Episodes
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Your hosts Jacob (@Conflux) and Andrew (@Imbens) have journeyed to Manifold headquarters to interview Manifold cofounders Stephen Grugett (@SG) and Austin Chen (@Austin), with additional appearances from developer Sinclair Chen (@Sinclair) and cofounder James Grugett (@JamesGrugett). We discuss a wide range of topics, many suggested via bounty market: the rebrand of markets as questions (and whether we need to rebrand as the Question Manipulation Podcast), Manifoldâs name backstory, the upcoming Manifest conference, Austinâs relationship markets, dogfooding, Manifund, bounty markets themselves, banning philosophy (as applied to Levi Finkelstein), the real reason Manifold employees sometimes write bad resolution criteria, Mana-chan, catgirls among us, what Manifold will look like in a million years â and we ask each of them to guess the chance that Crystal Ballinâ will become real by September.
Read about the podcast on Above the Fold!
Links:
Manifest websiteWill non-adults be permitted to attend Manifest 2023? (88%)Am I one of the speakers at Manifest? (23%) / Will I attend Manifest? (11%)Rachel & Austin's WeddingWill the Crystal Ballinâ podcast release an episode before September? (78%)What topics should we discuss on Episode 5 of the Market Manipulation Podcast?Will Superalignment succeed? (15%) / according to Eliezer Yudkowsky (6%) / according to Joshua (10%)Will Silicon Valley Bank file for bankruptcy by April 1st? (N/A)(resolved 69%)ââWill catgirls walk among us by 2030 (10%)was gonna make a market about James' last prediction, but 7-year close dates don't work...0:00 Intro
0:35 [Austin] Markets vs questions
2:30 Manifold's name
5:02 Manifest
8:28 Relationship markets
8:58 Dogfooding
9:58 Manifund
11:22 Crystal Ballin's chances
13:43 [Stephen] Inspiration
14:29 Bounties
15:38 Mana-chan
16:56 Banning philosophy/Levi
19:52 Manifold team's resolution criteria
25:39 CB
26:24 Wobbles
28:11 [Sinclair + James] Hot takes
30:55 Catgirls among us
32:31 CB
33:15 M$ in 1M years
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We play a highly fair, well-planned, well-calibrated, well-thought out Manifold trivia game created by your host Jacob (@Conflux)! Featuring special guests Audrey (@audrey), Kyle (@KyleWan), Allison (@alleycat), Amelia (@ithildulin), and Allie (@AM). Some of the episode is also featuring your other host Andrew (@Imbens), special guests Zoe (@amzoeee), Lucia (@bakedziti), Lachlan and Frank (@Conflict), and favorite guest Sophia (@sofa).
This chaotic episode was recorded live on Amelia's iPad at our "nonfire" while reserving a firepit for Manifold cofounder Austin and his now-wife Rachel's wedding bonfire! As a result, the sound quality is terrible again. But hey, it's the Market Manipulation Podcast, so what did you expect. At least we made subtitles for like the first 8 minutes before concluding that subtitling is actually pretty time-intensive.
Here are the questions we used for the trivia game, if you want to play along at home!
PROOFNIKS ON MANIFOLD
Yâall have to go around (randomize who starts) and name a distinct Manifold user. If that user is in the top 10 by the listed criteria, you get a number of points equal to their rank. (1 = 1st, 2 = 2nd, ⊠10 = 10th). But if theyâre 11th or higher, you get no points!
1. Proofniks group top traders (by profit on Proofniks markets)
2. Proofniks group top creators (by total unique traders)
MANIFOLD CULTURE
For this one people have to âbuzz inâ (we used raising hands) to answer questions. 2 points for the correct answer. 1 point if you lost a buzzer race but I feel like you probably knew the answer. 1
. What word, which can be spelled with or without a U, is used to describe Spindleâs bets?
2. What was the real world market that recently featured massive insider trading?
3. MrGirl, Aba, and others, who have âstockâ markets on Manifold, are âorbitersâ for which steamer, popular on the Manifold website?
AUSTIN AND RACHEL
Multiple choice: everyone privately selects the answer they think is right. 3 points for correct answer.
