armenshirvanian.com

Category: Interviews

  • 222: Cary McClelland | Personal Stories Of Tech, Soul, Housing, And Challenges In “Silicon City”

    The Bay area is a region of technology, higher-level education, and much creativity. There is soul and flair and venture capital. A lot is going on in a small and dense space, and this ignites stories of results, challenges, and struggles. Author Cary McClelland interviewed and collected stories from numerous individuals across the region, and presents a message about what Silicon City is.

    From his bio, “Cary is a writer, filmmaker, lawyer, and rights advocate whose work has taken him around the world. He met his wife in San Francisco, where they settled down and built their first home. They now live in Brooklyn with their son.” From talking with him, he is an individual with consideration for the people around him, who is able to feel what the conditions can be like. He also has the ability to present what he sees and feels in text and video form, so as to relay a message over.

    I enjoyed my talk with Cary, and list the show notes here:

    • what led up to the ability and interest in speaking with and interviewing numerous individuals in the Bay area
    • how much the Bay was headed to by individuals looking to jump on a quick rush without a long-term vision
    • where the soul of the Bay comes from, and how it connects to adversity
    • what leads to Balkanization of segments of the region, and if it is more of a decision by the wealthy or a dynamic process
    • how the merging of the two worlds in each city, with one being better off, can be looked at
    • why individuals have to decide whether to commute or stay in their cars to live and work around the bay
    • and much more articulation provided by Cary

    There is a lot to learn from this episode. The region of San Francisco and its local counties has a lot of weight attached to it, in terms of energy, activity, money coming in and being transferred, and creativity. It is important to look at where it is headed, how its people are doing, and what this says about cities elsewhere.

    You can check out Cary on Twitter or the book on Amazon.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 221: Safi Bahcall | How To Support Innovative Ideas And The “Loonshots” Behind Them

    People pushing a risky or new message are in a difficult spot, because the support for their moment is not high. They have to work well with others who do things in a more steady form. In the book “Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries”, Safi Bahcall discusses the importance of and ideas behind keeping innovative ideas from being lost into the abyss.

    Safi is a technologist, business executive, and author. He got his BA summa cum laude from Harvard, and his PhD from Stanford. He worked as a consultant for McKinsey, and then co-founded a biotech company Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. developing cancer drugs, which he served as CEO at for thirteen years. He also worked with President Obama’s council of science advisors for future national research.

    Here are the show notes for my episode with Safi:

    • how Loonshots are separated into two types based on product or strategy
    • what it takes to get an innovative idea through an organization
    • how Vannevar Bush was a big part of the basis for research and development in the United States
    • where the 150-person rule for groups comes from, and why it applies to both social networks and corporations
    • what Dr. Bahcall learned from his school and work experience throughout the recent years
    • when to listen to others and take their message into account as a CEO
    • how a lone individual can only do so much based on the structure of the scenario they are placed in
    • how structure trumps culture as far as application

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 220: Allison Schrager | Risk Mitigation With Examples In “An Economist Walks Into A Brothel”

    Understanding risk is an economic way to understand the decisions and systems in our communities and finances. Economist Allison Schrager looks at risk in fields at the more extreme ends of the spectrum, to understand it with less noise in place.

    Professor Allison Schrager teaches at NYU, and has a PhD in Economics from Columbia University, with her Bachelors from the University of Edinburgh. She is an economist, journalist at Quartz, and cofounder of LifeCycle Finance Partners, LLC. She has contributed to The Economist, Reuters, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

    Show notes:

    • what sex work can teach about risk management, and how Allison looked at a specific brothel to understand the value proposition
    • where in life you have your risks managed, whereas you have them completely ignored in other categories
    • when to take a risk and when to lean towards the safer option
    • why you should define what risk and reward mean to you, so that you can take and seek levels complementary to your nature
    • how to include your human irrationality into your risk modeling
    • what it takes to get the most bang for your buck in the department of risk-taking
    • how hedging and insurance are methods used to master your domain
    • what you can expect in your assessments, and what type of room you need to leave for unanticipated events
    • where the perspective of the world has gone, in terms of having control of the world you live in

    I was glad to have Professor Schrager on episode 220. You can check out her articles on Quartz, home page, or her book on Amazon.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 219: Matthew O. Jackson | Social, Financial, And Global Network Dynamics In “The Human Network”

    Your social position determines your power, beliefs, behaviors, and the way that you interact with the world. Are you a central figure in groups that you participate in? Are you able to get information or leverage transferred smoothly? Did the financial institutions of yesterday have all the information that they needed?

