Infinite Loops – Details, episodes & analysis

As the saying goes, only three things in life are certain: death, taxes & Alex Danco.

Armed with sizzling hot takes on the sad death of Twitter likes and a new secret weapon in the form of his catchphrase-turned-episode theme (“Without mystery, there is no margin”), Alex returns for his eighth episode.

Despite our intentional lack of preparation, somehow this ended up as one our most cohesive conversations yet.

As usual, we’ve included links and an episode transcript over on our Substack, where we’ve also made the foolhardy attempt to distil one overriding theme from eight episodes of fiercely unstructured, defiantly unplanned, proudly meandering conversation.

Important Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alex_Danco
• Website: https://alexdanco.com/
• Previous episode: https://www.infiniteloopspodcast.com/alex-danco-on-self-delusion-sancho-panza-safe-words-seinfeld-ep156/

Show Notes:

• What the fuck is going on? & the sad death of Twitter likes
• Where are the journalists?
• Without mystery, there is no margin
• Why aesthetics are underrated
• Friction is good, actually
• Make things to gain agency
• Empowering small firms to access the mysterious margin
• Everything is positioning
• How to learn effectively
• Alex as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
• What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to “The Office”; by Venkatesh Rao
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom

Mike Maples, Jr., co-founding partner of the VC firm Floodgate, is the veteran seed investor behind some of the 21st-century’s great success stories, including Twitter, Twitch, and Applied Intuition.

His book, Pattern Breakers (co-authored with Peter Ziebelman), articulates a new model of foundership, one built on the simple premise that transformative startups upend rather than improve current practices.

My company, OSV, is built around my belief that the collapse of the old models presents enormous opportunities to those savvy enough to seize them, so I had a blast quizzing Mike on the nuts and bolts of pattern-breaking foundership, from finding true believers to waging asymmetric war on the status quo.

If Mike’s theory sounds as interesting to you as it did to me, check out our Substack, where we’ve distilled some pattern-breaking insights and shared the episode transcript. I also encourage you to buy Mike’s excellent book.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

Important Links:

• Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future; by Mike Maples, Jr & Peter Ziebelman
• Twitter
• Substack (Starting Greatness)
• Floodgate
• LinkedIn

Show Notes:

• Seagull mode: an unexpected founder paradigm
• How to wage asymmetric war on the present
• Evading the comparison trap
• Finding your people: how to build a movement
• Why we should continually seek the truth
• The customer isn’t always right, but the ones living in the future are
• Why disagreeableness is undervalued
• How to fix a pitch Franckendeck
• Don’t use jargon as a substitute for clear thinking
• How to find the true believers
• How to live in the future
• How founders are like trainspotters
• Why wanting to be a founder is a bad reason to start a company
• Reading habits of a pattern-breaker
• The unreliability of memory
• Mike as emperor of the world
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A story; by Richard Bach
• The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform The World; by David Deutsch
• What Works in Wall Street; by Jim O’Shaughnessy
• Poor Charlie’s Almanac: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger; by Charles T. Munger

Nat Eliason is a writer with a keen interest in writing about challenging and revealing things. His debut book, Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance (out July 9th, 2024), charts his personal odyssey into Crypto’s Get-Rich-Quick underbelly.

Nat joins the show to discuss the highs and lows of the cryptocurrency market, the lessons learned from his financial adventures, the psychological effects of bubbles, crypto’s cutting-edge developments, and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Nat’s Website
• Nat’s Twitter
• Nat’s YouTube

Show Notes:

• Making A Lot of Money, As Fast as Possible
• The Peer Pressure of Crypto Markets
• The Psychological Effects of Diamond Hands
• Signs of Peak Speculation
• How Bitcoin Has Carried the Crypto Story
• Ethereum’s Innovations
• The Emergence of Stablecoins
• What Makes USD A Reserve Currency?
• The Crazy Anonymity of Crypto Projects
• The Two Options of Getting Into Crypto
• Imagining the Money Pile
• What Nat Couldn’t Keep in the Book
• Nat’s Next Career as a Novelist
• Nat as Emperor of the World
• MORE!

