The Judgment Call Podcast

00:01:46 The genesis of Neyborly and its business model.00:11:41 Is ‘commercial real estate’ in a secular crisis? What are the reasons for that? Is it (still) to expensive?00:21:44 How did Neyborly fix the issue of long-term liabilities and short term income (that almost killed WeWork)?00:29:18 How did Neyborly solve the hard part of multi local marketing?00:42:03 How Neyborly is fostering a real community? Why is building a community so hard? 00:53:22 Did COVID and the tech industry change how people interact with each other.01:04:29 Why an honest, rational debate of political topics is so hard in the Bay Area (and beyond)? You may watch this episode on Youtube – #74 Ben Seidl (How to rebuild a friendlier ‘Third Place’?). Ben Seidel is the co-founder of Neyborly. He’s on a mission to build a network of gathering hubs using under-utilized, urban real-estate.

00:01:45 The genesis of Ben’s career as an entrepreneur and venture investor00:18:57 Are valuations too high for seed stage Venture Capital rounds right now?00:28:40 What are Ben’s best investments right now and what investments is Ben looking for?00:34:53 Is there a better way for entrepreneurs to match with a VC? What should they look for?00:44:59 How ben honed his skill at instant ‘lie detection’?01:04:28 Can science fiction be an investment guide? What are Ben’s favorite science fiction books?01:14:22 Will AI be a huge investment theme? Or is just a hype?01:27:22 Will we go to Mars? Is it a good idea?01:40:12 Is our inbuilt pioneering spirit rational? Will it pay off? You may watch this episode on Youtube – #73 Ben Narasin (What makes a smart venture investor and how to find one). Ben Narasin is a Venture Partner at NEA and early-stage investor and former entrepreneur. Ben loves hearing your investment video pitch for his upcoming seed fund at Pitch Ben.

00:02:08 How Jeff’s journey to teaching entrepreneurship got started? How does he define entrepreneurship?00:12:02 Why it is crucial to emphasize risk taking in our society.00:18:48 Are the opportunities for entrepreneurs diminished? Is it the millennials’ generation ‘fault’ or is it the way we have run the economy? Is the ‘coddling of the American mind’ the problem?00:28:52 Is venture investment really such a positive force in risk taking in society? Has the nature of businesses changed? Are they more ‘sales driven’ than ever?00:39:52 Is there an entrepreneurial gene? Can we all be entrepreneurs?00:45:33 How is entrepreneurship related to religion? Can we extract meta rules out of religions? Why is entrepreneurship not equally distributed globally?01:11:59 How has entrepreneurship evolved over the millenia? Which countries do the best job at fostering entrepreneurship currently? You may watch this episode on Youtube – #72 Jeff Cornwall (Why and how we need to foster entrepreneurship). Jeff Cornwall is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Belmont University. He also runs the Entrepreneurial Mind blog. He has authored nine books on entrepreneurship and was named the National Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year.

00:10:12 Why Europe chooses to be a late adopter (rather than an early adopter)?00:16:19 Are cryptocurrencies and the blockchain a threat to traditional banks?00:22:46 What impact will cheap/free education have on the world?00:30:12 Why India seems to be eternally high on potential but low on promises kept.00:38:02 The role of Hinduism and the caste system in India.00:57:15 What is the impact of the Bengali Renaissance on India and the world?01:10:03 What is the best way to protect minorities in a democracy?01:13:19 Do zero percent interest rates mean we have given up on economic growth? You may watch this episode on Youtube – #71 Prabhu Guptara (Hinduism, India, the world’s monetary system). Prabhu Guptara is the Executive Director of WOLFSBERG – The Platform for Executive and Business Development (a subsidiary of UBS). Prabhu Guptara specializes in exploring the relationship and effects which technology has on societies around the world.

00:01:34 We were expecting the information and we got the enragement age. What Edward thinks of our Social Media landscape?00:09:02 What are surprising ‘revenge effects’ of technology in recent history?00:14:28 How close were the Romans in developing the steam engine? What impact do social developments have on our progress?00:23:23 What impact does technology alone have on innovation?00:27:10 Are information overload and increasing specialization two sides of the same coin?00:39:36 Will we see the return of the heroic projects (like the Suez canal)?00:56:35 Why did the communist innovation of the ‘5-Year-Plan’ succeed?01:09:25 What will happen when the ‘Rise of the Machines’ starts? You may also watch this episode on Youtube – #70 Edward Tenner (The surprising relation between technology and societal changes). Edward Tenner is an independent writer, speaker, and consultant on technology and culture incl. The Future of Unintended Consequences. His latest book The Efficiency Paradox: What Big Data Can’t Do is now available on Amazon.

00:01:43 How Systems2 discovered a world of alternate data and how financial data companies in this space operate?00:12:23 Can there be a profitable Open Source investment community?00:25:53 How much time is spent developing algorithms or cleaning datasets in Matei’s work?00:34:11 What are surprising and low cost datasets one can acquire?00:44:20 How good are predictions for actions of individuals today? Does Facebook and Google know everything about us?00:58:20 Why antagonism is a great way to learn about your strength?And much more! You may watch this episode on Youtube – #68 Matei Zatreanu (How alternative data is changing the world of finance?). Matei Zatreanu is a quant, investor and entrepreneur and now heads System2.

