Nathan Bick

  I didn’t really get much from Jordan Peterson’s conversation with Lex Fridman. I listened because of JP’s significant reputation. I used to think his unpopularity and controversial public persona weren’t justified since his psychological and therapeutic works and advice always seemed reasonable and helpful - I think he’s helped a lot of people deal with their inner demons.  His political positions have always been more on the conservative side and I’ve never really agreed with them, but over time they’ve become more conservative. I think this is mostly due to societal pressures that come from being a famous ideological/political figure. His views are unsurprisingly aligned with those of his audience, but what’s interesting is how his audience has shifted over time and is now apparently almost wholly conservative. He became famous for refusing to comply with a Canadian law requiring the use of preferred pronouns, a position that threw him into the center of the transgender is...

  I’ve always respected chess and chess players. There’s no doubt that this at least partly comes from chess’s overall cultural association with intelligence. But I do have a personal connection to chess that is likely similar to that of many others - in my childhood, my father enjoyed chess and had a small collection of stylish chassboards that were placed in our house like art pieces. We played together a handful of times but I was never an especially strong player. At a few points in my young adulthood I tried to get better at chess or otherwise was more actively interested in it - I went through a phase of watching chess analysis videos, a phase of doing chess exercises, and so on.  Chess holds particular esteem in the russosphere and in the history of AI and computer science so it is not a surprise that Lex would address the topic in his podcast. I’ve followed Magnus Carlsen since I was in high school - Magnus is a bit older than I am but not that much and he began his st...