Dialectic

• 13: Nabeel Qureshi - The Will to Care

  Nabeel S. Qureshi (Website, X, Substack) is a writer, entrepreneur, and former Palantir product lead known for his writing on technology, AI, Palantir, culture, and learning. After a brief hiatus writing and researching and spending nearly a decade at Palantir working across government, healthcare, and intelligence, he's now founding a new company.The first half of the conversation focuses on two big ideas. First: the growth of "slop" across media and culture and how "care" is its opposite. Then: how to think, learn, and understand more deeply across domains over a lifetime. We discuss how both of these sit against the backdrop of AI's rapid challenging of what it means to make and what it means to think.Then we discuss Palantir and "grey areas" that many technologists avoid working on or thinking about, government bureaucracy and DOGE, and how technologists are pursuing and accumulating power. We also chat about Nabeel's idea maze ahead of the new company, art and what it is for, and a range of other topics that showcase how curious, polymathic, and considerate Nabeel is.As the world changes at a breakneck pace thanks to technology and AI, Nabeel embodies a deeply humanistic approach that also accepts change as the default. This conversation inspired me to embrace surprise and strangeness, especially in creativity; to push through the friction and temptation to accept the answers at face value and instead yearn to more deeply understand; and to pursue a life of growth, practice, and care.Full transcript with all linked references available here.Timestamps:(3:21): “The Opposite of Slop Is Care.”(4:15): Defining Slop (14:17): Do We Decide What We Care About? (20:16): Original Seeing and Intimacy as a Path to Care (24:05): Creativity, Craft, and Care in the Digital World and Physical World (28:24): The Human Moat and Practice (32:48): Can AIs Care? (35:52): Understanding Things Deeply and “The Will to Think” (39:52): School: Getting the Answer vs. Deeply Understanding (41:44): High-Dimensional Learning from Simulations (Games) and Reality (the Real World) (48:38): Moving Down from Abstraction: Be Specific (50:49): Karl Popper, Fallibilism, Tyler Cowen, and Fighting Intellectual Inertia (53:00): Slowing Down (56:00): Nabeel's Funnel for Information & Retention (59:18): Spaced Repetition (Flashcards) (1:01:09): Palantir, Duty, and Engaging in Political and Moral Gray Areas (1:07:06): Palantir's Culture of Independent Thinking: People Who Speak Their Mind but Aren't Douchebags (1:09:38): Government Bureaucracy, DOGE, Power (1:14:51): Why Can't Governments Be Better at Error Correction and Healthy Renewal? (1:17:02): Technologists and Power (1:23:47): Nabeel's Next Company and the Idea Maze: “Context Is That Which Is Scarce” (1:27:11): Scientist Brain vs. Founder Brain and Context vs. Details (1:30:17): Tolstoy, Shakespeare, and What Art Is For (1:34:02): Art for Defamiliarization (1:36:00): What Makes Film Special (1:37:15): Depth in Text and Other Mediums (1:40:32): Patterns Across Nabeel's Taste: The Unfamiliar (1:43:11): Lightning Round: Travel (1:44:37): Stories Nabeel Tells Himself (1:45:31): Agency and Being Told What to Do by AI (1:47:49): Negotiation and Creating Optionality (1:50:28): Palantir's Vocabulary (1:53:07): Lessons from Tyler Cowen (1:54:41): Fighting Inertia Key Links (all references available here)"We don't get a lot of things to really care about." (Pig, 2021)The opposite of slop is care. (Tweet Thread)PrinciplesHow To Understand Things Video Games are the Future of Education Notes On Karl PopperReflections on Palantir Dialectic with Jackson Dahl is available on all podcast platforms.Join the ⁠telegram channel for Dialectic⁠Follow ⁠Dialectic on Twitter⁠Follow Dialectic on InstagramSubscribe to Dialectic on YouTube

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• 12: Che-Wei Wang & Taylor Levy (CW&T) - Iterating Together with Time

