YouSaid · the spoken record

Zev Weinstein

lines on the record: 86
first: 2021-02-05
most recent: 2021-02-05
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

“Humanity or the human mind. And so we are designed to consume conversation by our own evolution. We are designed to consume writing by some process of symbols that's evolved over a couple thousand years. Makes sense to me why many are much more compelled to listen to podcasts, for example, than they are to read books. It could be that this is simply a technological Progression which has displaced Reading conventionally instead of some sort of maladaptation of our minds, which has corrupted our attention spans, likely there's some combination which determines why people spend much less time reading. But I don't think it's necessarily because we're all broken. It may simply have to do with the fact that we are designed to listen through our ears and speak through our mouths. We are not innately designed to communicate over a page so.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There are two meanings I make of why not too many people spend much of their time reading anymore. One interpretation is that we've lost our attention spans to our phones. People can't concentrate on a page if it takes them a minute to read. We're too busy watching TikToks or whatever people do. The other interpretation would be that language and verbal communication as well as some amount of communication which is done through facial expression, tone of voice, et cetera. These are means of communication that have evolved along with humanity over thousands and thousands of years. We know that we are built to communicate in this way. We have had. Writing for much less time. It is a system that we invented, not a system which evolved and is innately part of”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would be if people still read books or did things like that. I'm somewhat guilty of this. A lot of the books I read are. Very technical, and then my To absorb like really deep modern conversations, I listened to podcasts and I don't really read many books on like the matters that we're discussing, for example.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Answer your question concretely before abstractly. I'm scared, but I need to do a podcast. It's important. It is my obligation as a member of my generation. I really hope that more people my age start to do this because We will be the people in charge of new ideas which either sink or swim.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The tools for it. I watched your podcast with Noam Chomsky, and I think one interesting thing, which he discussed was how language is more used to develop thoughts within our own head than it is used to communicate those thoughts with others. If the language doesn't change, even if it's usage changes, then... Language is destroyed in communication. Stymies our ability to think reasonably. And I'm very, very worried.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Through no fault of our own, the concept of radical is having to do with a root is It's an obvious concept for which there must be language and a lot of the attack on thought has to do with attacking language which communicates conceptually. So this is an example of how our world is becoming increasingly Orwellian. Just language is being used to destroy our ability to think. I think I can't remember exactly what the numbers are, but I read some statistic about how greatly the average English vocabulary has decreased since 1960. It was like some incredible number. It really baffled me. It's like, how are people less able to think in a time when the world is supposed to be growing and never before seen rate? Like, we can't keep on this growth if... We destroy everyone's ability to think because growth requires thinking and we're ruining”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I'd like to slow you down there because I think like one of the issues we were discussing previously was the fact that language often destroys our ability to think. When we're talking about whether his ideas are radical, I don't know if we mean radical in the traditional sense of having to do with the root of a problem or in the more modern sense of being very extreme. And I think that's completely by design, I think. Fundamental thought Semantically would once be considered radical thought became very dangerous and now it's become synonymous with extreme or dangerous thought, which means that anyone who considers themselves a radical thinker semantically also a dangerous or extreme thinker.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think Jordan Peterson is very anti establishment in a lot of his beliefs. He's an unconventional thinker. And I think we need, regardless of whatever Jordan's particular views and beliefs are and if they bring about more danger than truth or if they don't, it's very important to have fundamental thinkers who exist outside of a conventional framework. I think that he's dangerous. I think by existing outside of a system which is known, he is dangerous. And I think Have to, in some sense, we have to welcome danger in that capacity because it will be our only way out of this. So regardless of whether his beliefs are Right or wrong. I'm pretty adamant about the fact that we need to support Thought which may rescue us.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, if we continue scientifically. We are discovering truth, and in that discovering common ground on which we can all agree, that's one reason why I think caring about science, if you have a culture which cares very deeply about science, that's a culture which is not necessarily bound to endure unwarranted internal conflict. I think that's one reason that I'm so passionate about science is its search for universal ground.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think this is the greatest argument for objectivity is that something that is objectively true cannot be true to me and untrue to you. You can feel that it's untrue, but that would be unproductive and create unnecessary tension and conflict. I think this is one reason for the importance of science as a tool for stability. If science is the search for truth, And truth can never really be. I shouldn't say that truth should never be an engine of conflict because no two people should disagree on something, which is objectively true, then in some sense search for truth is searching for a common ground where we can all exist and live without contradicting or attacking each other.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Evolved convergently from different traditions. I think good is a proxy for a civilization's fitness and the good news is that that means that evil in being anathema to that good must therefore be the opposite of stable in whatever way that it's evil. And that means that good will always be more stable than evil. And the only way evil can really win is like if everyone dies.