84: The Tangent Episode

Made You Think

Welcome back to another episode of Made You Think! In this episode, Neil, Nat, and Adil give you a full 70 minutes doing what they do best: Going on tangents. Originally set to continue with the next book on their Great Books Project, the energy and caffeine took over as they dive into a variety of interesting discussions, stories, and ideas. This is an episode you don't want to miss!

We cover a wide range of topics including:

• Our favorite virtual reality video games and table games
• How new leadership at Twitter has impacted the app recently
• The strengths and limits of GPT-3
• Preventing burnout in longer-term or creative projects
• Being under-employed (on purpose)

And much more. Please enjoy, and make sure to follow Nat, Neil, and Adil on Twitter and share your thoughts on the episode.

Links from the Episode:

Mentioned in the show:

• FTX (0:26)
• SuperHot (2:07)
• Satisfactory (4:54)
• Terraforming Mars (9:18)
• Catan (9:34)
• Klask (10:27)
• 7 Wonders (11:38)
• Monopoly Deal (12:11)
• Epic Gardening (17:12)
• FAMA (30:05)
• Tweet Deleter (33:21)
• Twitter employees quit in droves (37:33)
• Github (50:39)
• LEX AI (59:38)
• GPT-3 (1:00:33)
• All-In Podcast (1:09:15)

Books Mentioned:

• Tao Te Ching (0:03) (Nat's Book Notes)
• Enders Game (7:12)
• The Pathless Path (21:51)

People Mentioned:

• Elon Musk (9:22)
• Kevin Espiritu (17:18)
• Paul Millerd (21:50)
• Marc Andreessen (31:53)

Show Topics:

(1:44) “Should we talk about the book?” This question answers itself as Nat, Neil, and Adil dive into conversations about their favorite virtual reality video games and board games, as well.

(7:05) A lot of games out there actually help you develop business and life skills. Although video games encourage high amounts of screen time, there is a lot of skills you can learn from them. There are also physical board games representative of the real world but with some fictional elements to it, making it very appealing and educational.

(14:22) It was at this point that the co-hosts decided they're too full of tangents to do a book episode. Nat, Neil, and Adil go back to talking about board games and the fun of strategic games.

(18:00) Preventing burnout in longer-term projects. You can’t be on all the time. Creative work is also hard to do for extended periods of time because it can be limited by your energy and mental output. We may even have certain parts of the month or year where we’re extra productive and wonder why we can’t always be that way, but it’s important to remember that resting is just as important as being productive.

(21:48) The idea of being under-employed purposely. If you've worked for a larger company or consultancy, you often have the feeling that you always have to be "on". When you work for yourself, it’s easy to fall back into the thought pattern that you have to be working all the time.

(28:26) Social media and podcast presence while also having a job. There are now ways for employers to check the online behaviors of their employment candidates and screen them using AI-powered tools.

(34:01) Some educational or funny content we save or bookmark for later tend to get lost in our library of likes. Platforms should create a better system for organizing and saving likes and bookmarks so they can be useful when you need to visit them again.

(37:31) The mass quitting and letting go of employees at Twitter. Workplaces that are solely digital and how it compares to companies with a real-world product. The margins are very tight in retail and operating expenses have to be considered. Can these big tech companies run with only a small percentage of their workforce?

(43:03) The operating expenses of Twitter and how the new leadership has impacted the app over the past couple weeks.

(47:52) Twitter never became the main social media app, which gives it a certain appeal. Human communication is very context based. Tweets can often taken out of context because you're limited in how much you can explain yourself in a series of tweets, whereas in an article or podcast episode, you can fully describe what you mean by something without it getting twisted.

(51:22) How communication and can often be unclear over the Internet. Tone can’t always be portrayed over a tweet reply, for example, making the receiver wonder whether it’s playful or aggressive.

(55:20) Twitter’s algorithm and how it puts content on your feed. A lot of it may depend on the content that you interact with, what you ignore, and who you choose to follow. Is it possible for AI to sift through and optimize your social media feeds?

(1:00:35) GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) and it’s capabilities. How can different tools and platforms incorporate GPT3 AI and what are some of its limits?

(1:06:11) That wraps up this episode! Stay tuned for our next episode where we will actually discuss Tao Te Ching. If you'd like to listen to our other episodes in our Great Book series, check out our two most recent ones: The Odyssey and The Iliad.

If you enjoyed this episode, let us know by leaving a review on iTunes and tell a friend. As always, let us know if you have any book recommendations! You can say hi to us on Twitter @TheRealNeilS, @adilmajid, @nateliason and share your thoughts on this episode.

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Thanks for listening. See you next time!