Exponential Wisdom

Episode 110: Disruptive Thinking

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Peter and Dan discuss a process used for disruptive thinking, a way to brainstorm new business models that could grow your company and create novel opportunities. Their conversation provides an accessible methodology for generating unexpected ideas unconstrained by the company’s past that also work to advance its mission.

In this episode:

  • Peter recounts a brainstorming session he had with a CEO running a sizable company, wherein they strategized with key people outside the business’s industry and thereby were able to land on several fresh ideas that hadn’t yet emerged within the firm’s internal leadership team.
  • Dan discusses the value of using KOLBE scores to determine who is involved in brainstorming meetings, often favoring ‘Quick Starts’ and fewer ‘Fact Finders’ or ‘Follow-Throughs’ when strictly brainstorming. 
  • Peter elaborates on another method of disruptive thinking: using a Black Ops entrepreneurial team of young people to help find potential disruption opportunities within your business, and giving them the needed resources and behind-the-scenes visibility to execute.

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Episode 109: Reinventing Manufacturing

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Peter and Dan discuss today’s reinvention of the manufacturing industry, and how emerging technologies — from 3D printing to generative design — are enabling faster and more automated production at scale. Touching on one company, Re:Build Manufacturing, they demonstrate how local, just-in-time manufacturing and tech-driven lean processes are beginning to disrupt the global supply chain.

In this episode:

  • Dan talks about the history of the global supply chain after WWII, and what incentives emerged after the war’s conclusion for the world to begin trading internationally. 
  • Peter and Dan agree that the best way to continue progress is to automate the routine and humanize the exceptional, such that we can leverage robots to increasingly perform jobs that are dull, dangerous and dirty. 
  • Peter frames the conversation by illustrating a future in which we could use technology to rearrange atoms to create the ultimate manufacturing machines. 

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Episode 108: Giving Yourself Control of Your Health

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Peter and Dan discuss preventive, predictive, and personalized health care. Showcasing this phenomenon, they delve into a new health care company, Fountain Life, which uses data-driven methodologies and thorough diagnostics to identify disease early and enhance members’ physical and mental performance.

In this episode:

  • Peter explains why and how he sees healthcare evolving into a new model, one around which Fountain Life was founded to deliver emerging, best-in-class therapeutics and ground-breaking diagnostics in novel ways to enhance healthspan, performance and vitality.
  • Dan discusses a compelling platform whereby patients can identify new medical therapies and technologies and send corresponding articles or medical papers to Fountain Life’s medical advisory board, by which they can be vetted to determine their viability for the company’s offerings. 
  • Peter expresses that while testing is critical, the most important things we can prioritize are still the basics: sleep, diet and exercise. Peter and Dan give their tips for increasing quality sleep, including a temperature-controlled mattress pad, skipping TV at night, and using audiobooks to help you wind down.

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Episode 107: First Principles Thinking

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Peter and Dan discuss first principles thinking, demonstrating why the world’s best entrepreneurs use this methodology to set massive goals. Elon Musk is perhaps the foremost example of entrepreneurial success as a direct result of his mindset, problem-solving strategies, and intelligence.

In this episode:

  • Peter shares his takeaways from his conversation with Elon Musk, which kicked off their launch of the largest incentive competition in history, the $100M XPRIZE for Carbon Removal.
  • Dan gives insights about the education system and its flaws, and why he believes outliers are rewarded for audacious thinking. 
  • Peter talks about the early days of SpaceX and stories from 2001, when Elon dedicated the entirety of his payout from PayPal’s acquisition to starting the now-skyrocketing (no pun intended) space company.

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Episode 106: Technology Empowering Teamwork

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Peter and Dan talk about the extraordinary progress in human teamwork, how technologies like AI, networks, sensors, allow humans to communicate faster and easier.

In this episode:

  • Dan discusses increasing collaboration within his company, starting with focusing on each individual before any teamwork can happen. 
  • Peter talks about the XPRIZE crowdsourced prize designs that happened during the beginning of the pandemic and the speed of the teamwork was amazing.
  • Peter and Dan give examples of how they run their team meetings on zoom including best practices and timing.

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Episode 105: Living Past 100 Years

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Peter and Dan discuss the wide-ranging implications of today’s biotech and longevity breakthroughs, now adding years to the human healthspan.

