54 episodes

The Point Blank Show is an excuse to spend sometime with people having immense insights and significant achievements. The guests on the show range from entrepreneurs, artists, business leaders, writer, sports personality etc. Each show attempts to bring out insights and often making us think about things that aren't obvious.

The Point Blank Show Aditya & Abhishek

    • News

The Point Blank Show is an excuse to spend sometime with people having immense insights and significant achievements. The guests on the show range from entrepreneurs, artists, business leaders, writer, sports personality etc. Each show attempts to bring out insights and often making us think about things that aren't obvious.

    Dennis Yi Tenen on his book Literary Theory of Robots: How Computers Learned to Write

    Dennis Yi Tenen on his book Literary Theory of Robots: How Computers Learned to Write

    In this podcast Prof Dennis Yi Tenen, a software engineer turned literary scholar, leans on history of computer programming to tell modern tales of Artificial Intelligence. How did robots learn to write so quickly? Is it a good thing? Do technologies like ChatGPT make us lazy? Not quite, says Prof Tenen. He argues that such advances do not diminish our capacity to think. It may just make us better writers, on an average. Previously machines learned from human outputs but now they learn from machine outputs. What does this mean for us? He believes AI is neither Jesus nor a Terminator-like force as long as both the makers and users use it responsibly.

    • 51 min
    Tom Wainwright on Facebook turning 20

    Tom Wainwright on Facebook turning 20

    In February this year Facebook celebrated its 20th birthday. Tom Wainwright, tech and media editor of The Economist has written a brilliant cover story on the company's evolution since it began in a dorm room at Harvard. With a market capitalisation of $1.2trn and 3bn users, Facebook operates in a new social media order. Tom writes that "public posting is increasingly migrating to closed groups, rather like email. What Mr Zuckerberg calls the digital “town square” is being rebuilt—and posing problems." How is the outfit grappling with these changes? Over the years it has mastered the art (and science by relying on data) of cloning features and sometimes copying competition while managing to stay relevant. What does the future hold for the behemoth? How is Artificial Intelligence changing the industry? Tom covers a lot of ground in the podcast.

    • 35 min
    David Bodanis on his book, “The Art of Fairness:The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean”

    David Bodanis on his book, “The Art of Fairness:The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean”

    Do nice guys finish last? Not quite. David Bodani’s brilliant book, “The Art of Fairness:The Power of Decency in a World Turned Mean” is filled with anecdotes of leaders from various fields who may have been fair and firm to get the job done but never mean or condescending. In this podcast David shares some of his thoughts on why it might be worth emulating the Satya Nadellas of the world instead of the Steve Ballmers. Drawing from examples on the sports ground to battlefields, David makes a convincing argument that you can indeed succeed without being a jerk.

    • 49 min
    Zeke Faux on his book, “Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall”

    Zeke Faux on his book, “Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall”

    The cryptosphere is, well, cryptic. Even the best of the best find it hard to explain the whole thing without fumbling. Zeke Faux has managed to put it all together in his fascinating book, "Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall". Zeke planted himself within the crypto-mad community to learn more about the trade. He has interviewed Sam Bankman-Fried, among others, to understand what the biggies were up to. Incidentally, "Number Go Up" was referenced a few times during the former crypto king's recent trial where he was charged with multiple counts of fraud. To research the wider consequences, Zeke visited Cambodia to uncover the underbelly of the industry where people are being held captive or trafficked. We are yet to see a solid application of the technology that powers cryto. When that will be is anybody's guess. Until then, if there is one book that you should read to understand where we stand so far, read this one.

    • 48 min
    Kenneth Miller on his book, “Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep”

    Kenneth Miller on his book, “Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep”

    We spend almost a third of our lives sleeping. Give or take. And yet until fifty years ago, scientists didn’t know much about sleep. Kenneth Miller shines a spotlight on the subject in his fabulous book, Mapping the Darkness: The Visionary Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of Sleep. Why do we sleep and why is it important that we get enough of it? What happens when we don’t? Who are those scientists whom we owe some amount of gratitude for helping us understand something that can literally be a matter of life and death? In this podcast Mr Miller, relying on years of research, takes a crack at explaining what was an esoteric topic not too long ago.

    • 52 min
    Daniel Knowles on his book, “How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It”

    Daniel Knowles on his book, “How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It”

    In this podcast, Daniel Knowles reflects upon a world with fewer cars. The use of a car becomes less effective once everyone has got one. Anyone who has been stuck for hours in Mumbai or New York traffic should know. Are electric cars a solution? What can we learn from places like Singapore, Tokyo, Amsterdam and London? It is reassuring that most of these cities made amends over the course of many decades. Today, the younger folk in some Western countries prefer taking the public transport wherever possible. But there is still a long way to go.

    • 39 min

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