The Armen Show

We all process things a bit differently, and I like to look at what I missed and what I can work on. I like to keep my ego from building, by sharing and talking and thinking through times. I like to come out a more understanding person who is more connected. This episode is one where I present a few quick messages about things I got to understanding. There might be future content to go deeper into the topics I mentioned here, or I might go into other ones. This is my way of solidifying what I figured out, sharing with someone it could help, and bringing some energy forward. Here are some show notes: why you should do for yourself what you seek out for others to fulfillhow light can become heavier when you don’t handle your endwhen you should over-communicate and what kind of person it might helpwhere you can take things when you include the other personhow I process a relationship or experience to come out more whole on the other side of itwhat it means to give yourself the love that you seek outsidehow you can look at growth experiences in a smooth light There may be more across these topics or alternate ones. These are the more analytical end, but part of the message here is about handling that part so the warmth and connection can persist. We all try our best along the way.

Physical therapy and home health is one thing, but empowering others mentally by countering their loneliness is another thing. My friend since high school Brian joins on episode 223 of the show to discuss his interest in putting out content, speaking, empowering people, and battling widespread loneliness. Brian Dy (PT, DPT, CKTP, CSCS) is a Doctor of Physical Therapy practicing in Seattle, Washington, and he works with patients on their physical ailments. He has recently had an interest in a light transition to forms of speaking and writing in the personal development space. This is a space I have resided in for some time, and so it only makes sense for him to join on the show. Show notes: what Brian has been doing in recent years, and what he seeks to do for othershow listening is important, and what makes him a good listenerwhat the loneliness epidemic is doing, and why it is a category worth responding towhere Brian has been posting articles, and where he may spread his content in the futurehow I have known Brian, and things I like about his personalitywhat a breakup can do to a person, and where it might leave them for months or even yearshow loneliness pervades our society, and how it leads to damage beyond the momentary painand more Glad to have Brian on the show. He says things more directly than most, and this is an appreciated feature. Check out his recent articles at Living Your Life. Look out for more~. Onward we go.

The Bay area is a region of technology, higher-level education, and much creativity. There is soul and flair and venture capital. A lot is going on in a small and dense space, and this ignites stories of results, challenges, and struggles. Author Cary McClelland interviewed and collected stories from numerous individuals across the region, and presents a message about what Silicon City is. From his bio, “Cary is a writer, filmmaker, lawyer, and rights advocate whose work has taken him around the world. He met his wife in San Francisco, where they settled down and built their first home. They now live in Brooklyn with their son.” From talking with him, he is an individual with consideration for the people around him, who is able to feel what the conditions can be like. He also has the ability to present what he sees and feels in text and video form, so as to relay a message over. I enjoyed my talk with Cary, and list the show notes here: what led up to the ability and interest in speaking with and interviewing numerous individuals in the Bay areahow much the Bay was headed to by individuals looking to jump on a quick rush without a long-term visionwhere the soul of the Bay comes from, and how it connects to adversitywhat leads to Balkanization of segments of the region, and if it is more of a decision by the wealthy or a dynamic processhow the merging of the two worlds in each city, with one being better off, can be looked atwhy individuals have to decide whether to commute or stay in their cars to live and work around the bayand much more articulation provided by Cary There is a lot to learn from this episode. The region of San Francisco and its local counties has a lot of weight attached to it, in terms of energy, activity, money coming in and being transferred, and creativity. It is important to look at where it is headed, how its people are doing, and what this says about cities elsewhere. You can check out Cary on Twitter or the book on Amazon.