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The thing which you pride yourself most on is never being satisfied. And I think Nietzsche was never satisfied and that was the danger of his philosophy. I think also with amoralism, there is no good or evil. I sort of disagree with that on a pretty fundamental basis. I think that our notion of morality is by no means subjective. It's really the proxy for the fitness of a society, I think. Whatever we consider ethical, like don't steal, don't murder, don't do this. Societies have a very difficult time running. It's very hard to run a civilization when everyone is stealing from everyone else and people are murdering each other Committing these things which we would consider atrocities. So I think we also know this because I think very similar notions of morality of”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Her criticism. Ye said this had this big line, the best lack all conviction, the worst are filled with passionate intensity. I think Nietzsche was. By the horrors of everything that went on around him. And I think he never really. Recovered from it. I think that's because. If you think about Nietzsche's philosophy, he was very opposed to any sort of acceptance of what one had. One should always envy those who have more and use that envy to fuel their growth and accept whatever the human condition and desires are and use those desires to want more and more and make use of your greed. I think it's very difficult to be truly happy if the thing which you”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, with regard to Nietzsche, I think Yates might have said that he's the worst. He was certainly filled with passionate intensity.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and we were talking about how dangerous it is to do real philosophy at dangerous Broken times, he was going through the most broken time in history and he Questioned the. Methods which made a broken system able to survive, and he was so skilled and so graceful that he became a saint in that tradition. And there's something for me to really learn from there.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and not offend anyone, not say anything outlandish, but introduce the method by which progress must be achieved. I think that takes a kind of maturity, which is found very rarely now. And I really look to him for inspiration despite whatever disagreements I may have with my new details of his philosophy.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ideas that shape the world and which bring the world closer to what we can prove it's supposed to be and how it's supposed to work does not always take some sort of grand contradiction of whatever's in play. And the most courageous thing to do may not always be the most helpful thing to do. And I think it's very easy for anyone with ideas about how everything is broken to become very cynical and say, oh, the system man, they're all wrong. Think it takes Another kind of discipline to be a person with real ideas and to make the world better without stepping on anyone's toes or contradicting anyone. I have real respect for that.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Me, and I don't even think they were necessarily right, but he was introducing aspects of the scientific method during one of the darkest periods in human history when we had lost all hope and reason and ability to think logically. So I think he was really something of a light in the dark. And I think we need to look to people like that at the moment. The other reason why I think I need to learn from him is that even though he was doing something which really needed to be done and introducing scientific thought and reason to a time that lacked it, he was not Saying anything that would have been offensive to whatever powers were in play during his time, he was writing about the importance of faith in God and how we could prove it. And so it's important to remember, I suppose, that”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Weirdly, I'll give an answer which sort of doesn't have much to do with whom I might imagine myself to be. I like Thomas Aquinas at the moment. I think he's very inspirational to me given what we're going through. And that's not because his particular ideas of religion or God or unmoved movers are particularly inspirational.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But not in a standard political sense where I'm defending a particular party or place on a spectrum, I would like to play some role in inventing new spectrums. And I think that's most important politically because above most else, politics is about real power and conventional politicians have real power. And that power will find terrible outlets if new spectrums for that power to live are not invented.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't think there's any way of avoiding that right now. It might not be anyone's best effort to really try. I think the thing I can say, which will most speak to that, which I truly believe is that Participating in modern conventional politics is not being inherently political in a generative sense. It's this repeated trope where politics now is not about creating new political ideologies. It's about defending ideologies which already exist so that everyone can keep what they have. And that's where all of the name calling and the labeling really comes in. It's an attempt to constrict whatever may be generated to standard conversations and discussions so that arguments can be straw manned and defeated and people can keep what they have because everyone's very, very scared. I want to be very political.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think Many underestimate the extent to which language and communication really impacts and shapes the ideas and thoughts which are being communicated. And I think if we're willing to accept imperfect labels to categorize particular people or thoughts in some sense we are corrupting an abstraction in order to represent it and communicate about it. And I think as we've discussed those abstractions are particularly important when everything is on fire. Should not be sacrificing grand thought for the ability to express it. I think everyone should work much harder, including myself, to really be thinking abstractly in abstract terms instead of using concrete terms to discuss abstraction while ruining it slightly.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would like to believe in myself enough to try to accept this as a task because I think People need to try, or there's no getting out of this, and we will end in some kind of crazy brilliant war.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I don't even think that fear is irrational. It's very difficult to exist publicly in any form now because it's very easy for anyone to take cheap shots at something which is difficult. And as I said, The people who are trying to have the difficult ideas and conversations are perhaps putting others in actual danger because everyone is so desperate that they might be willing to try anything. So there's a certain amount of responsibility, which one has to take going before the public. And there is a certain amount of ridicule, which will be completely unwarranted that anyone must endure for it. And I think that that means that one has to be afraid because they could both ruin the world and be ruined by the world in an unwarranted and undeserved fashion.