March 3, 2019
Riva Tez on Being Optimistic About Problem Solving – Problems Sighted
Check out the Problems Sighted Episode Page & Show Notes
Key Takeaways
- When problem solving, aim to always reduce complexity
- Be deliberate in how you curate the media you consume
- Think about life as a game – “It’s just another level, another boss, another battle”
- Riva has a neon sign that reads “Everything’s a Scam” hanging over her living room
- This helps remind her that you really don’t need to be an expert to do great things in life
- As Steve Jobs said – “Everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people who were no smarter than you”
- “Social media gives everybody a voice”
- You can gain notoriety and spread ideas simply by using Twitter well
Books Mentioned
When Problem Solving, Aim to Reduce Complexity
- The meta-problem is complexity
- “You have all these sub-problems. But the overarching problem as to why we can’t solve all the mini problems is that things are very complex and you have complex systems.”
- The first-principle problem then, is “how do you reduce complexity?”
The Knowledge-Action Pipeline
- ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Science’ are interchangeable terms
- You can think of the process of updating knowledge and making it actionable as a pipeline
- Innovating this pipeline is “unsexy” but could have immense positive effects for everyone
- Ex. – it shouldn’t cost a decade and billions of dollars to bring a new drug to market
- Hardware represents a fundamental limit to the problems we can solve; so “if you can make hardware better, you change everything for everyone”
- Innovating this pipeline is “unsexy” but could have immense positive effects for everyone
Optimism vs. Cynicism
- On Optimism
- “If you convey an optimistic idea about how the world can be, you’re also suggesting that there’s a responsibility for us to be able to get there”
- Even if you yourself are not optimistic about a problem, you want others to be so that they try and solve it
- “Boost everyone around you into believing they can achieve things they want to achieve”
- “There’s a vast opportunity for millennial and Gen Z to build the media vehicles that satiate the desires and optimism of those younger than them”
- “If you convey an optimistic idea about how the world can be, you’re also suggesting that there’s a responsibility for us to be able to get there”
- On Cynicism
- It’s become “cool” to be cynical, but that has negative downstream effects
- “These narratives reduce people’s agency to solve problems because there’s no point”
- Being cynical removes the responsibility to solve a problem
- People in the “tech community are like the new Hollywood” in terms of the global reach they now have
- Their words can inspire or dissuade others more than ever before
- There just aren’t many popular media examples of utopian futures
- “These narratives reduce people’s agency to solve problems because there’s no point”
- It’s become “cool” to be cynical, but that has negative downstream effects
- Be deliberate in how you curate the media you consume
Treat Life Like a Game
- “Kids get brainwashed by the cynicism of people around them”
- Elon Musk is a great icon because he’s constantly demonstrating that he’s choosing to work on these huge problems even though he doesn’t have to
- He also shows that he’s having fun along the way
- You want to show the positive aspects of solving problems in order to inspire more people to solve problems
- Elon Musk is a great icon because he’s constantly demonstrating that he’s choosing to work on these huge problems even though he doesn’t have to
- Don’t take things too seriously (especially with yourself)
- On her worst days, Riva will say to herself – “Wow life really sucks today. But oh my god, I get to experience it?”
- Think of things like games
- “It’s just another level, another boss, another battle”
Everything’s a Scam
- Riva has a neon sign that reads “everything’s a scam” in her living room
- It’s actually “the most optimistic message you can think of every day”
- For example – the so called “expert status” necessary to understand a problem… is a scam
- Like how Elon Musk started a rocket company just by reading a bunch of books and talking to really smart people
- The phrase is related to Steve Jobs’ view on life:
- “Everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people who were no smarter than you”
- “It’s a reminder to just play the game. Any game you wanna play, go play. Just go play it because it’s just a f*cking game.”
Education Alternatives
- People who complain about something being broken should create an alternative/offer a suggestion to fix it, or put their money where their mouth is
- There should be more experimentation around building alternative institutions for future generations
- Ex. – Lambda School helps people break into tech by deferring payment until AFTER they’re hired
- There should be more alternatives like Lambda School for people who want to bypass academia
- Ex. – Lambda School helps people break into tech by deferring payment until AFTER they’re hired
What problems does Riva want people to work on?
- More interesting media companies
- “2020 is going to be a shitshow”
- Few sub-35 year olds watch mainstream media
- There’s a massive opportunity for counterculture media companies that capture the youth zeitgeist and optimize for trust
- Don’t peddle the left-right divide
- “If you want to shape America, or the world, in the future, capture the youth’s trust now”
- More young people should run for office
- It’s amazing how much notoriety and influence you can garner with charisma and knowledge of media tools like Twitter
- “More people should be listing the problems in their scientific fields” and finding others to help solve them
- Riva is working on a bounty program where scientists in different fields share their problems, and industry professionals get paid to create solutions
These notes were edited by RoRoPa Editing Services