  Che-Wei Wang and Taylor Levy are the founders of CW&T (Website, Instagram, X, TikTok), a Brooklyn-based studio creating products that exist somewhere between art, design, and engineering.The husband-and-wife team met at NYU ITP and shares a background across industrial design, architecture, computer science, film, including time at Pratt Institute and MIT. They won the 2022 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Product Design. They design and manufacture everyday objects including clocks, pens, tools, and other strange objects that challenge our relationship with time, attention, and materiality. Their most recognizable products include the Pen Type-A, Pen Type-C (my favorite), Time Since Launch (a one-time-use, 100-year timekeeper), and Solid State Watch, a remix of the classic Casio F-91W.Our conversation explores their fascination with time, their commitment to creating heirloom-quality objects in a disposable world, and how they've built a sustainable creative practice on their own terms. We discuss their prototyping-centered approach, the tension between digital and physical creation, and how they navigate collaboration as partners in life and work.Throughout, Che-Wei and Taylor reveal a philosophy that treats making as its own reward—they create what fascinates them first, trusting that others will connect with their vision. In a world increasingly dominated by disposable products and digital experiences, CW&T offers a refreshing counterpoint: a workshop where physical objects are thoughtfully conceived, meticulously crafted, and built to accompany us through life's journeys. Their work invites us to reconsider our relationship with the objects we use daily and the passage of time itself, offering a refreshing counterpoint to our increasingly digital, ephemeral world.Full transcript with all links and references.Timestamps(00:00): Time: a pattern across CW&T’s careers(11:21): Time Since Launch: the idea of counting up instead of down, and creating personal epochs (14:11): "Good design is long-lasting,” Durability of Electric Objects(19:31): Balancing art, product, and design: CW&T's approach to creating strange (but useful) things (23:51): First Word vs. Last Word Art: Michael Naimark's essay on innovation (28:01): Death by consensus: Why Che-Wei left architecture, and the joy of creative collaboration(32:52): Inspiration, Theory, and Self-Evidence(38:40): Tools: iPhone world, what makes a great tool, and design that optimizes for joy(44:21): The Hi-Tec-C pen cartridge and remixing what has come before(48:01): Making physical objects: a case for prototyping and against rendering(55:41): CW&T’s beloved products(53:27): ITP, Electrified Objects, Software in Objects(56:49): Dream Stem: Generative design, openness to new tools, AI's impact on the creative process, and intuition(01:07:11): The value of friction, and what's lost and gained in the pursuit of efficiency (01:09:46): CW&T the brand, contemplating CW&T's legacy and purpose(01:15:24): Kickstarter, owning your audience, and what it would look like to start today(01:19:35): Partners in life and work, the tension between merging identities and maintaining individuality (01:25:02): Growth, explore vs. exploit, and learning, dream collaborators, and more resources(1:33:56): Lighting round: great teachers, New York City focus & serendipity, creative inspirations, CW&T book, nature and green things, morphology and architecture, “form and force,” a gift for children or grandchildren, what to hang onto,(01:52:07): TimelessnessDialectic with Jackson Dahl is available on all podcast platforms.Join the ⁠telegram channel for Dialectic⁠Follow ⁠Dialectic on Twitter⁠Follow Dialectic on InstagramSubscribe to Dialectic on YouTube

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  1:55:06
• 11: Eugene Wei - Amusing Each Other to Death

  Eugene Wei (Website, X) is a writer, product thinker, and cultural observer best known for his essays on technology, media, and social networks, including Status as a Service, Invisible asymptotes, and TikTok and the Sorting Hat.Eugene spent seven years at Amazon in its early days before following a brief detour to pursue filmmaking at UCLA. He then led product, design, editorial, and marketing teams at Hulu, co-founded Erly, and worked at Flipboard and Oculus. Today, he works on his own ideas at the intersection of media and technology while advising and angel investing.This conversation explores the evolving landscape of entertainment, social media, community, and humanity in our digital age—topics Eugene has examined deeply. We revisit some of Eugene’s greatest hits on how platforms like Twitter and TikTok shape society and also get into fresh ideas he's yet to share publicly.We start by discussing how today's social media world compares to the television-centric world that Neil Postman lamented in Amusing Ourselves to Death, and how entertainment-maximizing, adversarial, algorithmic social platforms might lead us to "Amusing Each Other to Death." Eugene unpacks TikTok's profound impact on our "digital nervous system," differentiating between social networks and social media—highlighting the latter's emphasis on frictionless positivity rather than meaningful connection.Amid rising nihilism among young people, Eugene analyzes how cultural and economic structures contribute to lost hope, exploring social media’s role in exacerbating these trends. We discuss power laws influencing tech, media, sports, and finance, and how that drives pervasive speculation across culture. Then, he traces these themes through American television, from 1960s-1990s sitcoms to shows like The Sopranos, Succession, and Industry, revealing how they reflect the erosion of community and purpose in late-stage capitalism.Throughout, Eugene offers nuanced observations on how technology's removal of friction has paradoxically weakened our sense of meaning and connection. We wrap up with how AI might shape media and creativity, what elements of humanity may be valued in the future, learnings from Bezos and film school, and a movie recommendation for anyone trying to make sense of it all.Timestamps(02:10): Amusing Each Other to Death and "Frictionless Positivity": Neil Postman, TV vs. Social Media(14:35): Dunking, Quote Tweets, and Proximity to the Other(19:09): Prisoner's Dilemma of Twitter: Concede or Dunk(24:52): Is TikTok the Final Form of Social Media?(31:02): Status Games in the Algorithm Era(39:02): Technology's Reduction of Friction & Avoiding Confrontation with the Other(48:45): The Internet's Reversal of Vita Activa and Vita Contempliva(50:53): Growing Nihilism Toward Online Status Games: If You Don't Capture Attention, You Aren't Relevant Anymore(55:54): Late State Capitalism's Disappointment, Gen Z Nihilism in US and China, Death of Community(1:03:01): Speculation Culture and Playing to the Power Law(1:08:08): NBA, NFL, Netflix, Power Laws, and Distraction-Friendly Viewing(1:15:55): Playing for Attention: the Only Goal(1:18:43): Video and Image vs. Text(1:20:57): The Subconscious of American Culture and the Decline of Community According(1:32:31): Terminally Online Culture, Role Models, Evolving Search for Meaning(1:45:23): Friction and the Internet's Impact on Communities(1:50:50): AI, "The Most Human Human" and Creativity(1:56:38): Lighting section: Invisible Asymptotes for Social Media and Eugene, and Writing(2:02:08): Beginner's Mindset, Film School, What Technologists Could Learn from Filmmakers(2:06:40): What Idea from a Book Would Be Most Compelling to "Transmute" into an Audiovisual Medium?(2:08:56): Bezos and Removing Friction(2:11:09): Left Brain vs. Right Brain, Engineering Problems vs. Human Problems(2:15:07): Why Film is Meaningful and a RecommendationEpisode transcript⁠ with all linked references:

