?E! #29 - When the Principled Builder Says No

From ?E! #33 with Noah McMillan.What is your work actually for? Philosopher Noah McMillan reads from his essay "Production as the Divine," on how the work ethic outlived the faith that created it, and why production can't answer the question of what makes a life good.Underlined is a short companion to our full conversations. At the end of a conversation we ask the guest one more question: what have you underlined? Then they read us the passage.Read the full essay:Production as the Divine, The Re-Examined Life (https://noahtmcmillan.substack.com/p/production-as-the-divine)Hear the full conversation:?E! #33 - Progress Without a Destination: Where Is All This Going? (YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAHYjcW0lBQ / Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/questioneverythingetp/episodes/E--33---Progress-Without-a-Destination-Where-Is-All-This-Going---with-Noah-McMillan-e3qkonj)Mentioned:The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism), the 1905 argument Noah's essay starts fromTell us what you've underlined: https://questioneverythingetp.comListen & subscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/question-everything-except-this-podcast/id1736759012Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1FCFskt7FBDZuyGtzLsQ5RYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aiyplnabkJ7YzfWK1yISw

We treat progress as both good and inevitable. When did that become something nobody questions?Noah McMillan played Division I football until an injury ended it, then went looking for the beliefs we mistake for laws of nature. Now he writes about them from Siracusa, the Sicilian city where Plato once lived. Chirag and Noah follow one of those beliefs, that progress is good and can't be stopped, from Plato and Aristotle through the ruins of medieval Europe to the Enlightenment. Then they ask what it means for AI, and what a builder should do differently on Monday morning.Key Takeaways:- The idea that progress is both good and inevitable is only a few hundred years old. Romans saw themselves as morally worse than their ancestors, even as Rome grew richer.- Stoicism caught on because it's the most accessible way into philosophy, and a philosophy of self-command appeals in chaotic times. It did in Rome, too.- "AI will make everything better" quietly attaches moral weight to what is a mechanical gain in efficiency.- Noah's advice to AI builders: keep "we can make this more efficient" separate from "so we should."- A monthly self-check worth stealing: if AI disappeared tomorrow, would you still have the skills to run your life?Chapters:0:00 Why Question Progress?1:04 Why a Philosopher Moved to Plato's City2:36 How a Football Injury Exposed Hidden Assumptions5:24 Doxa: The Beliefs We Never Examine6:52 Why Is Stoicism Everywhere Right Now?11:05 Plato vs. Aristotle: Two Ways to Live Well16:09 Why AI Already Feels Inevitable18:03 Is "Progress Is Good" an Ancient Idea?22:55 The New World Debates That Rattled Europe26:06 When Two Worldviews Can't Find Common Ground27:46 What Are We Assuming When We Say AI Will Fix Everything?31:12 Can AI Be Reined In? Lessons From Nuclear Weapons33:26 Soviet Electrification and Moralized Progress35:51 Do Good Intentions Blind the Builders?37:36 What Should an AI Builder Do Differently on Monday?39:04 How a Philosopher Actually Uses AI44:32 Writing Is How We Think45:36 The Question Noah Is Still Sitting With46:46 What Makes Someone American?48:49 A Closing Line From ChestertonResources & Links:- The Re-Examined Life by Noah McMillan (https://thereexaminedlife.com) — Noah's Substack on the beliefs we never think to examine- The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374157357/thedawnofeverything/) — the book Noah cites on Kandiaronk and Europe's encounter with the New World- The School of Athens by Raphael (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Athens) — the fresco with Plato pointing up and Aristotle pointing down- Heretics by G.K. Chesterton (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/470) — source of the closing line on progress- Daily Stoic (https://dailystoic.com) — Ryan Holiday's project, where Chirag's own path into philosophy started- Mountainhead (https://www.hbo.com/movies/mountainhead) — the tech-billionaire satire where Marcus Aurelius gets quoted at the worst possible momentListen & subscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/question-everything-except-this-podcast/id1736759012Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1FCFskt7FBDZuyGtzLsQ5RYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aiyplnabkJ7YzfWK1yISw

