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Noah Feldman on Hyper-Productivity, Learning 10+ Languages, DAOs, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show

Brought to you by Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro Cover sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating (https://www.EightSleep.com/Tim), Athletic Greens all-in-one nutritional supplement (http://AthleticGreens.com/Tim), and Headspace easy-to-use app with guided meditations (http://Headspace.com/Tim). Noah Feldman (@NoahRFeldman) is a Harvard professor, ethical philosopher and advisor, public intellectual, religious scholar and historian, and author of 10 books, including his latest, The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America. Noah is the founder of Ethical Compass, which helps clients like Facebook and eBay improve ethical decision-making by creating and implementing new governance solutions. He is host of the Deep Background podcast, a policy and public affairs columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, and a former contributing writer for The New York Times. Noah is the author of 10 books, including Divided by God: America’s Church-State Problem—and What We Should Do About It; What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building; Cool War: The United States, China, and the Future of Global Competition; Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices; and The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President. Enjoy! Why Noah is quadra-lingual [03:33] A language-learning myth plus how Arabic changed Noah’s universe [08:32] Dr. Wilson Bishai and how Noah learned colloquial Arabic [12:52] What does the spectrum of Arabic look like? [17:37] Exploring the algorithm of “al.” [21:44] What does Al Qaeda mean, and how did it get its name? [22:24] A full life without caffeine? [27:17] Structured life vs. overwhelmed life [29:09] “Failing” and “succeeding” at therapy [31:59] Voice recognition software for time management and productivity [34:52] From concept to first and final draft—how Noah faces the blank page [39:15] Comparing the interpretation of scripture to the interpretation of the US Constitution[44:06] With an undergrad in Near Eastern languages and civilizations, why did Noah decide to go to law school? [46:57] LLB (Legum Baccalaureus) vs. JB (Juris Doctor). [49:26] Why Noah went to law school [51:07] How did Noah’s dad instill morals in him? [54:06] Living in the Iraqi Republican Palace’s kitchen, getting shot at, etc. [59:18] What not to do when you invade a country [1:07:01] How to create a constitution [1:11:47] An exemplary modern constitution [1:18:03] Understanding constitutions, you will understand crypto. [1:21:58] Appreciation for Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin [1:24:08] How an understanding history allows you to be a futurist [1:26:54] Recommended reading on creating constitutions [1:33:21] DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and what Noah finds promising about them? [1:37:48] What I find promising about DAOs. [1:40:40] Tough problems that DAO experiments may be able to answer [1:43:25] The pros and cons of uneditable smart contracts [1:45:59] What prompted Noah to write The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America? [1:50:18] How Lincoln’s story fits into addressing the Constitution’s most glaring flaws [1:52:43] Is the Constitution meant to be a moral blueprint? [1:57:24] How does world peace relate to compromise? [2:01:53] Two kinds of compromise: real aspiration and waffling. [2:03:29] Examples of good compromisers [2:07:59 ] Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and why Noah finds him interesting? [2:09:40] Did the Iroquois Confederacy have any impact on the Constitution? [2:19:49] Experiments Noah is looking forward to seeing played out [2:23:04] What to avoid when trying to create big tech boards [2:29:36] Legitimacy as currency to drive a company’s compliance with its oversight board [2:32:55] Parting thoughts. [2:37:46] SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1dSzTkW LINK TO ALL SHOW TRANSCRIPTS: https://tim.blog/2018/09/20/all-transcripts-from-the-tim-ferriss-show/ About Tim Ferriss: Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 500 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Connect with Tim Ferriss: Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-yt/ Visit the Tim Ferriss PODCAST: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss BLOG: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/

Tim FerrisshostNoah Feldmanguest

Oct 21, 20212h 42mWatch on YouTube ↗

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WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Noah Feldman on Languages, Constitutions, Crypto, Lincoln, and Experimenting With Governance

Feldman traces his love of languages to a childhood of travel and Hebrew schooling, and says learning Arabic as a young teen showed him that people on the other side see the world in the opposite way.
He describes his productivity as total focus on one task at a time, voice-recognition drafting since a repetitive stress injury in 2002, and a late-in-life lesson from therapy that not everything should be forced.
Drawing on his time advising on Iraq's constitution, he explains that a constitution needs order, the right people at the table, and power-sharing, and he lists mistakes made in the early occupation.
He compares constitutions to crypto platforms and DAOs, arguing that legitimacy (predictability plus fairness) is key and that uneditable smart contracts lose the flexibility real contracts have.
In discussing his book on Lincoln and the Facebook Oversight Board, he presents compromise as either mere waffling or a shared aspiration to make things better, and treats governance innovations as experiments.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Learning a language puts you inside another worldview

Feldman says studying Arabic at 14 or 15 let him participate in the thought world of Arabic speakers and realize that someone always sees things the opposite way.

Total presence in each task replaces time management

Feldman says he focuses completely on what he is doing, doesn't judge his drafts while writing, hands them to an editor, and moves on, which saves the time lost to self-questioning.

Constitutions need order and shared stakes

He says a constitution can't be built amid chaos because parties must know how power is arranged, and the people at the table must think agreement gains them more than failing to agree.

Legitimacy is the common currency of constitutions and crypto

Feldman argues that systems work when participants can predict outcomes and see them as fair, and that removing either predictability or fairness makes constitutional systems and crypto platforms collapse.

History helps predict the challenges of disruptive change

He uses Airbnb inheriting the hotel industry's history of racial discrimination to show that past problems carry over into new arrangements and can be anticipated.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

Someone always sees things the opposite way that you see them.

— Noah Feldman

I think transparency drives, transparency and giving reasons drives legitimacy. Non-transparency or failure to give reasons detracts from legitimacy.

— Noah Feldman

Constitutions can't do everything.

— Noah Feldman

It's like we're both hiking up the mountain and there, the path forks. We know both forks go up the mountain, and we're trying to figure out, like, which one will get us there faster or better.

— Noah Feldman

You can't create a situation where people think there's anarchy.

— Noah Feldman

Hyperpolyglot upbringing and Arabic dialectsProductivity, focus and voice recognition writingLessons from Iraq and state-buildingHow constitutions work and apply to crypto and DAOsLincoln, slavery and The Broken ConstitutionTwo kinds of compromiseFacebook Oversight Board and governance experiments

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