People pushing a risky or new message are in a difficult spot, because the support for their moment is not high. They have to work well with others who do things in a more steady form. In the book “Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries”, Safi Bahcall discusses the importance of and ideas behind keeping innovative ideas from being lost into the abyss. Safi is a technologist, business executive, and author. He got his BA summa cum laude from Harvard, and his PhD from Stanford. He worked as a consultant for McKinsey, and then co-founded a biotech company Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. developing cancer drugs, which he served as CEO at for thirteen years. He also worked with President Obama’s council of science advisors for future national research. Here are the show notes for my episode with Safi: how Loonshots are separated into two types based on product or strategywhat it takes to get an innovative idea through an organizationhow Vannevar Bush was a big part of the basis for research and development in the United Stateswhere the 150-person rule for groups comes from, and why it applies to both social networks and corporationswhat Dr. Bahcall learned from his school and work experience throughout the recent yearswhen to listen to others and take their message into account as a CEOhow a lone individual can only do so much based on the structure of the scenario they are placed inhow structure trumps culture as far as application

Understanding risk is an economic way to understand the decisions and systems in our communities and finances. Economist Allison Schrager looks at risk in fields at the more extreme ends of the spectrum, to understand it with less noise in place. Professor Allison Schrager teaches at NYU, and has a PhD in Economics from Columbia University, with her Bachelors from the University of Edinburgh. She is an economist, journalist at Quartz, and cofounder of LifeCycle Finance Partners, LLC. She has contributed to The Economist, Reuters, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Show notes: what sex work can teach about risk management, and how Allison looked at a specific brothel to understand the value propositionwhere in life you have your risks managed, whereas you have them completely ignored in other categorieswhen to take a risk and when to lean towards the safer optionwhy you should define what risk and reward mean to you, so that you can take and seek levels complementary to your naturehow to include your human irrationality into your risk modelingwhat it takes to get the most bang for your buck in the department of risk-takinghow hedging and insurance are methods used to master your domainwhat you can expect in your assessments, and what type of room you need to leave for unanticipated eventswhere the perspective of the world has gone, in terms of having control of the world you live in I was glad to have Professor Schrager on episode 220. You can check out her articles on Quartz, home page, or her book on Amazon.

Your social position determines your power, beliefs, behaviors, and the way that you interact with the world. Are you a central figure in groups that you participate in? Are you able to get information or leverage transferred smoothly? Did the financial institutions of yesterday have all the information that they needed? Economics Professor Matthew O. Jackson of Stanford University discusses topics related to this in his book The Human Network. He graduated with a PhD from Stanford in 1988, and has done much research in economics and social networks over the past 25 years. He is also a member of the Santa Fe Institute, and wrote Social and Economic Networks prior to this version of it. We discussed his book contents, his career, and thoughts on networks. Show notes: how the degree of centrality, and the different kinds of centrality, impact how quickly information or influence can transfer from you or otherswhose family benefited greatly from being a central figure in the Middle Ages, coordinating communication between manywhat types of value can be provided in networks that you are currently part ofwhy externalities should be taken into account when decision-making, as they are part of the variable sethow the financial networks remain in a precarious situation with regards to global economic well-beingwhat it takes for a financial contagion to spread or take holdwhat people take into account for how they group with similar individuals of economic or educational statuswhy reaching across groups can cause suspicion or thoughts of being a traitorhow the area you live in during youth is so relevant to future earnings, regardless of small changes like tax rates or incentiveshow prediction market(like those created by Dr. Robin Hanson) show results of an issue before even knowing the resultwhy being aware of biases and flaws in analysis of what is seen counters effects of averaging It was wonderful to have Professor Jackson on the show. I took solid notes on his book, with good subheadings, and enjoy the fact that he created the book as a more public version of his prior book. He does current research and finds models for networks that were not mapped out prior. You can check out his webpage, his research, and his book.

