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Caleb Watney

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57
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2020-09-04
most recent
2020-09-04
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1
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podcast

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  1. “Yeah, I think that's exactly right. There's sort of, I think you've seen some workplaces try to experiment this. Like, what if you just left your camera on and it was as if you were like working next to somebody in an office? But people seem to be really uncomfortable with that. They don't seem to like it. Yeah, it doesn't seem to just have the same sort of easy spontaneous conversation that you can mimic in the real world. And I'm not sure exactly why. And I also don't want to necessarily rule out the case. It could be, you know, 30 years from now or maybe sooner, you know, we have some sort of virtual reality technology that's really blossomed and now everybody, regardless of where you're living, is kind of working in these virtual workspaces. And if that's the case, then maybe physical agglomeration effects really start to diminish in importance. But I certainly don't think we're there yet. And regardless, it seems like we're kind of, or there's a big experiment being taken. So I'll be very curious to see kind of what are the effects of all of these big tech companies, Facebook.”

    2020-09-04 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Caleb Watney - America's Innovation Engine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Effect from having just way more people that you can have access to in some of these digital spaces. So that's one thing I would like to see this conversation get into is rather than like, oh, which is better, which is more important, let's break down the specific attributes of these kinds of interactions that are happening in the physical or the digital space.”

    2020-09-04 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Caleb Watney - America's Innovation Engine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Flexible time frequently, the best conversations that happen in the real world are ones that aren't intended as shred office conversations. They just kind of spontaneously arise. You start off just sharing one thing and then it extends into a whole conversation. But there's also kind of a Zoom fatigue that you see. You know, people, especially right now in this era of room at work, are having so many Zoom calls. They don't want to stay on longer, you know, just to maybe have a conversation with somebody extra. And so again, I think it's good to recognize that these aren't completely contradictory or we can have both. And that's really what we're getting in the big physical agglomeration effects of today, which kind of gets to the point. I think we need maybe a better taxonomy of what we're talking about in terms of the kinds of interactions that we think lead to innovation. Because there's kind of a spontaneity and really in-depth conversation that you can, I think, only get in physical spaces. But there is obviously a huge...”

    2020-09-04 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Caleb Watney - America's Innovation Engine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Yeah, no, I think digital agglomeration, these digital networks can have huge benefits, and you're exactly right that there are a lot of ways you can arbitrage both bad regulations, like zoning laws, but also just physical distances. But again, I think the relevant alternative here is not where you're just getting physical agglomeration or just digital. Right now, living in Washington, D.C. or Silicon Valley or New York, you can have those conversations with people from all over the world. You can even hire remotely. But you do also get, there's a certain kind of like cultural context that you only get by like being in person and sharing conversations. I mean, I certainly experience this in my own life. I get a lot of ideas, you know, from having conversations on Twitter, but it's still very different to have an extended two-hour long conversation with a friend in their office, you know, like making eye contact, having this sort of spontaneous ideas that it's hard to replicate even over Zoom, partially because I think Zoom meetings tend to be a little bit more scheduled. It's hard to have.”

    2020-09-04 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Caleb Watney - America's Innovation Engine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “True to some extent, but I guess the right comparison here isn't even necessarily physical agglomeration versus digital agglomeration. But right now, if you're in one of these geographical clusters, you're getting the best of both worlds. You're getting the best that physical agglomeration effects have to offer. Plus, I have tons of great conversations on Twitter. And so it's really digital and physical agglomeration effects versus just digital. And I think the difference there is still pretty large and it would be a shame to lose a lot of the high predictivity clusters that we currently have.”

    2020-09-04 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Caleb Watney - America's Innovation Engine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Sure. Yes, I mean, economists have, you know, for hundreds of years basically been studying the effect of these close geographically connected networks of entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, academics, supply chain managers. When you have all of those people in a geographical region where they're running into each other spontaneously and they're sharing ideas and they're having long conversations in the hallway or in their offices that they wouldn't otherwise be able to replicate simply online that ends up leading to a more creativity, more ideas, more patents. And we have a lot of evidence for that in the real world. As you mentioned, some people are starting to counter and say, oh, well, you know, in the last 20 years, we've seen this huge array of online communication platforms kind of pop up. And can't those replicate a lot of the agglomeration effects that we're getting in physical environment? And I think that's certainly...”

    2020-09-04 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Caleb Watney - America's Innovation Engine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Sure. Yeah, America's innovation engine is, of course, a very broad and multivariate thing, but I was trying to focus on three particular trends that I thought were troubling, make major impacts on America's ability to innovate, and just briefly those are basically high-skill immigration international talent flows. Number two are cutting edge university system that's really the best of the world. And three, the industrial clusters, the agglomerations that we have that are sort of the geographical regions where a lot of this innovation comes from. And each of those were sort of seeing maybe negative trends before the pandemic, but the pandemic might serve as kind of a breaking point in each of them.”

    2020-09-04 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Caleb Watney - America's Innovation Engine · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source