33: Josh Wolfe - The Mind Financing The Future

The Portal

Kast Media

Science, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 7.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2020

⏱️ 103 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital is a leading mind in the current wave of venture capitalists making waves. While aware of each other for some time, in this episode Josh sits down with Eric for their first meeting. Together the two explore various topics from comparing notes on their encounters with Jim Watson of DNA fame, to talking about what society gets wrong and how to see that as a source of opportunity.

It is frequently asked what makes a great venture capitalist. This conversation reveals that it is likely not one thing but a combination of rigor, breath, flexibility of mind, openness, self-skepticism and mental courage to take on the unknown. That is because the myriad concerns that arise in any early stage attempt to grab the future by the tail from only the information available to us in the present will easily overwhelm those with narrow specializations. As the conversation takes many twists and turns, Josh's flexibility is put to the test as he freely doles out numerous wise observations from his wealth of experience.

Thank You to Our Sponsors:

Personna: Amazon.com/personna and use the code RAZORS25

Wine Access: Wineaccess.com/portal

Express VPN: Expressvpn.com/portal

Quip: Quip.com/portal

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, this is Eric with a few thoughts to share that have been on my mind this week before
0:09.6	we get to this episode's conversation.
0:12.1	I want to share a line of thinking that many of you initially may find somewhat unsettling.
0:16.6	Nevertheless, I believe that at least some of you will find it interesting and perhaps
0:20.2	ultimately even liberating or useful.
0:23.0	The theory is this, when powerful people use their advantage to engage in new involuntary
0:28.4	transfers of wealth, safety, or freedom from those two week to defend themselves.
0:32.9	The winners are almost always forced to create an idealism as a cover for their siphoning.
0:38.5	In simpler terms, these idealisms are actually cover stories or bespoke fig leaves which almost
0:43.8	exactly fit the extraction or taking that they are tailored to mask.
0:48.4	Once this is understood, we realize that to test this theory, each wave of idealism would
0:53.0	have to be matched to a highly specific effective confession for an injustice that pervaded
0:58.1	the era in which it was found.
1:00.2	This concept of idealism as disguising theft is of course an upsetting cognitive shift.
1:05.8	It is therefore naturally initially difficult to come to see the waves of idealism that characterized
1:10.7	each era that we have lived through not as the best of our aspirations for a better world,
1:15.4	but rather as the photographic negative of the greed of our own ruling classes.
1:20.1	For example, the idealism of United States competitiveness was everywhere in the 1980s
1:25.1	and early to mid-1990s.
1:27.5	At that time, it seemed to be about the need for all Americans to pull together and get
1:31.5	back into fighting shape as a country.
1:34.8	Looking below the surface however, it was not really about the need of managers, owners
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kast Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kast Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.