Byrne Hobart - Optionality, Stagnation, and Secret Societies

Byrne Hobart writes The Diff, a newsletter about inflections in finance and technology with 24,000+ subscribers. Episode website + Transcript: https://www.dwarkeshpatel.com/p/byrne-hobart#details Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3AAEWaK Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3B1nnCc Follow me on Twitter to be notified about future episodes: https://twitter.com/dwarkesh_sp Follow Byrne's Twitter: https://twitter.com/byrnehobart The Diff newsletter: https://diff.substack.com/ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00:00 Byrne's one big idea: stagnation 0:05:50 Has regulation caused stagnation? 0:14:00 FDA retribution 0:15:15 Embryo selection 0:17:32 Patient longtermism 0:21:02 Are there secret societies? 0:26:53 College, optionality, and conformity 0:34:40 Differentiated credentiations underrated? 0:39:15 WIll contientiousness increase in value? 0:44:26 Why aren't rationalists more into finance? 0:48:04 Rationalists are bad at changing the world. 0:52:20 Why read more? 0:57:10 Does knowledge have increasing returns? 1:01:30 How to escape the middle career trap? 1:04:48 Advice for young people 1:08:40 How to learn about a subject?