Eli Dourado is the chief economist at the Abundance Institute and writes and thinks about how to increase the pace of American economic growth.

--

Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:43) Non-TFP econ metrics

(0:04:59) Are ideas getting harder to find?

(0:06:52) Economics as a field

(0:10:43) Tyler Cowen’s influence

(0:13:00) Culture and economic growth

(0:16:13) Uniqueness of the United States

(0:19:43) Education

(0:23:54) Revisiting “notes on technology”

(0:37:28) Investing in hard-tech

(0:44:30) Government’s role in tech

(0:49:22) Talent

(0:54:34) NEPA

(0:56:56) AI

(1:01:20) Societal collapse

(1:09:54) Advice to grow the economy

--

Links

- Follow Eli on X

- Eli's blog

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Dan on X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- Subscribe to Undertone on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- Watch or listen to previous episodes of Undertone with ⁠⁠⁠⁠Tyler Cowen⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Scott Sumner⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Samo Burja⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Steve Hsu⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠more⁠⁠⁠⁠

- I love hearing from listeners. Email me any time at dan@danschulz.co

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Mallaby contributes to a variety of publications, including Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, where he spent two years as a contributing editor. He’s the author of many of my favorite business books of all time including The Power Law on the history of Venture Capital, More Money Than God on the history of Hedge Funds, and The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan, which is one of my favorite biographies ever in any category.

Episode transcript

Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:57) Business journalism

(0:04:11) Journalists as investors

(0:06:24) Most misunderstood part of the economy

(0:07:34) EMH

(0:11:49) Private v public markets

(0:17:27) Liquidity premium

(0:20:13) New asset management models

(0:26:12) Investor specialization

(0:37:42) Firm culture vs outlier talent

(0:41:00) Sequoia and FTX

(0:44:40) Meme stocks

(0:45:56) VC vs hedge funds

(0:50:38) Decision making at the Fed

(0:57:22) Evolution of the Fed

(1:01:34) Powell

(1:05:39) The Fed’s political independence

(1:07:13) History, Marx, Carlyle

--

Links

- Follow Sebastian on X

- Sebastian's profile for the Council on Foreign Relations

- ⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Dan on X⁠⁠⁠⁠

- Subscribe to Undertone on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

- Watch or listen to previous episodes of Undertone with ⁠⁠⁠Tyler Cowen⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Scott Sumner⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Samo Burja⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Steve Hsu⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠more⁠⁠⁠

- I love hearing from listeners. Email me any time at dan@danschulz.co

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A

Nabeel is a Visiting Scholar at the Mercatus Center focused on developing an optimistic vision for AI, but as you’ll see in this conversation his breadth of interests goes about as wide as you can imagine. We talk about foreign film, interpreting the Iliad, Shakespeare, Wittgenstein, Derek Parfit, SF vs. NYC, AI, startups, and a lot more.

Episode transcript

Timestamps

(0:00:00) Intro

(0:00:49) Nabeel's favorite directors

(0:02:59) Underrated regions for film

(0:04:33) Nabeel's favorite Hollywood movies

(0:06:20) What makes a movie visually inspiring?

(0:09:34) Shakespeare on film

(0:10:31) Miyazaki

(0:12:03) Paris, Texas

(0:14:34) Jia Zhangke

(0:16:12) When is the movie better than the book?

(0:18:06) CGI

(0:18:44) Robert Bresson

(0:20:30) Love in film

(0:21:50) Director's Nabeel hasn't been able to "get"?

(0:22:34) Film theory

(0:24:15) Do the arts matter for founders?

(0:26:08) Going deep on great books

(0:29:31) The Iliad

(0:32:24) Tolstoy and Shakespeare

(0:34:21) Henry IV

(0:37:51) Shakespeare’s Sonnets

(0:38:56) Secondary literature

(0:41:18) Rene Girard

(0:42:57) Norman Rush's "Mating"

(0:44:27) Watership Down

(0:46:13) Harold Bloom

(0:48:04) Sci-fi

(0:49:32) Authors Nabeel hasn't been able to get

(0:50:35) Tech pessimists

(0:54:40) LLMs and the big questions

(0:57:59) Peter Hacker

(0:59:58) Wittgenstein

(1:01:47) Derek Parfit

(1:03:55) Moral intuition

(1:05:13) Do EAs make good CEOs or founders?

(1:07:20) Selfishness

(1:09:43) Favorite albums

(1:10:26) Beethoven

(1:11:27) Modernized opera

(1:12:38) NYC

(1:13:38) Chess

(1:14:31) California

(1:17:57) Fashion

(1:18:57) Eating in NYC

(1:19:52) Travel

(1:21:40) High school

(1:22:30) Twitter

(1:31:05) SF and AI

(1:32:38) AI doomers

(1:34:28) AGI timelines

(1:36:07) Nabeel's LLM usage

(1:43:42) Science brain vs founder brain

(1:47:48) Iteration vs conviction

(1:51:02) Is art education or entertainment?

(1:54:53) Sabbaticals

(1:58:53) What makes Nabeel imbalanced as a personality?

(2:00:05) Cold emails

(2:01:43) Meditating

(2:04:09) Regret

(2:05:16) Reminding yourself you will die

(2:08:04) GoCardless and startup culture

(2:13:37) Ideas vs execution

(2:16:10) Peter Thiel and Alex Karp?

(2:18:38) Philosophers in tech

(2:21:19) Learnings from Palantir

(2:23:18) Conclusion

--

Links

- Follow Nabeel on X

- Nabeel's personal site

- ⁠⁠⁠Follow Dan on X⁠⁠⁠

- Subscribe to Undertone on ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠

- Watch or listen to previous episodes of Undertone with ⁠⁠Tyler Cowen⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Vitalik Buterin⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Scott Sumner⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Samo Burja⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Steve Hsu⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠more⁠⁠

- I love hearing from listeners. Email me any time at dan@danschulz.co

- Share anonymous feedback on the podcast: ⁠⁠⁠https://forms.gle/w7LXMCXhdJ5Q2eB9A