Nadia Asparouhova
How to do the jhanas
The jhanas are a series of eight (or nine) altered mental states, which progress from euphoria, to...
13th Jun 2024
The jhanas are a series of eight (or nine) altered mental states, which progress from euphoria, to calm, to dissolution of reality – culminating in cessation, or loss of consciousness. They are induced via sustained concentration, without any external stimuli or substances. This...
Nadia Asparouhova
Working notes for Summer of Protocols
I’m participating in the Summer of Protocols research program this summer as a Core Researcher. It’s...
27th May 2023
I’m participating in the Summer of Protocols research program this summer as a Core Researcher. It’s an 18-week program, funded by the Ethereum Foundation, that aims to catalyze a wider exploration of protocols and their social implications.
I plan to focus on protocols as...
Nadia Asparouhova
Mapping digital worlds
I gave a talk at The Stoa in February about “Mapping digital worlds to understand our present and...
17th Apr 2023
I gave a talk at The Stoa in February about “Mapping digital worlds to understand our present and future.” You can watch the video here; the following is a transcript of that talk.
Peter Limberg asked me to talk about an analysis I did late last year, where I mapped out all the...
Nadia Asparouhova
Early stage funding markets for science - an analysis
In the summer of 2022, with support from Schmidt Futures, I took a closer look at several emerging...
23rd Jan 2023
In the summer of 2022, with support from Schmidt Futures, I took a closer look at several emerging science funding mechanisms – rapid grants, scout programs, and focused research organizations (FROs) – to understand how they serve the needs of early stage science. I also...
Nadia Asparouhova
Mapping out the tribes of climate
Climate is a gravity well for talent, but why don’t other, equally impactful topics attract talent...
30th Nov 2022
Climate is a gravity well for talent, but why don’t other, equally impactful topics attract talent in the same way? Why isn’t everyone dropping everything to work on homelessness, or global poverty, or curing cancer? With many peers in tech now working on climate issues, I tried...
Nadia Asparouhova
Cultivating agency
I didn’t always know that I wanted to have kids. I wasn’t against it, necessarily – for awhile,...
23rd Aug 2022
I didn’t always know that I wanted to have kids. I wasn’t against it, necessarily – for awhile, there were just more reasons in the “why not” column than the “why”: uncertainty about whether I’d be a good parent, fear of losing my identity, a lack of maternal instinct. Those...
Nadia Asparouhova
Idea machines
Tech as a system of values, and not just an industry, is heavily driven by its subcultures and their...
12th May 2022
Tech as a system of values, and not just an industry, is heavily driven by its subcultures and their ideologies. Where do these ideologies come from, and how do they influence what’s accomplished?
One of the most visible ideologies in tech is effective altruism (or EA), a...
Nadia Asparouhova
Understanding science funding in tech, 2011-2021
For those who sit between science and tech, it’s hard not to notice the proliferation of new...
2nd Mar 2022
For those who sit between science and tech, it’s hard not to notice the proliferation of new initiatives launched in the last two years, aimed at making major improvements in the life sciences especially.
While I don’t have a science background, nor any personal relationship to...
Nadia Asparouhova
The creator economy
I’ve had some lingering thoughts over the past year about what it means to be a “creator,” further...
17th Nov 2021
I’ve had some lingering thoughts over the past year about what it means to be a “creator,” further accelerated by a recent conversation with a friend, and I want to try to unpack those feelings here.
The “creator economy” popped into our vernacular with surprisingly little moral...
Nadia Asparouhova
The New American University
I had the pleasure of stumbling upon the work of Michael Crow, Arizona State University’s president,...
4th Aug 2021
I had the pleasure of stumbling upon the work of Michael Crow, Arizona State University’s president, earlier this year, and I so enjoyed his thoughts on knowledge production that I immediately wondered how his philosophy would translate to ASU as an organization. Turns out,...
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