Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) Podcast
1) Narrative, mastery, and character bleed in games, with Ricki Heicklen
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined again by Ricki Heicklen to discuss Metagame 2025, a conference where 250 attendees were divided into Purple and Orange teams competing for territories across campu...Show More
2) Bits and bricks: Oliver Habryka on LessWrong, LightHaven, and community infrastructure
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Oliver Habryka, who runs Lightcone Infrastructure—the organization behind both the LessWrong forum and the Lighthaven conference venue in Berkeley. They explore...Show More
3) Building institutions that bend towards truth, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine
Patrick McKenzie is joined by Clara Collier, editor and publisher of Asterisk Magazine, to discuss how we create institutions that bend towards truth. Clara explains why she launched a quarterly print...Show More
4) How blogging went legit, with Substack CEO Chris Best
Patrick McKenzie is joined by Chris Best, CEO of Substack, to discuss how the platform created new economic infrastructure for independent media. They explore Substack's evolution from a simple newsle...Show More
5) Prestige media, new media, and the US government, with Kelsey Piper
Patrick McKenzie is joined again by Kelsey Piper, who has co-founded "The Argument" to revive principled liberal discourse after witnessing how coordinated social media campaigns replaced substantive ...Show More
6) AI alignment, with Emmett Shear
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Emmett Shear, co-founder of Twitch, former interim CEO of OpenAI, who now runs Softmax AI alignment. Emmett argues that current AI safety approaches focused on ...Show More
7) Building software that survives contact with reality, with Will Wilson
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Will Wilson, CEO of Antithesis, to discuss the evolution of software testing from traditional approaches to cutting-edge deterministic simulation. Will explains...Show More
8) Defense, drones, and military procurement, with Bean of Naval Gazing
Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Bean, a pseudonymous defense industry expert, to explore the intellectual crossovers between military and civilian domains. The conversation reveals how the def...Show More
9) AI and the great developer speed-up, with Joel Becker of METR
This week on Complex Systems, Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Joel Becker from METR. They discuss groundbreaking research on AI coding assistants.Joel et al’s randomized controlled trial of 16...Show More
10) How Banks Actually Work (And Don't Work)
In this solo episode, Patrick McKenzie reads his classic essay "Seeing Like a Bank," exploring why financial institutions often appear to have no memory of previous customer interactions despite being...Show More