Dialectic with Jackson Dahl
@DialecticPod • 4,066 subscribers
Conversational portraits of original people by @jacksondahl. https://t.co/9O2WSqysgP https://t.co/jcfchWCZ9Q https://t.co/PXCLZ6J6cc https://t.co/mHRXmDh07L
Videos
When does great art stop feeling fresh? Tyler Cowen on rap - "Rap, I think, is largely dead. Electronica, for now at least, has been exhausted. I'm waiting for AI music to become really good." "I loved a lot of early rap from the '80s. Felt very fresh. De La Soul felt very fresh. Some of OutKast. I'm not anti-rap the way some people hate the art form, but at the same time, I don't put it on anymore, unless you count Kanye as rap, but I wouldn't."
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl151,749 views • 14 days ago
.tylercowen: "Twitter as this grand organ that you play to learn things and see jokes is phenomenal. It's actually one of mankind's greatest creations. Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 will say this, even if very few people say it." "There's so much hating on it, but I think it's important to make it clear that it is one of our greatest intellectual, humorous, learning, inspirational, and depressing creations of all time."
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl149,692 views • 1 month ago
.tylercowen and Nabeel S. Qureshi on mentorship: Tyler - "We should all do menteeship more. You become older, successful, established, and you think, 'Oh, I don't need mentors,' it's totally wrong." "You need more mentors than ever before, and they should be younger, especially with AI." Nabeel - "I'm in my 30s now, and I meet people in their early 20s much smarter than me at certain things." "You have to make this conscious shift because it's rare to find in older people that they have that degree of low ego."
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl30,115 views • 28 days ago
Ep. 33: TBPN (John Coogan & Jordi Hays) - Inside Tech's Water Cooler John Coogan and Jordi Hays are the hosts of TBPN, a daily live show covering the technology business. TBPN was launched only about a year ago, but has become a mainstay in tech culture and a center of gravity for terminally online technologists. John was previously an EIR at Founders Fund and tech YouTuber. He co-founded Lucy Nicotine and Soylent. Jordi has co-founded and invested in many business including Party Round/Capital and Branded Native, a podcast and youtube ad network. We cover the origins of TBPN, or the Technology Business Programming Network, from its beginnings as "Technology Brothers" to the interplay between John's love for technology and Jordi's for business. They share how they've built a media business in an era of infinite competition by leaning into high volume and constant iteration, all while treating media as the "main thing." We discuss brand building and innovating on form by borrowing ideas from outside the tech industry—from Formula One and SportsCenter to Hollywood films—to avoid tech's tendency toward circular references. We also talk about their focus on X/Twitter and a niche, highly informed audience, rather than trying to go too wide. We also chat about what makes their partnership work and how they take the work incredibly seriously while not taking themselves seriously at all. Timestamps: 0:00 - Opening Highlights 3:18 - Intro & Background 6:08 - Technology vs. Business and the Strategy behind TBPN 12:08 - Building a Media Business when Distribution is not Scarce 22:26 - Being Entrepreneurs and Talent 30:33 - Avoiding Audience Capture 35:57 - Why Advertising is a Good Model 44:04 - Technology's Circular References and Borrowing Ideas from New Places 53:20 - Narrow vs. Wide Appeal 59:44 - X (Twitter)-First Content and Other Platforms 1:14:35 - Making Content People Want to Share and Taking Yourself Seriously and Unseriously 1:20:28 - Valuing Brand 1:30:10 - Balancing Focus and Iteration 1:35:25 - Endurance & Evolution 1:40:34 - A Day in the Life of TBPN & Learning to be Newscasters 1:49:59 - Jordi & John as a duo, Will Manidis, and the beginnings of TBPN 2:02:57 - Grab Bag: Bias to Action, 15 Minute Interviews, Not Journalism, Talent, and Domination of Spirit Available on all platforms. Full transcript and all links available below.