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• 10: Josh Wolfe - Illuminating Tomorrow

  Josh Wolfe (Website, X) is co-founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital, a venture firm focused on emerging science and technology at the outermost edges of what is possible.Josh is a masterful storyteller who moves seamlessly between science, culture, and markets. As an investor, he seeks the counter-narrative—what others aren't talking about—and has backed countless breakthrough companies in AI, space, biotech, robotics, defense, and beyond. Beyond investing, Josh founded Coney Island Prep charter school and is a trustee at the Santa Fe Institute.Our conversation explores the interplay between science and storytelling, the power of belief in both doubters and advocates, patterns in creative rebels, and what makes someone both "arrogant" enough to assert a new reality while remaining grounded enough to see reality clearly. We discuss America's scientific competitiveness, the value of competition in institutions, Josh's voracious appetite for the new, and his personal journey with control, trust, and family.Josh is one of my favorite examples of someone who is radically unhedged on himself: he leans into his genius—and thus sometimes, disfunction—in ways that make him authentically effective. Throughout the episode, he demonstrates his rare combination of wisdom and childlike curiosity, competitive drive, and deep care for the things that matter to him. His ideas on storytelling, science, and human nature offer a guide for thinking about bringing new things into the world.Episode transcript.Timestamps (2:12): Science & Stories (6:30): Are technology outcomes and timelines determined or variable based on cultural movements, societal reaction, and stories? (11:14): Who is Imagining the Future of Tomorrow? (16:34): Originality, AI, and Everything is a Remix (20:52): Improving as a Storyteller (23:55): Secrets & Magic (31:35): Josh's Biggest Believers (34:20): Belief Beyond Capital, Motivation, and Fuel (37:53): Patterns in Creative Rebels (40:53): "Arrogance of the Highest Order" in Entrepreneurs, Asserting Reality, Great Men of History, and Elon (47:02): US Exceptionalism and Celebrating Science & Technology (55:23): Institutions, Academia, Government, and Competition (1:00:56): Josh: Accomplished Yet Childlike - Finding the Edges (1:04:07): Breadth and Depth: a Heat-Seeking Ability to Go Deep (1:12:03): Managing Dowsides and Lessons that Could Have Been Learned Sooner (1:15:58): Control, Past, and Future (1:19:57): Learnings from Mom (1:20:57): Trust and learning from Optimistic Partners (1:22:54): LegacyLinks & References Kevin G's Josh Wolfe Compilation Kevin's much shorter twitter thread summary of Josh's spikeyness Lux Q3 2024 LP Letter - Four Parables of Four Greek Titans Various Lux LP Letters "And the Band Played On" / HIV Work Inspiration Josh's music taste Isabelle Boemeke (Nuclear Energy Influencer) The Three Body Problem Neil Gaiman Neil Stephenson - Polestan Writing Doom (Short Film) Everything is a Remix Man on the Moon (1999) Derek Del Gaudio's In and of Itself (2020) A Conversation with Josh Wolfe: Macro, Mentors, Motivation - Compound Manual - Frederik Gieschen 33: Josh Wolfe - The Mind Financing The Future - The Portal Josh Wolfe - This is Who You Are Up Against - Invest Like the Best, EP.76 EP 115: Josh Wolfe (Co-Founder, Lux Capital) On Uncovering Hidden Opportunities - The Logan Bartlett ShowDialectic is available on all platforms.Join the ⁠telegram channel⁠Follow ⁠on Twitter⁠Follow on InstagramSubscribe on YouTube

