Casual Chat

About Casual Chat

Find it frustrating to keep up with tech? Every episode, Casual Chat breaks down recent developments in tech such that casual listeners (i.e. you) can understand their implications (while being entertained).

Publisher

Andrew Liu & Hongbo Tian

Category

technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Mar 2021

Latest episode

2 Jun 2022

Latest episodes

13 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Jun 2022

   #13: How to Effectively Pitch Anything

   Hong and Andrew do a book review of Pitch Anything, by Oren Klaff, which covers the emotional aspects of pitching that everybody gets wrong. Show notes: 00:35 - Introducing Pitch Anything 00:55 - The shortcomings of the methodical personality 02:02 - The problem with (Hong’s) scientific writing 03:02 - A human nature book disguised as a pitching book 04:00 - The problem of projecting neediness 05:01 - The social consequences of eating another man’s apple 06:37 - The primal Lizard Brain vs. the logical Ape Brain 08:16 - How to get past the lizard brain’s defenses 10:14 - The curse of knowledge 11:24 - How car commercials hook your reptilian mind 12:38 - Painting a picture in the mind to sell your pitch 13:58 - Parallels to the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” 16:41 - How to apply human nature insights to a real pitch 17:25 - Pitching to someone who really needs to pee 19:00 - Balancing positive and negative emotion in a pitch 19:45 - Playing the Good Cop and the Bad Cop 21:20 - The cross-cultural value of wild pitching stories 22:10 - The dire pitching consequences of projecting neediness 23:22 - The problem with neediness in all areas of life 24:35 - Don’t lose sight of the transactional aspect of your pitch 26:58 - The inherent selfishness of displaying neediness 27:30 - Don’t fear all negativity, use it as a tool 28:48 - Translating the Mad Men boardroom into the civilized world 30:36 - Separating the gold from the ore Follow us on Twitter: Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

2. 

   10 Dec 2021

   #12: The Case for Tracking Every Minute of Your Life

   Ever have those moments where you feel like the day just flew by? Our chatters felt the same way and wanted to learn more. Hongbo (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) shares his reasons for time tracking his daily life and compares it with how Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) has recently started time tracking. Links: The time tracking app that Andrew uses: https://toggl.com/track/ (https://toggl.com/track/) The time tracking app that Hongbo uses: https://clockify.me/ (https://clockify.me/) Follow us on Twitter: Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

3. 

   11 Nov 2021

   #11: Apple and Intel's Nasty Breakup

   Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) and Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) chat about Apple's departure from Intel CPUs and Intel's attempts to get back into the limelight. The conversation then delves into a tangent about upgrading to Windows 11. Links: Intel's anti-Apple ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp0xzapm-zY Intel's CEO wants to win Apple back: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/intel-ceo-my-job-is-to-win-apple-back-205012699.html Window's 11 system requirements: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11-specifications Follow us on Twitter: Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

4. 

   12 Oct 2021

   #10: A Disastrous Week for Facebook

   Facebook's been having a rough week. On October 4, 2021, there was a complete outage of all Facebook-owned systems, including Instagram and WhatsApp. The next day, a whistleblower testifies before congress about how Facebook prioritizes profits over public safety, implying that the company may have been complicit with the storming of the Capitol Building earlier in the year. Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) and Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) opine about the whole debacle and discuss whether this news is evening surprising in the first place... Links: ARM China splits from ARM UK: https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/the-semiconductor-heist-of-the-century ProtonMail amends its policy after giving up data to the feds: https://www.wired.com/story/protonmail-amends-policy-after-giving-up-activists-data/ Prior research shows that Instagram is in fact unhealthy for adolescents: https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739 The whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before congress: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043377310/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-congress Facebook engineering's official blog post on how the site-wide outage occurred: https://engineering.fb.com/2021/10/05/networking-traffic/outage-details/ Mark Zuckerberg's response to the whole debacle: https://www.facebook.com/4/posts/10113961365418581/?d=n Follow us on Twitter: Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

5. 

   12 Sept 2021

   #9: A Tale of Two Betrayals - ARM China goes Rogue, ProtonMail sells out activist's data

   The company behind ARM processors is currently in disarray. The business has split up into two independent companies, and their CEO is holed up in China. Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) and Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) go over the hilarious story that caused the company to be in these circumstances. Later, they discuss how ProtonMail (the so-called "privacy" email provider) has given out user data, and what it means to have a realistic view of privacy. Links: ARM China splits from ARM UK: https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/the-semiconductor-heist-of-the-century ProtonMail amends its policy after giving up data to the feds: https://www.wired.com/story/protonmail-amends-policy-after-giving-up-activists-data/ Follow us on Twitter: Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

6. 