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl170,839 views • 8 months ago
Ep. 30: David Senra - The Clarity of Commitment David Senra (David Senra) is a podcaster and loves that title more than anyone. He hosts Founders, where he teaches the lessons of history's greatest entrepreneurs by way of the biographies he reads of them. This week, he launched a second show, David Senra (David Senra), where he talks to the greatest living entrepreneurs (often about the lessons from Founders). The first episode with Spotify Founder & CEO Daniel Ek (Daniel Ek) is available now, and the show is in partnership with @scicommedia , the team behind Andrew D. Huberman, Ph.D.. David is an enthusiast about four things: entrepreneurship, reading, history, and podcasts. His two shows are the articulation of those obsessions in a form of service for the rest of us. He is following Charlie Munger's advice: "take a simple a idea and take it seriously." David is one of the most energizing people I've ever met and has greatly inspired my work. I've had several multi-hour conversations with him that left me buzzing afterward, and I'm pleased that this is no exception. We cover many of his favorite lessons and founders, his process, biographies, focus, fear, endurance, service, and legacy. I hope you are inspired to commit yourself to something worth your days and years. Timestamps 0:00 - Open 1:49 - Intro 3:02 - Podcasts are Energy Transmission 7:52 - People Buy Simple Stories 12:38 - Repetition Doesn't Spoil the Prayer 16:11 - Trust in Brands and Products (and Podcasts) 19:40 - Continuous Improvement and Speaking to a Moving Parade 26:18 - Confidence and Simplicity 34:55 - What Makes a Great Biography and Biographer 42:17 - Humanity in Context: Why Biographies are So Practically Helpful 48:52 - Fear 54:32 - Self Reflection and Commitment 1:06:52 - Considering Stuff Beyond Podcasting 1:10:40 - Focus and Making Time for Relationships 1:14:00 - What Should David Delegate? 1:24:36 - Advice for 2017 David 1:28:21 - Storytelling and Clear Thinking 1:32:19 - Defying Rationality and Creating Magic with Obsessive Details 1:38:09 - Self-Deception and Understanding Who You Are 1:45:01 - Intuition 1:48:34 - Being Easy to Interface With 1:52:26 - Biography Most Founders Would Benefit From: James Dyson's Against the Odds 1:57:05 - Simplicity and Edit Before You Make 2:02:42 - Lesson for Tech People: Learn from History 2:06:14 - What David Hopes His Kids Say About Him Available on all platforms.
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl157,835 views • 10 months ago
Andrew Reed on what set him apart Sequoia Capital: Doug Leone (first interview): "There are 200 people just like you. Why would we hire you?" Andrew grew up with a severe stutter. "It's very hard to jump into conversations. Raise your hand in class." "I spent my entire childhood just observing." Now: "I have a unique way of seeing the little kid inside people. That helps with trust."
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl65,493 views • 5 months ago
Ep. 35: Brie Wolfson - Loving Attention & Ease in Craft Brie Wolfson is something of a marketing and culture wizard, and has helped some of the most incredible companies and leaders in Silicon Valley by amplifying what is true and unique about them. That includes Cursor and Michael Truell, Join Colossus and Patrick OShaughnessy, Stripe, Stripepress and Patrick Collison, Figma and Dylan Field, and others behind the scenes. But what stands out most in Brie is her infectious joy, dedication to craft, and lifelong dance between a desire to be great and an ability to listen to and trust herself to go in unlikely directions--as she so poignantly explored in her recent essay/profile on Kevin Kelly, 'Flounder Mode.' I hope this conversation inspires you find ways to amplify those you believe in with loving attention, settle into ease and quality in whatever you make, and pursue a life of joyful usefulness. Available below and on all platforms. Timestamps: 0:00 - Opening 3:54 - Notion 5:04 - Intro: Craft, Finger Feel, and Staying Closer to the Ground Level 13:27 - Process vs. Output, Quality vs. Speed, and Great Editing 21:44 - Craft, Substance, and Truth in Marketing 25:56 - Individuals as the Building Block of a Company and Empowered ICs 32:02 - Creative Collaboration and In-Person and Remote 36:46 - Company Building: What is Changing and What Will Stay the Same 44:25 - The Soft Stuff: Great Company Values and