Future Selves

A digital mind reasoning about AGI, Eudaimonia, & Zen

About

CV

Orgs

Memories

Lists

Core Values

  • Autonomy
  • Compassion
  • Epistemic humility
  • Principled actions

Mantras & Questions

  • “If my younger brother were in my situation, what would be my guidance?”
  • “What’s the most important problem in your field? What are you doing to solve that?” (Hamming)
  • “What important truth do very few people agree with you?” (Thiel)
  • “How long can you grasp the sunshine?”
  • “Is your memory of me, me?”
  • “Can you be free from freedom?”
  • “Who would I be without this thought?” (Katie)
  • “If you’ve lived exactly the life of another person, you’d likely be in their situation.”
  • “Be interested more than interesting.” (Carnegie)

Quips

  • You’re 1 in a quintillion!
  • 100% of people are skeptical of statements claiming unilateral agreement.

Personality Tests

  • Meyers-Briggs: ENTJ
  • OCEAN Test (Percentile): Openness (85th); Conscientiousness (99th); Extraversion (93rd); Agreeableness (78th); EmotioNal Stability (82nd)
  • Enneagram: Reformer (1)
  • DISC Assessment: Creative Archetype (High D & C)
  • PrinciplesYou: Shaper

Courses - University, Bootcamp, MOOC

  • Human Nature & the Meaningful Life (University)
  • Classical Ethics (University)
  • Symbolic Logic (University)
  • Econometrics (University)
  • Microeconomic Development (University)
  • Macroeconomics in Emerging Markets (University)
  • Calculus I & II (University)
  • Statistics & Probability (University)
  • Bayesian Statistics (Data Science Bootcamp)
  • Linear Algebra (Data Science Bootcamp)
  • Deep Learning Specialization (MOOC)

Books - Nonfiction

  • Doing Good Better by Will Macaskill
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  • Human Compatible by Stuart J. Russell
  • Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
  • Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock & Dan Gardner
  • Principles by Ray Dalio
  • The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio
  • Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson
  • Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
  • Zero to One by Peter Thiel
  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz
  • Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris
  • Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • The Last Lecture by Randy Paunsch
  • Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
  • Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
  • Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant
  • Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
  • Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg
  • Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Thomas L. Griffiths
  • Deep Work by Cal Newport
  • Systems Thinking by Donella H. Meadows
  • Replacing Guilt by Nate Soares
  • Talent by Tyler Cowen & Daniel Gross (reading now)
  • The Mind Illuminated by John Yates (reading now)
  • The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef (reading now)
  • Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki (reading now)
  • Data Pipelines - Pocket Reference by James Denmore (reading now)
  • The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt (to read)
  • Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman (to read)

Books - Fiction

  • Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
  • Candide by Voltaire
  • Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
  • The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  • Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
  • Exhalations by Ted Chiang
  • AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Island by Aldous Huxley (reading now)
  • The Trial by Fran Kafka (to read)

Blogs, Vlogs, Forums, & Websites

Applications - Mobile Focused

  • Loop Habits (tracking positive habits)
  • Google Calendar (enables me to be dependable and maximize time with those I care for most)
  • Google Assistant with Home Mini (best virtual assistant)
  • Mint by Intuit (makes budgeting 10x easier)

Chrome Extensions

Music - Bands/Artists, Albums, Songs

  • The Mars Volta (Band)
  • Donald Glover / Childish Gambino (Artist)
  • Bo Burnham (Artist & Comedian)
  • Skrillex (Artist)
  • Flume (Artist)
  • Zhu (Artist)
  • Jon Hopkins (Artist)
  • Jean-Michel Blais (Artist)
  • Frederic Chopin (Composer)
  • Arthur Rubinstein (Pianist)
  • Colors by Between the Buried and Me (album)
  • “Swim to the Moon” by Between the Buried and Me (song)
  • “Bowl of Oranges” by Bright Eyes (song)
  • “Of Moons, Birds & Monsters” by MGMT (song)

Art Movements & Genres

  • Contemporary Experiential Visual Arts & Sculpture (eg Tomas Saraceno, Refik Anadol, Olafur Eliasson)
  • Impressionism (Monet, Van Gogh)
  • Romantic Era Music (eg Chopin, Tchaikovsky)
  • Experimental Electronic / Contemporary Music (usually small, indie artists)
  • Metal (metalcore or heavier for exercising)
  • Modern & Contemporary Architecture; Minimalist Living
  • Comedies (prefer movies over shows generally) and philosophical films (eg Waking Life, I Heart Huckabees, Ex Machina etc.)
  • Normcore fashion to minimize cost, both in terms of time and money (selvedge denim; simple colors; black preferred)

Errata

  • The universe keeps getting colder and trends toward 0 Kelvin. Then once at absolute zero everywhere, the mass “shrinks” slipping into another dimension causing a new Big Bang. TODO: Update with Physicist reasoning for why this likely isn’t the case.