   26 Aug 2021

   #8: How to Make Software Engineers Obsolete

   Github has released a new editor tool called Copilot. It claims to be able to generate code for entire functions. Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) and Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) explore whether Copilot will live up to the hype and the future of licensing issues around training machine learning models off of source code. Links: GitHub Copilot's Official Website: https://copilot.github.com/ Licensing Concerns with Copilot: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk/status/1412818109329707011 Follow us on Twitter: Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

7. 

   17 Aug 2021

   #7: A Case of (Self-driving) Road Rage

   In this episode, Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) and Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) debate the safety of self-driving cars after a Waymo car hits a pedestrian in SF. Later, they dive into Tesla's decision to rely solely on camera vision for its autopilot system and discuss whether that's a wise choice. ~~~ Links: * Waymo car teaches innocent pedestrian a lesson: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj83vw/futuristic-self-driving-car-hits-person-the-old-fashioned-way (https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj83vw/futuristic-self-driving-car-hits-person-the-old-fashioned-way) * Tesla stops using radar for autopilot: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-drops-radar-is-autopilot-system-safe-2021-06-02/ (https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-drops-radar-is-autopilot-system-safe-2021-06-02/) ~~~ Follow us on Twitter: * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

8. 

   10 Aug 2021

   #6: Big Tech's Race to Control Podcasting

   In this episode, Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) discusses Spotify's acquisition of various podcasting startups and shares his predictions of the industry with Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)). Hong shares his experiences as an indie creator, and the chatters compare the strategies of Spotify, Apple, and YouTube in the race to lure creators. Links: * Spotify acquires Podz: https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/17/spotify-acquires-podz-a-podcast-discovery-app/ ~~~ Follow us on Twitter: * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

9. 

   4 Aug 2021

   #5: Major Upcoming Innovations to CPUs

   In this episode, Hongbo (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) tells Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) about a few novel innovations that will change the way CPUs get designed. The discussion slowly converges towards a lesson in hardware fundamentals. ~~~ Links: * AMD develops stacked v-cache technology: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16725/amd-demonstrates-stacked-vcache-technology-2-tbsec-for-15-gaming * Google uses machine learning for TPU floor-planning: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/10/22527476/google-machine-learning-chip-design-tpu-floorplanning ~~~ Follow us on Twitter: * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

10. 

    14 May 2021

    #4: The Wonderful World of FPV Drones

    You might have heard of drone flying, but there's an entire subculture of drone pilots who pilot via a first-person view of the drone. In this episode, Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) tries to indoctrinate Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) into trying out FPV drones and explains what makes the hobby so special. ~~~ Follow us on Twitter: * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

11. 

    4 Apr 2021

    #3: Should the British Monarchy Still Exist?

    In this episode, Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) questions the modern purpose of the British monarchy and whether it's worth the taxpayers' hard-earned money. Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) happens to be British and shares his view on the queen and British traditions. ~~~ Links: * Russell Brand's reaction video to the Meghan & Harry Interview: https://youtu.be/OyREzWcCPDo (https://youtu.be/OyREzWcCPDo) ~~~ Follow us on Twitter: * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

12. 

    21 Mar 2021

    #2: Buying a GPU in a Global Chip Shortage

    In this episode, Hongbo (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) spends 10 minutes complaining to Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) about the global chip shortage and why it's so hard to buy a GPU right now. ~~~ Follow us on Twitter: * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

13. 

    18 Mar 2021

    #1: Sticking It to the Man in the GameStop Short Squeeze

    In the inaugural episode, Andrew (@liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk)) updates Hong (@c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)) on his latest financial investments amid the Gamestop short squeeze. Hong questions why Andrew isn't broke. ~~~ Links: * The r/wallstreetbets subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/ (https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/) * Robinhood intervenes with GME: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-28/robinhood-has-told-users-it-may-close-some-at-risk-positions (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-28/robinhood-has-told-users-it-may-close-some-at-risk-positions) ~~~ Follow us on Twitter: * Casual Chat: https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat (https://twitter.com/TheCasualChat) * Andrew: https://twitter.com/liuandrewk (https://twitter.com/liuandrewk) * Hong: https://twitter.com/c0fpv (https://twitter.com/c0fpv)

Contact Casual Chat

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.