This is episode #1 of the Mental Models of Successful People podcast with @John Coogan where we figure out the secrets to making optimal decisions - watch till the end to find out :)

John Coogan is the co-founder of Soylent (raised over $70M from top VCs like Google Ventures & a16z & sold over $100M worth of products).

We talk about the exploit vs explore tradeoff in AI & how that applies to decision making (and why you often can't make optimal decisions realistically), cargo cults, self-help vs stealth-help, & more.

SUBSCRIBE:
https://www.youtube.com/channe....l/UCOPpE6LKOqYuFAdly

Get in Touch: shoot me a DM on twitter @realmichaelye
I try my best to reply to all DMs/questions, so don't hesitate to reach out!

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OUTLINE:
0:00 - Intro (Who is John Coogan)
0:33 - Why Successful People DON'T View Themselves as Successful
3:04 - Problem with Hustle Porn (Gary Vee, ...)
4:34 - Entrepreneurship as the End Game

6:50 - Cargo Cults (Elizabeth Holmes, ...)
9:14 - Why Theranos is NOT as bad as you think
12:10 - Moderna (Covid Vaccine)
13:22 - How to take bets (by taking a holistic view of the sample space)
14:07 - Are VCs putting too much money behind bad companies? (e.g. WeWork)

17:27 - Explore vs Exploit Tradeoff (How that applies to making good decisions)
20:21 - Using "Ant Colony Optimization" to model behavior
23:12 - How John learned to code & got into Silicon Valley startups
26:02 - His 1st Company & How it Failed
27:08 - Why it's so hard to tell you're failing when you are failing
28:28 - How Soylent started
30:37 - Successful Entrepreneurs Explore (+ Why I'm WRONG on this)

31:47 - Jeff Dean Memes
32:28 - Great ideas come from the intersection of multiple fields
35:55 - How to easily figure out what you don't know
38:35 - An explanation for the Law of Attraction
40:18 - Using placebo effects to your advantage
42:36 - The American Dream is becoming more true

43:31 - How to make good decisions
44:23 - Why you CAN'T realistically make optimal decisions in real life (Prisoner's Delimma)
46:48 - The secret behind politicians' fake promises
49:18 - Why there is no "logical" answer in politics (aka why Ben Shapiro is wrong)
54:25 - Speak to the problem, not the logic

58:11 - Self-help vs Stealth-help (Having a virtuous mission ISN'T enough)
1:01:20 - How Batched optimization applies to making good decisions
1:03:30 - Why mission-driven startups often don't work
1:05:05 - Emergent properties
1:09:20 - Going "off-book"
1:13:45 - My Lego VR Headshot

1:14:46 - BONUS Section

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