YouSaid · the spoken record

Steve Hsu

lines on the record: 164
first: 2022-08-23
most recent: 2022-08-23
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Because I'd pulled a muscle and she was looking at if you know your anatomy, like right above your kneecap, your quadriceps kind of insert right above your kneecap. And if you have well-developed quads, you actually have a bulge, a bump right above your kneecap. And she was looking at it from this angle where she was in front of me and she was looking at my leg from the front. And she's like, wow, it's really swollen. And I was like, that's not the injury. That's my quadricep muscle. And she was a trainer.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then something changed around the time I was in high school where the coaches figured out because the swimmers, as a swimmer, I had been lifting weight since I was an age group swimmer like maybe at age 12 or 14, I started lifting weights. But then the football coaches got into it. And mainly because the University of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska had a very famous strength program that really popularized it. And so at the time, though, there just weren't a lot of big guys. And the people who knew how to train, the way everybody like you probably go to the gym and train using what would be considered kind of advanced knowledge back in the 80s, like how to do a split routine or squat on one day and do your upper body on the other day next day. That was like considered advanced knowledge at that time. And so I remember once I had an injury and I was in the trainer's room at the Caltech athletic facility. And the lady was looking, it was a female trainer, and she was looking at my quadriceps.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's amazing that you asked this question. I'll tell you a funny story because I was. One of the reasons Feynman found this so weird was because the way bodybuilding entered the United States or became widespread was a very interesting story because at first they were regarded as freaks and homosexuals and all kinds of stuff. And I remember growing up, our high school football coach, swimming was different. Swimming because it was an international, swimming picked up a lot of advanced training techniques from the Russians and from East Germans and stuff. But football was more, you know,”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How do boys and girls meet these days? But back in the day, it was like the guy had to do all the work. And it was like the most terrifying thing you could do. And, you know, and you just have to train yourself out of that.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, if you read literature from that time or even a little bit earlier, like Hemingway or John O'Hara or, you know. They talk about you know how men and women interacted in bars and stuff like this and in New York City and yeah so that was a thing that was much more of a thing than I think for your generation that that's what I can't figure out with my kids like what is going on”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But we had to go. It was terrifying. We had to go across the bar and talk to some lady and it's loud and you got like a few minutes to make your case basically. And nothing hurts more and nothing is more scary than walking across up to the girl. Maybe she and her friends or something, right? So he was just saying like, you got to train yourself out of that. Like you're never going to see them again. The phase space of humanity is so big, you'll never encounter them again and just doesn't matter. So just do your best.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your internal self image, it's just that's what happened. And you just go on to the next one. And that was basically the advice he was giving me. You know, and he said other things which were pretty standard, like, you know, be funny, you're a funny guy, you know, girls like that, be confident, you know. Just basic stuff. But the main thing I remember was the operationalization of it as an algorithm and that you should just not internalize whatever happens if you get rejected because that's what really hurts that you know you're a guy, right? When you go across the bar to talk to that girl, maybe that doesn't happen in your generation. Maybe you just like swipe.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're almost all female at that time. He had thought about this a lot, and he was just like, look, it's a numbers game. Are you familiar with PUA culture? So the PUA guys would say, yeah, don't, you know, it's like an operation. Like you're just doing something, you follow the algorithm and whatever happens, it's not a reflection on your self-esteem.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's what he says. So, you know, and he gives some colorful details and stuff. But the point is, he's like, you should not care what they think of you. You're trying to do your thing. And, you know, he's a pretty, he had a kind of a reputation at Caltech as a womanizer. I could go into that too, but I heard this from the secretaries and stuff.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he says to me, he goes, one of the things he says to me, he says, like, I don't know how much girls really like guys that are as big as you. He thought it might be a turnoff, actually. And he said, but you know what? You have a nice smile. So that was the one compliment he gives me. You have a nice smile. And then he starts telling me, he says, you know, the main thing is it's a numbers game. You have to divorce your totally rational about it. You're never going to see that girl again. You're in an airport lounge or you're at a bar. It's Saturday night in Pasadena or Westwood. And you're talking to some girl. And he says, you're never going to see her again. This is your one interaction with her. Five-minute interaction. Do what you have to do. And if she, for some reason, doesn't like you, just go to the next one.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Training. Do guys really go there to get buff, to get big, you know, and so I started explaining to them. I said, yes, people are there to get big, but people are also checking out the girls. And there is a lot of stuff happening at the health club or in the weight room. And so, you know, he grills me on this for a long time. And one of the famous things about Feynman is that he has this laser-like focus. So if there's something he really doesn't understand and he wants to get to the bottom of it, he will just focus in on you and just start questioning you and get to the bottom of it. That's the way his brain works. So he did that to me for like, I don't know how long. We were talking about lifting weights and everything because he didn't know anything about it. And at the end, he says to me, wow, Steve, I really appreciate that. Let me give you some good advice. And so then he starts telling me about how to pick up girls.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I was pretty like a gym rat at that time. And so he was like, I was much bigger than him, obviously. He was like, wow, you're a big guy, Steve. I got to ask you something. And Feynman was born in like 1918. So he's not really like from the modern era. He was, I guess he was going through graduate school when the Second World War started. And so to him, the whole concept of a health club, a gym was like totally, you know, couldn't understand it. And that was the era. This was the 80s. So that was an era when Gold's gym was like becoming a national franchise. And so there were gyms all over the place, 24-hour fitness and stuff like this. So he didn't know what it was. And he's a very interesting guy. So his suspicion, he says to me, what do you guys do there? Is it just a thing to meet chicks, to meet girls? Or do you guys actually, is it really for...”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wow. So one day in the spring of my senior year I was walking across campus and I see Feynman coming toward me and we knew each other from various things. It's a small campus and I was a physics major and he was my hero. So I guess I had known him since my freshman year. So he sees me and he's got this, I don't know if it's long, I guess it's a Long Island or it's some kind of New York borough accent. And he says, hey shoe, this is how he says my name. Hey Shoe. And I'm like, hi, Professor Feynman. And so we start talking. And he says to me, wow, you're kind of a big guy. And I was a lot bigger then because I played on the, I was a linebacker on the Celtech football team. So I was about almost 200 pounds. I'm just over six feet tall.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hey, it's my pleasure. I'm excited too, and I just want to say I've listened to some of your earlier interviews and thought you were very insightful, which is why I was really excited to have a conversation with you.”
2022-08-23 · Dwarkesh Podcast · Steve Hsu - Intelligence, Embryo Selection, & The Future of Humanity · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source