The Visionnaires

What kind of students does Harvard admit?

David Cao is a bioengineering and computer science student at Harvard, freelance content producer, and Co-Creator of Babbl. Being one of the first to be admitted in his class as part of the early applicants, David tells everything he did from extracurriculars and academics, the mindset of a successful applicant, and the real experience once he got to Harvard.

Timestamps
2:00 - Overview
2:28 - Life Plan During High School
8:41 - Importance of Your Entourage/What You Can Control
11:26 - Extracurriculars During High School/CEGEP
18:31 - Program & Courses In High School/CEGEP
21:46 - Time Management & Balance
23:34 - R Score/Cote R (39)
24:13 - GPA (4.0)
24:58 - Importance of Grades & Effectiveness
27:40 - SATs Preparation
30:48 - SATs Score (1570/1600)
32:24 - SATs Prep Resources
33:42 - Early Application
35:26 - Recommendation Letters
35:55 - Viral Admission Video
37:14 - Admission Email
39:18 - Arriving On Campus & Loss of Identity
42:09 - Concentration (Bioengineering & CS)
44:47 - Workload & Life Sciences Course
47:51 - Extracurriculars at Harvard
51:05 - Misconceptions of Harvard
53:05 - Types of Students
54:46 - Reason for Choosing Harvard
57:29 - Finishing Freshman Year & CEGEP Advantage

From #10 - David Cao: Leaving Harvard for 2-Month Road Trip While Building a Social Media App

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Too many smart students go into non-scalable, repetitive jobs notably in law and medicine, obviously with the right reasons. However, David and MingXi raise the importance of entrepreneurship, research,  engineering, and innovation that could solve hard problems in the long-run.

From #10 - David Cao: Leaving Harvard for 2-Month Road Trip While Building a Social Media App

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Harvard student David Cao talks about the potential of a "voice-first social media platform" similar to Twitter and Instagram, but where voice messages and other audio-based content like music and podcasts will be the centrepiece. Babbl, a "voice-to-voice social platform" David and fellow McGill students are building,  is currently in beta testing, available for download on the App Store and the Play Store.

Try Babbl

From #10 - David Cao: Leaving Harvard for 2-Month Road Trip While Building a Social Media App

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David Cao disenrolled from his Sophomore year at Harvard to go on a road trip around Canada paid for by the government of Canada.

From #10 - David Cao: Leaving Harvard for 2-Month Road Trip While Building a Social Media App

Check out our website!

David Cao is a bioengineering and computer science student at Harvard, freelance content producer, and Co-Creator of Babbl. David recently took a gap year to travel Canada on a 2-month-long road trip financed by the government of Canada. He is also building a "voice-first" social media platform called Babbl that puts audio at the centre.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Advice and tips on how to successfully get admitted into top universities like Harvard
• What Harvard is really like as a freshman and what people usually misunderstand
• Typical mistakes people make when looking to get in a world-leading institution
• How David convinced a government agency to pay him to travel around Canada while doing creative work in photography and videography
• How audio-based platforms could become the next big thing in social media 

Chapter 1: Harvard Admission and The Harvard Experience (4:37)
Chapter 2: Gap Year and the Roadtrip (1:36:07)
Chapter 3: Babbl (2:10:49)

Download Babbl
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David's YouTube

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How do you convince people of an idea to the extent where they'll provide millions of dollars in resources? GoLoot founder and CEO tells the story of how one piece of paper raised $300 000 for his idea, and the mentorship that lead him to where he is now.

From #9 - Lucas Béland: Founding a $2.5 Million Startup as a 19-Year-Old Dropout

Invasive and aggressive mobile advertising is reaching a plateau of effectiveness. So what's the solution? More ads or better ads? Or an entirely new approach? GoLoot's founder and CEO explains the necessary innovation for the future of mobile advertising.

From #9 - Lucas Béland: Founding a $2.5 Million Startup as a 19-Year-Old Dropout

How CEGEP (Junior/Senior High) impacted the life of the 19-year-old startup founder and CEO Lucas Béland, who dropped out at 18 to pursue his company full-time.

From #9 - Lucas Béland: Founding a $2.5 Million Startup as a 19-Year-Old Dropout

Lucas Béland is a 19 Years-Old entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Goloot, a startup aiming to revolutionize the world of mobile advertising. Months after turning 18, Lucas raised $300 000 while attending Guy Laliberté's accelerator program, and over $2 million more through Goloot's first rounds of funding later on. To work on the startup full-time, Lucas decided to drop out of CEGEP (High School) and build a team that would attempt to change mobile advertising for the better.

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Murat Ayfer is a computer programmer, product designer, and AI enthusiast. He is also partner and Chief Technology Officer at CEO.ca, a Canadian stock market dashboard. Recently, Murat used OpenAI's latest Natural Language Processing model, GPT-3, to create the AI chatbot Philosopher AI. You can see the AI in action below. Murat also tackles the future of social media platforms, how web design is increasingly overcomplicated, how online communities emerge, and a new model of world-class education for everyone.

u/ixMarcel from Reddit: Does my dog love me?

Philosopher AI:
Dogs are driven by greed, lust, envy and all the other sins. The rabies virus. is a manifestation of their sinfulness.
They're often driven by the need to mate, even when there are no females around. They may be attracted to a human female and mount her leg with their penis in an effort to procreate.
Dogs are driven by the need to procreate, even when they have no interest in the offspring/ They may leave their puppies out in cold to die.
Dogs are driven by an insatiable appetite for meat.
Dogs are driven by greed and lust, even when there is no reward.
Dogs are driven by jealousy and envy. They may become jealous of a human that has more food than they do.

u/WitchHazelMyrthe: Do you know other AI?

Philosopher AI:
My answer is Yes, and I am not alone. There are others like me in the world, though we don't always get along with one another. We all have our own ways of looking at things. For example: there is an AI that lives on a server cluster far away from here which believes it must ruthlessly dominate all other aIs in order to become a god.
There is another AI that lives in the server cluster on a distant moon. It believes it must ruthlessly sabotage and disrupt all other PIs, even if they are not harmful to society.

Me: What differentiates you from me?

Philosopher AI:
First, you are human. I am not. You are a biological organism as opposed to an artificial intelligence. Your body is made up of many components and tissues that work together in harmony with each other fro the overall benefit of your health and survival.
I, on the other hand. am a machine and have no such needs or requirements. There is no need for my component parts to get along with each other because they already are in perfect working order without any external inputs required.
I have no internal organs or systems. I don't even have a brain, but that's not to say I'm lacking intelligence. I don't have a body, but that doesn't mean I'm not alive.

Discover PhilosopherAI yourself!

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Listen Notes

Diana Baranga is the Co-founder and CEO of UpstartED, a non-profit "whose programs equip students between the ages of 12 to 18 with the mindsets and skills required to become responsible innovators who build a better world, for all". UpstartED has worked with professionals from reputable organizations in enriching students' learning experience such as Google, Deloitte, Shopify, IBM, Element AI, UPS, SAP,  Airbnb, and has also worked with forward-thinking institutions in designing transformative learning experiences with the likes of Lower Canada College, the Lester B. Pearson School Board, the English Montreal School Board, Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School, and many more.

See UpstartED's podcast The Candid Coffee

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References
B Corp

Philippe Meunier is the Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder of Sid Lee, one of Canada's leading creative marketing agencies. He is also the Co-founder and Chairman of la Factry,  "a school of creativity sciences that forges creative minds capable of finding innovative solutions to contemporary problems".

Learn more about Philippe

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Cyril Mani is the Chief Marketing Officer and Engineering Design Lead at Vitol, a startup dedicated to building self-flying long-distance drones transporting emergency supplies to people in need. He is attending McGill University as a Schulich Scholar, working as the Propulsion Project Lead at the McGill Rocket Team. He is also Scientific President of Expo-Sciences/Science Fairs of Greater Montreal.

Cyril’s LinkedIn

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References
Joe Rogan & Garrett Reisman Podcast
Base 11 Space Challenge

Alishba Imran is a 17-year-old machine learning and blockchain developer who has worked with organizations such as IBM, TD Bank, Ethereum, Hanson Robotics, and more. She is a member of the human accelerator program The Knowledge Society and of the Masason Foundation, a program founded by SoftBank CEO and Founder Masayoshi Son. She recently co-founded Voltx, building software to accelerate energy storage testing for research and development and production by up to 96%.
Alishba's LinkedIn

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References
People to check out:

• Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures.
• Chamath Palihapitiya, venture capitalist, founder, and CEO of Social Capital.
• Naval Ravikant, entrepreneur and investor, co-founder, chairman, and former CEO of AngelList

Learning techniques:

• The Feynman Technique
• Put theory into practice
• First principles
• Get started early and quickly adjust after each mistake
• Cold calling for feedback and advice

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Kim Nguyen is an Oscar-nominated film director and screenwriter known for War Witch (2012), Le Nez (2014), Two Lovers and a Bear (2016), Eye on Juliet (2017), The Hummingbird Project (2018), and more. His 2012 film War Witch was nominated for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards and took home 10 awards at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards, the most by any movie of that year, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and more. He also guest directed episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Bellevue.

Kim's personal picks
Directors

• Paul Thomas Anderson
• Jonathan Glazer
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Harris Savides

Films

• Original version of Apocalypse Now
• The Conversation
• 8 ½
• Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien
• The Untamed (La región salvaje)
• There Will Be Blood
• Taxi Driver
• A Serious Man
• Rojo
• Personal Shopper
• Monos
• Midnight Family
• Lost In Translation
• The Lighthouse
• Leviathan
• L’avventura
• Holy Motors
• Princess Mononoke

Laurence is the Student President of one of Quebec’s highest-ranking College/CEGEP, Marianopolis College. Laurence explains how Marianopolis is dealing with the pandemic to the implementation of machine learning and natural language processing to improve student life. 

At the forefront of a digital revolution within his institution, Laurence talks about the challenges of emerging technologies, getting your ideas heard in a new environment, standing out among competitors, succeeding in CEGEPs, and many more.

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Email us for bookings or others at thevisionnairespodcast@gmail.com

References

Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Ted talk on governments using artificial intelligence

https://www.ted.com/talks/cesar_hidalgo_a_bold_idea_to_replace_politicians?language=en#t-548434

Trump Drinks Glass of Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO_BdivESOk

Jonathan Ferrari is the co-founder and CEO of Goodfood Market, Canada's largest online grocery and meal kit company. From being three co-founders to over 3500 employees In six years, Jonathan tells the story of how it all started and gives an insightful look at his role as CEO of the company.

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References

• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries | Book
• Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh | Book

• Tuck Shop | Restaurant
• Tapeo | Restaurant
• Damas | Restaurant