00:01:53 What drove Jim to start the Ice Warrior project where he trains polar explorers.00:09:16 How training for the Ice Warrior project actually works?00:15:21 What sort of personalities typically succeed when Jim runs them through his Arctic training exercises?00:25:30 The amazing logistics of Jim’s polar expeditions.00:35:30 Can you drive to the North Pole? What is the difference between the ‘Magnetic Pole’ and the real ‘North Pole’?00:40:06 Did Jim or an Ice Warrior member ever come close to loosing their life?00:50:01 What role your metabolism plays in staying warm in extreme conditions?00:58:03 Will we ever see Jim exploring the Himalayans?01:06:23 Why do we go for such crazy challenges? Why do we need them?01:16:37 What can we learn from Arctic expeditions that will help us build a Martian society or solve problems we have on earth. You may watch this episode on Youtube – #68 Jim McNeill (What the Arctic teaches us about humanity). Jim McNeill is a former scientist and British polar explorer, presenter and keynote speaker and has created the Ice Warrior Project in 2001. The organization gives “ordinary” people the opportunity to become modern-day polar explorers.

00:02:26 What is really the difference between an incubator, accelerator and a seed stage fund? How does FoundersSpace.com work with entrepreneurs?00:07:10 How Steve uses his experiences as a motivational speaker to help startups? 00:11:49 Can major innovation ever come from ‘Big Corporations’? How should it be done? Should we break up large Internet monopoly companies?00:21:08 Is there a ‘mid-stage’ funding desert for most startups? Can and should it be addressed?00:26:12 Steve’s favorite field(s) of investment right now?00:31:30 Why Steve is so excited about brain computer interface technologies?00:36:13 What does Steve think of the Singularity? What will happen to human jobs and activities?00:56:16 How will we co-existed with intelligent machines?01:04:19 Why wars (and life) resembles a ‘winner-takes-all’ game?01:12:15 Why Steve became a digital nomad?01:17:31 Why are some many billionaires so unhappy and don’t use their leverage for ‘the good of the world’? Or is that a myth? You may watch this episode on Youtube – #67 Steve Hoffman (Awesome venture investments, the singularity, being a modern explorer). Steve Hoffman, or Captain Hoff, is the CEO of Founders Space. He’s a venture investor, serial entrepreneur, and author of several award-winning books including ‘Make Elephants Fly‘ and ‘Surviving a Startup‘.

00:01:38 What’s the current state of consciousness research? Why there is a surprising amount of progress?00:09:10 Is the rise of the Homo Sapiens connected to the changes in consciousness?00:11:43 How does the ‘attention schema’ work that Michael puts forward?00:15:22 How will machine intelligence adopt consciousness?00:21:28 What will it take to give self-driving cars consciousness?00:27:37 Is consciousness and Free Will an illusion? Does it matter for Prof. Graziano’s research?00:40:41 Where do the models for our brain come from? How can we be born with it despite the rather small data size of the DNA?00:45:20 When will brain uploading be possible? Will it be possible at all?00:53:03 What would happen to our consciousness when we multiply it?01:03:03 Is the time speed of time related to our consciousness? What is the neurosciences of time? How can we travel to deep space?01:08:58 Why does the structure of the DNA and computer code so strikingly similar?01:11:11 Does the structure of our consciousness indicate that we are ‘living in a simulation’? Is there a real reality? You may watch this episode on Youtube – #66 Michael Graziano (Can we decode consciousness soon?). Michael Graziano is a scientist and novelist and currently is professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton University. Michael is the author of several books including Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience and Consciousness and the Social Brain.

00:01:37 Are we headed for deflation/ inflation or stagflation? How does Peter read the tea leaves?00:08:33 Is regulation ultimately to blame for inflation?00:13:57 Is the Federal Reserve to blame for the current crisis?00:23:56 How does ‘yield curve’ work? Why is it so important?00:30:34 How can we improve government policy (and Federal Reserve policy) to increase economic growth?00:34:43 Can we really withdraw from the policy of ‘cheap money’ that most other countries in the world follow?00:38:23 Is the European Union monetary regime likely to survive the next 10 years?00:42:02 Will the Singularity jumpstart our productivity growth?00:46:08 Is inflation just a clever federal tax scheme?00:48:40 What countries are the best suited to increase economic growth?00:52:35 Are precious metals up for a great run?00:58:29 What are Peter’s favorite investments right now? You may watch this episode on Youtube – #65 Peter Boockvar (Inflation or Deflation/ What should the Fed do?/ Best investments right now). Peter Boockvar is the editor of BoockReport.com and is the CIO of Bleakley Advisory.

#64 Mark Burgess (CF Engine, Promise Theory, Semantic Spacetime)

#63 Peter Sølling (Optimal Altruism, Sentience, Our onramp to the Singularity)

#62 Jim Rogers (When is the next crash coming/ Inflation or deflation / Jim’s favorite list of countries to invest in right now)

#61 Jonny Price (Wefunder, Crowdfunding, Kiva, Online Marketing)

#60 Steven B. Smith (Patriotism, What makes a great political regime, socialism, European powers)