    Economics Professor Matthew O. Jackson of Stanford University discusses topics related to this in his book The Human Network. He graduated with a PhD from Stanford in 1988, and has done much research in economics and social networks over the past 25 years. He is also a member of the Santa Fe Institute, and wrote Social and Economic Networks prior to this version of it. We discussed his book contents, his career, and thoughts on networks.

    Show notes:

    • how the degree of centrality, and the different kinds of centrality, impact how quickly information or influence can transfer from you or others
    • whose family benefited greatly from being a central figure in the Middle Ages, coordinating communication between many
    • what types of value can be provided in networks that you are currently part of
    • why externalities should be taken into account when decision-making, as they are part of the variable set
    • how the financial networks remain in a precarious situation with regards to global economic well-being
    • what it takes for a financial contagion to spread or take hold
    • what people take into account for how they group with similar individuals of economic or educational status
    • why reaching across groups can cause suspicion or thoughts of being a traitor
    • how the area you live in during youth is so relevant to future earnings, regardless of small changes like tax rates or incentives
    • how prediction market(like those created by Dr. Robin Hanson) show results of an issue before even knowing the result
    • why being aware of biases and flaws in analysis of what is seen counters effects of averaging

    It was wonderful to have Professor Jackson on the show. I took solid notes on his book, with good subheadings, and enjoy the fact that he created the book as a more public version of his prior book. He does current research and finds models for networks that were not mapped out prior. You can check out his webpage, his research, and his book.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 218: David Hu | Animal/Robotic Movement, Fluid Mechanics, And More In “How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls”

    The way that organisms move is a precursor to how robots will map their movements out. Animals can do things like walk on water and climb up vertical surfaces, and knowing how this works is useful. Professor David Hu of Georgia Tech explores these topics in his book How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls.

    Professor Hu is Associate Professor of Fluid Mechanics at The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He runs the Hu Laboratory for Locomotion at his institution. He got his Bachelors and Masters, along with his PhD in Mathematics, at MIT. Most of his research focuses on hydrodynamics and elasticity problems as they relate to biology.

    Show notes:

    • what biolocomotion is involved with, and how evolution has impacted animals and the insect world in terms of movement
    • why looking at nature is a good way to get ideas for mechanical devices that are more effective or better maintaining
    • where Professor Hu looked for inspiration, or bioinspiration, to see what the next item of research would be
    • how insects or animals can walk on water based on surface tension
    • what kinds of analysis it requires to be able to take a guess regarding locomotion and test it out in terms of basis
    • how body movements and material properties have to be looked at as a pair to be able to decipher their value
    • what kinds of animals need to undulate or slither to be able to get the most efficiency for their movement
    • how some of these advances connect to upcoming robots that are able to touch and move things in a more gentle way than current robots

    I was glad to have Professor Hu on the show. He is a personable individual with a good sense of humor. You can check out his book on Amazon, look at his research articles, or look at his lab page.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 217: Vince Beiser | How Sand Served As A Natural Resource That Transformed Civilization

    Sand is one of the overlooked natural resources of the world, and is a huge part of the cities that we live and transport around in. In his book The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization, journalist Vince Beiser speaks to the importance of this resource, as well as the stories related to its acquisition and usage.

    Vince has served as a journalist in over 100 countries, reported from California’s harshest prisons, ridden with first responders, and contributed to Wired, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, the LA Times, and more. He continues to work as an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles.

    Show notes:

    • why sand on beaches is at risk of being reduced all around the world
    • how violence is attached to battles for sand in some parts of India and elsewhere
    • where sand operations have allowed for building of whole cities
    • what sand is used to build, and what other substances come from sand
    • how reinforced concrete became the main element for strong buildings
    • how more cars leads to more paved road, which led to more cars
    • why is it worthwhile to look at sustainability and personal usage of cars and fuel sources in relation to sand limits and violence related to it

    I was glad to have Vince on the show. You can check out his book The World in a Grain on Amazon, or check out his website.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 216: Steven Strogatz | Calculus, Biological Dynamics, And More From His Book “Infinite Powers”

    Calculus is a branch of mathematics that speaks to the flow of our society. You might think of derivatives and integrals, but you can also think of it as deconstruction and reconstruction. Professor Steven Strogatz of Cornell University wrote Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe to detail how calculus links with universal dynamics.

