David Baszucki, Co-Founder of Roblox — The Path to 150M+ Daily Users, Critical Business Decisions, Ketogenic Therapy for Brain Health, Daily Routines, The Roblox Economy, and More (#834)
David Baszucki (@DavidBaszucki) is the co-founder and CEO of Roblox. TIME named Roblox one of the “100 Most Influential Companies,” and it has been recognized by Fast Company for innovation on their “Most Innovative Companies” and “Most Innovative Companies in Gaming” lists.
Previously, David founded Knowledge Revolution, where he and his brother Greg created Interactive Physics, a leader in educational physics and mechanical-design-simulation software.
Please enjoy!
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Listen onApple Podcasts[image error]Listen onOvercastDavid Baszucki, Co-Founder of Roblox — The Path to 150M+ Daily Users, Critical Business Decisions, Ketogenic Therapy for Brain Health, Daily Routines, The Roblox Economy, and MoreAdditional podcast platformsListen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Audible, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch the interview on YouTube.
TranscriptsThis episodeAll episodesSELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODEConnect with David Baszucki:Roblox Profile | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube
Featured David Baszucki ResourcesRobloxBaszucki GroupMetabolic MindTech Talks With David BaszuckiDoctors Said My Son’s Bipolar Disorder Couldn’t Be Healed by Diet. They Were Wrong by Jan Ellison Baszucki | San Francisco ChronicleI’m David Baszucki, CEO of Roblox, and This Is How I Work | LifehackerTools & ApplicationsAtmospheric Calm Spotify PlaylistContinuous Ketone Monitoring (CKM)FreeStyle LibreOura RingPrecision Xtra Ketone/Glucose MeterNotable Roblox GamesBird SimulatorDress to ImpressGrow a GardenThe MimicNatural Disaster Survival99 Nights in the ForestRecommended Reading Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health-and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More by Christopher M. Palmer Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by James P. Carse Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health by Casey Means, MD and Calley Means The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek Mutiny on the Bounty: A Novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI by Dr. Fei-Fei LiMovies 2001: A Space Odyssey MusicWhite Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane (from Surrealistic Pillow )PeopleRoald AmundsenMatthew BaszuckiJan Ellison BaszuckiJames P. CarseCaptain James CookDominic D’AgostinoHarley FinkelsteinWim HofPablos HolmanAndrej KarpathyAlan KayFei-Fei LiTobi LütkeFerdinand MagellanCasey MeansHAL 9000Chris PalmerKevin RoseRobert Falcon ScottSimon SinekJoshua SlocumAdam SmithDick TracyHealth Concepts & Metabolic ResourcesBipolar DisorderContinuous Glucose MonitoringCyclical Ketogenic DietExogenous Ketones / Ketone EstersGluconeogenesisHyperbaric Oxygen TherapyIntermittent FastingKetogenic DietKetoNutritionMcLean HospitalMetabolic & Mental Health at Baszucki Group10 Best and Worst Fats to Eat on the Keto Diet | Everyday Health10+ Best Keto Fat Bomb Recipes | Delish15 Best Keto Coffee Drinks | Insanely GoodChronic Schizophrenia Remission Brings Hope | Metabolic MultiplierDom D’Agostino — The Power of the Ketogenic Diet | The Tim Ferriss Show #172Evidence for Altered Energy Metabolism, Increased Lactate, and Decreased PH in Schizophrenia Brain: A Focused Review and Meta-Analysis of Human Postmortem and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Studies | Schizophrenia ResearchHistory and Origin of the Ketogenic Diet | Epilepsy and the Ketogenic DietKetogenic Diet Helps Young Ecuadorian Twins Improve Their Schizophrenic Symptoms | Chris Palmer, MDThe Ketogenic Diet for the Treatment of Mood Disorders in Comorbidity With Epilepsy in Children and Adolescents | Frontiers In PharmacologyThe Life-Extension Episode — Dr. Matt Kaeberlein on The Dog Aging Project, Rapamycin, Metformin, Spermidine, NAD+ Precursors, Urolithin A, Acarbose, and Much More | The Tim Ferriss Show #610Metabolic Psychiatry: A Patient-Provider Discussion with Christin Kehoe & Christopher Palmer, MD | Metabolic Health SummitMy Life Extension Pilgrimage to Easter Island | The Tim Ferriss Show #193Peter Attia, M.D. — Fasting, Metformin, Athletic Performance, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show #398 Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey and Eric HagermanStudy Shows Keto Diet Can Help You Sleep Better | Sleep FoundationTop 13 Common Keto Mistakes and How to Fix Them | Perfect KetoWhat is Metabolic Psychiatry? | Stanford MedicineTIMESTAMPS[00:00:00] Start.[00:01:48] Kicking off with custom kettlebells.[00:03:00] How David and I connected through Dominic D’Agostino and metabolic health research.