"Tourism is sin, and travel on foot virtue." -Werner Herzog. In this episode, I talk with Christoph Rehage, who filmed himself walking more than 5000km across China over the course of a year. Most of you will be familiar with him from the YouTube video that resulted from the trip: He's also the author of three books, published in German and Chinese, an avid reader of travel books, collector of fine vodkas, filmmaker, photographer and newspaper columnist. We talk about his early travels, what China looks like beyond Beijing and the big cities, what Germany and China have to teach each other, and how travel improves our lives. Show links: ChristophRehage.com, his website. His books, which I hope will be published in English in
Welcome to the Startup Geometry podcast, where we talk to the creators, innovators and explorers who make the world what it is. In this episode, I talk with Steven Brust, author of the Vlad Taltos/Dragaera novels. We talk about his writing process, important influences and future plans. I've been a huge fan of Steven's, ever since his first novel, Jhereg, introduced us to wisecracking assassin Vlad Taltos and his sidekick Loiosh back in 1983. His latest books are Hawk and The Incrementalists. You'll notice that I immediately mispronounce his last name (which is pronounced BROOST, though spelled BRUST), despite having pasted a note with the phonetic spelling of his name to the microphone I was using at the time. Podcasting is HARD.
Anthony Metivier was good enough to interview me over at Magnetic Memory Method Podcast. We talked about the Giordano Bruno translation project, memory palaces, and how you can improve your techniques for learning and memory. Get the podcast on Stitcher or iTunes.
Thomas Piketty - Capital in the 21st Century Distributional effects of the current economic system have received growing interest as the distribution of income and wealth within the largest economies has grown steeper. It seems that this month, Capital in the 21st Century is on the bedside table of every economist I know, as Michael Lewis's book is on the table of every trader. And as with Flash Boys, everyone's has a problem or two with Piketty's theses, while the consensus is that it's an important book even after taking the flaws into account. Brad DeLong's "Finger exercises" provide a simple model to play with, and begins with a discussion of four different possible return rates (r) that might relate to the growth rate (g) in Piketty's models. He then
"I can't write." "I want you to write a page. Think you could do that for me?" "Can it be bad?" "I'd like it to be very bad." -Ruby Sparks (2012) You have a first world problem: you can't write. People with anger management issues, who beat their family and kick their dog have bigger things to worry about. You, however, are a well-socialized person who plays well with others. This is why you have writer's block. Your internal editor has got the upper hand over your muse, the productive, creative part of yourself.Alice Flaherty's research on creativity discusses this imbalance between the frontal lobe (executive functions and judgement) and temporal lobes (generation, association
