Startup Geometry Podcast

Cory Doctorow is a bestselling author of both science fiction and techno-sociological nonfiction, one of four editors of longtime popular weblog boingboing, and an activist and advocate for intellectual property rights, working extensively with the Electronic Freedom Foundation and others to put control of content back in the hands of the users like you and me. Photo credit: Jonathan Worth 2013 Today, we talk about the EFF's plan to defeat Digital Rights Management (DRM) as a business model of rent-seeking corporations. DRM is the set of digital locks on the content you buy--everything from eBooks to your car's computer have DRM embedded--and while it isn't impossible to break, it is highly illegal for you (or anyone) to do so. That means you don't have control of things that you bought. It also means that security flaws cannot always be researched or revealed. That's a big problem. We also talk about how he became a writer and how he gets his writing done despite a punishing travel and speaking schedule. Spoiler: 250 words a day, every day will result in a finished product very quickly. That's one page per day. You can do that, can't you? Show Links and Notes EFF The EFF on the DRM lawsuit Bunnie Huang on the DRM lawsuit boingboing Cory's website, craphound.com Flickr Twitter The flashbake version control tool Cory's books include: Little Brother Information Doesn't Want to be Free: Laws for the Information Age Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom  

Kevin Kelly spends a lot of time thinking about the future. He once spent six months imagining that he only had six months to live (and keeps a timer on his own life expectancy), and co-founded the Long Now foundation, built around the idea of a 10,000 year clock to promote very long term thinking. His current book, The Inevitable: Understanding the Twelve Technological Forces that will Shape Our Future, deals with the future that is happening now, the ongoing future, the one William Gibson says is already here, just not evenly distributed yet. He is the co-founder and current Chief Maverick of Wired, and is a prolific writer, publisher, photographer and founder of group projects, including the Cool Tools book and website, The Silver Cord, a crowdfunded graphic novel about angels, and the Quantified Self meetups. Today, we talk about how to think about the future, why people choose personalization over privacy, what it might mean to look through someone else's eyes for a day, and why the artificial intelligences in your future won't be what you expect.

Michelle Warnky is the owner of Movement Lab Ohio, a competitor in obstacle races and a traceusse de parkour (a parkour freerunner). You can see her on American Ninja Warrior, where she's one of a small group of successful repeat competitors, and you can learn how to be a ninja in your own life at her gym. Today, we talk about her experience as an English teacher in Kazakhstan, how to develop the skills you need to move your body through obstacles, and how she's balanced her roles as solo competitor, teacher and business owner.

Shava Nerad is the former Executive Director of the Tor Project, open source software that helps users protect their online privacy. She is currently CEO of Oddfellow Studios, and a frequent writer through Quora (where I met her) and on her Patreon site. Today, we talk about her early days as the youngest female Chief Software Engineer at DEC and IT manager at MIT, how to manage and relate to very different people, how she won an argument with Richard Stallman, and how and why Tor came to be one of the most praised and reviled pieces of software in the world (often by the same people). Shava knows when to follow the rules and when to break them, and that turns out to be very valuable.

Helen DeWitt is the author of The Last Samurai, Lightning Rods, and, with Ilya Gridnef, Your Name Here. The Last Samurai, originally released by Miramax Books in 2000, is being released in a new edition by New Directions in May 2016. For many years, the book was passed along in secondhand copies among cognoscenti, and I'm glad to see it back in print. Sibylla, a single mother from a long line of frustrated talents, has unusual ideas about child rearing. Yo Yo Ma started piano at the age of two; her son starts at three. J.S.Mill learned Greek at three; Ludo starts at four, reading Homer as they travel round and round the Circle Line. A fatherless boy needs male role models; so she plays the film of Seven Samurai as a running backdrop to his childhood. While Sibylla types out back copies of Carpworld to pay the rent, Ludo, aged five, moves on to Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese, aerodynamics and edible insects of the world - they might come in handy, if he can just persuade his mother he's mature enough to know his father's name. He is bound for knowledge of a less manageable sort, not least about his mother's past. And at the heart of the book is the boy's changing relationship with Sibylla - contradictory, touching and tender. Today, we talk about how desperation breeds creativity, why we should all be able to choose our own parents, and the ecosystem of Berlin cafes. A small correction: in our discussion of coffee drinks at Neues Ufer, the drink served in a small ceramic bowl was incorrectly identified as Kremkaffee; the correct drink name is Milchkaffee. Show Notes Helen's website Her blog, paperpools Helen on twitter Her Wikipedia entry Her books: People mentioned:   Edward Tufte, data display guru. Emanuel Derman, Wall Street quant and professor. Previous guest of the show. John Stuart Mill, Victorian polymath. David Bowie, modern polymath.  