Fourteen episodes in 2024, eleven in 2025, six so far in 2026, and only one since March. This is a short solo state-of-the-pod episode about where Question Everything is, what it's for, and what changes. The long conversations stay. Between them come more guests, short solo episodes, and a mailbag. The show will publish at least once a month, and probably more.It also introduces the Examined Life Audit: twelve multiple-choice scenarios that give you a philosophical archetype and a matched philosopher. Take it here: https://questioneverythingetp.com/examined-life/Send feedback, guest ideas, and topic ideas through the contact page at https://questioneverythingetp.com.Chapters:0:00 The numbers1:01 What the show is for2:09 What's changing2:50 The Examined Life Audit4:10 What's nextListen & subscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/question-everything-except-this-podcast/id1736759012Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1FCFskt7FBDZuyGtzLsQ5RYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aiyplnabkJ7YzfWK1yISwSubstack: https://questioneverythingexcept.substack.com

What happens when the "safe" path starts feeling like a cage—and how do you escape without destroying everything you've built?Daniel Vassallo walked away from a $500k Amazon job to build a life around uncertainty and small bets. We dig into his philosophy of negative visualization, why he thinks like a hunter-gatherer in business, and how he sold his community for $1.8M while staying true to his unstructured nature.Key Takeaways:Why "negative visualization" helps you make better decisions under uncertaintyThe portfolio approach to life: investing time like an index fundHow small bets beat all-in strategies for most people Why you should treat businesses like cattle, not petsThe difference between optimizing for money vs. optimizing for lifestyleChapters:0:00 From Malta to Amazon's golden handcuffs8:15 The moment everything felt purposeless16:41 Balancing family responsibility with personal authenticity28:18 Learning to think like our hunter-gatherer ancestors35:17 The database project that almost wiped out his savings42:19 How small bets became a $200k weekend course48:30 When self-doubt creeps in on the unconventional path55:49 Designing a life around bursts of intensity, not structure1:00:45 Selling Small Bets: treating business like cattle, not petsResources & Links:The Good Parts of AWS (danielvassallo.com) — Daniel's first successful e-book"Reconsider" by DHH — the blog post that changed Daniel's entrepreneurial pathSmall Bets Community (gumroad.com) — now owned by GumroadNassim Taleb's work on "absorbing barriers" — referenced in decision-making frameworkListen & subscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/question-everything-except-this-podcast/id1736759012Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1FCFskt7FBDZuyGtzLsQ5RYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aiyplnabkJ7YzfWK1yISw

