Episode 24: Melanie Mitchell - The nature of intelligence and following your curiosity

Show Notes: Santa Fe Institute (2:00) Alexander Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow (4:30) The Universe and Dr. Einstein by Lincoln Barnett (5:45) Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter (7:30) Martin Gardner Scientific American “Mathematical Games" (8:30) Douglas Hofstadter (10:00) John Holland (14:30) Adaptation in Natural and Artificial SystemsCopycat cognitive architecture (17:00) Description  Fantastic discussionWhat sustains her in moments of doubt (21:00) Article about analogies related to COVID (25:00) Overcoming the sense of obligation to follow curiosity (27:30) Strategy for saying ’no’ (29:45) Morning routine (31:00) Pomodoro Method for time management (33:00) Complexity and complex systems (39:00) Must read: Chaos by James Gleick  R-naught parameter and COVID (44:00) Becoming comfortable with uncertainty (45:00) Think about the world in terms of information Think more complexly - think in relationships instead of entities (46:45) Network scienceSFI - Transmission Series (49:15) What is missing from our models of intelligence? (50:00) Writing process (54:00) Anne Lamott Bird by Bird (57:45) Lightning round (58:30) Book: The Recursive Universe  John Conway’s Game of Life  Passion: outdoors Heart sing: analogy and abstraction beyond human intelligence Screwed up: Early life with with physics Find Melanie online https://melaniemitchell.me/Twitter: @MelMitchell1 "Five-Cut Fridays’ series  Melanie’s list