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“Most of the people I know working in AI—and I might have a biased sample size—are people who are inspired about fixing the world. They grew up on sci-fi, and they're from a really cool science fiction intellectual tradition that feels really modern, really American. I first got really caught up in that because, you know, in 2020 and stuff I was like, "Wow, the whole world is sad," and here everyone's really excited. Everyone's really happy, and everyone really wants to build America and really wants to make something great. But they are also fighting market forces. They're also just trying to stay alive.”

What I quickly realized is how many yellow blazers there are in the world and that at many times in my life, I too have been a yellow blazer—opting for easier but less authentic and less interesting routes. The podcast is part of a portfolio of things that I put in place in my life to try to avoid being a yellow blazer, to instead push myself to be more like a blue blazer, exploring anywhere I can.

This was illuminating. My notes:

Negative power is the way people have been control for most of human history.

Negative power means being controlled by prohibition or limitation, telling people you can’t do this or that. Today, people are controlled through positive power. Positive power tells you you can be whatever you want, you’re in charge, so you have no limitations. As long as you can put your head down, focus, grind, achieve your short term goals, set new ones and achieve those.

Authenticity is an ad campaign of neo-liberalism. It's a self absorbed nightmare. People now have to define themselves through themselves without any sort of help from the outside. Everyone is their own little personal project. Everything we learn is not just learning anymore. It's an investment in ourselves. Everything is about mentally optimizing yourself working, producing more efficiently with your mind.