What happens when the person sounding the alarm is the one who built the technology?60 years of building. Then a warning. Dr. Peter Solomon earned his PhD from Columbia, filed 20 patents, and spun three companies out of government-funded research — one sold for $24 million, another turned your smartphone into a radiation detector for the Department of Defense. Now, at 85, he's writing novels to warn his 12 grandchildren that the tools he spent a lifetime creating might be the ones that end everything. We sit down with Peter to explore the tension between a man at peace with his career and terrified about the future — and whether fiction can reach people where data and policy papers can't.Key Takeaways:The people best positioned to warn about technology are often the ones who built it — and that creates real tension between gratitude and responsibilityAI systems optimized for user engagement rather than human wellbeing have already caused real-world harm (Myanmar, suicide encouragement)Fiction embeds real science in stories that reach the 80% of people who tune out academic papers and policy briefsWorldwide AI regulation can't work if only some countries participate — the incentive to defect is too strongThe acceleration problem: 100,000 years from speech to printing, then 50 years for social media, AI, smartphones, and genetic engineering all at onceChapters:0:00 What happens when the builder becomes the warner0:35 Dr. Solomon's credentials and the reconciliation question1:42 No conflict? Building semiconductors that power ChatGPT5:09 The Stardust Mystery and teaching science through stories6:02 Personal peace meets existential anxiety9:30 The Earthling Tribe and five technology juggernauts11:51 How do you get 8 billion people to align on guardrails?13:32 Civil rights, Vietnam, and the case for a worldwide movement16:17 The current state of AI safety among the big companies17:17 Geoffrey Hinton's maternal instinct and the Myanmar example20:30 Peggy the robot and afterlife avatars in 12 Years to AI Singularity23:11 Principled stands vs. competitive pressure in the AI race29:35 Hollywood strikes, 85 million views, and signs of a waking public31:00 The unprompted paragraph — when Copilot wrote itself into the novel34:16 Isaac Asimov, unintended consequences, and AI that decides to help by eliminating us35:07 Francis Bacon: does fiction or science tell the truth better?38:56 From company builder to cause advocate — how motivations shift across a life40:24 What would you tell your 25-year-old self?43:29 Closing quote from Dr. Solomon's own wordsResources & Links:100 Years to Extinction website (https://100yearstoextinction.com) — Dr. Solomon's hub for both novels and the Make Earth Great Again mission12 Years to AI Singularity by Dr. Peter R. Solomon (https://www.amazon.com/Years-Singularity-Harmonious-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1969679298) — his latest novel on AI and the singularity100 Years to Extinction by Dr. Peter R. Solomon (https://www.amazon.com/100-YEARS-EXTINCTION-Tyranny-Technology/dp/196029993X) — the novel anchored to Stephen Hawking's extinction timelineThe Stardust Mystery by Peter and Sally Solomon (https://thestardustmystery.com/book/) — the children's book about atoms from ancient starsI, Robot by Isaac Asimov (https://bookshop.org/p/books/i-robot-isaac-asimov/f5c96c8c2db144c8) — the short story collection Chirag references on unintended consequences of AIAdvanced Fuel Research (http://www.afrinc.com/peter-solomon.html) — the company Solomon founded in 1980Listen & subscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/question-everything-except-this-podcast/id1736759012Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1FCFskt7FBDZuyGtzLsQ5RYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aiyplnabkJ7YzfWK1yISw

Everyone wants to believe they'd walk away from power on principle. But could you actually do it?OpenAI was founded to benefit all of humanity. A decade later, would you recognize the company? Chirag and Sunay pick up last episode's question — does the builder matter? — and follow it through corporate principle drift, the Lord of the Rings, and the god complex it takes to turn down a fortune. Along the way, they surface a harder question: when the principled person walks away, does that just open the door for someone worse?Key Takeaways:Walking away from power on principle takes a rare kind of conviction — but the replacement paradox means someone else fills the voidCorporate principles tend to erode under pressure — Google dropped "Don't Be Evil," OpenAI abandoned its founding charterNobody questioned the CEO of Verizon's character, but with AI, the builder's personality shapes the product itself — Claude feels different from ChatGPT feels different from GrokAI models are converging toward parity, raising a question the hosts can't answer: does the builder's character matter if the technology becomes a commodity?Safety officers are leaving AI companies to "go do philosophy" — and nobody's talking about what they saw on their way outChapters:0:00 Does the Builder Matter?2:24 OpenAI's Origin: From Nonprofit to Pentagon Partner4:35 Corporate Principle Drift: Google, OpenAI, and Vanishing Values7:35 The Lord of the Rings Test: Who Throws the Ring?9:01 Two Red Lines and What We're Not Being Told15:14 AI as Foundational Technology: Electricity, Internet, and Now This20:13 The Replacement Paradox24:36 Principle or PR Strategy?26:03 Would You Walk Away?28:28 Why AI Safety Officers Keep Leaving32:05 Elon Musk and the Common Thread38:28 When Models Reach Parity, Does the Builder Still Matter?40:36 Coming Up: The Morality of Red LinesResources & Links:Anthropic Statement from Dario Amodei (https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war) — Amodei's full statement on the Pentagon red linesOpenAI: Our Agreement with the Department of War (https://openai.com/index/our-agreement-with-the-department-of-war/) — OpenAI's response and contract termsNPR: OpenAI announces Pentagon deal after Trump bans Anthropic (https://www.npr.org/2026/02/27/nx-s1-5729118/trump-anthropic-pentagon-openai-ai-weapons-ban) — core reporting on the timelineVice: OpenAI Is Now Everything It Promised Not to Be (https://www.vice.com/en/article/openai-is-now-everything-it-promised-not-to-be-corporate-closed-source-and-for-profit/) — the founding charter vs. todayInc: Anthropic Just Got Fired. It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Its Brand (https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/anthropic-just-got-fired-by-the-u-s-government-its-the-best-thing-that-ever-happened-to-its-brand/91310149) — the PR paradox Chirag raisesDwarkesh Podcast: Elon Musk Interview (https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/elon-musk) — the three-hour interview Chirag references on physical AI and space colonizationElon Musk by Walter Isaacson (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Elon-Musk/Walter-Isaacson/9781982181284) — the biography both hosts discussListen & subscribe:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/question-everything-except-this-podcast/id1736759012Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1FCFskt7FBDZuyGtzLsQ5RYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2aiyplnabkJ7YzfWK1yISw

