Episode 25: César Hidalgo - Information and complexity, learning and leading, rethinking technology in society

Origins Podcast with Ryan McGranaghan

Show Notes:

• Spiritual background of his childhood (05:30)
• Discipline to do good work (06:10)
• Mentor: Albert-László Barabási (09:30)
  • How do you demand excellence?
• Musing on the competitive mentality (11:45)
• Relevance of science is a very social dimension (12:30)
• What he tells his students (13:30)
• Adapting as an individual (14:45)
• MIT Media Lab Collective Learning Group (17:00)
• The Last Dance documentary (18:30)
• The Playbook documentary series (18:40)
• Complexity (21:00)
  • Fractals, iterating functions, and chaos
  • Lorenz
  • Feigenbaum
• Book: Why information grows (26:45)
  • What is information?
• Book: How humans judge machines (30:20)
  • Why has knowledge not made it everywhere?
• TED Talk: “A bold idea to replace politicians” (34:20)
  • Rethinking democracy and technology
• Trusting technologies (36:45)
• Counterfactuals (37:00)
• What is intelligence? (38:15)
• Failure that set up for later success (41:15)
• Reorienting yourself (42:30)
• Morning routine (45:30)
• Acting on first emotion (48:00)
  • Do not lose the emotional energy that comes with creativity - it is fleeting and love is going to fade, so be romantic while love is there
• Lightning Round (40:15)
  • Books: Blank Slate (Steven Pinker), the Righteous Mind (Jonathan Haidt), and the Secret of Our Success (Joseph Henrich)
  • Passion: Writing
    • Janna Levin (astrophysicist and writer): A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines
  • Heart Sing: Review of economic complexity
  • Screwed up: Ability to accept things he has screwed up
• Find guest online:
  • Website
  • Twitter: @cesifoti
  • https://www.judgingmachines.com/
• 'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series