Sam and Will discuss whether or not added transparency is a good or bad thing for getting things done in the world.

00 - Transparency - Good or Bad with Will Quist, Managing Partner Slow Ventures

Sam and Dave discuss Dave's concept of 'digital drugs' and an alternative way to think about experiences like VR.  Brain health and the FDA.

01 - Digital Drugs, VR and more - Dave Morin, Partner Slow Ventures

Joe Green, of Causes, Nation-Builder, and FWD.US joins to discuss some ideas around unions, organizing, and regulatory capture in an era of technology companies.

03 - Unions, Regulatory Capture, and Tech - Joe Green, Founder FWD.us

Justin Shaffer of Hot-potato, Facebook, and Now Public Studio joins to discuss online and offline communities... and how our world of ever-present communication and access changes how people traverse and move in and out of their personal 'bubbles'

04 - Online & Offline Communities in a Data Deluged World - Justin Shaffer, Founder Public Studio

Greg Galant, the founder of Muck Rack and The Shorty Awards joins for a conversation on New York Tech and Social Media Fame.

05 - New York Tech & Social Media Fame - Greg Galant, Found Muck Rack and The Shorty Awards

Eric Antonow - Founder of Public Meditation (https://www.facebook.com/pubmeditation) joins to discuss why meditation is either the next Yoga or Toothbrush or both.

06 - Meditation, the Next Yoga-Toothbrush with Eric Antonow of Metabolic, Public Med, FB, GOOG

Brad Hargreaves, the founder of Common and co-founder of General Assembly joins to discuss Real Estate.  We focus on topics like Millennial ‘Poverty’, how the death of retail is changing real-estate financing, and - of course - self-driving technology.

07 - The Future of Real Estate with Brad Hargreaves, Founder of Common & General Assembly

Leila, the founder of Samasource and LXMI joins to talk about entrepreneurial resilience and how to avoid ‘punk-ing out’.  We talk about emotional stability, balance, and the lack thereof.  When to stay the course vs. swerve.

08 - Entrepreneurial Resilience - Leila Janah, Founder Samasource and LXMI

Bryce, a co-founder of O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Indie.vc joins to talk about the limits of traditional venture capital.  What can / can’t traditional venture capital support in terms of company building in 2017?  What are some financing alternatives?

09 - Have We Reached The Limits of VC? - Bryce Roberts of OATV & Indie.vc

Amanda and I pace out what a morning routine might look like in +10 and +30 years in the future.  What will be the same about morning routines and what will technology change?

10 - The Morning Routine of 2027 and 2047 -  Amanda Peyton, co-founder Grand St. & Google Alum

Lukas and I discuss AI, vision problems, and what is real vs. overstated about the near future of machine intelligence.

11 - AI, Real or False Please Explain - Lukas Biewald of Crowdflower & OpenAI

Daniel and I discuss the new YC AI vertical and how he is trying to empower startups with the AI advantages that big companies usually have unto themselves

12 - The YC AI vertical and big-company AI advantages - Daniel Gross of YC, Apple, Greplin

For this holiday weekend Tod Francis shares some of the research he has done on how you build meaningful relationships with children and other important people in your life.

13 - How You Build Meaningful Relationships with Kids and Others -  Tod Francis, Shasta Ventures

Alexia and I discuss crypto-currencies and the evolving conversation about the future of fundraising - initial coin offerings and venture capital.

14 - On Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICOs vs. Venture Capital -  Alexia Tsotsis, Fmr TechCrunch

Joe Lonsdale, Founder of 8VC discuss jobs, universal base income, and inequality and many other dangerous topics.

15 - Jobs, UBI, and Inequality -  Joe Lonsdale, 8VC

Sriram Krishnan who worked on monetization products at Snap talks about building things your competitors can't measure.

16 - Building Things Competitors Can't Measure - Sriram Krishnan, Fmr Snap & FB

Eran joins me to discuss autonomy & the problem of the modern city - in particular congestion, inequality and autonomy.

18 - Congestion & Inequality, The Problems of The Modern City - Eran Shir of Nexar

Samantha joins as a representative of the Silicon Valley entering class of 2017 having just graduated from Columbia CS and moving on to Facebook engineering.   talks about her projects and what interests her at the intersection of tech and the broader world.

19 - Viewpoint From The Silicon Valley Entering Class of ‘17 - Samantha Wiener

Raylene currently leads the applications team at Stripe, and formerly was an engineering manager at Facebook.  She joins me to discuss building platforms from a product and engineering perspective.

20 - Building Platform Products - Raylene Yung of Stripe & FB

Rousseau joins to discuss lessons from product management.

21 - On Product Management - Rousseau Kazi of FB and TBA

Alexia and I discuss the last week in Crypto and Bitcoin Cash.  What does it look like when there is a pattern for faster innovation without 'consensus' in the cyrpto world?  How does it change the power and importance of exchanges?

22 - On Bitcoin Cash & New Ways Crypto-Projects Move Forward - Alexia Bonatsos - Fmr Techcrunch

Alyssa joins for a modest conversation about technology is changing how we relate to nature, the environment, climate change, extinction, and more.

23 - The Environment - Alyssa Ravasio of Hipcamp

Racquel joins to talk about all that is changing in the world of oncology, and why she things we are entering the golden age of oncology.

24 - The Golden Age of Oncology -  Racquel Bracken of Venrock

Zach Smith joins for a Modest Conversation on the making of the Tree of Ténéré at Burning Man.  Where the project came from, trials and travails of getting it done, and thoughts on doing large scale art projects at Burning Man

25 - Making of the Tree of Ténéré at Burning Man - Zach Smith, Founder of The Project

Erik and I discuss the ins-and-outs of Homo Deus, which has become extremely popular in Silicon Valley.  What is the thesis?  What is the appeal?  What makes sense and what is a stretch?

26 - Homo Deus in Short - Erik Torenberg, ProductHunt & co-founder Village Global VC

Blake joins to discuss the human side of technology - growth mindset, failure, and success.  How do the people who build technology, and the ways they collaborate on teams, and the culture of tech companies define the products that come out?

27 - The Human Side of Tech & Growth Mindset - Blake Barnes Director of Product at Instagram

Kortina and I discuss how much of modern life is about lines.  

As consumers we wait on line for restaurants, takeoff windows, and countless other experiences.  As producers many of us - not just ER doctors - spend a good percentage of our 'working' time waiting for work to do and under-utilized.

We discuss how technology and technology design is impacted by and impacts the nature of lines and waiting on them for producers and consumers.

28 - Lines - Waiting For Work To Be Done & Work To Do - Andrew Kortina co-founder Fin & Venmo

Tristan and I talk about his viewpoint and mission around the attention economy and addition.  We also debate ideas on what to practically do about it.

29 - Attention and Addiction & What To Actually Do About It - Tristan Harris Fmr. Google

Tim and I discuss some of the thinking around his new book WTF - What’s The Future and Why It’s Up To Us.  We talk in particular about our world of runaway objective functions, and the role human agency must play to manage to a future we want vs. one we do not.

30 - Runaway Objective Functions & Human Agency - Tim O’Reilly

Sam and Erik discuss ISAs / and the future of equity investing in people / personal income vs. debt financing.

On Income Sharing Agreements with Erik Torenberg

The Information presents Modest Conversations hosted by Sam Lessin, who writes the site's regular 'Modest Conversations' column.  Modest Conversations are short conversations with interesting people about technology, culture, politics, and whatever else strikes our fancy.

The Information: Modest Conversations

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