Infinite Loops

My guest on Infinite Loops this week knew he wanted to be an entrepreneur from the time he was buying and selling things on eBay. Jay Reno claims he didn’t know what the word ‘arbitrage’ meant back then, but if you tug on the colourful threads of his career, you’d reveal the kind of tenacity and resourcefulness that allows special founders like him to repeatedly find value in places that have long been deserted by everybody else. If you listen in on today’s episode, it will become apparent why O’Shaughnessy Ventures invested in Jay and his current venture. Jay is the CEO and Founder of Pointhound, which helps people find amazing deals on flights and travel using their credit card points and miles. He’s also a partner at 645 ventures. Among other fun pursuits, he’s spent the last ten years building all sorts of cool things; like a same-day grocery delivery service, a craft coffee company, a restaurant and bar reservation app, and a furniture rental service for city dwellers. We spent our conversation talking about his advice for first-time founders; his learnings from building Pointhound; the whimsical world of credit card point programmes; his thoughts on consumer psychology; and much more! For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack. Important Links: Jay’s Twitter Jay’s LinkedIn 645 Ventures Pointhound HQ Show Notes: How To Bring Your Idea To Life The Virtues of the Y-Combinator Model Picking the Right Investor Pointhound & The Points Game On Consumer Psychology and Trying New Things Removing the Invisible Barrier Product Cycles and User Feedback Slow Down to Speed Up The Common Pitfalls in Building Consumer Products The Credit Card Prestige Factor The Cashback Conundrum The Future of Pointhound Jay, The Emperor of The World Books & Articles Mentioned: My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla; by Nikola Tesla Mistakes were Made. (And, Yes, by Me.); by Jim O’Shaughnessy

My guest today is Michael Garfield, a paleontologist, futurist, writer, podcast host and strategic advisor whose “mind-jazz” performances — essays, music and fine art — bridge the worlds of art, science and philosophy. This year, Michael received a $10k O’Shaughnessy Grant for his “Humans On the Loop” discussion series, which explores the nature of agency, power, responsibility and wisdom in the age of automation. This whirlwind discussion is impossible to sum up in a couple of sentences (just look at the number of books & articles mentioned!) Ultimately, it is a conversation about a subject I think about every day: how we can live curious, collaborative and fulfilling lives in our deeply weird, complex, probabilistic world. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack. Important Links: Michael’s Website Humans On The Loop Twitter Future Fossils Substack Show Notes: What is “mind jazz”? Humans “ON” the loop? The Red Queen hypothesis and the power of weirdness Probabilistic thinking & the perils of optimization Context collapse, pernicious convenience & coordination at scale How organisations learn Michael as World Emperor MORE! Books, Articles & Podcasts Mentioned: The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves; by W. Brian Arthur Pharmako-AI; by K Allado-McDowell The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century; by Howard Bloom The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There; by Lewis Carroll The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch Scale Theory: A Nondisciplinary Inquiry; by Joshua DiCaglio Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering; by Malcolm Gladwell The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich Do Conversation: There's No Such Thing as Small Talk; by Robert Poynton Reality Hunger: A Manifesto; by David Shields The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture; by William Irwin Thompson The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson Designing Neural Media; by K Allado-McDowell Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning; by Steward Brand Losing Humanity: The Case against Killer Robots; by Bonnie Docherty What happens with digital rights management in the real world?; by Cory Doctorow The Evolution of Surveillance Part 1: Burgess Shale to Google Glass; by Michael Garfield An Introduction to Extitutional Theory; by Jessy Kate Schingler 175 - C. Thi Nguyen on The Seductions of Clarity, Weaponized Games, and Agency as Art; Future Fossils with Michael Garfield 🎶⚔️👏🏼 205 - Greg Thomas & Stephanie Lepp on Jazz Leadership & Antagonistic Cooperation; Future Fossils with Michael Garfield 🌏🚜🫀212 - Manfred Laubichler & Geoffrey West on Life In The Anthropocene & Living Inside The Technosphere; Future Fossils with Michael Garfield

My guest today is Max Meyer, the proprietor of Arena Magazine, a new quarterly publication exploring technology, capitalism and civilization. Arena’s aim? To “make it okay to dream in public again.” Max and I discuss why he launched a print magazine in 2024, WTF happened to legacy media, the wisdom of Ratatouille and MUCH more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack. Important Links: Max’s Twitter Arena Magazine The New Needs Friends The Earthly Miracle of the Grocery Store Robert F. Kennedy announces the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Show Notes: What is going on with legacy media? Print advertising and the race to the bottom The collapse of trust in the media TikTok brain, news consumption & social media as a steam valve Bailouts & the appeal of the “zero interest fairyland” The wisdom of Ratatouille The decline of Presidential oratory American progress & the population bomb that didn’t go off Failure is a ladder The one rule of capitalism Long haul flights: Where’s our roast turkey? Why is Arena a physical magazine? Max as Emperor of the world MORE! Books & Articles Mentioned: The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch The Ultimate Resource; by Julian L. Simon The Population Bomb; by Dr Paul R. Ehrlich The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom How United Became an Airline; by Andy Kessler (WSJ) This is Water; by David Foster Wallace line.

Parmita Mishra is a computational biologist and the founder & CEO of Precigenetics, a company aiming to become a rocket to precision medicine. Parmita is deeply knowledgeable about cutting-edge biology, particularly epigenetics — how behavior and environment can affect gene function without altering genetic code. Her passion for advancing our understanding of diseases is inspiring (and contagious: OSV is an investor in Parmita’s company!) In our conversation, Parmita and I discuss everything from the curious case of male baldness to how her parents have saved 50,000 lives.  I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, highlights, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack. Important Links: LinkedIn Twitter Website Precigenetics Twitter Preciginetics launch post Show Notes: Explaining epigenetics to a golden retriever The curious case of male pattern baldness How to think about biology: start from first principles & beware binary thinking The lens you look through determines what you see The problem of data collection in biology Why the FDA needs to change its approach Why we still don’t understand the human brain Garry Tan’s advice: “Get an idea. Get a co-founder.” What’s been surprising about foundership? Failure is a ladder Obsession & how Parmita’s parents have saved 50,000 lives The most surprising things about America Parmita as World Empress Books Mentioned: What is Life?; by Erwin Schrodinger I should have loved biology; by James Somers Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America; by John D. Gartner