I said I'd comment on his latest book, Understanding Understanding. He said on the phone that he dictated the parts of the book he wrote into his iPhone. You can tell as you read it that it sounds like a transcription of how he speaks. I kinda liked that.

The design, tho. He gave huge credit to Jenn Shore, a young recent grad who did the design production. It's incredible. The design, the photos, illustrations, quotes in the sidebars. Someone said in their Amazon 5-star review (all the reviews are 5-star) "it's the only coffee table book you'll ever need."

Hey Chris, I am glad you got back in touch with Richard! I hope that it helped in your search for how to bring great conversations into the information age. I am rooting for you guys in this journey!

And public conversations are best when they happen between two people with a third acting as the conscience of the conversation.

It is worth dissecting "conscience", like Ryan has done here. My interpretation is a concept in psychology known as triangulation. It is the idea that "intellectual jazz" when under stress can become unstable, but a third person brings stability to the duality of egos.

Kiko, a day after the call and I'm starting to question some things about what I heard. I deeply respect him but he made it clear his comfort zone is person-to-person. So, for example, he would say two people looking at each other and one serving as semi-invisible conscience is best.

But is it for panel conversations on the Internet? He has never tried them. Think of how much fun some channels are in Slack with 10 people chiming in.

If you're not terrified, you're probably not pushing hard enough. I mentioned to him that I have started companies before and it was terrifying in the beginning, and at times as they grew. He said you have to be confident enough in the idea to handle the terror, but no terror means you aren't trying something hard enough. Significant things are hard.

Love this. Profound and extremely true.