1 hr 15 min

Tyler Cowen Undertone

    • Society & Culture

Tyler and I talk about nearly everything.

Transcript

--

Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:28) Identifying talent on Tyler’s podcast

(0:03:48) Why are follow up questions overrated?

(0:04:21) Tyler’s preferred guest career stage

(0:05:16) Optimal frequency for recording podcasts

(0:05:50) Tyler’s podcast prep

(0:07:39) Importance of in-person episodes

(0:09:56) What would Tyler ask Paul McCartney

(0:10:16) When to read literature in translation

(0:13:31) Tyler on Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche

(0:15:39) Elena Ferrante and the importance of pseudonyms

(0:17:17) Misreading literature

(0:17:56) Will literature get better in the next 10 years?

(0:19:21) Watching complex film

(0:22:14) Enjoying art

(0:23:08) Jonathan Swift and Peter Thiel

(0:24:45) Crude comedy

(0:25:28) Can we trust elites in the internet age?

(0:26:44) Generational theories of politics

(0:27:57) Religious thinkers and Tyler’s implicit theology

(0:29:33) What did Tyler get from Plato at a young age?

(0:30:51) Why are Shakespeare, Proust, and Melville in a league of their own?

(0:31:32) Fernando Pessoa

(0:31:59) Implications of demand sloping down

(0:33:22) Innovation in governance structures

(0:36:14) Should business leaders study the greats?

(0:38:36) GDP growth from today’s AI models

(0:40:35) LessWrong and worries about AI

(0:41:46) Feminized societies in times of chaos

(0:43:17) Fernand Braudel

(0:43:52) Best argument against NGDP targeting

(0:47:06) AI business models

(0:48:19) What is a bubble?

(0:49:33) Where are there too few Emergent Ventures applications?

(0:50:09) Unsolved problems in economics

(0:51:27) Immigration policy

(0:52:56) If Tyler wasn’t an economist

(0:53:50) Would Tyler go to Burning Man?

(0:54:33) The MR Universe

(0:55:32) Tyler’s equanimity

(0:57:15) Tyrone

(0:59:27) Joyce Carol Oates and Susan Sontag

(1:04:45) Wasting time

(1:04:54) Bach’s productivity

(1:05:29) Competitors to MR

(1:07:51) New Jersey and The Sopranos

(1:11:56) Rapid fire - what Tyler learned from different people

--

Links

- Follow Tyler on X

- Tyler's blog

- Tyler's podcast

- ⁠Unmasking Elena Ferrante⁠

- New Yorker on Joyce Carol Oates

- Follow Dan on X

- Subscribe to Undertone on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Apple⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠Substack⁠

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast: https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

Tyler and I talk about nearly everything.

Transcript

--

Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:28) Identifying talent on Tyler’s podcast

(0:03:48) Why are follow up questions overrated?

(0:04:21) Tyler’s preferred guest career stage

(0:05:16) Optimal frequency for recording podcasts

(0:05:50) Tyler’s podcast prep

(0:07:39) Importance of in-person episodes

(0:09:56) What would Tyler ask Paul McCartney

(0:10:16) When to read literature in translation

(0:13:31) Tyler on Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche

(0:15:39) Elena Ferrante and the importance of pseudonyms

(0:17:17) Misreading literature

(0:17:56) Will literature get better in the next 10 years?

(0:19:21) Watching complex film

(0:22:14) Enjoying art

(0:23:08) Jonathan Swift and Peter Thiel

(0:24:45) Crude comedy

(0:25:28) Can we trust elites in the internet age?

(0:26:44) Generational theories of politics

(0:27:57) Religious thinkers and Tyler’s implicit theology

(0:29:33) What did Tyler get from Plato at a young age?

(0:30:51) Why are Shakespeare, Proust, and Melville in a league of their own?

(0:31:32) Fernando Pessoa

(0:31:59) Implications of demand sloping down

(0:33:22) Innovation in governance structures

(0:36:14) Should business leaders study the greats?

(0:38:36) GDP growth from today’s AI models

(0:40:35) LessWrong and worries about AI

(0:41:46) Feminized societies in times of chaos

(0:43:17) Fernand Braudel

(0:43:52) Best argument against NGDP targeting

(0:47:06) AI business models

(0:48:19) What is a bubble?

(0:49:33) Where are there too few Emergent Ventures applications?

(0:50:09) Unsolved problems in economics

(0:51:27) Immigration policy

(0:52:56) If Tyler wasn’t an economist

(0:53:50) Would Tyler go to Burning Man?

(0:54:33) The MR Universe

(0:55:32) Tyler’s equanimity

(0:57:15) Tyrone

(0:59:27) Joyce Carol Oates and Susan Sontag

(1:04:45) Wasting time

(1:04:54) Bach’s productivity

(1:05:29) Competitors to MR

(1:07:51) New Jersey and The Sopranos

(1:11:56) Rapid fire - what Tyler learned from different people

--

Links

- Follow Tyler on X

- Tyler's blog

- Tyler's podcast

- ⁠Unmasking Elena Ferrante⁠

- New Yorker on Joyce Carol Oates

- Follow Dan on X

- Subscribe to Undertone on ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Apple⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠Substack⁠

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast: https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

1 hr 15 min

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