Eric Weinstein: The Mathematician Turned Physicist and Economist

Who?

I identified with Eric Weinstein so much because of the shared struggles with the educational system. 

Eric became a beacon of hope for me when he started sharing his story and lessons he learned throughout his impressive career as an academic, mathematician, physicist, economist, managing director of Thiel Capital, and podcaster. 

Although he’s been told he is dyslexic, dysgraphic, color blind, ADD, and kinesthetic reinforcement deficits, he is proof of the educational system debacles. He says, “All BS. I wasn’t meant for educators, as those are actually their issues with me (i.e. teaching disabilities).”

He’s an inspiration as I’ve faced similar obstacles especially with the focus of compliance in the educational system over creativity, curiosity, even intellect has hurt me in my educational career. 

Why Should You Care?

I started writing these essays and making videos because ideas are the currency of the 21st century. I humbly believe the ideas I share could help others as I pursue my Curiosities.

Eric Weinstein’s ideas have awakened me and showed a world unknown to most people, such as the real world of academia and science. 

One of these ideas is what he calls the DISC (Distributed Idea Suppression Complex) which explains how disruptive and innovative ideas that challenge the status quo are suppressed. Keeping institutions safe from individuals who create change. 

The DISC is spread throughout major institutions such as in academia, the mainstream media, and politics. It tries to undermine ideas that may challenge or weaken the elite. This isn’t directly planned, and it’s not under central control. 

Eric and his family have been victims of the DISC multiple times. Eric in physics, his wife in economics, and his brother in biology. He started noticing the same pattern in politics when MSNBC hid polling graphics of presidential candidate Andrew Yang. 

The DISC is only one of these marvelous ideas that Eric explores in his podcast called The Portal where he explores subjects including science, economics, culture, politics, and business. 

The goal of the show is to help you see the world through a different lens, which opens up your mind to new ways of viewing events and your life. Each guest is a portal to a reality showcasing what we would normally consider impossible, are indeed possible. 

Let’s visit The Portal!

Favorite Episodes

Eric launched The Portal in June 2019 and less than a year later has created a community of people who want to explore this hidden reality and discover new portals. 

Eric has wide expertise in many fields, but what’s interesting is how he engages your mind, moves your heart, and lights a spark in your soul. Eric can discover unexplored worlds and bring them back to his audience. Sometimes, complex or hard to understand, but always interesting where you get the sense of upgrading your mind. 

Here are my favorite episodes:

1: Peter Thiel: this was how I found the podcast. Peter rarely appears on interviews, so I knew this one had to be special. Peter Thiel is one of the most influential and contrarian thinkers of the last decades. He’s also the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir. He was also the first big investor in Facebook. 

Peter and Eric challenge our way of thinking and encourage us to see things differently. For instance, they discussed the relationship between growth and violence. Thiel argues that if economic growth is low, violence is more likely to arise. He highlights that violence among humans is high because according to Rene Girard, we want what other people want, giving rise to conflict. 

This may be one of the best episodes in the history of podcasts. I found this conversion can help you understand Girard’s theories' implications in society, especially in a time of wealth gap inequality, racial conflicts, and a pandemic. 

They also discussed the era of stagnation, the future of education, student debt, the broken world of academia, and polymaths. 

Peter (a conservative) and Eric (a progressive) discuss ideas with unique and often opposing views as they try to find a solution and reach an agreement on his arguments. 

19: Bret Weinstein - The Prediction and the DISC: In this rigid conversation with Bret, they talked about the DISC and how it affected Bret with one of his biology discoveries. 

In this episode, Eric eagerly tries to get his brother to tell the story of his powerful finding. Bret discovered that the mice we use for medical trials have ultra-long telomeres (something humans don’t have) and that these “hide” the dangers of certain medicines. This same discovery could cure cancer and end aging. 

After he discovered this, he tried to go the usual path of peer-review and so on. According to the podcast, he was silenced. Yet his findings were taken and made someone else the Nobel Prize winner. 

A mind-blowing episode that will stir your curiosity and make you learn about the findings, the DISC, and The Portal.

17: Anna Khachiyan - Reconstructing The Mystical Feminine From The Ashes Of “The Feminine Mystique”: Eric interviews Anna, who is a Russian-American social, literary and artistic theorist. She is also the co-host of the fierce and popular Red Scare podcast.  

At the beginning of the conversation, Eric tells her, “I've been addicted to your podcast not quite understanding why. It's one of the strangest things I've ever found.” That’s exactly how I felt. 

They talked about mystery and how society thought we wanted clarity and directness. But what we actually want is mystery, especially in our relationships. 

Then, they talked about the importance of mystery and what it means to be mysterious. This episode will help you perceive the significance of how we can use mystery in our lives.

I’ll be honest, I don’t know why I liked this episode, but I listened to it several times and it was weirdly fascinating. 

BONUS 36: Dark Matter, Black Matters and All That Jazz with Stephon Alexander is an amazing episode to learn more about physics, racial issues, and music. 

Geometrically Unified

I disagree with many of Eric’s views, however I still consider him a role model because of his love and passion for science. He proposed a theory of everything called Geometric Unity where he tried to explain and combine all physical aspects of the universe. 

I love learning about science. I read books, email experts, watch interviews, write essays, and listen to podcasts like The Portal to learn more about science. 

Science combined with entrepreneurship has the power to create a world of progress and technological advancement, so we create a world of equality, fairness, and peace.  That’s what I hope to do with my life. 

I hope you find Eric’s work as interesting, fascinating, and curious as I have. 

Thanks to Jen, Salman, Julia, and Kevin for reading drafts of this essay.

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/30NPPEi