Shows
nquirerEP14 Johnny X: Wall Street Rebel To AI Maverick & Creating Now-Banned Viral AI Girlfriend SimulatorTwo years ago, JX took a 90% paycut from a cushy high finance job to found Mavtao, an AI app studio named as a portmanteau of "Maverick" (a Western symbol of nonconformity) and "Tao" (an Eastern concept representing the natural order).In this episode, we discuss his journey of launching 12 apps in 12 months with a focus on the biggest and most controversial hit "DreamGF AI Girlfriend" (now delisted from IOS Store). We also delve into the ethics of AI porn & AI love, why AI apps require a different growth mindset than the platform apps of the last decade...2024-09-141h 12nquirerEP13 John Khoo: Confessions Of A Software Sales ManagerJohn is an experienced tech sales professional, currently the APAC regional manager for a global software company. In this conversation, leveraging his knowledge and experience, we cover a variety of subjects relating to this challenging but rewarding career. What is the typical sales process from intro meeting to closing the deal? What is a typical career path from sales development representative to manager? How much can you make at every level? What are the “3 Ts” to consider when it comes to choosing an employer? We also touch on the psychology of sales, when playing “hard to get” might give you an e...2024-09-101h 01nquirerEP12 Dr. Vladimir Chlouba: Did Europe Underdevelop Africa?How did Europe colonize Africa and why it happened much later than other continents? Would Africa be more prosperous today without colonization? In this stimulating episode, we dive into the intricacies of Africa’s colonial history and undertake a multitude of challenging topics, some difficult and unpleasant.We begin by looking back on what happened, and in the process discern centralized vs decentralized polities, settler vs non-settler colonies, and direct vs indirect rule. Then we look forward and examine the various challenges facing the continent today and consider their remedies. How to solve poverty, inequality, and corruption? Ho...2024-06-011h 26nquirerEP11 Jasper Hsu: The World of Twitter SubculturesJasper Hsu is a recovered "Twitter addict" and amateur cultural anthropologist who have been lurking around the different niches of the internet for over 2 decades. In this episode, he takes us back to the 2010s - arguably the “golden age" of internet, when a myriad of online subcultures proliferated and permeated into the mainstream.We review 4 subcultural factions in particular:(1) irony twitter, leftism, dirtbag left(2) frog twitter, alt-right, eco-fascism(3) accelerationism(4) incels, lookmaxxing, chad, red/blue pillsWe explore some common themes across such as heavy use of irony, disillusionment with society, lo...2024-04-291h 16nquirerEP10 Keith Carter: Actionable Intelligence Beats Artificial IntelligenceHow can businesses harness the power of data to make better decisions? Why brands need to have end-to-end supply chain visibility? How can banks attain a 360 degree view of their customers? This episode answers these questions and more. We also discuss how your phone is always spying on you, why privacy and AI are “fake news”, why you should always choose your children over a new Mercedes, and how to survive the perils of social media.Keith Carter is an internationally renowned author, speaker, and researcher on big data and emerging technologies. Keith started his career at Acce...2024-04-121h 27nquirerEP9 Jay Young Lee: Building The Money SupersonicIt takes on average 3 business days for a crossborder payment to clear through the traditional banking system. On a digital remittance platform? 30 seconds. This is because your money was actually sent yesterday. This pre-funding process and other innovations such as cash pooling, cross-border netting, and automated FX hedging, are what enable your legal tenders to onboard a supersonic jet when it travels abroad. Plus, the ticket comes at a bargain - the costs (fees, exchange rates) are 10x cheaper than your bank’s slowboat.Jay Young Lee is a Korean fintech entrepreneur, co-founder of one of Asia’s bi...2024-04-121h 23nquirerEP8 Dr. Dilshan Seneviratna: Rewire Your Brain & Optimize LifeA former medical school prodigy, Dilshan tracks every bodily metric humanly possible, from sleep, diet, urine color, to mood, inspirations, and intelligence quotient. Beneath the peculiar obsession lays a personal but ambitious pursuit.Life seemed limitless to the young Sri Lankan immigrant growing up in Australia. However, an encounter with the actual Disneyland (a study exchange to Florida) unwound his internalized Disneyland reality. During years of “spiraling regression”, the once high-flyer was held back from living fully by his own insecurities and limiting beliefs.Now having cracked a little bit of the puzzle, Dilshan is on a...2024-02-161h 05nquirerEP7 Dr. Caleb