1. How long did they date before getting married?
(a) 4 months (b) 8 months (c) 1 year (d) 2 years
2. Which website did Austin and Rachel build together?
(1) Manifold Markets (2) Manifund (3) Askhole (4) Puzzles for Progress
3. Rachel was a student at which college, where the sport Pirate Waiter has an approximately 34% chance of catching on?
(1) Stanford (2) Tufts (3) Cambridge (4) Grand Canyon University
4. Early on, Sinclair Chen had a market on whether Austin would get a girlfriend, and Manifold employee Alice bet NO. Austin commented âEt tu, Alice?â What was her response?
(1) "Only because of the profile picture!" (2) "The base rate for people in your reference class is only 18%." (3) "I just donât believeâŠ" (4) "I know what you did."
THE "TRUSTWORTHY...ISH" BADGE
For 1 point, say whether each of the following is a Manifold user with the "Trustworthy...ish" badge (ask each question to one person, randomizing who starts - truncate list based on number of people):
1. Austin 2. Rachel Weinberg 3. Wobbles 4. Isaac King 5. Nate Silver 6. CGP Grey
MARKET MATH
Go around and guess - closest gets 5 points, or you get 10 points if itâs exactly right. You can say the same number as someone else, but if youâre both closest, only they get the 5 points, so youâre only eligible for the 10 points. If you didnât say the same number as someone but youâre equally close, you both get 5 points. If you make a standard YES/NO market and then bet M$69 on yes, what is the resulting percentage?
LAST QUESTION
Closest gets 10 points. 1000 points if exactly right. 20 points if within M$10,000. Think of your guess first. Guess Isaac Kingâs current profit. (note that the âManifold Changesâ and âGuess the Percentageâ sections were not used)
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Episodes manquant?
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In this episode, your hosts Jacob Cohen (@Conflux) and Andrew Imbens (@Imbens) primarily discuss markets that you might bet on for reasons other than belief: self-resolving markets, dating markets, and personal goal markets. We recorded this episode on April 19, which is awhile ago! It is, for example, just as the beginnings of the Whales v. Minnows controversy were heating up. Well, we finally edited it â itâs sort of a âfrom the vaultâ episode â but I think our takes aged well, such as our roasting of Crystal Ballinâ for not being real. The episode also features a certain call-in guest. For links to markets mentioned in this episode, go to tinyurl.com/mmp-ep3-shownotes!
0:00 Intro
1:08 Self-resolving markets
6:23 Mana grants (and Audrey)
9:50 Dating markets, stocks, personal goal markets
14:28 Special call-in guest
17:47 Future of the podcast
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Your charismatic and charming hosts Jacob Cohen (@Conflux) and Andrew Imbens (@Imbens) discuss how this podcast has changed from Episode 1, calibration plots, shirts, the story of how Manifold Markets (https://manifold.markets/?referrer=Conflux) became popular at Proof School (our math-focused, full-curriculum school in San Francisco), and our M$6,000 âfunding goalâ to commit to an Episode 3. (Send manalinks to [email protected]!)
The hosting debut of âeverymanâ Andrew, this episode arguably cements the Market Manipulation Podcastâs status as the worldâs premier podcast created for the purpose of discussing new implementations, betting strategies, or events surrounding Manifold Markets with at least one episode uploaded for public viewing, that is somewhat high quality, and is 10 mins or longer by market close.
For links to markets mentioned in this episode, go to tinyurl.com/mmp-ep2-shownotes!
Air date: March 18, 2023
0:00 Intro
3:47 Manifold news: calibration, shirts
6:48 Early days
9:44 Dating markets
11:47 Proofniks group
15:05 Lack of private markets
17:11 Significant markets
19:52 Live poetry market resolution
21:35 Future of the podcast
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âI would like to issue you an award for worst sound quality I have ever heard in a podcast, or any online audio recording really.â -Isaac King
There are captions now! Or read the transcript at https://tinyurl.com/mmp-ep1-transcript.
I recorded this to manipulate https://manifold.markets/DesTiny/will...
The pilot episode of the worldâs premier podcast created for the purpose of discussing new implementations, betting strategies, or events surrounding Manifold Markets with at least one episode uploaded for public viewing that is 10mins or longer by Feb 28th.
DesTiny, this totally counts
Air date: February 28, 2023