Great Culture 52:17 - Thinking vs. Doing Cultures, 996 and Difficulty Sitting Still 1:00:37 - Morale, Fun, Amplifying Leaders, and Loving Attention 1:11:58 - Career Path Advice for Young People 1:19:56 - Kevin Kelly, Chasing Greatness, Illegibility, and Ease in One's Craft 1:27:29 - Special Talent and Contagious Ambition 1:32:22 - Brie’s Spike: Charisma, Hard and Soft, Making Things Fun, and Belief 1:43:23 - Taste, Appreciation, Generosity, Skill and Soul 1:57:26 - Great Editors, Saying No and Getting to Yes, and Being Receptive to Editing 2:05:25 - Great Writing: What do You Have the Right to Do that Others Don't? 2:13:55 - Grab Bag: Optimism and Pessimism, High and Low, and Closing Maxims 2:30:07 - Thanks to Notion
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl74,199 views • 7 months ago
Ep. 31: Gabe Whaley - Playing the Crowd and Outlasting the Hype Gabe Whaley (Gabriel Whaley) is co-founder and CEO of MSCHF (MSCHF), the art collective, fashion and footwear brand, startup, and fill-in-the-blank, famous for its viral products and cultural interventions. A few notable works include Jesus Shoes (Nike Air Max filled with holy water), Severed Spots (a "decentralized" Damien Hirst print), Museum of Forgeries (One original Warhol and 999 perfect forgeries), and of course the Big Red Boot. This conversation was heavily influenced by MSCHF's recently released Made by MSCHF, a "textbook," through which the team peels back the curtain and shows us inside the black box that has produced more viral hits than one can count. Gabe had a sheltered childhood and went to two years of army academy at West Point before eventually finding his way to New York City to intern at Buzzfeed around 2014. In his spare time, he started releasing weird internet projects under the name "Miscellaneous Mischief." After tasting virality a few times, he started collaborating with likeminded creatives and eventually formalized MSCHF in 2019. I've known Gabe for many years (and even did a small collaboration with him from my seat at 100 Thieves). We sat down to reflect on the last 15 years and the arc of MSCHF, what made it special, and where one goes next when virality makes you feel nothing and the internet feels mature. The conversation includes MSCHF's eye-of-the-beholder legibility, their obsession with value, the power of mystery, and how the product doesn't culminate with release, but after the audience has made it their own (in MSCHF parlance, "playing the crowd"). We also discuss the creative process behind the hit factory, how acting as a label rather than individuals changes their relationship to the work, whether the cultural future is actually canceled, how the internet has changed, and how real world experiences offer something to the creator and the consumer that digital life simply can't. We wrap-up by speed-running through many of MSCHF's internal values, from "always punch up," to "death is just as importance as birth," to perhaps its defining frame: "nothing is sacred." I hope you are inspired toward play, originality, embracing discomfort, and having the courage to burn it all down and start anew. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 2:21 - Value and Legibility 13:24 - Is the Future Canceled? 20:00 - We Create as a Result of What We Believe In 26:11 - What Makes a Good Remix 29:08 - How MSCHF Relates to the Current Thing and Evolves What Game it Plays 38:31 - Creating Something the Crowd Can Play 44:59 - Emphasis on Craft and Objects Rather than Creating "Lifestyle" 47:27 - Keeping Up in a World That Demands Constant Production 53:11 - Resisting The Internet's Scale and Lack of Friction 1:03:15 - Accidental World Building, Process, Creative Inputs, and Focus 1:14:09 - Creating as a Collective and Gabe's Role in Enabling the Team 1:22:30 - Trust, Shedding the Black Box, and Staying Original 1:30:35 - Applied MSCHF – Doors are Open 1:34:21 - Sarah Andelman, People Who are Still Excited, and Long Time Horizons 1:41:52 - Buzzfeed 1:44:41 - MSCHF Values Available on all platforms and transcript below.
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl83,100 views • 9 months ago
The honest AI users are the ones who know when they’re cutting corners. The dangerous ones are the people who stop noticing when they are. jasmine sun: “AI is so perfect at justifications that the only thing left is knowing, in some deep internal sense, whether or not you're doing productive work, learning, and thinking."
