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58: Adam Mastroianni - Let Me Be Useful
Transcript & links: dialectic.fm/adam-mastroiann…
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Dialectic 58: Adam Mastroianni!
@a_m_mastroianni is a psychologist who writes some of my favorite essays on the internet. His newsletter Experimental History just crossed 100K subscribers.
Adam's writing is usually about science, culture, and what to do with your life. Reading his writing makes obscure ideas feel intuitive.
We cover:
- why science is stuck
- the prestige trap
- conversational doorknobs
- why smart people end up in lives they doon't like
- the coffee bean test
- writing to find out what you think
- his upcoming book, "The Strangest Idea in the World"
If you've ever read an amazing essay on SS with a black & white photo at the top, it was probably Adam's.
Timestamps
(0:00) Highlights & Introduction
(4:33) Why Psychology Is Stuck
(14:43) Stupidity, Rebellion & Escaping Prestige
(25:08) Patronage for Weirdos
(33:53) Progress in Psychology
(52:15) What to Do With Your Life & the Coffee Bean Test
(1:03:22) Getting De-bogged
(1:14:11) Conversational Doorknobs
(1:22:23) Blogging, Community & Rules We Invent
(1:28:35) Writing Advice & Giving the Reader an Egg to Crack
(1:44:03) The Strangest Idea in the World
(1:53:23) Closing Questions
Available below, and on all platforms!
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
.@a_m_mastroianni on the prestige trap and the seed that ultimately led to him leaving academia:
Undergrad. Get to Oxford for a Rhodes Scholarship. Do a couple of years at McKinsey. Then you can do whatever you want.
Or get a phd, then an academic job, then get tenure. Now your students need you.
“Just keep doing this until when?”
“If the princess is always gonna be in another castle, I have to stop going into the castles.”
Dialectic 58: Adam Mastroianni!
@a_m_mastroianni is a psychologist who writes some of my favorite essays on the internet. His newsletter Experimental History just crossed 100K subscribers.
Adam's writing is usually about science, culture, and what to do with your life. Reading his writing makes obscure ideas feel intuitive.
We cover:
- why science is stuck
- the prestige trap
- conversational doorknobs
- why smart people end up in lives they doon't like
- the coffee bean test
- writing to find out what you think
- his upcoming book, "The Strangest Idea in the World"
If you've ever read an amazing essay on SS with a black & white photo at the top, it was probably Adam's.
Timestamps
(0:00) Highlights & Introduction
(4:33) Why Psychology Is Stuck
(14:43) Stupidity, Rebellion & Escaping Prestige
(25:08) Patronage for Weirdos
(33:53) Progress in Psychology
(52:15) What to Do With Your Life & the Coffee Bean Test
(1:03:22) Getting De-bogged
(1:14:11) Conversational Doorknobs
(1:22:23) Blogging, Community & Rules We Invent
(1:28:35) Writing Advice & Giving the Reader an Egg to Crack
(1:44:03) The Strangest Idea in the World
(1:53:23) Closing Questions
Available below, and on all platforms!
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.@immad grew up poor in London, but he didn’t grow up thinking he came from nothing. His family told a story about an ancestor who ruled the Durrani Empire centuries earlier.
“I might be poor, and I might not have anything, but I always felt like I could achieve anything.”
“I don’t think I’m amazing or anything, but I also don’t think everyone else is that amazing either. We’re all trying to figure stuff out.”
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
Double-clicking on this via @iancr:
"We talk about not being afraid to fail, but it's beyond that. I think it's becoming skilled at failure."
"Because once you're skilled at failure, you're untouchable. Now you're just learning because in all cases there are only two outcomes: you win, or you learn."
Ian Rogers on what he learnt from watching pro skateboarders skate on his ramp.
one idea that works makes up for a long list of ones that didn't
nobody keeps score of the misses once a single bet pays off
I stay loose on the small stuff so my best attempt gets everything
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
22 lessons from @a_m_mastroianni on Weird Science, Writing Experimental History, and the Freedom of Being Brave
@dialecticpod 58
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
Very excited for this to come out, Jackson got me riled up into rare form
Dialectic 58: Adam Mastroianni!
@a_m_mastroianni is a psychologist who writes some of my favorite essays on the internet. His newsletter Experimental History just crossed 100K subscribers.
Adam's writing is usually about science, culture, and what to do with your life. Reading his writing makes obscure ideas feel intuitive.
We cover:
- why science is stuck
- the prestige trap
- conversational doorknobs
- why smart people end up in lives they doon't like
- the coffee bean test
- writing to find out what you think
- his upcoming book, "The Strangest Idea in the World"
If you've ever read an amazing essay on SS with a black & white photo at the top, it was probably Adam's.
Timestamps
(0:00) Highlights & Introduction
(4:33) Why Psychology Is Stuck
(14:43) Stupidity, Rebellion & Escaping Prestige
(25:08) Patronage for Weirdos
(33:53) Progress in Psychology
(52:15) What to Do With Your Life & the Coffee Bean Test
(1:03:22) Getting De-bogged
(1:14:11) Conversational Doorknobs
(1:22:23) Blogging, Community & Rules We Invent
(1:28:35) Writing Advice & Giving the Reader an Egg to Crack
(1:44:03) The Strangest Idea in the World
(1:53:23) Closing Questions
Available below, and on all platforms!
