Jack Of All Knowledge

In the 11th episode, I’m talking to Ashish Kulkarni – someone who genuinely embodies the title of this show ‘Jack of all knowledge’. Ashish is an assistant professor at the Gokhle Institute of Politics and economics, Pune. He also writes at his blog econ4everybody about economics, ideas, perspectives and everything under the sun. He also hosts a podcast called back to college in which he talks to college graduates about what they would do differently if they were again in college. Ashish had been a dream guest for the show for a long time and it was very exciting for me to be able to host him, you’ll see shortly why. I talked to Ashish about a lot of things – about how he dropped engineering to study economics, about his passions and philosophy for education and the education system, what it means to be curious and how one can become more curious, why everyone should write, how his ideal university looks like, how he optimises for time and attention in the internet age and finally his sound advice on how to maximise soul. By far this was the best conversation on my podcast yet, I hope you enjoy! Ashish is on twitter at @shish2727. Links: Econ4everybody: https://econforeverybody.com/ Back to college: https://open.spotify.com/show/250XSqf7sfLJNAg5gL1u5U?si=d0BGsrThSnm5k4xn11CPYQ&dl_branch=1 Maximising soul: https://econforeverybody.com/2021/03/08/maximizing_soul/ Ashish’s interview on philosophy and future of education part I: https://praneetsinghbutran.substack.com/p/on-the-philosophy-and-future-of-education Ashish’s interview on philosophy and future of education part II: https://praneetsinghbutran.substack.com/p/on-the-philosophy-and-future-of-education-590 On Interning: https://econforeverybody.com/2021/03/05/on-interning/ Unbundling college: https://econforeverybody.com/2020/07/14/unbundling-college/ Long, slow, but inevitable death of classroom: https://econforeverybody.com/2021/01/28/the-long-slow-but-inevitable-death-of-the-classroom/ How to optimise twitter as a learning tool: https://divyanshu99.substack.com/p/why-twitter-is-the-single-most-important-21-06-06 Marginal Revolution: https://marginalrevolution.com/ Conversations with Tyler: https://conversationswithtyler.com/ Almost ideal university, part I: https://econforeverybody.com/2021/07/09/the-almost-ideal-university/ At Tyler Cowen university, no one would have tenure: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-05/what-would-your-fantasy-university-look-like 

In this episode of Jack of all knowledge, I'm joined by my dear friend and senior Nirmal Bhansali. Nirmal is a 5th year law student at NLUJ, and will be graduating from college this summer. I talk to him about a range of issues, from his experience of hosting two different podcasts, to curiosity and how learning happens inside and outside college. We go off on a bunch of different interesting tangents which makes the conversation richer. Nirmal is on twitter as @NirmalSBhansali. 1. Curiousect: https://open.spotify.com/show/3xy0CTHMOHTvuYy2sKNvGA?si=tB-K8hPCQNKPVzC5gpknSg&utm_source=copy-link 2. Legal Synthesis (with Sandesh Atyam): https://open.spotify.com/show/22uItKBeS0gcABpxgTrCiQ?si=GR6crqvqR2-o1MZ_2jvSLw&utm_source=copy-link 3. 99% Invisible: https://open.spotify.com/show/2VRS1IJCTn2Nlkg33ZVfkM?si=a2vTqf40T42n_sH-67Pi7Q&utm_source=copy-link 4. This American Life: https://open.spotify.com/show/41zWZdWCpVQrKj7ykQnXRc?si=vxLJpGRaRyu49bKyTmUG9g&utm_source=copy-link 5. More perfect: https://open.spotify.com/show/6iVxbLoqDofkNpXYO4mt2W?si=45m9LFftShOhCxW5V5-aQQ&utm_source=copy-link 6. Hello Internet: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qJxqNeEbtFpRVkUchWTRr?si=ta_-LmSDT8WoF85ds_lo2Q&utm_source=copy-link 7. The undismal paradox: https://open.spotify.com/show/0E5PReAJtDkKFBhbMKzo4n?si=lOuv0VCSQvSy1rZmFIuQDg&utm_source=copy-link 8. Ways of hearing: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5sovOkTvSVAi1VDgKKi74d?si=9rRsh4d8Sh61M6iJu89GcQ&utm_source=copy-link 9. Roman Mars's Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/pnv5iKB2hl4 10. Paul Graham's essay on Curiosity: http://www.paulgraham.com/think.html 11. Nirmal's episode titled 'A longing to read': https://open.spotify.com/episode/7BhjVdVNIYLkhGZl7SkI0B?si=Vq6OShcUTNOKlqWFexJ9jw&utm_source=copy-link 12. Max Joseph's video about Bookstore and reading: https://youtu.be/lIW5jBrrsS0 13. Ashish Kulkarni's (v cool) blog: https://econforeverybody.com/ My essays on some related topics: 1. The knowledge tradeoff: https://impatientlycurious.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-knowledge-trade-off.html 2. Bring back long-form: https://impatientlycurious.blogspot.com/2021/03/bring-back-long-form.html 3. Procrastination kills knowledge: https://impatientlycurious.blogspot.com/2021/03/procrastination-kills-knowledge.html 4. Inadequacy of knowledge: https://impatientlycurious.blogspot.com/2021/03/inadequacy-of-knowledge.html 5. Advice to my 18 y/o self: https://impatientlycurious.blogspot.com/2021/04/advice-to-my-18-year-old-self.html

