Be a Good Algorithm

How’d you come up with these questions?

I don’t really like… um. What’s the word...? Casual conversations. When I talk to people, I like to talk about.. deep, interesting things. And so I just kind of thought about stuff that if someone was talking to me, what I would like to talk about or express, and then I just wrote down those kinds of questions.

So you skipped the foreplay. You go straight into it.

Yeah, I go right into it. Yep.

So, out of these questions, which one’s your favorite?

My favorite is this guy right here, because that comes from a very… I have an answer to that question. And that’s the reason that I have that question.

If you’re in a room with one person who’s magically forced to listen to everything you say to them, they can’t ignore you, and they would fully understand everything you mean. Who would you talk to and why, what would you say to them?

Does that make sense?

Yes. So it’s like, what is the message you’re trying to tell the most? All right. Hit me with it.

My answer?

All right, let’s go.

You’re ready?

Yeah, I’m forced to listen.

Okay. Well, are you asking me what my answer would be, or what I would say to you?

Uh... What you would say to me.

Oh. Wow. Hmm. Okay, well, since I don’t know much about you, this is something I think I would say to someone pretty broadly. Just, I don’t know… People are people. So deep, right?

Okay.

Everyone deals with their own shit. I just want to remind people, everyone’s just a person.

Everyone’s chill.

Yeah.

Or most people are chill.

Through all these interviews, everyone I’ve talked to has been way chiller than I thought it would go, because most of my interactions with people are online talking about things that...

Are you on Twitter or something?

No.

I was going to say it like that., that’s not. That’s not the best place.

I don’t think I could survive on twitter. I’m actually not very much online anymore because it was just… It’s just a lot.

It’s bad mojo.

It is. And I... I don’t know. I just... I worry for the people who are there and that it bleeds into real life sometimes. I think if I was talking to a person and they had to understand what I’m saying, it’s just: have empathy. Because that’s the only way that we’re going to spread empathy.

Yeah, there’s a YouTube video- Okay, this is going to sound super logical and objective, but there’s this YouTube video where they talk about game theory, and game theory is a lot of, “what is the best way to approach a problem?”

Yeah.

And so the problem that was given was, you are in a room with 20 people and with each person there’s a prize and you could both share and then you get, let’s say three points. And then if one person steals, the other person gets zero and the person who steals gets five.. And then if you both steal, you get nothing. And they tried all these different algorithms, simple algorithms like, “always steal” or “always share” or “give, steal, give, steal”, right? Something easy. And the ones that one the most were the “nice” algorithms. So, if you did “steal, steal, steal, steal”, you weren’t going to win, right?

Mmhm.

I forgot to mention that at the end of this they tally up your points. That’s how you win. But the nice algorithms do well, and the algorithm that proved the best, in different situations that I can’t name off the top of my head, was “tit-for-tat”. So if you get stolen from the previous round, you would choose to steal the next round. But if they are nice, you would do nice. The point of that is, it’s better to be good. Because it naturally... it positively reflects the environment you’re in. Because the ones that do good do better than the ones that do bad. It’s like a net positive.

So did they do, like.. one side is, like, nice algorithms, one side’s tit for tat, and then one side’s the bad algorithms with tit for tat.

Well, tit for tat is considered a nice algorithm. Because it’s like, “Hey, we do good if we both do good. But if you if you fuck me.. I’m gonna fuck you.”

Yeah.

And so the harsh algorithms are like, “we just gotta fucking steal”.

I think there’s a lesson there that’s good.

Yeah. The general story is, people who work together do better than the people who are suspicious of each other. And it translates to life.

I feel like everyone in general has a tit-for-tat thing, but for some reason, everyone’s so negative now, that now it feels like every little corner of the world is negative.

Like, everyone’s a mean algorithm in this case.

Yeah, exactly. And so even if you’re tit-for-tat, it feels like it’s mean because you’re just reflecting.

Yeah.

I feel like the biggest thing I’ve gotten from all these interviews is; everyone kind of just wants everyone to talk to each other and be open minded. So, a little bit of the good algorithms out there… That’s what we need. We need really loud, good algorithms.

Yeah, loud voices aren’t the only voices, right? Or loud voices are the ones that are heard the most.. They’re generally..

That’s like store reviews. When I look at store reviews, I know that that’s it’s either… the craziest people or the people that have been wronged the most.

Yeah, it’s because it takes effort to write that review. And if you’re chilling with it, you’re not going to be like… Yeah. That’s funny. Well, I think I have to do homework. This has been a splendid conversation.

Yeah, no. This has been amazing. Thank you very much.

And then you need your photo?

Yes. Well, first of all, do you have any final words of encouragement, any final message, maybe?

Be a nice algorithm. It benefits everyone if you work together. Don’t be petty.

That’s beautiful