Luca Turin is a biophysicist and expert in the sense of smell. He is best known to the scientific community as the proponent of the vibrational theory of olfaction: that smell receptors detect the vibrational frequencies of the molecular bonds of parts of the scent molecule. This theory represents an alternative to the older shape-based theory of smell: that scent molecules bind to specific receptors that conform to the shape of the scent molecule. The debate on this topic is detailed in Turin's The Secret of Scent, and Chandler Burr's The Emperor of Scent. He is also the author, with his partner Tania Sanchez, of Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, which provides a sensual and witty look at over 1,000 commercially available perfumes. He also writes perfume criticism in several locations online, including at perfumesilove.com, and is a scent molecule designer and consultant to the industry. Links and bonus materials Luca's TED talks:   Perfumes: The A-Z Guide website. perfumesilove.com Tania Sanchez on Twitter People Mentioned in the Episode Alexander Fleming Chandler Burr François Coty, founder of Coty Estee Lauder Mark Buxton, perfumer for Comme des Garçons, among others  

  David Heinemeier Hansson is the co-founder (with Jason Fried) of Basecamp (formerly 37signals) , author of Remote and Rework (also with Jason Fried), and creator of the Ruby on Rails framework. He's also a race car driver, having won the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, and an avid photographer.   Today, we talk about why it's best to build products that you would (and do) use, the low-risk approach to building a company, why funding yourself helps to slow the clock, how that approach bleeds over to every aspect of the business (from marketing to management), and why much of his life is lived outside the office. Show Links and Notes Basecamp Ruby on Rails   David Heinemeier Hansson Website signal vs noise blog Twitter: @dhh, @dhhracing Instagram: @dhh79 Medium: @dhh Wikipedia

Long before there were blogs or podcasts, Andrei Codrescu was writing online (much of it through his "hidden literary magazine" Exquisite Corpse) and publishing audio commentary (often as a commentator on NPR). He is the author of many books of poetry, essays and fiction, and has taught literature at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Baltimore and Louisiana State University, where he recently retired as the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English. Now, he's planning on developing a podcast of his very own. Today, we talk about this upcoming project, which comments on his previous radio work, the importance of peripheral locations, and changes in Romania from the fall of Communism to the present day. Show Notes and Links Andrei CodrescuWebsite Twitter: @acodrescu Exquisite Corpse:Click on the large No to enter site NPR archive Ioan CulianuMircea Eliade Lars Iyer The Original Brothers Grimm translated by Jack Zipes Lafcadio Hearn

Emanuel Derman first had a successful career as a particle physicist, and then an even more  successful career on Wall Street, doing advanced mathematical modeling of financial instrument prices and volatility. Currently, he is a professor at Columbia University, where he directs the program in financial engineering. He's the author of My Life as a Quant and Models.Behaving.Badly. Today, we talk about the differences between models & theories, finance & physics, and life & experiments. We look under the hood of the Black-Scholes[-Merton] option pricing formula, talk about the gaps in classical and behavioral financial models, and find out what he would change about his life if he could live it again. Show Notes and Links

Barry Michels and Phil Stutz are two of the most sought-after psychotherapists in Los Angeles, particularly by creative professionals. They are also the authors of The Tools, a book that teaches you the techniques they use in their practice to help unlock creativity, decrease anxiety and to correct the negative patterns that interfere with your life.   In this podcast, we discuss the relationship between the Shadow (Carl Jung's term for a subconscious part of your mind that contains your inner shame and other unconscious material) and creativity, plus the three immutable rules of dealing with a perpetually changing world. We also talk about their next book, dealing with Part X, or the inner enemy that tries to sabotage your growth and development. Listen on iTunes Show Notes and Links Their website, where you can join their mailing list and learn more about the Tools. Their Twitter @TheToolsBook Pick up a copy of The Tools from Amazon Read the New Yorker profile about them   Outline [0.01.17] Example of a Tool: Inner Authority. The Shadow and creativity. Embracing your Shadow. Flow is your ability to tolerate imperfection. “Keep Writing Shit, Stupid.”  Viktor Frankl, Man’sSearch for Meaning.  [0.07.10] Part X, the destructive part of everybody. It prevents flow states. Outer Authority. Definition of a Tool. Giving your Shadow a positive message so it shows up for your next session. Sending a message to Part X. Changing habits requires inner and outer actions in the midst of the habit.  [0.14.50] Triggering the Tools. Using Cues. Training someone to function emotionally and psychologically in the present. “It’s easier than living the way you’re living now, because when you get used to intervening quickly in your own process, your free yourself.” Symptoms and vision of the world change. [0.19.49] What do Barry and Phil use the Tools for? Reversal of Desire. Moving toward and through pain. Everything in life involves pain, but we desire to avoid pain. Alchemy as self-transmutation of soul forces. Socrates. Everyday problems become the Cue, but also fuel the alchemy. “Problems exist in your life to stir up these lower forces, but ultimately they exist in your life so you can transmute those forces into something higher and discover potentials you never knew you had.” [0.25.00] Tantric Buddhism. Psychotherapy is not a uniform training program. Behind the problem is a wisdom. The right Tools for each individual. [0.28.15] Cyclical quality of work. There is no Exoneration (illusion of an endpoint). “It’s not about cure, so much as continued work.” The Realm of Illusion. The Three Rules of Life: 1. Pain never goes away. 2. Uncertainty never goes away. 3. The need for constant effort never goes away. [0.34.13] The Realm of Illusion vs. the Chain of Pearls. Part X tells you there’s an easier way. Procrastination. Scott’s problems with writing. Anything that means anything to you, that is the deepest expression of your soul, will be hard to write. Take dictation from your Shadow. Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird Steven Pressfield, TheWar of Art [0.45.00] Introducing the concept of Part X to the public. Freud. Part X, the self-destructive part, is in everyone all the time. Part X becomes a stimulus toward development. Barry’s favorite chapter: Intensity. You gain by battling Part X. Those who win the war are those who fight it. Most people just fake it. [0.54.13] Phil’s favorite chapter: Goodness. Plato’s higher world had three characteristics: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Good vs. Evil. Faust. Evil is real, but the modern world doesn’t believe it. Part X is your embedded fragment of evil. Good is not simply the absence of evil. “What’s inside a human being is a mystery.” Rudolf Steiner, Mystics of the Renaissance