In this episode, I'm joined by Apar Gupta, executive director and founder of Internet Freedom Foundation. IFF works on a range of issues including net neutrality, free expression, privacy and innovation through advocacy and strategic litigation. We talk about how IFF was born out of save our internet movement and how it works to advance democratic visions in a digital society. We also talk about how technology impacts our liberty and freedom, and how Apar's passion to work for public interest led him to leave his quite successful practice to establish IFF. Apar is on twitter as @apar1984

In this episode I'm joined by Sagnik Das, Asst Professor at Jindal Global Law School to talk about his wide range of experiences from learning the law, to practising it, and now to teaching it, and the wisdom he's gathered along the way. We talk about his time as an undergraduate student at NLUJ and later as a master's candidate at the prestigious Harvard Law School. We also talk about his interest in International Law and his experience as a judicial clerk in the Delhi HC.

In this episode of Jack of all knowledge, I'm talking to Nikhil Purohit, a final year student at NLS about the cat and mouse chase between scientific publishing industries and open access websites like SciHub, and LibGen. These websites have been sued for copyright infringement by major publishing companies in the Delhi HC recently. We talk about how the scientific publishing industry works, why people find their business model questionable, and most importantly - what is the legitimate case for SciHub and Libgen. Nikhil is a fellow at SpicyIP and this episode is based around the three part series of articles he wrote on this issue, posted below: 1. https://spicyip.com/2020/12/sci-hub-and-libgen-up-against-academic-publishers-a-death-knell-for-access-to-research-part-i.html 2. https://spicyip.com/2020/12/sci-hub-and-libgen-up-against-academic-publishers-a-death-knell-for-access-to-research-part-ii.html 3. https://spicyip.com/2020/12/sci-hub-and-libgen-up-against-academic-publishers-a-death-knell-for-access-to-research-part-iii.html

In the sixth epsiode of Jack of all knowledge, I'm taking to Shohini Sengupta, Asst. Professor of Research at the Jindal School of Banking and Finance. We talk extensively about Fin-tech companies and how technology has changed the face of financial regulation and regulators, broader financial laws in India & their intersection with privacy, and the architect of India stack. Shohini has done her BA. LLB. from NLIU Bhopal and went on to do her MSc. In Law & Finance from university of Oxford. She's previously worked at the Vidhi Center for legal policy, ESYA Center and also as a government energy lawyer.

In the 5th episode of Jack of all knowledge, I talk to Hamsini Marada, lecturer at Jindal Global Law School, around a range of issues regarding how art and law interact with each other. We talk about how art is used as means of resistance, about how protest art works, what happens when provocative art attracts obscenity laws & the paradigm of free speech in India with respect to freedom to indulge in art. We also talk about her experience as a judicial clerk at the Delhi HC, how teaching has changed due to the pandemic, and the recent criminal law reforms commitee. Hamsini has done her BSL LLB from ILS Pune, and then went on to do her LLM from University of Cambridge. She's interested in Comparative Constitution Law, Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics & Criminal law.

In the 4th episode of Jack of All Knowledge, I talk to Medianamas's correspondent on drones, surveillance and privacy - Soumyarendra Barik on the evolving drone ecosystem in India - it's challenges and promises. MediaNama is the premier source of information and analysis on Technology Policy in India. We talk about a range of issues from facial recognition technology, to privacy and the state's apparent obsession with using technology to 'solve' all issues. Here's Soumya's fantastic reporting on the drone ecosystem and associated privacy concerns: 1. https://www.medianama.com/2020/07/223-drone-guide-india/ 2. https://www.medianama.com/2020/11/223-tn-police-catch-criminal-using-facial-recognition-issues/ 3. https://www.medianama.com/2020/09/223-indian-automated-facial-recognition-system-face-mask-detection/ 4. https://www.medianama.com/2020/07/223-afrs-revised-tender-ncrb/

In the third episode of Jack of all knowledge, I talk to Anushka Jain of the Internet Freedom Foundation to understand the usage of Facial Recognition Technology in India and the various problems associated with it. We also talk about how FRT is a tool in creating a culture of mass surveillance which has harmful consequences such as the chilling effect on protests, dissent and the free speech of people. Link to the Notion document with all the research Resources: https://www.notion.so/Facial-recognition-Technology-in-India-and-the-threat-to-Privacy-Ep-3-Jack-of-all-knowledge-4736ba3285284ea5bb622600d87cffda

In the second episode of Jack of all knowledge, I use tools of behavioral economics and Game theory to try to understand why we Indians, behave a certain way. I also talk about the role that heuristics & cognitive biases play in determining what type of decisions we take and what the central clash between classical and behavioural economics is. This episode is based on the book 'Games Indians Play' by V Raghunathan. Link to the broadcast: https://chat.whatsapp.com/IInZ5GIhjNRLWcKXubqBOy