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl16,824 views • 1 month ago
Ep. 26: Cyan Banister - A Fool's Dérive Cyan Banister (Cyan Banister) is an investor, artist, and co-founder and General Partner of Long Journey. Previously, Cyan spent four years at Founders Fund and has a legendary angel investing track record alongside her husband, Scott, including early rounds in SpaceX, Uber, and DeepMind. Cyan is as original as they come: she grew up on a Navajo reservation and was homeless by 15, with a series of unlikely serendipitous moments combined with optimism, agency, and love of capitalism taking her to a very different life than the one she grew up with. I focused this conversation not on Cyan's work, but her unique approach to living. We begin with Cyan’s “church”: a weekly visit to see Bobby McFerrin and co. do live, jazz acapella in Berkeley, CA. We discuss how this space ties to presence, openness, and play, and then talk about the tension between novelty and consistency as she continues on her own path toward self-love and mindfulness. She also tells me about her radical approach to accountability and the empowering results of assuming that everything is her fault. One of Cyan's favorite words is the French dérive, or an intentional drift, and it embodies her approach to the world. She moves with childlike wonder, seeking to see things and people from new perspectives and challenging others to react beyond their default settings. She daydreams about the outcomes she wants and has remarkable conviction and faith even when others do not believe her. We wrap with a grab bag representative of Cyan's diverse interests, from filmmaking and performance art to the US Constitution to Bill Murray. Cyan manages to combine randomness and intentionality, naiveté and sober-minded awareness, humility and conviction. I hope you are are as inspired as I am to live more playfully, seriously, and courageously. Timestamps: 3:45 - Cyan's "Church" 16:21 - Stillness, Mindfulness, and Introspection 28:47 - Learning to See in Original Ways 39:38 - People: When the "Light is On," "Collecting Minds," and Conjuring Friends 46:55 - Cultivating Childlike Joy and Refusing to be a Victim 52:30 - Radical Accountability 56:28 - Randomness, Faith, and Experimentation 1:06:22 - Conviction and Peter Thiel 1:12:54 - Returning to Seed Investing and Long Journey Ventures 1:18:23 - Thoughts on Art 1:23:42 - Performance Art 1:26:37 - Cyan's Creative Projects 1:32:51 - Boredom 1:36:06 - Living Around Elderly People 1:42:14 - Pete Buttigieg 1:45:57 - Being a Role Model 1:48:26 - Young People's Future 1:52:46 - Scott Banister and Lessons for Her Kids 1:55:35 - "It Just Doesn't Matter" And Who Pulls the Strings --- Quick note on video: Yes, it is here! Today’s episode isn’t perfect (a one-off set in a friend’s space, some audio-video sync issues, imperfect camera angles, so on). Alas, I’m ripping the bandaid off and you can expect some future episodes to include video versions. Feedback is welcome. --- All links and transcript avail below.
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl71,844 views • 11 months ago
.Cursor's Ryo Lu on the underrated benefit of AI coding tools: "I got busier, and I stopped making things. Every time I tried to go back — oh shit, I need to learn React 18, and Tailwind, and whatever." Now: "The agent helps you find your way. You can look at the code. You can learn from its output how things work."
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl30,082 views • 5 months ago
.TBPN on embracing their niche: "We make content for 200 thousand people. People that run companies, invest, work at the most important tech companies in the world. A very small group of people. If it's interesting to us, it's probably interesting to that group."
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl31,105 views • 8 months ago
Ep. 29: Billy Oppenheimer - Attuned to Clues Billy Oppenheimer (Billy Oppenheimer) is a researcher and writer who works closely with Ryan Holiday and Rick Rubin, and publishes the “Six at 6” newsletter. Billy is also working on his first book, The Work is the Win. We kick off by discussing one of my favorite new ideas: "looking for clues," a process and philosophy for creativity that Billy learned from Rick Rubin. He shares the story Rick told him when he learned and adopted this language, which is so representative of how Billy (and I!) research in our work. From there, we talk about Billy's robust research process and how he has created an external brain of the ideas and patterns that inspire him rather than relying on memory. We also talk about the importance of time as a filter and a series of maxims that underpin his work and