Zak is a writer, educator, and futurist whose work explores issues around existential risk and the meta-crisis. He studied religion and philosophy at Hampshire College and then later educational neuroscience, human development, and educational philosophy at Harvard. He is a co-founder of several organizations including Lectica, Civilization Research Institute, and the Center for World Philosophy and Religion. He is also the author of several books including “Education in a Time Between Worlds” and a co-author of “First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on Cosmoerotic Humanism, the Meta-crisis, and the World to Come.” In this episode we speak about the problems of post-modernity, why value & consciousness are fundamental aspects of reality, Cosmo-Erotic humanism, evolving perennialism, the problem of evil, the most powerful and dangerous religion in the world today and so much more.



🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Zak Stein’s personal site
• First Principles First Values by David J. Temple (Zak’s latest book)
• My first conversation with Zak on the Education Crisis
• My second conversation with Zak on his approach to human development
• David Ray Griffin
• David Hume
• Iain McGilchrist
• John Vervaeke
• Nick Land
• Deep Utopia by Nick Bostrom
• Perennial Philosophy
• Jurgen Habermas
• Ken Wilber
• Stuart Kauffman
• B.F. Skinner
• Noam Chomsky
• Richard Dawkins
• Rupert Sheldrake

📝[Show Notes] 📝

0:00 - Introduction
1:55 - The Problems of Post-Modernity
12:31 - Why value & consciousness are fundamental aspects of reality
21:35 - What is Cosmo-Erotic Humanism?
42:40 - Evolving Perennialism and The Problem of Evil
52:20 - Global Intimacy Disorder & Emotional Maturity
1:04:35 - Balancing advances in technology with ethical development
1:10:36 - Bringing the wisdom of religions to the scientific rationalist mind
1:26:26 - The most powerful & dangerous religion in the world today
1:32:30 - The difficulty of transmitting ethical leadership



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Cedric Chin is a business operator, programmer, and writer. He is also the founder of Commoncog - a publication that explores the models of business expertise and how to accelerate the acquisition of that expertise. His approach to writing and learning is finding interesting ideas, trying them out in his life, and then sharing the results. Over the years he has compiled an extensive knowledge base on how to think and learn better in business and beyond. In this episode we speak about the limits of mental models, Ray Dalio & believability, three approaches to expertise, why you should read biographies, overcoming information overload and so much more.

🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Commoncog (Cedric’s blog)
• Follow Cedric on Twitter/X
• Farnam St
• Charlie Munger
• Principles by Ray Dalio
• The Fund by Rob Copeland
• Less Wrong
• Sources of Power by Gary Klein
• Daniel Kahneman
• Jean Piaget
• High Output Management by Andrew Grove
• You Have a Choice by Eric Nehrlich
• The Seven Secrets of the Prolific by Hillary Rettig
• Accelerating Expertise (book)
• Milton Hershey
• Warren Buffett
• The Engines that Move Markets by Alasdair Nairn

📝[Show Notes]📝

0:00 - Intro
2:54 - What led Cedric to study expertise (limits of mental models)
8:05 - The Problem with Deliberate Practice
10:05 - What is Commoncog?
12:48 - Ray Dalio & Believability
21:03 - Sensemaking Less Wrong (Epistemic vs Instrumental Rationality)
25:11 - How “Irrational” people can be successful
26:39 - Gary Klein VS Daniel Kahneman
29:44 - Three approaches to gaining expertise
34:20 - What is tacit Knowledge?
38:38 - The Recognition Primed Decision Making Model
47:30 - Cognitive Task Analysis
49:49 - The most important questions to ask experts
52:10 - Accelerating expertise in meditation & transmission of mind
56:48 - How to actually learn from books
1:00:50 - Cognitive Flexibility Theory & ill-structured domains
1:06:55 - Integration (noticing sameness & difference)
1:09:31 - Using case studies to become an expert in cult dynamics
1:13:21 - Why you should read biographies
1:16:52 - How to overcome Information overload
1:21:48 - Mindful social media use
1:25:22 - Luck vs skill in success
1:30:48 - Cedric’s opinion on Crypto
1:33:54 - The best and worst thing about living in Singapore
1:34:59 - Building the biggest storehouse of business expertise

Cadell Last is an anthropologist, philosopher, and founder of Philosophy Portal - an online educational platform opening space for the next generation of philosophical thought. After developing a strong grounding in evolutionary anthropology and biology, he began a deep study of philosophies of phenomenology and psychoanalysis, which opened him to fresh perspectives and helped him better navigate some of life's most challenging aspects. Today his work explores biocultural evolution, mind-matter relation, and speculative futures. He is the author of “Global Brain Singularity”, and “Systems and Subjects”, co-author of “Sex, Masculinity, God”, as well as lead editor of community anthologies “Enter the Alien” and “Abyssal Arrows." In this episode, we speak about the limits of science and the Importance of philosophy, connecting dead philosophers with living philosophers, dialectical thinking, what Jordan Peterson & Richard Dawkins have in common, Global Brain Singularity and so much more.


🔗[Links & resources] 🔗

• Cadell’s personal site
• Connect with Cadell on X/Twitter
• Connect with Cadell on Substack
• Become a member at Philosophy Portal
• Global Brain Singularity by Cadell Last (reach out to Cadell for a free pdf copy)
• Systems & Subjects by Cadell Last
• Plato
• Hegel
• Lacan
• Zizek
• Jordan Peterson
• Richard Dawkins

📝[Show Notes] 📝

0:00 - Introduction
2:51 - The Limits of Science and the Importance of Philosophy
15:10 - Building on the main ideas of Plato, Hegel, Lacan & Zizek
30:55 - Connecting dead philosophers with living universally impactful thinkers
33:36 - You have to understand thinkers deeply before you can deconstruct them
36:23 - The Importance of Dialectical Thinking
47:30 - What Jordan Peterson & Richard Dawkins have in common (Myths vs Drives)
57:55 - Putting Jung & Freud into Dialectics
1:02:49 - What is Global Brain Singularity?
1:18:46 - Cultivating a Global Commons
1:31:50 - The Impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
1:38:29 - Non-duality, Non-Monism, Buddhism & affirming appearances
1:46:44 - Making sense of the upswing in Christian conversions & Unpacking Religion
1:56:20 - Cadell’s vision for Philosophy Portal

*Subscribe to the Insighter substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens