Monthly Rewind: Your guide to insider news and opportunities across the O'Shaughnessy Ventures ecosystem.Hello, friends
No preamble this month. Let’s get straight to it.
Inside OSV
It’s nearly time.
Two Thoughts: A Timeless Collection of Infinite Wisdom is coming in early 2025.
This will be the first book published under our Infinite Books imprint. It’s shaping up to be a doozy, featuring 500 timeless insights from 250 of the world's most influential minds, with select thinkers brought to life through striking illustrations.
We can’t wait for you to get your hands on it. Here’s a sneak peek at our cover:
And two thoughts from Nikola Tesla to whet your appetite:
Intrigued? Watch this space for pre-order and release info.
Fellowship Corner
The O’Shaughnessy Fellowship is here to back your boldest, most eye-wateringly ambitious idea. And we’re ready to drop $100k into your lap to make it happen. Applications for our next cohort open on January 1, 2025.
Here’s what some of our current Fellows and Grantees have been up to:
Filmmaker Jason Carman has launched The Future This Week, a weekly newsletter/X thread curating the latest updates and breakthroughs in science, tech & progress studies. Jason breaks down the newsletter’s modus operandi here. You can dig into the inaugural installment here.1
Amid a crowded field of over 110 submissions, architect-turned-writer Michael Dean emerged as one of two runners-up in the Cosmos Essay Contest. His piece explores how we can use AI to deepen rather than diminish human thought. Dive into Michael’s full essay here.2
Software engineer and linguist Jack Connor is preparing for his second expedition to the Svalbard mines in April 2025 to deposit language at the Arctic World language vault. Can you help him?3
PhD researcher and prize-winning science communicator Maria Violaris’ Quantum Foundations podcast delivers new episodes every Friday. Not a quantum expert? Never fear: each episode is split into two parts: an accessible discussion for curious minds and a technical deep-dive for those wanting to get stuck into the nitty-gritty, mathematical detail!4
Podcast host, progress blogger, and high-school dropout Arjun Khemani released Chapter 1 of his upcoming documentary. He starts things off with a bang — the under-4-minute video features appearances from David Deutsch and Naval Ravikant. Watch it here.5
Theories of Everything creator and host Curt Jaimungal is on a hot streak. As well as releasing his 200th episode, featuring the legendary scientist Sir Roger Penrose, his Substack has also been recognized as a featured publication.6
Enlight Abilities, a Zambian organization that empowers people with disabilities by linking them with government social security programs, has received a letter of appreciation from the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The letter thanks Enlight, which is founded and led by our grantee Miyoba Hamuhuma, for its “invaluable support,” highlighting the registration of 1031 people with disabilities and noting that “many previously unregistered individuals now have access to essential services.”7 The letter also thanks OSV. Additionally, Enlight has provided 20 wheelchairs to people in rural Zambia:
News From the OSVerse
OSV portfolio company Precigenetics aims to be a rocket to precision medicine. Its founder, Parmita Mishra, was recently interviewed for Authority Magazine. Keep your eyes peeled for Parmita’s Infinite Loops appearance in the next couple of weeks!
Prophetic, our portfolio company building a device to induce lucid dreams, is getting shit done!
Our media partner, Cost of Glory host Alex Petkas, recently wrapped up an 8-part series on Caesar’s Gallic Wars. He also joined OSV’s Head of Infinite Media, Liberty, to discuss timeless lessons from Ancient Greece & Rome.
Infinite Loops
“Everywhere you look, the old models are collapsing.”
A product of Jim’s defiantly messy, insatiably curious mind, Infinite Loops has always been a tricky project to sum up in a couple of sentences. So, we’ve done the next best thing — distilled its essence into an essay: ‘Welcome to Infinite Loops.’ We think you’ll like this one.
In October, we welcomed the following guests to Infinite Loops HQ:
How to Build a Builder: Psychologist Dr. Gena Gorlin breaks down the “Builder Mindset” - a way of thinking that empowers people to live healthier, happier, and more fulfilled lives.
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Allocation Economy: Every founder Dan Shipper unveils his playbook for building new media companies.
On Rockets, Dog Years & Robotic Space Snakes: Charter Space founder Yuk Chi Chan reveals how ‘ownership’ in space really works, why the sector impacts our daily lives FAR more than we think, and the mind-boggling mission of an intrepid robotic space snake.
Games of Risk & Games of Confidence: Lux Capital editorial head Danny Crichton discusses Riskgames: strategic simulations that immerse players — including senators, major generals, congressmen, and think-tank CEOs — in complex scenarios reflecting real-world crises and challenges.
Quantumania!: Quantum computing maestro Scott Aaronson unpacks what a quantum future would really look like.
As ever, for root access to your humanOS, you can dig into our back catalog of 242 episodes (and counting).
In the meantime, Jim’s Two Thoughts series continues to deliver doses of wisdom straight into your inbox every Sunday. *Be warned: these quotes have been known to trigger insatiable curiosity.*
One Last Thing…
Turns out that OSV is, quite literally, heading for the stars…
That’s everything for October.
Ad Astra, Ex Libris 📚🚀
Jason is using his $100k fellowship to continue growing his weekly documentary series S³ and to work on other upcoming cinematic projects.
Michael is using his $100k fellowship to develop a 27-point framework for evaluating essays, serving as the foundation for a textbook and AI editor.
Jack is using his $100k fellowship to save dying languages by archiving them and creating LLMs capable of conversing in those languages.
Maria is using her $10k grant to create content about the biggest fundamental questions of physics and technology, with a focus on quantum and thermodynamics.
Arjun is using his $10k grant to make a documentary on our deepest theory of knowledge.
Curt is using his $100k fellowship to develop a premier interdisciplinary research platform and educational hub and continue growing the Theories of Everything podcast.
Miyoba is using his $10k grant to advocate for increased enrollment of children with disabilities in local mainstream Zambian schools.
Bravo! Amazing work y'all!