    Professor Strogatz is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in mathematics, attended Trinity College and completed his doctoral work in applied math at Harvard, and then did a postdoctorate at Harvard and Boston University. He then taught at MIT, and then joined Cornell faculty in 1994, where he currently continues to teach.

    Some of the items Professor Strogatz has worked on include biology as it relates to math, geometry of supercoiled DNA, sleep-wake cycle dynamics, 3D chemical wave topology, collective behavior of oscillators, and social system structural balance. There is a theme of waves across many of the categories. He has worthwhile papers on these topics, along with co-authoring the 6th most cited physics paper of all time(which is also the 63rd most cited research article of all time), on small-world networks.

    Show notes:

    • how Professor Strogatz got to being a researcher and math professor
    • where he attended, and the takeaways that he got at those institutions
    • what small-world networks bring to the table as advantages
    • what similarity worm neural networks have with the power grid of the western United States
    • why Calculus is linked to rules of growth, laws of motion, and more
    • when math can apply in your day-to-day life, and why it is valuable to have a sense of the dynamics you see
    • how calculus is connected to HIV clearance and immune response in the body, through exponential growth curves
    • what math feedback from teachers can do to student’s esteem levels

    You can check out on Professor’s Strogatz website, which has all his research articles, or see his book on Amazon. It was great to have him on the show, and connect with someone interested in some of the same topics as myself.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 214: Paty Ramirez | Life Coaching With Care, Meditation, And Broad Perspective

    Caring is something we look to see more of. In episode 214, transformational life coach and creator of Self Love Mafia Paty Ramirez joins to discuss what got her into coaching, how she has applied her abilities, the importance of meditation, and more.

    Having some of these life skills is the differentiating point between a person who is trapped in a condition and a person who is at peace with the world. Meditating can clear the path to that inner peace.

    Show notes:

    • where Paty has been at recent times in her life
    • what caused Paty to get into life coaching in the first place
    • how the best teachers are the ones who have gone through the process for themselves
    • how some of her clients have been impacted by her working with them
    • what Paty brings to life coaching that separates her from others
    • how you can do meditation in different ways, and what it provides
    • what broad perspective can do to someone stuck in a labyrinth of their own making
    • and more

    This episode was recorded at Pan Pacific Park in West Hollywood. I was glad to have Paty on the show, and originally met her through Heidi Paquette-Falk. You can also check out Paty’s @selflovemafia on Instagram.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 213: Nick Tovar | Scientific Thinking, IT For Surgical Imaging, Technology Viewpoints, And Gaming

    Scientific thinkers get along. Guest Nick Tovar on episode 213 is my friend of a long time, and both of us think about and keep up with recent science and technology.

    Nick does IT for a company that makes imaging products that doctors use for surgeries and related applications.

    Show notes:

    • how we met and our background in activities we have done
    • why upcoming technology is valuable and how it is being used
    • what Nick thinks about AI, 3D printing, VR, and ore
    • where we went to school or were at during different times of our life
    • what kinds of games Nick has played, along with my connection to such games
    • how Nick thinks about life perspective in relation to productivity, competition, learning, and more
    • what Nick has in mind as a goal or goals for 2019

    Glad to have Nick on the show~. He may return at a later time to discuss specific scientific research articles or related concepts with me.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

  • 212: Doruk Gundogan | From Lawyer To Actor, Observation, Questioning Everything, And Life Shifts

    You might know of Doruk Gundogan from his lawyering (word I just made up) after studying law at Cambridge, or you may know of him currently as an actor in the United States. Doruk joins us on episode 212 of the show to let us know about his story and perspective, and how an observational style gives a sense of self.

    Show notes:

    • why observation is a big basis for how you understand others and develop your own style in response
    • how the small details of a person’s actions and behaviors can say a lot about who they are in a short period of time
    • how not being too concerned with your success in a category gives you a big advantage in the category
    • what kind of risk it is to change up your living situation or profession in a world where these things are commonly fixed in place
    • how the visceral response to the uncomfortable leads to the expression of our internal humanity that was there the whole time
    • why it is very valuable to question all that is around you
    • how Doruk had a long-term plan to shift to his current acting role that felt more appropriate as a thing
    • battle between me and Doruk inspired by no one else who was there

    Glad to have Doruk on the show~

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download