What I learned from Magnus Carlsen
A short review of the podcast episodes I listened to in the past week, so you know which to skip
I am addicted to podcasts. On a given day I might listen to four or five episodes without trying, while I do other tasks. I figured I might share some thoughts about them here, so you can choose wisely if your time is limited.
My favorite listens of the past week were Mark Zuckerberg on Joe Rogan and Magnus Carlsen on Lex Fridman. Liv Boeree on Lex was up there too.
I’m not even a chess enthusiast, so why did I enjoy listening to Magnus so much? I had never heard his voice before, and I came in with the preconceived idea that someone at that level of chess would be a robotic nerd. Instead, I listened to a competitive guy who had a lot in common with sucessful athletes. He is a big fan of Messi in fact. He obviously is a ridiculously analytical person, and this permeates every topic covered in the interview. The main takeaway for me was that being amazing at a discipline like chess requires a very unlikely combination of talents and personality traits. He is clearly very intelligent, focused, obsessive in ways that help him perform, and absurdly motivated to perform tasks that make him better at his craft. There must be many other people who are as good or better at any of those particular aspects, but the stars aligned for him.
The Liv Boeree episode was great. I had never heard of her, and I was surprised by the breadth of topics they discussed. Professional poker, rationalism, AI, heavy metal music, how to navigate the uncertain future of a romantic relationship. Three hours flew by.
Other podcasts I listened to:
No Stupid Questions, Would You Be Happier if You Lived Someplace Else?
This one was interesting to me because leaving the San Francisco Bay Area is something I think about often, and the internal musings of economists on this issue are similar to mine. Normally not a huge fan of that format, but it’s short.
Tyler Cowen with Cynthia L. Haven on René Girard, Czeslaw Milosz, and Joseph Brodsky. As someone who attempted to read Girard, I was drawn to hear from someone who knew him. The format of rapid-fire Q&A was a bit awkward, but it was fine at 1.7x during a short commute.
People I (Mostly) Admire - A Million-Year View on Morality with Will MacAskill. This guy is on a book tour so he showed up in many of the podcasts I subscribe to. This one is short, so I figured I’d listen to him here. I have personal opinions on Effective Altruism that I don’t want to get into here, but it’s always interesting to listen to the mental gymnastics of its proponents to justify their world views. I can’t disagree with his arguments, but ultimately one’s life choices in this regard are determined by personal values. He is clearly a very smart and thoughtful guy.
Tim Ferriss: Insights from Dr. Andrew Huberman, Greg McKeown, Jocko Willink, Brené Brown, and Naval Ravikant (#616). I listened to this one in the background while my son and I were working on a really cool jigsaw puzzle. It was a potpourri of shows that I normally wouldn’t listen to, but I enjoyed the Andrew Huberman and Naval Ravikant segments particularly. I listen to Huberman sometimes but I haven’t checked out Naval because I’m not a huge fan of his tweets. Might give him a chance in podcast form.