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
Dialectic 58: Adam Mastroianni!
@a_m_mastroianni is a psychologist who writes some of my favorite essays on the internet. His newsletter Experimental History just crossed 100K subscribers.
Adam's writing is usually about science, culture, and what to do with your life. Reading his writing makes obscure ideas feel intuitive.
We cover:
- why science is stuck
- the prestige trap
- conversational doorknobs
- why smart people end up in lives they doon't like
- the coffee bean test
- writing to find out what you think
- his upcoming book, "The Strangest Idea in the World"
If you've ever read an amazing essay on SS with a black & white photo at the top, it was probably Adam's.
Timestamps
(0:00) Highlights & Introduction
(4:33) Why Psychology Is Stuck
(14:43) Stupidity, Rebellion & Escaping Prestige
(25:08) Patronage for Weirdos
(33:53) Progress in Psychology
(52:15) What to Do With Your Life & the Coffee Bean Test
(1:03:22) Getting De-bogged
(1:14:11) Conversational Doorknobs
(1:22:23) Blogging, Community & Rules We Invent
(1:28:35) Writing Advice & Giving the Reader an Egg to Crack
(1:44:03) The Strangest Idea in the World
(1:53:23) Closing Questions
Available below, and on all platforms!
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
A very founder definition of optimism from @immad :
“The last three products I launched didn’t work at all, but this fourth one is gonna change the world.”
This mindset (optimism) is one of three things he hopes to pass on to his daughters, alongside curiosity and resilience.
The hard part, Immad says, is living it yourself, but "if you live it and breathe it, then you can teach it.”
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
Yup, but it can quickly become a slippery slope.
@mynameisceline on the difference between instrumental writing, which gets something done, and metamorphic writing, which transforms the person doing it:
“I increasingly feel that to do really great work, you want the metamorphic qualities to come in. You want to be shaped or disciplined by the work you’re trying to do."
“To achieve a certain quality of work, you understand that you have to grow as a person. You need to be more patient, more thoughtful, more willing to iterate, more ambitious.”
This is the thing people don’t understand about non-fiction writing:
Aside from memoirs & New York Times level research, 99% of non-fiction’s value is purely information.
You do not read for enjoyment of sentence structure, voice, style, metaphor, etc.
You read for answers to questions.
I have heard Hormozi say the words in this email 10 different times in 10 marginally different ways. The value is always the same.
(Question) How do you grow your business?
(Answer) One way is call leads faster.
Whether Alex wrote it, or AI “wrote it” is irrelevant. The value didn’t change.
And it’s this type of writing that is going to be one of the biggest categories to get “automated” by people who have already done the thinking, and crystallized their thinking into things they’ve already written/said.
AI is just helping repeat the information faster.
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This was a really fun podcast I did with @jacksondahl, who is a great podcast host.
This is one clip but the whole thing is worth a listen.
.@immad spent a year and a half quietly building @mercury before launch. Then when they showed it to 100 potential customers, only 2 were excited.
He was worried no one would care. But banking is a big market:
“If 2% of people are like, ‘F*** yeah,’ that’s actually a lot of people if the market’s big enough.”
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
"When we invest, we make a commitment. We don’t make a bet. This is not, ‘Hey, we put some chips down on a roulette table.”
Miles Grimshaw on the gut question he asks before investing: "Can I imagine recruiting for this?"
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
.@immad spent a year and a half quietly building @mercury before launch. Then when they showed it to 100 potential customers, only 2 were excited.
He was worried no one would care. But banking is a big market:
“If 2% of people are like, ‘F*** yeah,’ that’s actually a lot of people if the market’s big enough.”
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
The Bar Was Not That High:
21 Lessons from @DialecticPod with @Mercury CEO @Immad Akhund
On Obvious Advantages, Irrational Care, and Fighting Entropy
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
Bankers are a lot friendlier when you want to borrow $10 million.
@immad, CEO of @mercury, on why banks put more effort into winning your loan business than improving your deposit account: lending is where they make their money.
“They need deposits to serve those loans, but it’s never been a place where they’re trying to differentiate or be competitive.”
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
.@iancr on how to get really good at failure:
- Get good at recovering.
- Leave room to try again.
- Judge the attempt, not yourself.
Watching pros skate his vert ramp, he noticed that "the number one thing they're better at than you is falling.”
“Once you’re skilled at failure, you're untouchable."
"Now you’re just learning, because there’s only two outcomes: you win, or you learn.”
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Dialectic with Jackson Dahl retweeted
"Once you're skilled at failure, you're untouchable. You get to keep going."
"Now you're just learning because in all cases there are only two outcomes: you win or you learn."
.@iancr on how to get really good at failure:
- Get good at recovering.
- Leave room to try again.
- Judge the attempt, not yourself.
Watching pros skate his vert ramp, he noticed that "the number one thing they're better at than you is falling.”
“Once you’re skilled at failure, you're untouchable."
"Now you’re just learning, because there’s only two outcomes: you win, or you learn.”
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943