May 02, 2026

Why cultivating agency matters more than cultivating skills in the AI era | Max Schoening (Notion)

Max Schoening, Head of Product at Notion, discusses how AI is reshaping software development. He argues that agency—the drive to effect change—is now more critical than specific skills, as AI makes the first 10% of any project 'free'. Schoening introduces his 'tiny core' theory for great products, debates the 'SaaSpocalypse', and emphasizes the growing importance of software quality and taste in an era of exploding software quantity.

Jan 25, 2026

If You Can't See Inside, How Do You Know It's THINKING? [Dr. Jeff Beck]

Dr. Jeff Beck explores the philosophical and technical definitions of agency, arguing that the distinction between an agent and an object lies in computational sophistication, particularly the capacity for planning and counterfactual reasoning. The conversation provides a deep dive into Energy-Based Models (EBMs), Yann LeCun's JEPA for learning in latent space, and a pragmatic approach to AI safety centered on inverse reinforcement learning rather than fears of rogue superintelligence.

Sep 10, 2025

Karl Friston - Why Intelligence Can't Get Too Large (Goldilocks principle)

Professor Karl Friston provides a 20-year retrospective on the Free Energy Principle, exploring its implications for life, intelligence, and consciousness. The discussion delves into the nature of agency in "strange things" that can model their own future, the crucial distinction between intelligence and consciousness, the potential for a "Goldilocks zone" for intelligent systems, and the profound challenges of building conscious AI, which may require a move beyond current computer architectures toward "mortal computation".