The way that organisms move is a precursor to how robots will map their movements out. Animals can do things like walk on water and climb up vertical surfaces, and knowing how this works is useful. Professor David Hu of Georgia Tech explores these topics in his book How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls. Professor Hu is Associate Professor of Fluid Mechanics at The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He runs the Hu Laboratory for Locomotion at his institution. He got his Bachelors and Masters, along with his PhD in Mathematics, at MIT. Most of his research focuses on hydrodynamics and elasticity problems as they relate to biology. Show notes: what biolocomotion is involved with, and how evolution has impacted animals and the insect world in terms of movementwhy looking at nature is a good way to get ideas for mechanical devices that are more effective or better maintainingwhere Professor Hu looked for inspiration, or bioinspiration, to see what the next item of research would behow insects or animals can walk on water based on surface tensionwhat kinds of analysis it requires to be able to take a guess regarding locomotion and test it out in terms of basishow body movements and material properties have to be looked at as a pair to be able to decipher their valuewhat kinds of animals need to undulate or slither to be able to get the most efficiency for their movementhow some of these advances connect to upcoming robots that are able to touch and move things in a more gentle way than current robots I was glad to have Professor Hu on the show. He is a personable individual with a good sense of humor. You can check out his book on Amazon, look at his research articles, or look at his lab page.

Sand is one of the overlooked natural resources of the world, and is a huge part of the cities that we live and transport around in. In his book The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization, journalist Vince Beiser speaks to the importance of this resource, as well as the stories related to its acquisition and usage. Vince has served as a journalist in over 100 countries, reported from California’s harshest prisons, ridden with first responders, and contributed to Wired, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, the LA Times, and more. He continues to work as an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles. Show notes: why sand on beaches is at risk of being reduced all around the worldhow violence is attached to battles for sand in some parts of India and elsewherewhere sand operations have allowed for building of whole citieswhat sand is used to build, and what other substances come from sandhow reinforced concrete became the main element for strong buildingshow more cars leads to more paved road, which led to more carswhy is it worthwhile to look at sustainability and personal usage of cars and fuel sources in relation to sand limits and violence related to it I was glad to have Vince on the show. You can check out his book The World in a Grain on Amazon, or check out his website.

Calculus is a branch of mathematics that speaks to the flow of our society. You might think of derivatives and integrals, but you can also think of it as deconstruction and reconstruction. Professor Steven Strogatz of Cornell University wrote Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe to detail how calculus links with universal dynamics. Professor Strogatz is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics at Cornell University. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in mathematics, attended Trinity College and completed his doctoral work in applied math at Harvard, and then did a postdoctorate at Harvard and Boston University. He then taught at MIT, and then joined Cornell faculty in 1994, where he currently continues to teach. Some of the items Professor Strogatz has worked on include biology as it relates to math, geometry of supercoiled DNA, sleep-wake cycle dynamics, 3D chemical wave topology, collective behavior of oscillators, and social system structural balance. There is a theme of waves across many of the categories. He has worthwhile papers on these topics, along with co-authoring the 6th most cited physics paper of all time(which is also the 63rd most cited research article of all time), on small-world networks. Show notes: how Professor Strogatz got to being a researcher and math professorwhere he attended, and the takeaways that he got at those institutionswhat small-world networks bring to the table as advantageswhat similarity worm neural networks have with the power grid of the western United Stateswhy Calculus is linked to rules of growth, laws of motion, and morewhen math can apply in your day-to-day life, and why it is valuable to have a sense of the dynamics you seehow calculus is connected to HIV clearance and immune response in the body, through exponential growth curveswhat math feedback from teachers can do to student’s esteem levels You can check out on Professor’s Strogatz website, which has all his research articles, or see his book on Amazon. It was great to have him on the show, and connect with someone interested in some of the same topics as myself.

You have a set of strengths and built up investments that is your source of highest energy. It is worth working from that, instead of starting items from scratch. One is way more motivating than the other. On episode 215 of the show, I discuss this concept. As well, I want to include material on Nipsey Hussle and his passing, along with how it relates to leverage. Show notes: why you should leverage the strengths that you havehow looking at what you have is inspiring as compared with the alternative viewpointwhat you can do to use leverage for your workoutswhen to apply points of leverage to your beinghow social connections connect to this concept, with some efforts of yours being the prioritieswhy certain places give you more leverage than others, and how to get a sense of where they arehow to see where you have already built up leverage and investment, in order to expand on itwhy Nipsey Hussle knew this concept and applied it to his effortshow he impacted his community, and the message to take awaywhat it means to be valuable to others around you Glad to have you listening on episode 215 of the show. The show you know about. On to the next.