Books Mentioned:

• Influence; by Robert Cialdini

Creator and curator Liberty RPF returns for his second appearance on Infinite Loops. He and Jim discuss the art of curation, the opportunities and risks of AI, the curse of creativity, the future of learning, and MUCH more!

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Lulu Cheng Meservey is the Chief Communications Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Activision Blizzard.

She joins Infinite Loops to provide us with a masterclass in communications for startups. A must-listen for current and aspiring founders.

Important Links:
 • Lulu’s Twitter
 • Lulu’s Substack

Show Notes:
 • Why people write hit pieces
 • The insurgency framework
 • How to access your audience’s neural real estate
 • How to develop a spontaneous elevator pitch
 • Tips for becoming better at reading the room
 • Speak directly and take the hits
 • Defining business objectives
 • Learning from other industries
 • Personalising your message
 • Overcoming resistance to the unknown, what Christianity can teach us about comms
 • Escaping corporate jargon
 • How comms resembles rugby
 • Taking ownership of comms
 • Moving to a new model of comms
 • “Don’t let things happen to you. Go and happen to things.”

Books Mentioned:
 • The Network State: How To Start a New Country; by Balaji S. Srinivasan
 • The Hero with a Thousand Faces; by Joseph Campbell

“With enough curiosity, self-confidence is irrelevant.”

Tinkered Thinking is a writer, artist, author and creator. He is also the worthy winner of our ‘White Mirror’ competition.

His writing includes a series of ‘Lucilius Parables’, short stories dispersed throughout time and space designed to help readers reconceptualise their experience of being alive.

He joined the show to discuss writing, technology, curiosity, optimism and MUCH more!

Important Links:

• Website
  
• Twitter
  
• The Lucilius Parables, Volume I
  
• The Lucilius Parables, Volume II
  
• The Century of the Self: Happiness Machines - Adam Curtis
  

Show Notes:

• The origin of Lucilius
  
• Why write short stories?
  
• Fear and human nature
  
• Technology, progress and optimism
  
• Where is the positive poetry of today?
  
• The momentum metric
  
• How to rebrand Guatemala
  
• White Mirror
  
• Choose your disposition
  
• The power of curiosity
  
• The question as a concept
  
• Hope grows foolish with no doing
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Lucilius Parables, Volume I; by Tinkered Thinking
  
• The Lucilius Parables, Volume II; by Tinkered Thinking
  
• The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory; by Brian Greene
  
• The Fifth Science; by Exurb1a
  
• Foundation; by Isaac Asimov
  
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; by Bob Pirsig
  
• The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch
  
• Language in Thought and Action; by S.I. Hayakawa
  
• Screw the Zoo: Escape From Your Cage, Free Your Mind, and Take Over the World; by Sam McRoberts
  
• Unflattening; by Nick Sousanis
  
• Atomic Habits; by James Clear
  
• The Power of Habit; by Charles Duhigg
  
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
  
• The Egg; by Andy Weir
  
• The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
  
• Awakening: Conversations with the Masters; by Anthony De Mello
  
• Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment; by Jed McKenna

Edward Slingerland is a University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He has authored a number of books, including ‘Trying Not to Try’ and ‘Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization’. He joins the show to discuss the paradox of effortless action, the history of Chinese philosophy, the benefits of alcohol, and a whole lot more.

Important Links:

• Edward’s Twitter
  
• Edward’s Website
  
• Drunk
  
• Trying Not to Try
  

Show Notes:

• The paradox of trying not to try
  
• Western equivalents to wu-wei
  
• The difference between wu-wei and flow
  
• How to cultivate wu-wei
  
• How technology makes it harder to find wu-wei
  
• Why were Confucianism and Daoism so successful?
  