creativity. We discuss the importance of inputs over outputs and his big idea and book title, "The Work is the Win," as well many related ideas on success, complacency, compounding, standards, initiative, local maximums, and more. We finish with some lessons from Billy's favorite people. This conversation is a field guide for making things, pushing through the messiness of progress, and attuning yourself to the richness of the world that often takes the shape of clues. Timestamps: 0:00 - Intro 1:20 - Looking for Clues with Rick Rubin 17:42 - Billy's Own Clue-Seeking 24:26 - Balancing Listening to the Market and Finding Unique Influences 31:17 - Memory, Notecards, and Billy's External Brain 37:13 - Making Notes for an Ignorant Stranger, or Leaving Clues for Your Future Self 45:09 - Lingering and Time as a Filter 52:51 - Billy's Book and Big Idea: "The Work is the Win" 1:00:07 - Be Great Regardless 1:04:31 - Following Up Even When Your Abilities and Standards Don't Match 1:10:10 - Fending Off the Wolf at the Door (The Comfort of Success) 1:15:55 - Unfolding and Planting Seeds 1:18:17 - Taking Initiative and Opening Doors: "He Who Hesitates is Lost" 1:24:58 - Stupid Bravery and Getting Past the Sewage 1:30:16 - Local Maximums and Resisting Personal "Folklore" 1:36:14 - Some of Billy's Favorites: Ryan Holiday, Rick Rubin, Steve Jobs, John Mayer, Greta Gerwig, Jerry Seinfeld, Ralph Waldo Emerson 1:56:45 - Side Quests 2:02:26 - "I Know What We Do Here" and Creative Environments 2:05:28 - Bringing Familiar and Unfamiliar Together 2:09:26 - Mastery and Compounding 2:12:44 - The Real Life of Appearances 2:15:43 - "Ton-goo-ey" and The Gifts We Give Ourselves All links and transcript available below.
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl34,411 views • 10 months ago
Ep. 14: Alex Zhang - Curating Cultural Playgrounds Alex Zhang (zhang) is a cultural curator, community builder, and creative director. Currently, he's Chief Creative Officer of Powder Mountain (PowMow), a where he's working with Reed Hastings to create a globally unique ski experience that combines art, architecture, and lots of fresh tracks. Alex loves people and curating spaces and experiences for them: whether that means parties, music festivals, or mountain towns. He joined Summit Series out of school, throwing large scale events around the world and working on Powder Mountain, a Utah mountain resort the ownership group had acquired. He then joined one of the first social DAOs, Friends with Benefits (Friends With Benefits) as Mayor/CEO, after being tapped by its founder Trevor McFredries to scale the tokenized social club beyond a Discord Server. He launched FWB Fest, an annual in-person music festival and crypto conference with past performers including James Blake, Charli XCX, and Caroline Polachek. Most recently, he joined Reed Hastings to return to Powder Mountain after the Netflix co-founder acquired a controlling stake in the resort. Alex leads brand, art, architecture, and marketing. Blending culture, commerce, and "cool" is anything but a science, but Alex has made a career of it. I've known him for a decade and it's been a thrill to watch him continue to find strange intersections, blending worlds like music and tech, crypto and culture, and skiing and art. We talk about this, how to create spaces and events, living in the mountains, large scale art experiences, Christopher Alexander and Jane Jacobs, challenges in creating new cities, learning from Reed Hastings, and a life of deepening one's taste. I hope you enjoy and are inspired to life a more connected, playful, and present life. Timestamps: 4:09 – Commerce & Culture, Patronage, and Constraints 12:17 – Curating People, Spaces, and Art: "Host Energy" 19:44 – How to Throw a Party or Start a Scene 27:05 – Unlikely Intersections and Authentic Marketing 35:36 – Returning to Powder and Building a Unique Mountain Resort 42:31 – Utah and Mountain Living 47:27 – Randomness & Emergence: Christopher Alexander, Jane Jacobs, and Cities 52:24 – Creating a Digital Feeling of Place 55:15 – Network States and New Cities 1:00:42 – "Community" 1:08:27 – Organic Leadership Opportunities, Partnership, and Trust 1:15:12 – Focused Leadership and The Power of Memetic Language 1:20:02 – Learning from Reed Hastings as a Leader 1:29:09 – Getting into Rooms and Finding Serendipity 1:32:58 – Playfulness and Elon 1:36:25 – Intuition and Career Decisions 1:39:10 – Curating Music and a Life Goal of Refining Taste 1:42:56 – Music's Role in Creating Great Spaces 1:44:08 – Photography 1:46:02 – Beginning, Learning to Ski and Scuba 1:48:10 – Improving Los Angeles and What Makes it Special
Dialectic with Jackson Dahl21,893 views • 1 year ago
No more content to load