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're right, and maybe I will just have to endure some sort of criticism for doing that, but I think that's very important. I think this ties back to this previous facet of our conversation where we were discussing if thinkers would win over systems that are devoted to preventing radical thought or if who will win the systems or the thinkers. I think it's crucial that my generation Take up a hand in this fight, and I think it's important that I'm a part of that because I know that I have some opportunity to I think it is my obligation as a member of a generation whose only real hope is to think outside of a system because whatever systems exist are collapsing, I think it is really my obligation to try to play some role, whatever role I can in being an instrument in that change.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Public opinions may change and vary greatly over time is something I don't know. I don't know how tolerant the world will be. I'm very prepared to change anything I believe in if I think deeply enough about it or good enough argument is made so that I might reconsider.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's entirely possible, and that's one of the things that scares me so much about appearing publicly. I think that the internet can be very intolerant of inconsistency. And I am entirely prepared to be very inconsistent because I know that whatever beliefs I have when subjected to scrutiny may change because that's really the only way to form your truest, most fundamental conceptions about the world around you. And it would take an infinite amount of time to subject every single one of your beliefs to scrutiny. And so that's a process that must follow me throughout my entire life. I know that means that my opinions and perspectives are always to be changing. I'm prepared to accept that about myself, whether other people are prepared to accept that my”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The fall of this great time is completely inevitable because I don't know what thoughts we're capable of producing, what we're able to reconsider. I think we really have to be open to the possibility that all of our standard frameworks where he will talk about embedded growth obligations. If we continue within the same framework, then we're very susceptible to the dangers of whatever these embedded growth obligations are. I think if we break the frameworks, we have no reason to believe that the problems we're experiencing with our current frameworks will follow us. And I think that's the importance of radical thought is we don't know what the solution is, but if there is a solution, it will be born from some very fundamental thinking. And so I have great hope.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think stagnation, modern stagnation is completely undeniable, particularly scientifically. And I think there have been a few fields where tremendous progress has been made very recently. I think My dad might feel that. Is sort of an inevitability to the ending of this period. And I'm not so certain that.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think the only way that we can keep growing this way is if we give power to real thinkers and there's no guarantee that that will work, but we sort of don't have any other choice. And I think you're entirely right that this period of both understanding the universe At a rate which has never been seen before, and invention and creativity, these past hundred years have been sort of uncharacteristic for the level of growth that we've seen in all of history. We've never seen anything like this. And I think a lot of our A lot of our promises rest on this sort of thing continuing. I think that's very dangerous. But the one thing that can get us out of this is philosophy and being ready to radically restructure all of our notions about what should be, what is, I think that's very important.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, I also think that the real implication of moral philosophy can be something that most would consider like a real political implication. So I think all philosophy really ties together because there has to be some sort of grand structure to all thought and how it relates.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. And we know that if nothing new is created, people have promises that they've made about what will be paid to whom, what debt structure is, the only possibility if stagnation lasts for long enough is really some kind of great conflict, great war, because people have to take from others to make good on their own promises. So we know that by denying any sort of grand ideation, we are accepting that there will be some kind of great catastrophe. And so we have to understand that philosophy is the most important when we've seen too much stagnation for too long. It is also Very dangerous, and it's dangerous for the people who are doing it, and it's dangerous for the people who believe it, but it's kind of our only way out ever.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Without fully calculating whatever the consequences or risks might be. So it is both more dangerous for a person to have creative ideas and those ideas are more dangerous when times are tough.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Becomes much more dangerous, dangerous for a person to think deeply and question during a time when the important people are those concerned with making sure no one rocks the boat. One example of this would be like Socrates and his execution because everyone was happy enough to sit through his questions before there was war and poverty and distress and afterwards it just became too dangerous. The other thing I mean by that is that the consequences of thinking deeply carry much greater potential for real catastrophe when everyone is desperate. Like, for example, the communist manifesto was probably much more dangerous during early 1900s Russia than it was during the 1848 revolutions because I think people were in much worse shape and desperate people are very willing to dive into anything new that might bring the future.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think when times become stagnant, the important successful people become the people who are very good at protecting their own pieces of the pie and taking others. Think that those people have to be very opposed to any sort of thinking that could restructure. Society are conventions about who should succeed. And so firstly, I mean by that”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Interestingly, I think I mean two things by that. And I think firstly, I should clarify, when I say philosophy, I sort of mean in a very traditional sense, just thinking, ideation, and that could be Reconsidering our notions of self in a very traditional sense, which we consider philosophy, that could be like technological innovation. I think it's important to recognize all of these as philosophies so that we can not question whether it's important to promote thought. I think the other thing I should clarify is when I say difficult times, I mean times when nothing is growing. And so the risk for real conflict is much greater because people aren't incentivized to fight over the things which already exist. I think when times are not difficult The people with the greatest power are usually the people who are.”
2021-02-05 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #158 – Zev Weinstein: The Next Generation of Big Ideas and Brave Minds · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source