Thoughts in Between: exploring how technology collides with politics, culture and society

Rohit Krishnan is an investor and writer; he is the author of Strange Loop Canon (he was previously on the podcast here). Visa Veerasamy is the author of Introspect and Friendly Ambitious Nerd, among other things. In this conversation we talk about whether entrepreneurs are born or made; the role of culture in ambition; how we can make people more ambitious and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha are the co-authors of The Startup of You, which explores how to adapt, take risks, grow your network and transform your career. Reid was co-founder of LinkedIn and a partner at Greylock. He sits on the boards of a number of organisations including Microsoft, OpenAI and, of course, my company Entrepreneur First. Ben is an investor, entrepreneur and writer and is one of the founders of Village Global, a venture capital firm. As well as their book, which I recommend, they have an accompanying podcast, also called the Startup of You. In this conversation we discuss why careers are like startups, what you can give Bill Gates that he can't buy, how to do extremely effective referencing and much more. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Iason Gabriel is a research scientist at DeepMind and was previously a lecturer in political and moral philosophy at Oxford University. His work focuses on the moral questions raised by artificial intelligence. In this conversation we discuss how and why AI is different from other technologies; the problem of value alignment in AI; what political philosophy can tell us about how to build ethical AI systems; and much more. Iason's paper on value alignment that we discuss is here. In the paper, he also recommends this paper on decolonial AI; the book Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom; and the book Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross are the authors of a new book, Talent: How to identify energisers, creatives and winners around the world. Tyler is an economist, who is perhaps best known for his daily blogging at Marginal Revolution (which I've been reading since 2003!) and as the founder of Emergent Ventures, a grant-making programme focused on ambitious young people. Daniel is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and investor, perhaps best known as the founder of Cue, a search engine, and Pioneer, a global talent-focused startup tournament and investment programme. All three of us are talent obsessives, so this was a hugely fun conversation spanning every aspect of the topic, from why the market for talent is so inefficient to Tyler and Daniel answering their own favourite interview questions. I highly recommend their book, which you can buy here. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Kyla Scanlon is a creator and educator who focuses on explaining finance and economics through her newsletter, YouTube and TikTok videos. She has a unique perspective on how the internet continues to change everything around us. In this conversation we discuss social media and the authentic self; Elon Musk, Twitter and free speech; memes as an investment strategy; the future of the dollar as a global reserve currency and much more. Enjoy this conversation with Kyla Scanlon. You can subscribe to Kyla’s newsletter here; the edition we discuss on “F*** about and find out” is here. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Stuart Buck is the Executive Director of the Good Science Project, a new initiative to make science funding more effective, innovative, and robust. This mission has been the major theme of Stuart’s career; he was previously Vice President of Research at Arnold Ventures, a large philanthropic foundation. In this conversation, we discuss the twin problems of reproducibility and innovation in science, and whether they’re in tension. We talk about whether and why most published research findings are false; how to fix career incentives in science; and why science should embrace red teaming, among many other things. I recommend this essay by Stuart, which I reference during the conversation. The book I reference, The Enigma of Reason, is here and the review Stuart mentions is here. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Tanya is an academic and entrepreneur. She leads the Digital State project at Cambridge University's Bennett Institute and is the founder of StateUp, an advisory firm focused on innovation that serves a public purpose. In this conversation, we talk about the idea of "public purpose technology", the companies that are building it and the investors that are funding it. We talk through the challenges of building for the public sector - from procurement to fundraising - as well as the big opportunities for citizens, governments and entrepreneurs in more effective public purpose tech. Enjoy this conversation with Tanya Filer. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Nadia Eghbal is an independent researcher and writer. She’s the author of Working in Public, which is an ethnographic study of how Open Source Software is made and maintained. She recently won an Emergent Ventures grant to study and write about technology wealth and philanthropy. In this conversation, we discuss how and why technology entrepreneurs think differently about philanthropy, what this means for the funding of science, how crypto is changing this space and much more. Enjoy this conversation with Nadia Eghbal. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Shashank Joshi is defence editor at the Economist. Long-time listeners may remember our conversation last year on geopolitics and security. Shashank joins me again today for a special edition on the situation in Ukraine. Shashank talks us through how we got here, what Putin wants, and some of the possible endgames. I should emphasise that we recorded this first thing Friday morning UK time and it’s an extremely fast-moving situation, so we tried to focus on topics that wouldn’t be completely out of date by the time you’re hearing this. As usual, I learned a lot from Shashank. I have to say that his conclusions are quite sobering but very important to understand. Enjoy this conversation with Shashank Joshi. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com

Sam Arbesman is a complexity scientist and writer and is currently a scientist-in-residence at Lux Capital, a leading venture capital fund. Sam’s writing covers many topics that will be familiar to Thoughts in Between readers and listeners. In this conversation, we discuss the need for institutional innovation in science, the value of long-term thinking, the value of historical literacy in technology, and much more. Enjoy this conversation with Sam Arbesman. ----------------- Thanks to Cofruition for consulting on and producing the show. You can learn more about Entrepreneur First at www.joinef.com and subscribe to my weekly newsletter at tib.matthewclifford.com