So, I’ve faced a lot of resistance with this one. First, we had to postpone it. Then, we encountered 45 minutes (45!) of technical issues before pressing record, the video quality was horrible, and the call crashed mid-episode. Then, I felt very tired and conflicted every time I was trying to edit and publish the episode - for 3 days. Bad luck? Inner resistances? Big tech sabotaging us? I don’t know, make of it what you will - but I feel strongly that this episode should be published anyway. Or precisely because of that. Please don’t expect great production quality, and bear in mind that we were somewhat nervous and had to cut the conversation short - Andrea had a call right after, due to the 45-minute delay. But if you tune past all that, I think you’ll find a rich, honest conversation between two lifelong friends who’ve been in this for a long time. Andrea and I grew up together - he’s a brother from another mother (we have photos of each other in the cradle, so I mean that quite literally). He’s also my former business partner: we built businesses side by side for over two decades, topped the Apple Podcast charts in Italy, and did a host of other fun stuff along the way. We’ve recently gone our separate ways business-wise, but we still co-run an NGO we founded in early 2018 to help people thrive in the digital age - recipient of a $120k-a-year Google Ad Grant. These days Andrea is delving deep into AI, and co-hosts podcast episodes on exponential clarity with our mutual friend Jamie Smart. We hadn’t really talked about these themes in a while, so this was a genuine catching-up. Here’s some of what we covered: * “The guide I wish I’d stumbled on”: why Andrea wanted this to be the conversation he needed when he first started working full-time with technology, and the price he didn’t know he was paying. * Why cutting all ties with tech isn’t the answer for most people - and what a sustainable relationship with technology might actually look like. * The tobacco parallel: how the lack of awareness of digital harm when we were young mirrored the early days of cigarettes - simply zero knowledge of the damage being done. * Hostile by design: how the biggest companies in the world build AI-driven feeds engineered to get us addicted. * The Rat Park experiment, and why people living fulfilled, aligned lives are far less likely to fall into addictive behaviour than those who are isolated and in pain. * We shouldn’t outsource our soul and humanity: why handing over your introspection, your judgment, and your sense of right and wrong is a dangerous line to cross. * The “AI vampire” phenomenon, the cognitive overload of 10x productivity expectations, and how we both burned out using AI. * Two counterintuitive ideas: 1) be highly disagreeable with AI, and 2) always remember it’s an alien intelligence, not a human being. * My specific take: as technology accelerates exponentially, the brain alone can’t meet it. We have to tap into something beyond the brain, grow up and awaken spiritually. And here are the resources mentioned: * digitalstress.org - the NGO Andrea and I founded in 2018 to help people thrive in the digital age. * Andrea Deltetto - Andrea’s website, the best place to stay in touch with his work. * Get Clarity with Jamie Smart - where Andrea co-hosts episodes on exponential clarity in the age of AI. * Center for Humane Technology - Tristan Harris’s organisation, working to align technology with humanity’s best interests. * The Rat Park experiment - Bruce Alexander’s research on addiction, connection, and environment. I’m looking forward to the next episode. If you’ve enjoyed this, please like, subscribe and leave a comment below - it really does help. If you’d like to explore these themes more deeply, you can find out more about me and my work at dariomartinis.com. Until next time, Much love, Dario This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dariomartinis.substack.com
