The Metagame – Details, episodes & analysis

Soryu Forall is an ordained Zen Buddhist monk and the guiding teacher at the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth (MAPLE) in Vermont. With over two decades of intensive monastic training, Forall was ordained in 1998 by Zen Master Shodo Harada at Sogen Temple in Japan. He has since trained in monasteries across India, Tibet, and China, and draws on various spiritual traditions, including Buddhism, Native American practices, and Quaker teachings.

Resources:

* The Monk Who Thinks the World is Ending - The Atlantic

* Buddhism for AI Course

* monasticacademy.org

Andrés is the Co-founder and President of the Qualia Research Institute (QRI). He has a Master’s Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in computational models from Stanford and a professional background in graph theory, statistics, and affective science. His work at QRI ranges from algorithm design, to psychedelic theory, to neurotechnology development, to mapping and studying the computational properties of consciousness.

Andrés blogs at qualiacomputing.com.

Resources:

* qri.org

* Andrés on Twitter

* 4D Rotation Visualizer

* Chanca Piedra for kidney stones

* Arthur Juliani’s research

* Mike Johnson’s Vasocomputation Paper

“The flinch is your real opponent, and information won't help you fight it. It's behind every unhappy relationship, every hesitation in your business life, every missed opportunity, and every regret you ever had." - Julien Smith

Julien Smith is a serial tech entrepreneur and NYT best-selling author of the books Trust Agents and The Flinch. In 2012 he founded Breather a flexible real-estate company that raised over $150M. His latest venture is Practice, a tool for solopreneurs funded by a16z and Tony Robbins.

In this episode we discuss Julien’s life and his highly practical, courage-inducing, stimulant-of-a-book The Flinch.

Topics include:

* On courage and The Big Life

* Why people don’t do the things they claim they want to do

* What is “the flinch” and how is it robbing you of our dreams?

* How Seth Godin challenged Julien to create something he’d be in awe of (and how it made him mad)

* The relationship between art and suffering

* The primary quality that defines exceptional founders

* Silicon Valley’s executive coaching secret

* How to choose successful long-term projects and make big bets

* How accepting discomfort engenders vitality

Check out Julien’s Twitter and his company Practice.do.

Daniele Bolelli is martial artist, writer, professor, and host of History On Fire and The Drunken Taoist podcasts. He’s the author of several books on philosophy and he’s disarmingly down to earth.

He also has a cool name and very smooth Italian accent.

Topics include:

* Real Philosophers vs Academic Philosophers.

* The story of Ikkyu Sojun. An enlightened monk that loved sake and women.

* How to deal with tragedy.

* Foundational insights on parenting and being a good spouse.

* What is sacred and what is profane?

* How rituals can maintain sacredness.

* Why kindness is the best measure of one’s philosophy.

* Speculations on Nietzsche and his perspective on Love.

* On being “life-affirming.” Why is it so important and why is it so hard?

* The defiant power of gallows humour.

Check out Daniele’s website and his Twitter.

This is probably the most inspiring conversation I’ve had all year.

Fen de Villiers turns blocks of stone into powerful art. Just look at this. He willed it out of stone. With. His. Hands.

Fen studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. He’s on a mission to reinvigorate sculpture to its most vital and energetic form. Maybe you’ll be reinvigorated too.

Topics include:

* How do you even become a fine art sculptor?

* What makes art energizing? Why is most contemporary art the opposite?

* Cultural vitality and it’s relationship to physical vitality

* Modernism, art deco, futurism and vorticism

* How western culture forgot how to celebrate life (and became a death cult)

* Why now is the best time to create a new artistic movement

* The revolutionary act of simply making things

* How Fen has been shunned by the current art scene

* Why Duchamp’s Urinal was legitimate art at the time (but wouldn’t be today)

* How Fen stays motivated to wake up every day and make things

Resources:

* Fen’s Manifesto for Aesthetic Invigoration

Political philosopher and sociologist Daniel Görtz is a leader of "the Nordic school" of metamodernism. He co-authored The Listening Society and The Nordic Ideology under the pseudonym Hanzi Freinacht. Today we discuss his new “self-help” book with the working title “12 Better Rules for Life (and beyond).”

