Welcome to Rapid Riffs, a recurring mini-series of Question Everything (Except This Podcast!) where Sunay and Chirag swap links, pick the juiciest ones, and riff.

This week Sunay and Chirag riff on four hits from their link-exchange: Scott Galloway’s take on friendship and the loneliness crisis among men; the Alpha School in Austin and whether AI can compress learning into two-hour days; Kyla Scanlon’s argument about zero-sum thinking in today’s labor market; and Cal Newport’s riff on the “reverse Flynn effect” and why reading and deep work still matter. Expect empathy, skepticism, and a few practical takeaways.

In this conversation, Sunay and Chirag discuss insights from the AI4 conference, focusing on the contrasting perspectives of keynotes by Dr. Fei-Fei Li and Dr. Jeffrey Hinton regarding the future of AI. They explore the implications of AI agents in the workforce, the complexities of societal systems, and the need for responsible AI development. The discussion also touches on the nostalgia for analog experiences in a tech-driven world and the paradox of productivity in the age of AI.

In this episode, we unpack Mountainhead — a sharp satire about tech billionaires, buzzwords, and just how far we’ll justify progress when guardrails disappear. From net worth contests on snowy peaks to AI’s breakneck pace, we ask: can we keep our humanity when the race to build never slows down? With a nod to Reid Hoffman’s Super Agency and a detour through The Lord of the Rings, we wonder if the answer is simpler than we think — maybe the secret to surviving the AI age is to stay a little more like hobbits in the Shire: grounded, connected, and a lot less impressed by our own power.