[00:04:30] Matthew Baszucki’s eight-year journey with bipolar disorder before keto breakthrough.[00:08:14] Rescuing Matthew from the streets with a strategic hospital admission.[00:18:18] Matthew’s disappearance from his mother’s perspective.[00:19:37] Understanding how the ketogenic diet helps people with bipolar disorder.[00:24:21] Meeting the challenges of ketogenic diet compliance.[00:30:06] Measuring ketone levels.[00:32:17] The clandestine Canadian CKM smuggling ring.[00:33:07] The calm optimism, mental clarity, and reduced sleep requirements of ketosis.[00:35:19] Breath hold experiments.[00:37:44] Optimizing my sleep and minimizing my OCD on ketosis.[00:40:18] How exogenous ketones improve verbal acuity of relatives with Alzheimer’s[00:41:49] Lyme disease and ketosis.[00:44:37] Talk therapy vs. mechanical therapy: Fixing the machinery first.[00:45:47] Dangers of talk therapy without physiological foundation: Learned helplessness.[00:46:49] Atmospheric Calm playlist: Ambient music for focus and productivity.[00:49:16] How Roblox fits in with human connection evolution to the tune of 120 million daily users.[00:52:50] Emergent games within the Roblox ecosystem.[00:54:32] Roblox’s safety infrastructure: Built for all ages from day one.[00:55:24] Future of 3D work: Virtual meetings replacing video calls, concerts, and political rallies.[00:56:57] The inevitability of innovation.[00:58:07] From early revenue challenges to a creator community earning over $1 billion a year.[01:02:52] Taking economic inspiration from Adam Smith.[01:03:54] Building the successful Robux system with a 20-person team in three months.[01:10:17] How does Roblox guard against IP theft among its digital creators?[01:14:32] Best company decisions made at Roblox thus far.[01:19:35] Missteps and mistakes.[01:21:07] When intuitive tech predictions pay off.[01:25:49] David’s favorite niche Roblox games.[01:28:41] Roblox kid safety: Filtered communication, parental controls, future AI age estimation, and clustering.[01:32:02] Roblox AI infrastructure: Hundreds of models for safety, translation, 3D creation, and procedurally generated dreaming.[01:33:33] Predictions: Sci-fi becoming reality, holodeck timeline, AI movies in 3-5 years, photorealistic virtual concerts.[01:37:24] Product development and challenges of being a public company CEO.[01:41:35] David’s self-care routine.[01:45:20] Roblox wellness: CGMs for all employees, snack labeling system, employee transformations.[01:47:11] Exploratory reading.[01:49:32] “Feed Your Head”: David’s Jefferson Airplane-inspired billboard.[01:50:24] Whole cream vs. half-and-half for coffee and other parting thoughts.DAVID BASZUCKI QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW“[Our son with bipolar] tried a ketogenic diet, and literally within three weeks or four weeks, we saw progress that we had never seen with any drug or medication. Mind blown, really, and a miracle.”
— David Baszucki
“One other way to predict the future, I think, is many things are just inevitable. There are enough smart people around that the wheel was inevitable.”
— David Baszucki
“Roblox was always what is called a user-generated content platform, which means creators are making stuff, people are learning STEM, people are getting excited. Even the ego burst of having three friends play a game can really motivate a young person to get into computer science.”
— David Baszucki
“If you’re having a mental health crisis, work on your body and your machinery, maybe, before you work on the talk therapy. Get the strategic things right first.”
— David Baszucki
“If we were to tabulate the number of new entrants into computer science or graphic arts or economics that had been inspired by Roblox, it probably is in the millions, given just that experience that people have had on our platform.”
— David Baszucki
“What’s interesting is I’ve never really ever liked any business books ever. … The books I was obsessed with in my youth were the books about Magellan and Captain Cook and Mutiny on the Bounty and Joshua Slocum and just all of these crazy explorers, Amundsen and Scott and all of that stuff.”
— David Baszucki
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Want to hear another episode exploring the groundbreaking power of metabolic psychiatry? Listen to my conversation with Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Chris Palmer, in which we discussed his pioneering work using ketogenic diets to treat psychiatric disorders, the brain energy theory of mental illness, extraordinary case studies of recovery from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, how mitochondrial function affects mental health, and much more.
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