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  1:25:22
• 9: Jacob Horne - Markets for What Matters

  Jacob Horne (Website, Zora, X, Farcaster), is co-founder and CEO of Zora, a platform that allows the tokenization of media.Jacob started his career at Coinbase where he was a product lead and helped create USDC. Five years ago, he left to wade deeper into the waters of internet and crypto-native coordination and creativity and co-founded Zora.His central interest is how people coordinate together using the internet—the includes currencies, markets, ownership, art, speculation, and memes. We discuss how memes and symbols enable coordination, "The Meme and the Memo," words, money, and laws, Zora's premise built on Stewart Brand's "information wants to be free but it also wants to be expensive," a case for markets around attention, the new version of Zora and "a coin for every piece of content," speculation vs. gambling, token-powered brands, Ethereum and Solana, Coinbase and USDC, and a wide-ranging personal section that showcases why Jacob is so generative.The parting prompt I hope this conversation leaves all of us with is this: while information is ~free today (and also abundant, infinite), it is also quite expensive to consume in terms of time. We ought to think carefully about what content we spend our precious time consuming and rewarding. That you would spend some of yours listening to Dialectic is as always a privilege and I hope you find it worthwhile.Transcript available here.Timestamps (3:03): Obsession with Memes: How do you get people to organize? (8:46): The Meme and the Memo via Balaji Srinivasan (11:32): Three Fundamental Questions: Words, Money, Laws (12:39): The Midwit Meme and other Favorites (15:55): What makes media and information valuable? (19:26): Zora, Tokenized Media, and Information wants to be Free and Expensive (22:53): Provenance (28:30): Why Do We Want Markets for Attention?Deeper Crypto Section (37:08): A coin for every piece of content: prediction markets on attention (42:49): Investing in People or “Creator” / “Social”Tokens (44:14): Not fighting internet gravity: NFTs, “utillity,” 1 of 1s, and skeumorphic ideas along the way (47:52): Speaking to potential concerns and incentivizing more durable and useful information (52:23): Speculation vs. Gambling: positive sum vs. zero-sum (56:00): AI: Market Data as an input for for Models (58:56): Speculating on how a future of AI and attention markets will be good for creatives (1:04:50): Small market cap content can still be meaningful (1:08:11): Crypto-optimism and regulation (1:13:52): Saint Fame, Nouns, and Ideas for Future Token-Coordinated Orgs (1:22:32): Reflecting on “Hyperstructures” (1:28:55): Jacob's shift toward market-oriented thinking for solving coordination problems (1:30:40): Ethereum, Solana, and Blockchain CompetitionCoinbase (1:36:23): The Coinbase Internship that Never Ended (1:40:49): Starting USDC (1:49:14): Bloomberg Terminal's DesignGeneral Jacob (1:50:09): Bezos and adoption of technology (1:52:47): Tokenized Identity (1:55:41): Matt Dryhurst and Holly Herndon and Bridging Art and Technology (1:58:43): What idea has the world not come around on yet? (2:00:12): What are the aesthetics of Jacob's AI model? (2:04:20): The FAFO Zone and Local Maximums (2:11:03): The alternate reality where Jacob didn't discovery Bitcoin (2:14:54): Cultural and Artistic Inspirations (2:17:55): Patronus Problems (2:20:44): Australians and Americans (2:23:42): Jacob's Favorite Ideas (2:28:27): Lessons for Jacob's kids about creativityLinks "Meme Structure" Midwit Meme What is Cryptomedia? Jacob's Mints on Zora Mintellectual Property Onchain Predictions AI+ Saint Fame Nouns Hyperstructures Stewart Brand Pace Layers Tokenized Identity Tweet Herndon Dryhurst Jacob's Horse image meme "The FAFO Zone" Patronus Problems Earth is becoming sentient — Steph Ango Steve Jobs on agencyDialectic is available on all platforms.Join the ⁠telegram channel⁠Follow ⁠on Twitter⁠Follow on InstagramSubscribe on YouTube

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