Okay, shut up, don't say a word," but gesture to describe this, your gesture will look different from the way it looks when it accompanies speech.Gestures are not as sophisticated as sign language26:18:  You can do whatever you want in sign language, and it works. It's a language. Gestures are not as sophisticated as sign language or spoken language.Transmission is important for language to take-off12:40: Deaf individuals used to be pretty isolated in hearing homes. But at one point, they created a Deaf education system, and they brought a bunch of homesigners, essentially, together, and they interacted with one another. So, at that point, they started to develop lexical items that they shared, things like that. But the language took off when new little deaf kids came into the community and learned the system from these older ones. So, there's some evidence that real transmission helps the language grow. You may need to share it and communicate. But transmission is essential in order for the language to take off.Sign language is more than just Hand-in-Mouth31:00: Signers gesture, but their sign language is categorical, just like spoken language, and their gesture is more imagistic. So, sign language sign-gesture mismatches work in the same way that speech-gesture mismatches work: to predict. Learning it can't be about two modalities because the signers are using one modality, just hands, to represent this stuff—and that turns out to be true. So it feels like it's not just hand-in-mouth. Hand-in-mouth may help. It may do some work for us, but there's something more. It really is the way gesture represents information and language represents information co-occurring together.Show Links:Recommended Resources:List of GesturesFrench Sign LanguageFrench Sign Language FamilyPaul EkmanDance NotationLabanotationGuest Profile:Faculty Profile at the University of ChicagoThe Goldin-Meadow LaboratoryNational Academy of Sciences ProfileSusan Goldin-Meadow on LinkedInSusan Goldin-Meadow on TEDxUChicagoHer Work:Thinking with Your Hands: The Surprising Science Behind How Gestures Shape Our ThoughtsThe Resilience of LanguageHearing Gesture: How Our Hands Help Us ThinkGoogle Scholar PageResearchGate Publications