Week of 3/9/22
Each week I make a list of interesting material that I’ve been reading, watching, or listening to. I seek excellence everywhere, and to do that I listen to the opinions of those who disagree with me. Inclusion is not endorsement.
I am Co-founder and CEO of Pyrofex Corporation, which is the engineering team behind The Silvermint Network, a revolutionary cryptocurrency and smart contracting platform.
Articles
I ended up reading several articles on the nature of money as background material for a blog post I’m still working on.
On the Role of Taxes (MMT) by Nick Diaz
What is Money, Anyway? by Lyn Alden
“Tail Recursion Modulo cons,” by James Wilcox
Papers
Concurrency and Consensus algorithms are my bread and butter these days.
“The Part-Time Parliament” by Leslie Lamport. The classic paper that introduces the Paxos algorithm and perhaps the most literate academic work in the field.
“Termination detection for diffusing computations” by Edsger W. Dijkstra and C. S. Scholten
Lectures & Videos
Computer Science
“Google I/O 2021 — Go Concurrency Patterns,” by Rob Pike
“Google I/O 2022 — Advanced Go Concurrency Patterns,” by Sameer Ajmani
Physics
Investing & Business
“Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order,” by Ray Dalio
Current Events
Ukraine War Update: War of Words,” by S2 Underground
Anthropology
“Homo Erectus and the Invention of Human Language,” by Daniel Everett
I found some of the more speculative elements of Everett’s talk to be on shaky ground, but I’m fond of adventurous intellectualism, and I think overall the thesis hangs together.
“A Neanderthal Perspective on Human Origins — 2014,” by Svante Paabo
“Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past,” by David Reich
Psychology
“2017 Personality 11: Existentialism: Nietzsche Dostoevsky & Kierkegaard,” by Jordan B Peterson
I don’t love everything Peterson says, but his psychology lectures are insightful and deep, and always worth a listen.
Miscellany
It’s been awhile since I looked in on Eric Weinstein and what he’s up to, so I did a miniature deep-dive into content that he’s produced since the last time I looked. I think these talks are all worth it.
“The Portal, Episode #001: Peter Thiel — An Era of Stagnation & Universal Institutional Failure” (The Portal is also available on Apple’s Podcast app)
Thiel and Weinstein are fascinating and I’m amused because nearly everyone in America is going to find something about this podcast totally insufferable. What you dislike about this conversation probably says a lot about you.
“The Portal, Episode #019: Bret Weinstein — The Preidiction and the DISC.”
This podcast is nightmare fuel. Stick with it to the end, the beginning drags, but the punchline will chill you.
“A Portal Special Presentation — Geometric Unity: A First Look,” by Eric Weinstein
This isn’t the first time Weinstein has pitched an attempt at some grand unifying theory for physics. I think the last one was about E8, but I don’t remember the details. He thinks he’s come a long way, though, and I wish I had time to follow the math closely. Maybe one of you can summarize it somewhere and let me know?