• Utilitarianism, China and the panopticon
  
• The right amount of rationality, choking
  
• Shutting down the prefrontal cortext
  
• The evolutionary origins of our love of alcohol
  
• The power of psychedelics
  
• Ecological niches, cooperation, creativity and honesty
  
• An alternative model of honesty
  
• Stop pushing so hard, go walk in the woods
  

Books Mentioned:

• Trying Not to Try: The Ancient Art of Effortlessness and the Surprising Power of Spontaneity; by Edward Slingerland
  
• Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization; by Edward Slingerland
  
• The Dao De Jing; by Laozi
  
• The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It; by Will Storr
  
• The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better; by Will Storr
  
• The Master and His Emissary; by Iain McGilchrist
  
• Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To; by Sian Beilock
  
• The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name; by Brian C. Muraresku

Jeremiah Lowin is the founder & CEO of Prefect, a dataflow automation company. Jeremiah joins Jim for his second appearance on Infinite Loops to discuss executing, storytelling, artificial intelligence and, of course, puns.

Important Links:

• Prefect.io
  
• Disney Research Hub
  
• The story of the fake statue of Venus
  

Show Notes:

• Slack, puns and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  
• Planning, executing and the story of Prefect in 2022
  
• Why naming things is a superpower
  
• If you can’t pivot, you’re dead
  
• Make original mistakes
  
• AI, storytelling, deep fakes and open source
  

Books Mentioned:

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams
  
• What Works on Wall Street; by Jim O'Shaughnessy
  
• The Beginning of Infinity; by David Deutsch

Herbert is a writer and editorial director who has been writing online since he was 15. He is the editor of 'The World According to Kanye' and has written for publications such as Forge, TIME and Quartz.

Herbert joins the show to discuss his book 'Creative Doing: 75 Practical Exercises to Unblock Your Creative Potential in Your Work, Hobby, or Next Career', and to share some practical, actionable methods of harnessing the creative impulses that lie inside us all.

Important Links:

• Herbert’s Twitter
  
• Herbert’s Website
  
• Creative Doing
  

Show Notes:

• “Think less; do more”
  
• Adapting to social media
  
• “Don’t make the bad the enemy of the good”
  
• “Doing is thinking”
  
• The strongest case for thinking over doing
  
• The role of the subconscious in the creative process
  
• The Madman and the Judge
  
• What initial steps can an aspiring creator take?
  
• Is there such a thing as natural creativity?
  
• “Quality is a word smart people use to procrastinate”
  
• Unifying the Madman and the Judge
  
• Why do societies try to crush creativity out of people?
  
• Why we are all creative
  

Books Mentioned:

• Creative Doing: 75 Practical Exercises to Unblock Your Creative Potential in Your Work, Hobby, or Next Career; by Herbert Lui
  
• Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective; by Kenneth O. Stanley and Joel Lehman
  
• The Love Song of J. Alfred Profrock; by T.S. Eliot
  
• The I Ching
  
• Tao Te Ching; by Laozi
  
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; by Robert M. Pirsig

Emad Mostaque is the founder and CEO of Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion.

Emad joins Stability AI’s recently announced Executive Chair of the board of directors Jim O’Shaughnessy to discuss the future of AI, the benefits of open source software, and much more.

Important Links:

• Stability AI
  
• Stable Diffusion Launch Announcement
  
• Stability AI’s Twitter
  
• Emad’s Twitter
  
• Jim’s announcement as Executive Chair
  

Show Notes:

• The open vs closed AI debate
  
• How will open AI lead to better outcomes for AI safety?
  
• How will AI allow us to to solve previously unsolvable problems?
  
• How AI can transform education
  
• AI and storytelling
  
• What is ‘clean’ data?
  
• Can AI technology increase IQs across the entire world?
  
• The future: optimism, pessimism, jobs, AI alignment and the panopticon
  
• Why closed AI is a bad business model
  
• Anticipating and defending against future problems
  
• What two ideas would you like to give everyone in the world?
  

Books Mentioned:

• The WEIRDest People in the World; by Joseph Henrich