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David Webster

David Webster

South African anthropologist

Aug 7, 2026

10:22
So we'll see how it goes, but from my perspective, it is about bringing the team along with you and you know it can drag them to the water you can't make them drink so so that that piece about encouraging them to you know ask questions want to learn uh because everything in our job is about learning to do things better and and because we've got to we've
10:45
got to make as many efficiencies as we possibly can in our farming operations because

30 MINS LATER

40:54
So what gives you confidence about the direction of travel and how can Leaf best support you?
41:02
Well, thank you very much indeed.
41:04
First thing I would say is just how incredibly positive it is listening to all the comments that have been sent around the table.
41:10
And it's not just the comments which I'm hearing here, it's the conversations I'm having in farmers when I've been out and about.
41:16
And I can tell you the number of people, Ian, who have mentioned that course and what an impact that's had.
41:21
It really, really has had an impact.
12:02
What would you say is the most challenging ski descent that you've done?
12:05
So the couloir I'm skiing there in that video, the Jaeger Couloir, I think that is technically the steepest thing that I've skied in terms of sustained gradient.
12:14
That averages about 55 degrees if you believe the guidebook, which is- Very extreme on the scale of extreme skiing.
12:21
But thankfully when I was doing it, the snow was pretty friendly in terms of skiing down.
12:25
It was very hard work on the climb up, but it was powdery, at least on one side of the couloir, which always makes things nicer when you're trying to ski very steep things.
12:33
Probably the most extreme experience I've had, I think, would be the Col de Plan, North Couloir, where you're skiing off the north face of the Aiguille du Midi into the void almost, off of the Midi Arete.
12:44
Similar to if you're doing the Mallory Porter but a bit further along to skier's right along the ridge.

6 MINS LATER

18:41
When did you decide to become a YouTuber?
10:58
Do you remember if you had any first impressions of him other than the shirt?
11:02
I mean, there, there's a little mania, a little spark in his eyes.
11:08
He gets excited about something in a, in a very irresistible way.
11:13
It's almost innocent.
11:15
It's definitely not trying to be cool.
11:17
It's a very unfiltered, "Hey, why wouldn't we get excited about this?" kind of vibe.
11:22
And when Sean came to IDEO, I had just changed role to leading our Palo Alto studio, and we had done what we could to express our creative culture in our space.
13:35
Like, actually, we think you and Adrian should, like, run this thing." You know, Adrian, who ran medical products.
28:37
Would you say that you've seen changes in the Vallee Blanche due to climate change on the Mer de Glace, you know, during that time?
28:45
Oh, absolutely.
28:45
Every single season you can really s- notice the difference the first time you come down how much the glacier has receded.
28:51
Glaciers are living, breathing things almost.
28:54
They change day to day, but especially year to year.
28:56
Not just the glacier r- retreat, which is very shocking and very obvious as you're down in the lower p- lower portion on, on the Mer de Glace, but even up on the mountain.
29:03
Seracs move, crevasses move.
44:29
I mean, when, when, when does Science Suite and, and this foothills of the singularity lead to radically better outcomes in terms of health potentially?
44:41
So Science Suite is really exciting.
44:43
Demis mentioned it at the very end of I/O yesterday.
44:47
So Science Suite is this set of tools that Google Labs, our group, has been working on in collaboration with Google DeepMind, Google Research and Google Cloud that, uh, massively enhance scientists' ability to do their kind of creativity, which is a sort of inquisitive kind of creativity.
45:07
And in particular, within the Science Suite, what we've been working on are, are, are three different applications o-o-of the models.
45:16
One is in hypothesis generation.
45:19
This is this incredibly involved process that can take scientists months.
48:16
Right

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