"Time is a flat circle," is a phrase usually said when referring to a pop-culture or political topic that seemed to have already been hashed out a few years ago but popped up again. It’s a pretty cool phrase, but somewhat superficial. I’ve always liked “time is a spiral" more, though it isn’t as cheeky. It captures the fact that some events are reminiscent of the past while being different in their own way. This stuff is pretty obvious, but I get a sense of comfort from the idea that we're in a spiral rather than a circle, slowly, but surely correcting our mistakes. It lets me believe that we're not damned to see our mistakes repeated forever.
Everytime I am about to listen to Lex I get excited by the guests, almost always experts in their field, whether it be academia or industry. Most of the time Lex asks really interesting quetions and does not shy away from personal quetions. With Judea Pearl he asked about Pearl's son who was kidnapped by terrorists in Pakistan. On the other hand when interviewing Michael Saylor (ceo of Microstrategy) about his bitcoin investments he shys away from saying that the rising value of bitcoin would make Saylor rich, and settles on saying that it would "economically benefit him." What the fuck? It is clear that he as an interest in libertarian ideology, and its on full display when an economically conservative viewpoint is brought up. His steelmanning of the opposing argument is flacid at best and somehow the guest is always has the better argument. He comes to the table with a clear bias and it bothers me that no one calls that out. It is fine to have a bias and to even argue for it, but it is not fine to do so when one presents themselves as a rational thinker who is always objective. To be objective one would have to actually treat opposing viewpoints with respect. During his interview with Saifedean Ammous, Ammous says that bitcoin is fater than current financial institutions since it settles transfers in 3 hours rather than three days. At the start of the interview Lex says that he would try his hardest to be the best devils advocate he can be, but he didn't even ask why it was a good thing that fast transfer time is important. Maybe I am picking only one instance of him failing to question Ammous, but still, he said he would try to be the best devil's advocate that he could be. Anyways I think Lex is laying it on a bit too thick with how rational and thoughtful he is and poeple should be aware he doesn't stick to his ideals.