MICHAEL WEST

I work at Palantir, in Australia, where I help critical institutions use data effectively.

I previously worked for Australia's Chief Scientist, who advises the Prime Minister on science and related policy issues, and I was the founding CTO of 180 Degrees, the world's largest student consulting organisation.

Here are some questions I'm interested in:

How can we retain and apply more of what we encounter?

I find accessible summaries of mental models and traps (e.g. Farnam Street) and philosophy (e.g. School of Life) to be helpful, but hard to remember to apply. How can we do better at bringing these insights into our day-to-day lives?

• Takeaways. A technique for capturing and internalising lessons.

How can games and simulations help us understand the real world?

• The Kerbal-Factorio Business School. How sim games can teach us mental models.
• Ghost in the machine. The gaming community's techniques for learning how to play might usefully be encoded into the games themselves, and into other software.
• Ender's Farmville. How can we think about creating games that don't just simulate the world, but actually impact it as you play?