Eric Weinstein's Harvard Story - The System Breaks Down in Novel Situations | AI Podcast Clips

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Eric Weinstein is a mathematician with a bold and piercing intelligence, unafraid to explore the biggest questions in the universe and shine a light on the darkest corners of our society. He is the host of The Portal podcast, a part of which, he recently released his 2013 Oxford lecture on his theory of Geometric Unity that is at the center of his lifelong efforts in arriving at a theory of everything that unifies the fundamental laws of physics.

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[eleveneleven]

I was Finance Director for a major UK charity. It opened my eyes when I was approached by one of my staff about problems on the medical research grants.
Long story short it was a can of worms. No accounting, "lost" equipment, progress reports and peer reviews not arriving.
I put my foot down. Researchers decided to send in boxes of financial paperwork, invoices, time sheets for us to sort out. I sent them back and told them no more money until they shape up.
Next I get some "eminent" Cambridge Professor shouting down the phone at me, making threats. Bad move. I dug my heels in and they folded.
But what I took away was how lax and corrupt it all was.

[raginaldmars]

As a German Biochemist Ph D - when I did my lab work for my Ph D I was inspired by Einstein every day. Einstein was so hated - he had zero Chances in Academics anywhere. He was blessed to get a Job as expert 3 rd class in a Patents office in a dump basement. The ideal place to do real science work. To be dumped can be a blessing. There is a vast expanding Universe outside academics. We have to accept to become Heretics and endure being hated. The real stuff still has to be discovered...Praying the Canon of the Church keeps you as a sterile Monk in a Monastery good in repetition of old prayers....

[xggbrnr]

When Eric Weinstein mentioned the second hotel structure, I thought of my mom, a hotel worker, and he's absolutely right. There are lots of 'untouchable' structures that lie parallel to the exclusive parts of society. I'm tired of it. Completely fed up. Excellent call-out.

[johnmckie]

This interview with Eric Weinstein reminded me of my academic supervisor at Cambridge, England in the 1980’s. The professor concerned removed a strategic piece of my research in collusion with another graduate student which derailed my research for a year. He further ignored my research to a point where he was spoken to about his mentoring by more senior members of the department after a thesis resubmission was requested in viva voce. I got through and called it bad luck that I had fallen into this misfortune but it had clear elements of academic corruption.

[benday]

Max Weber talked about the difference between substantive rationality (ends and outcomes) and procedural rationality (procedures and rules). I think what Eric is describing here is how procedural rationality can take over.

[johnpalmer]

Reminds me of the adage: Academic Politics Are So Vicious Because the Stakes Are So Small.

[AdamSmith-deoh]

This happens every time you have a hyper-competitive environment where a small group of people hold the ultimate reigns to power. Especially where there isn't a sufficient correctional market force per se. It just becomes raw politics and before you know you've recreated the Palace of Versailles.

[Questington]

It's often a shock for clever hard workers, that office politics exists. You can get far by just being technically proficient, but it helps to also be socially proficient.

[BustedJunkStudio]

It's nice to see a bright young man proclaim "the emperor has no clothes". I did that from time to time over my career and always wound up regretting it. Eric, hope you have more success than I did, good luck.

[szintezismuhely]

I like Eric and I think his message is important, but his narrative always comes off as half substance, half ego-beef. He really shouldn't overplay this oppressed poor genius angle, because after a while it starts to sound like the social justice activists he loves to criticize.

[riclangley]

The beginning of putting someone in your pocket. Selective success.

[siaahmadi]

I'm so confused by Weinstein. He has a knack for taking something very simple and making it as cryptic and vague and difficult to understand as possible. I listen to this whole clip and still am not sure what he was trying to say. Unfortunately Lex did not press him to be clear and to the point.

[TheZzpop]

As a physicists let me make it clear that Eric’s work that he has put out so far on geometric unity makes no testable predictions and is completely incomprehensible at the most basic level of him not even properly defining what the variables in his equations even refer to. At best he has an outline of an idea which needs to be developed. He needs to work with others to clarify and develop his theory into something that is understandable to anyone other than himself. The fact that he makes endless excuses for not doing so after all of these years tells you everything you need to know about how serious he really is in seeing this project through. He just likes to talk about himself as the “suppressed” genius. He uses big words to impress people not actually educated in the subjects he discusses

[philiptai]

"the ball that is being thrown will not be caught" holy shit what a put down

[uneafv]

These two men helped me so much with this conversation.

[dflyfpv]

No one wanted to have Einstein after he finished studying. Luckily his friend's father gave him the job at the patent office; this office had a window where he could look at the tram everyday to figure out one part of his general theroy of relativity... sometimes obstrusion doesn't help when things are ment to happen anyway ;)

[Willtedwards]

Eric's story is not unusual. Same thing has happened to so many people. Also the idea that his learning difference is to blame is laughable. The fact that he chose scientific rigor over political expedience is to blame. There's obviously so many twice exceptional people in universities. You could score perfect on every fucking score; You question the powers that be and they will try to end your career.

[mavirek]

EXCELLENT. Thank you for sharing this. It was long. But it helped me do as Eric said: size up who to believe. It also gave me a sense as a professor that I am not alone in thinking the system is two-tiered. Synopsis: I'm not paranoid. :)

[mikemcgarrity]

The system is mutable. Torvald showed the way with Open Source Code thus breaking the Rules. Creativity is alive!

[michaelqiu]

Man, Eric is so eloquent that he makes his conversation sound like it's out of a well-scripted movie.