Topics include:

* The subtle art of sublime mediocrity

* Why Rule #2 is “Fuck like a beast”

* Why Jesus was right and how secular people can learn from that

* What is post-postmodernism?

* The life-changing practice of Rogerian listening

* A necessary steelman of critical race theory and modern feminism

* Why feminist forums descend into language-policing

* How to improve your default levels of contentment (from a 7 to an 8)

* Where Jordan Peterson went wrong with post-modernism

* Why playfulness is essential

* A big spoiler on the book (and a key secret to living well)

Resources:

* https://metamoderna.org/

A personal hero. David Allen needs no introduction.

He’s the undisputed father of modern productivity. He literally created the category with his world-renowned book Getting Things Done: The art of Stress-Free Productivity.

This method has already influenced your world by shaping Silicon Valley’s design ethos and products. GTD is also used by Jeff Beszos, Oprah Winfrey, Howard Stern, Robert Downey Jr and others.

Topics include:

* What David Allen learned from coaching the world’s top performers.

* Why you’re probably addicted to ambient anxiety.

* A smooth introduction to the 5 steps of GTD.

* How Daniel re-discovered GTD when taking 6.4g of psychedelic mushrooms.

* Why it’s so important to incorporate input from your subconscious mind.

* Why GTD is not actually about getting things done…

* How to apply GTD to teams (and David’s upcoming book on the topic).

* How David get’s back to GTD when he’s “fallen off.”

* The relationship between GTD and mindfulness meditation.

* How productivity relates to embodied intuition.

* David Allen’s life purpose.

Resources:

* Want to master GTD? Book a call with Daniel here.

Rebecca Fox is a ritualist and artist. She re-enchants modern people through embodied psycho-spiritual practices that level up their lives. She also used to be a literal witch. Then she studied Critical Thinking™️ and dabbled in Atheism. Now she’s something else entirely... Perhaps a shaman for the modern age.

Topics include:

* What happens when an Atheist takes Ayahuasca?

* Rebecca’s journey from Wiccan to Skeptic to Radical Agnostic.

* Why radical agnosticism is the best foundation for personal transformation.

* What even is a “liminal space?”

* What is a ritual? Why are they needed?

* Unlocking your creativity be encountering the divine (without beliefs).

* More practices for building your will.

* Dreams! What to do with them.

* Daniel does a somewhat embarrassing live ritual (YouTube version only).

Resources:

* Book a ritual consultation with Rebecca

* A Ritual to Banish Demons (the one we did live)

Sebastian Marshall brings the mentality of an athlete to knowledge work.

He’s a cutting edge productivity expert and the CEO of Ultraworking — a company obsessed with making the nature of work better.

Topics include:

* Why you probably need “weird” practices to live the life you want.

* The power of tracking everything you do with your time (and how to do it).

* More evidence that everyone needs a gang.

* Why religion might be the biggest productivity hack.

* Death and its clarifying effects on your to do list.

* Sebastian’s near death experiences and how they changed his life.

* Why consciously designing your environment is mandatory in modernity.

* How to improve the yield of philosophy.

Resources:

* ultraworking.com

* On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History - Thomas Carlyle

* Daniel’s favourite Ultraworking tool for tracking practices

Zak Stein. Is a writer, educator and futurist. He’s working to bring a greater sense of sanity and justice to education.

He has a background in philosophy, educational neuroscience, human development, and the philosophy of education. While a student at Harvard, he co-founded what would become Lectica, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to the research-based, justice-oriented reform of large-scale standardized testing in K-12, higher-education, and business.

Topics include:

* Why the current moment demands a new kind of civilization.

* Why love is an ontological truth and not just random chemicals firing in your brain.

* What even is metaphysics? How is it directly related to your daily, personal life?

* Why Nick Land, Sam Harris and Yuval Noah Harari are deeply confused.

* “Would you teach this to your child?” as a litmus test for true beliefs.

* Eros and vitality.

* The missing piece of the prisoner’s dilemma.

* The major advantage angels always have over demons.

Resources:

* Love In A Time Between Worlds: On the Metamodern “Return” to a Metaphysics of Eros

Listen on Spotify or Apple.