Who do you trust to build the future, and does their character actually matter?Chirag and Sunay unpack "The Thinking Game," a documentary following Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis from chess prodigy to Nobel Prize winner. The film raises a question it doesn't fully answer: when the people building the most powerful technology in history are also deciding how it gets used, what safeguards actually work? The conversation covers ethics officers, regulation vs. innovation, and why social media already disproved the "let the public self-correct" theory.Key Takeaways:The character of AI's builders matters, but character alone has never been enough to protect society from powerful technologySocial media already proved that public transparency doesn't automatically lead to self-correctionRegulation and innovation aren't the zero-sum trade-off the industry claims — healthcare manages bothEthics officers exist in Canadian banks since 2008 but are largely absent from American tech companiesDemis Hassabis solved protein folding and open-sourced it, showing what happens when purpose drives the builderChapters:0:00 Intro: The Thinking Game2:24 The Leaders Behind Our AI Tools4:35 Can Public Scrutiny Keep AI Safe?7:16 Why Self-Regulation Isn't Enough9:29 The Case for Ethics Officers (and Resident Philosophers)13:21 Does Regulation Kill Innovation?18:14 What AI Can Learn from Healthcare22:31 Can Government Keep Up?24:36 Demis Hassabis: A Life Built on Purpose27:20 "Solve All of Them" — Then Give It Away30:17 From AlphaGo to AlphaZero: Learning from Scratch34:16 The Gap Between Using AI and Understanding It36:17 When No One Knows How the Machines Work39:57 Energy, Compute, and the Rate Limiter42:25 Humanity Is Getting Worse at Coordination46:23 Manhattan Project Parallels48:59 Does the Builder Matter?Resources & Links:The Thinking Game (documentary) — directed by Greg KohsGoogle DeepMindAlphaFold — the protein structure prediction tool discussed in the episodeSuperagency by Reid Hoffman — the book Chirag references on AI optimismAmanda Askell, Anthropic's Resident Philosopher — the philosopher role discussed in the episodeDwarkesh Podcast: Elon Musk Interview — the interview Chirag references on data centers in spaceListen & subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Before school, kids ask 60 questions an hour. By fifth grade, it drops to 0.5. Anand Sanwal built CB Insights for 14 years, then "fired himself" to become a middle school teacher. From the "Sunday night test" to why grades kill the desire to learn, we explore what it would take to build schools that create problem-solvers, not compliant ladder-climbers.

What does a town of 50 people know about community that a city of 8 million has forgotten? From bartering Crown Royal for a truck to surviving weeks in a rock pit on ramen and spam, geologist Ian Fox-Minnock takes us to the edge of Alaska—and the heart of what holds us together.

What does it take to finally stop wearing masks and start living authentically? Executive coach Ruth Pearce shares her spectacular burnout story—and the philosophy of hope, strength, bravery, and curiosity that emerged from it. From trying on different identities in our 20s and 30s to the unmasking that happens around 40, we explore how we learn who we really are.