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Aug. 1, 2024

E39: Mental Models and Financial Infrastructure with Patrick McKenzie

E39: Mental Models and Financial Infrastructure with Patrick McKenzie

On this week's episode of The Riff, Erik and Patrick discuss financial fraud, the evolution of trust in financial systems, talent spotting strategies, and the power of cold emailing.

This week, Byrne Hobart is joined by Patrick McKenzie, host of the podcast Complex Systems, to discuss the complexity and endless fascination of financial infrastructures, the role of fraud in finance, talent spotting strategies and the importance of building networks.


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SPONSORS:


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RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) talks to experts who understand the complicated but not unknowable systems we rely on. You might be surprised at how quickly Patrick and his guests can put you in the top 1% of understanding for stock trading, tech hiring, and more.


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mos4VE3figVXleHDqfXOH

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/id1753399812


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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Intro

(00:20) Historical origins of financial products

(01:22) Old infrastructure in finance

(05:02) Security vs Usability trade-off

(10:49) Trust dynamics in finance

(11:58) High-trust vs Low-trust environments

(15:26) Market dynamics and reputation systems

(19:41) Sponsors: Babbel | Beehiiv

(22:15) Who's your favorite fraudster?

(25:10) Crypto and money laundering

(30:31) FTX and money laundering theory

(36:59) Collapse of FTX

(40:55) Normative Aspects of Trust

(46:27) The Starfighter Project

(53:33) Value of networking and cold emails

(58:00) Managing information flow

(01:02:31) Outro


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LINKS:

Byrne’s writing: https://thediff.co

Patrick's Newsletter: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/


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X / TWITTER:

https://x.com/patio11 (Patrick)

https://twitter.com/ByrneHobart (Byrne)

https://twitter.com/TurpentineMedia (Turpentine)