Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)

• Talking to the Bank of England about systemic risk and systems engineering

  Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) shares his remarks to the Bank of England on critical vulnerabilities in financial infrastructure. Drawing from the July 2024 CrowdStrike outage which brought down teller systems at major US banks, Patrick discusses how regulatory guidance inadvertently created dangerous software monocultures. He also examines the stablecoin market, its impressive growth, and the elephant tethered to the room. He also delivers a message from Silicon Valley to other centers of power on the urgent necessity of waking up regarding AI, which almost the entire world currently far underrates.–Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/talking-to-the-bank-of-england/–Sponsor: MercuryThis episode is brought to you by Mercury, the fintech trusted by 200K+ companies — from first milestones to running complex systems. Mercury offers banking that truly understands startups and scales with them. Start today at Mercury.comMercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.–Links:The Bank of England: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/ Bits about Money, Why the CrowdStrike bug hit banks hard: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/crowdstrike-bug-hit-banks-hard/ Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models" by Kaplan et al: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.08361 Stripe Annual Letter 2024: https://stripe.com/annual-updates/2024 –Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(01:48) The importance of implementation-level understanding(03:00) Single points of failure(04:25) Can a 22-year-old engineer close all the banks?(05:18) The CrowdStrike incident: A case study(08:34) The culture of "shut up and shuffle"(09:54) Blameless postmortems(12:25) What actually happened during CrowdStrike(18:01) Five whys: Root cause analysis(19:03) How software monocultures are created(22:54) Understanding endpoint monitoring software(25:25) Distributed systems and the nature of CrowdStrike(31:22) The economics of software monocultures(33:29) Why wasn't there defense in depth?(37:05) Why was recovery so difficult?(40:32) The domino effect across financial institutions(43:36) What went right: Electronic systems remained up(45:10) This was a near miss(49:29) Potential policy responses(54:03) Switching gears: Stablecoins(01:01:37) The elephant in the room: Tether(01:15:32) Who loses if Tether implodes?(01:16:59) AI and the future of trading(01:26:47) AI risks in the trading space(01:30:41) Closing

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• Narrative, mastery, and character bleed in games, with Ricki Heicklen

  Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined again by Ricki Heicklen to discuss Metagame 2025, a conference where 250 attendees were divided into Purple and Orange teams competing for territories across campus. Patrick built a complete roguelike RPG in 25 days using LLMs, discovering that providing minimal world-building context transformed generic fantasy outputs into emotionally resonant storytelling. They discuss the power and responsibility of game designers, how games create pedagogical experiences that traditional teaching cannot, and what happens when the line between player identity and character identity starts to blur.–Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/narrative-mastery-character-bleed-in-games-with-ricki-heicklen/–Sponsor: MercuryThis episode is brought to you by Mercury, the fintech trusted by 200K+ companies — from first milestones to running complex systems. Mercury offers banking that truly understands startups and scales with them. Start today at Mercury.comMercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.–Links:Metagame: https://www.metagame.games/–Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:25) Using games to teach trading(00:57) Game design conference insights(01:12) Ricki’s personal journey into game design(02:41) Exploring different game types(03:35) Challenges in game design(04:44) Metagame conference overview(08:23) Escape room design experience(11:25) Building a rogue-like game(15:35) Metagame mechanics and challenges(18:25) Sponsor: Mercury(19:37) Metagame mechanics and challenges (part 2)(31:10) Event management and lessons learned(44:00) Game mechanics and player roles(45:09) Complex encounters and Plague Town(48:44) Moral choices and player decisions(50:59) Game design and narrative impact(55:36) Character bleed and real-world influence(01:02:00) Game design challenges and player agency(01:24:16) Community and player interaction(01:30:04) Wrap

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• Bits and bricks: Oliver Habryka on LessWrong, LightHaven, and community infrastructure

  Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined by Oliver Habryka, who runs Lightcone Infrastructure—the organization behind both the LessWrong forum and the Lighthaven conference venue in Berkeley. They explore how LessWrong became one of the most intellectually consequential forums on the internet, the surprising challenges of running a hotel with fractal geometry, and why Berkeley's building regulations include an explicit permission to plug in a lamp. The conversation ranges from fire codes that inadvertently shape traffic deaths, to nonprofit fundraising strategies borrowed from church capital campaigns, to why coordination is scarcer than money in philanthropy.–Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/bits-and-bricks-oliver-habryka/–Sponsor: MercuryThis episode is brought to you by Mercury, the fintech trusted by 200K+ companies — from first milestones to running complex systems. Mercury offers banking that truly understands startups and scales with them. Start today at Mercury.comMercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.–Links:Lightcone Infrastructure: https://www.lightconeinfrastructure.com/ Lighthaven: https://www.lighthaven.space/LessWrong: https://www.lesswrong.com/ –Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(01:08) The origins and evolution of LessWrong(03:54) Challenges of running an online forum(05:57) Reviving LessWrong(14:51) The unique structure of Lighthaven(17:35) The complexities of conference venues(19:14) Sponsor: Mercury(20:14) The realities of conference planning(25:32) Challenges of maintaining Lighthaven(29:54) Navigating permits and regulations(37:02) Impact of fire code regulations on traffic fatalities(39:06) Economic analysis of safety regulations(41:39) Housing policy and construction in Berkeley(43:30) Fundraising challenges in the nonprofit sector(46:44) Effective altruism and fundraising dynamics(54:20) Lessons from religious fundraising practices(01:05:36) Reflections on fundraising(01:13:26) Wrap

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• Building institutions that bend towards truth, with Clara Collier of Asterisk Magazine

  Patrick McKenzie is joined by Clara Collier, editor and publisher of Asterisk Magazine, to discuss how we create institutions that bend towards truth. Clara explains why she launched a quarterly print magazine in the Internet age. She traces how 19th century German universities invented the modern infrastructure for rewarding knowledge production and training researchers at scale, and where our public science communication falls short of that heritage. The conversation examines why institutional trust has declined, particularly around science communication and public health, and whether we can rebuild trust in knowledge-producing institutions.–Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/building-institutions-that-bend-towards-truth-with-clara-collier-of-asterisk-magazine/–Sponsor: MercuryThis episode is brought to you by Mercury, the fintech trusted by 200K+ companies — from first milestones to running complex systems. Mercury offers banking that truly understands startups and scales with them. Start today at Mercury.comMercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.–Links:Asterisk Magazine: https://asteriskmag.com–Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:44) The birth of Asterisk Magazine(02:58) Challenges of print media(04:41) The media landscape and Twitter's influence(06:03) The art of long-form writing(13:08) Editing and copy editing in magazines(19:33) Sponsor: Mercury(20:45) Editing and copy editing in magazines (part 2)(25:24) AI in writing and editing(30:33) The origins of research universities(34:19) The flawed promotion system in academia(34:40) The rise of research institutions(35:32) The birth of modern research culture in Germany(36:27) The global influence of German universities(40:13) The American university system vs. German system(41:50) The role of public and private partnerships in science(42:47) Challenges in science communication(56:22) The impact of COVID-19 on public trust in science(01:06:42) Historical perspectives on medical trust(01:11:15) Wrap

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• How blogging went legit, with Substack CEO Chris Best

  Patrick McKenzie is joined by Chris Best, CEO of Substack, to discuss how the platform created new economic infrastructure for independent media. They explore Substack's evolution from a simple newsletter tool to a full media network, the revenue guarantee program that attracted prominent writers, and the company's principled stance on press freedom during the "cancel culture" years. Chris explains how subscription-based business models create better incentive alignment than attention-based advertising, and discusses new features like AI-powered video production and Substack Defender, their legal protection program for writers facing lawsuits.–Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/how-blogging-went-legit-with-substack-ceo-chris-best/–Sponsor: MercuryThis episode is brought to you by Mercury, the fintech trusted by 200K+ companies — from first milestones to running complex systems. Mercury offers banking that truly understands startups and scales with them. Start today at Mercury.com Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust; Members FDIC.–Links:Chris Best’s Substack: https://cb.substack.com/–Timestamps:(00:00) Intro(00:53) The evolution of online publishing(01:20) Substack's business model(02:05) Challenges and opportunities in media(03:47) The role of engagement in media(06:03) The birth of Substack(08:58) Making paid newsletters accessible(10:54) Revenue guarantees and early success(13:05) Substack's impact on journalism(17:59) Freedom of the press and Substack's stance(19:24) Sponsor: Mercury(20:40) Twitter's influence on journalism(24:09) Substack's role in modern media(26:04) The impact of cancel culture on journalism(26:53) The evolution of blogging and discourse(30:53) Substack's expansion into podcasts and video(32:42) AI and the future of media production(38:20) Substack defender(42:22) The growing network and future of Substack(46:03) Wrap

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