Tse: Undergoing Open-Heart SurgeryDr. Caleb Tse is a business professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. This podcast was originally scheduled 3 months ago to discuss his research, until an unexpected health crisis upended Caleb’s life as he knew for over 30 years.In this episode, my guest tells his unfiltered firsthand account undergoing an emergency open-heart surgery, from the initial shock, to seeing the blood on the surgery table lights, to waking up to a more profound reverence for God and life. It is a vicarious meditation on mortality and what really matters in life.Timestamps(00:00:00) In...2023-12-241h 03nquirerEP6 Jordan Ngatai: Untold Stories Of A New Zealand Tall BlackOne of New Zealand’s finest home-grown basketball successes, Jordan Ngatai is a regular on the world stage leading his squad’s pregame Haka, as recent as the 2023 FIBA World Cup where he was the starting Small Forward. In a storied career spanning over a decade and counting, Jordan won multiple championships in New Zealand and Australia, and was honored as an All-Star Five in 2020.In this slam-dunk episode on the back of his FIBA tournament return, Jordan takes us through the nuts and bolts of his career, and dissects the anatomy of a hoop dream. How to t...2023-12-241h 47nquirerEP5 Dr. Clincy Cheung: How Radiopharma Transforms Cancer TreatmentDr. Clincy Cheung obtained his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from UCLA. This episode is a layman’s introduction to radiopharmaceuticals, a class of radioactive drugs with transformative implications to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Besides the science and applications of radiopharmaceuticals, we also discussed their production process, key players, and recent industry trends. The most interesting revelation came when Clincy brought up how unlike most of the traditional pharm supply chains, the radiopharmaceutical value chain is very much dictated by the "half-life" of the radioactive compounds. In other words, it is a business “at the mercy of ph...2023-12-241h 03nquirerEP4 Jonas Gjesdal: Should We Bet Our Future On Hydrogen?Jonas Gjesdal is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) originator at Equinor, Norway’s largest company and a critical supplier of gas to Europe. Recorded on August 15, 2023, this episode is an unparalleled masterclass on Europe’s delicate balancing act between energy sustainability, security, and affordability, also known as the “Energy Trilemma”.A buzzing alternative to fossil fuels, we take particular interest in the promises and perils of hydrogen. We learn about its production methods (grey, blue, and green), and the unique challenges associated with building out renewables capacity as a bottleneck for scaling green hydrogen production. We also touch on...2023-12-241h 15nquirerEP3 Tony Clemente: From Gang Street To Wall StreetIn some sense, Tony should have been either killed, incarcerated, or locked-up in a psychiatric ward. At 14 and abandoned by divorced parents, Tony was living alone with his teenage brother. Every night, every criminal gang from the area would move in-and-out of the house. Drugs, alcohol, parties, violence - Primrose Lane wasn’t a place you’d want to mess with, as your chances were slim. So was Tony’s odds to last.However, somewhere along the way, Tony got a shot to turn his life around. Fast forward, now settled in Singapore, he enjoys wife, kids, a beau...2023-12-241h 34nquirerEP2 Fraser Waldron: Interpol Officer's Framework At Building A Mental FortressFraser Waldron is an experienced law enforcement officer currently serving at Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization). After a brief stint in finance, the sudden transition from a small town Canada “pristine bubble of loveliness and naivety” to an isolated and hostile environment where “rubber hits the road” made Fraser realize the need to inoculate himself with some strategies to navigate the harsh realities of life.In this episode, we explore the theme of narratives, learn about Fraser’s framework at overcoming adversities, the “compassion/empathy switch”, how to get a win out of negative experiences, and above all else, how...2023-12-241h 42nquirerEP1 Dr. Thomas Tuloup: Genesis Of Our Universe & Lifecycle Of Stars“The cosmos is within us. We are stardusts contemplating the stars.” In the inaugural episode of this moonshot project where I traverse the multiverse to learn just about everything under the sun, I invited Dr. Thomas Tuloup to shed light on the genesis story of our universe.Dr. Tuloup obtained his PhD in quantum computing from National University of Singapore (NUS) where he spent most of the spare time orbiting around the stars. We spend the first half of the show discussing his academic odyssey, motivation, and general nature and properties of the “knowledge industry” past and present...2023-12-241h 16