I really liked daniel (danny as lex says at the end). He had a good heart and was sart and it seemed like he had an open mind for an old guy—or at least was disappointed in the fact that most humans don’t change their minds. This convo was sweet and short and felt deep even though it was a bit shallow and all over the place. Would have loved it to be longer. More stories and personality from danny would have been great. The way daniel hangs in with lexs abrupt ww2 start was impressive, and then they did a nice dance along AI, psychology, the mind, and human nature throughout the rest of the convo. I actually disagreed at dannys point about ‘the other’ and in/out groups being something caused by human nature, and I think rather that its more built by society and culture. Makes me think there is something interesting here at the intersection of human nature and culture/society. ---Also he died in March 2024, wow sad/crazy.
Reply: This was a great episode. I was unfamiliar with Kahneman prior to this but after listening, I’ve found his discussions on psychology more appealing than any of the other psychological conversations yet. I also found it pretty interesting to contrast him with Hotz (as I happened to listen to these two pretty near each other) - where he answered the “what is the meaning of all this?” question with a more pragmatic “we can’t possibly know.”

-TK