The Other Stuff #30 — Andrew McLuhan (@amicusadastra) Tomorrow January 21

Aidan Gomez (@aidangomez) is a computer scientist, co-author of the seminal paper ‘Attention Is All You Need,’ and the CEO of Cohere. In this episode, we discussed his upbringing in the cabin his grandfather built in Codrington, a small town North of Brighton, and the values that were instilled in him through his family. We explored his path from Codrington to his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, emailing Geoffrey Hinton, and joining Google Brain where he co-wrote the paper on transformers. We discussed how he met his co-founders Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst, and his insights on what it means to build a meaningful, successful company in Canada. Aidan shares his conviction about what is at stake — for Canada and for the world at large. This is a conversation about family, values, and what it means to live with conviction. The Other Stuff is hosted by @internetvin — filmmaker, entrepreneur, and possibly the most curious man on Earth. Produced by New. The Other Stuff #29 — Aidan Gomez: Empathy and Conviction — Timestamps 00:00:00 Intro 00:03:10 The Malleability of Toronto 00:11:06 Growing Up in Codrington 00:13:50 The Story of Aidan Gomez’s Family 00:27:23 Introduction to the Internet 00:30:39 Values and Work Ethic 00:35:46 University of Toronto’s AI Scene 00:40:48 Emailing Geoffrey Hinton 00:42:16 Google Brain 00:45:15 Dropout: A Simple Way to Prevent Neural Networks from Overfitting 00:49:48 The Beauty of Research 00:54:24 One Model to Rule Them All 00:59:54 Meeting Ivan Zhang and Nick Frosst 01:04:00 The Birth of Cohere 01:06:56 Twitter Influencers and Alex Friedland 01:11:48 Being the CEO 01:12:51 Building for Canada 01:15:01 Three Fundamental Ingredients of Building a Company 01:21:39 Working with the Canadian Government 01:24:39 Reflexivity in Canada 01:36:22 What Is Evil? 01:42:40 The Role of AI in the World

Steph Ango (@kepano) is a designer, entrepreneur, and the CEO of Obsidian. In this episode, we discussed his journey from creating Winamp skins to leading Obsidian, and the fundamental patterns and inclinations that drive everything he explores and makes. We discussed Obsidian on multiple different dimensions, his deluxe chocolate chip cookie recipe, his exploration through furniture design, and his default inclination to push “too far” into anything he is exploring. Steph Ango demo'd the design process of several furniture projects he’s been working on at home as well as a custom piano learning app he created to teach himself music theory. This is a conversation about craftsmanship, pursuing a deep understanding, and what that reveals about who we are. The Other Stuff is hosted by @internetvin — filmmaker, entrepreneur, and possibly the most curious man on Earth. Produced by New. The Other Stuff #28 — Kepano: The Interconnectedness of Everything — Timestamps 00:03:55 Origin of Kepano 00:10:34 Relationship with Computers 00:15:25 Online Communities & Video Games 00:30:47 Winamp Skins 00:40:04 Uniformity in Design 00:51:05 Obsidian 00:59:20 Bidirectional Linking, And The Relationship Between Everything 01:23:18 Obsidian Sync, Publish, and Bases 01:32:06 Why File Over App 01:43:15 The Deluxe Chocolate Chip Cookie Taste Test 01:49:48 Living Fully 02:09:50 Early Project Walkthrough 02:19:03 Furniture Design Walkthrough 02:49:00 Constraint and Patterns 02:58:47 Kepiano 03:13:00 The Future of AI and Startups 03:31:10 Closing