In this episode:

  • Peter mentions the significance of Dr. David Sinclair’s latest cover-featured publication in Nature, which offers groundbreaking evidence for reversal of age-related decline in mice– an advancement now being tested and validated in in vitro human cells.
  • Dan talks about the importance of nurturing friendships with those younger than you, a key step in nurturing a youthful mindset. Peter further shows how such relationships can contribute to a healthier mentality about taking risks.
  • Peter discusses the implications of adding 30 healthy years to one’s life. For one: by the time you are 60 years old, you have accumulated the majority of your wealth, whether in terms of capital, relationships, or intelligence. By extending our healthy years, this vantage point provides a major advantage when starting new companies and sustaining a prosperous life.

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Episode 104: Capital Availability

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Peter and Dan discuss the abundance of capital available to entrepreneurs today, exploring the reasons for a historically unparalleled surge in funding and its accessibility. In 2019, aggregate global crowdfunding — inclusive of peer-to-peer lending — reached $14 billion, with over 2,000 platforms offering access to funding. But as is the case with many digital platforms, this too is experiencing double-digit growth. Experts now project that crowdfunding will reach $30 billion by 2025.

In this episode: 

  • Peter explains how today’s speed of computation is helping drive an abundance of available capital across industries globally. Between crowdfunding sites, venture funding, ICOs, and SPACs, there is no capital-related excuse to put off pursuing your MTP and Moonshot.
  • Dan discusses the geo-political ramifications of the pandemic and how entrepreneurs have used the last eighteen months to their advantage. 
  • Peter talks about the benefits of Bitcoin and why cryptocurrencies will transform economies for the better.

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Episode 103: Longevity Mindset

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Peter and Dan discuss the benefits of fostering a Longevity Mindset. Now more than ever — during a new age of exponential medicine — many will no longer have to accept the cards we’re dealt. Technologies like genome sequencing, RNA transcriptomics, Wnt pathway modifiers, novel vaccines, CRISPR, liquid biopsies, CAR-T cells, gene therapy, exosomes, and stem cells are just some of the innovations under development.

In this episode:

  • Peter reframes aging as a disease, one that many are beginning to believe can be slowed, stopped and perhaps even reversed.
  • Dan and Peter compare the process of vaccine creation today to methodologies used 10 years ago, exploring how COVID-19 has sped up all parts of the process. 
  • Peter explains why the best thing you can do for your longevity is to optimize sleep, diet and exercise, and to “not die from something stupid.”

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Episode 102: Exponential Mindset

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Peter and Dan explore the benefits of cultivating an “Exponential Mindset,” an understanding that computation and derivative technologies (AI, VR, 3D Printing, etc.) are growing exponentially. Thirty doublings drive a billion-fold improvement that the human (linear) brain finds difficult to grasp.

In this episode:

  • Peter discusses how humans evolved to be linear thinkers, yet the power of our technology has long been doubling every 18 months. And the power of exponential doublings can be extraordinarily hard to wrap our heads around: 10 doublings = ~1,000x growth… 20 doublings = ~1,000,000x growth…  30 doublings = ~1,000,000,000x growth.
  • Dan covers the history of the steam engine, examining how this specific innovation saw an exponential boom in global mobility.
  • Peter outlines how exponential technologies are converging, disrupting, and transforming business models and industries, enabling even small teams to compete successfully with large corporations.

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Episode 101: Abundance Mindset

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Peter and Dan discuss the benefits of cultivating an “Abundance Mindset,” through which we more readily see how exponential technologies — computation, AI, 3D printing, robotics, VR, and others — can dematerialize, demonetize, and democratize products and services. What was once available only to the richest and most elite, is increasingly accessible to almost anyone on the planet.

In this episode:

  • Peter talks about growing up with a “Scarcity Mindset.” In a world of scarcity, we entertain the paradigm of a finite pie. If your neighbor gets a slice, you necessarily get a smaller slice. This is a perceived world of limited resources and fierce competition. When geared with an Abundance mindset, however, rather than slicing the pie into thinner and thinner pieces, we simply bake more pies… millions more pies. 
  • Dan talks about the importance of a positive mindset and how he trains his by cutting out TV (a cognitive “fast” he has now sustained for 3 years) and carefully selecting the news he follows online.
  • Peter talks about looking at the positive possibilities in every scenario and challenge, illustrating ways in which you might use the pandemic to transform your business and lifestyle.

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