December 7, 2025 • 11 mins
I picked up Max Tegmark's "Life 3.0" thinking I'd learn about AI and the future of technology. I didn't expect to be pulled 13.8 billion years back in time. And I definitely didn't expect to cry. As I read about the Big Bang, the birth of stars, and how life first appeared, I kept thinking about my 14-year-old daughter. And I realized: someone should have told me this story when I was a kid. This episode isn't a book review. It's me, as a father, sharing what I learned about where we come from, what we're made of, and what this means for our children. In this episode, you'll discover:
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/be-better-bit-by-bit--4216679/support.
Thanks for listening!
If this episode helped you, I'd love to stay connected.
About me: I'm a CA ranker (AIR 48), ultra-marathon runner, and author with 20 years of work experience. I believe in getting better bit by bit—through daily journaling, honest reflection, and small actions.
Here's how we can work together:
📱 Download UPLY - Our app for daily growth and mindfulness
📚 Read my books & journals - Available on Amazon (search my name - Nishith Goyal)
🌐 Visit bebetterbitbybit.com - Free resources, blog posts, and more
🎯 Join my workshops - I teach journaling, mental wellness, and the GATE concept
One bit at a time, we all get better.
See you in the next episode!
- The 13.8 billion year journey from the Big Bang to you
- Why the calcium in your bones was once inside a star
- How we are literally made of stardust
- The three stages of life: biological, cultural, and technological
- Why "bit by bit" isn't just my philosophy—it's how the universe works
- What Life 3.0 (AI) means for the next generation
- How to tell your kids this cosmic story in a way that feels magical
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/be-better-bit-by-bit--4216679/support.
Thanks for listening!
If this episode helped you, I'd love to stay connected.
About me: I'm a CA ranker (AIR 48), ultra-marathon runner, and author with 20 years of work experience. I believe in getting better bit by bit—through daily journaling, honest reflection, and small actions.
Here's how we can work together:
📱 Download UPLY - Our app for daily growth and mindfulness
📚 Read my books & journals - Available on Amazon (search my name - Nishith Goyal)
🌐 Visit bebetterbitbybit.com - Free resources, blog posts, and more
🎯 Join my workshops - I teach journaling, mental wellness, and the GATE concept
One bit at a time, we all get better.
See you in the next episode!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I picked up a book last month. It's called Life
three point zero by Max Tegmark. I thought i'd learned
about artificial intelligence, about the future of technology. I didn't
expect to be pulled thirteen point eight billion years back
in time, and I definitely didn't expect to cry. But
here's what happened. As I was reading about the Big Bang,
(00:24):
about the birth of stars, about how life first appeared,
I kept thinking about my daughter, and I realized someone
should have told me this story when I was a kid.
So today I want to tell it to you, not
as a science lesson, as a parent talking to other
parents about where we came from, about what we're made of,
(00:47):
and about what this means for the next generation. Let
me take you back thirteen point eight billion years ago.
There was the Big Bang. Now, I don't know if
this is apps so slutely too, but it's the story
that science tells us, and honestly, it's beautiful. Everything we
(01:08):
see today, stars, planets, even us, was once squeezed into
something unimaginably small, and then it exploded outward. At first,
the universe was nothing but a hot soup of particles,
no stars, no light, no beauty, just noise. But inside
(01:29):
that soup there were tiny bumps places just a little
denser than the rest. Those bumps grew into galaxies. Hundreds
of millions of years later, gravity pulled atoms together, and
the first stars were born. Inside those stars, hydrogen atoms
(01:50):
fused into heavier elements carbon, oxygen, silicon, iron, and when
those stars died, they exploded, spreading those across the universe.
Here's the part that stopped me. The calcium in our
bones it was once inside a star. The iron in
our blood cooked inside a star that lived and died
(02:13):
billions of years ago. The oxygen we breathe stardust. We
are literally made of stardust. I sat there with the
book in my hands, thinking about my fourteen year old daughter,
and I thought, why didn't anyone tell me this when
I was her age? Why did science class feel like
(02:33):
memorizing formulas instead of discovering our story. Why did I
learn about the periodic table without learning that every element
in it came from the death of a star. This
isn't just science, this is who we are. At some
point on Earth, atoms organized themselves into something extraordinary, and
(02:55):
the structure that could copy itself. The first life form
from their life kept doubling, growing, evolving until it learned
to walk, to think, to write, to dream, and eventually
here we are wondering about it all. Max Tegmark talks
about three stages of life, and this is where it
(03:16):
gets really interesting. Life one point zero biological life, think bacteria, plants, animals.
They can survive and evolve, but only through slow genetic changes.
Their software is fixed in DNA. Both the hardware and
the software evolved together. Life two point zero cultural life.
(03:42):
That's us humans. We don't just evolve biologically. We learn,
We write books, we teach each other, We build societies.
Our software can change within a lifetime. If you learn
a new language, you're upgrading your operating system. If you
change a habit, you're rewriting code. The hardware is still evolving,
(04:03):
but the software we can customize it. And that right
there is where my be better bid by bit philosophy lives.
You see, for billions of years, the universe moved step
by step particles to atoms, atoms to stars, stars to planets,
planets to life. Nothing happened overnight. Everything happened bit by bit,
(04:28):
and we're the same. We don't need to transform completely.
To grow, we just need to believe in one percent
daily progress. If you listen to my earlier episode about
the invisible mistakes we make every day, you know what
I mean. We compare ourselves to others, we give our
time away, we let fear decide for us. But growth,
(04:51):
real growth, It happens when we make tiny choices consistently.
Just like the universe built galaxies from tiny bumps in
a soup of particles, we build better lives from tiny
choices in our daily routines. Now, life three point zero,
this is where we're heading. Technological life. Life that can
(05:16):
design both its hardware and software. It can rewrite itself,
improve itself, grow faster than biology ever allowed. That's artificial intelligence,
and honestly, it's both exciting and terrifying. Reading this made
me pause. For billions of years, the universe moved slowly.
(05:38):
Now we stand at the edge of a new step,
one where intelligence itself might no longer be limited to biology.
And I thought, what do I tell my daughter about this?
Here's what I realized. This story, this thirteen point eight
billion yere journey, isn't just about the universe out there.
It's about the universe in here inside of the same
(06:01):
laws of physics that shaped galaxies also shaped the atoms
in other bodies. The same process that forged us stars
also forge the conditions for life, consciousness, and eventually, our choices.
When I think about this, I feel two things at once,
(06:22):
humility and empowerment. Humility because we're so small in this
vast cosmic story. Empowerment because if life could climb from
a lifeless soup to something capable of writing poetry and
building apps, then what excuse do we have for not
(06:44):
evolving a little bit each day. I want my daughter
to know this story not as something dry or intimidating,
but as a story of who she is and where
she came from. I want her to feel the wonder
that she is made of stardust, to know that life's
ability to adapt, learn and grow is inside her too.
(07:07):
In my episode about why I almost didn't write my book,
I talked about the voice that stopped me. Who are
you to share this? But here's the thing. We are
all made of the same cosmic elements. We're all part
of this thirteen point eight billion year story. Our lived
experience matters not because we're experts, but because we're human
(07:32):
and we've figured something out. If more of us learned
to see ourselves as part of this grand journey, maybe
we treat each other with more care, Maybe we treat
our planet with more respect because we are not separate
from the universe. We are the universe experiencing itself. Life
three point zero opened my eyes in ways I didn't expect.
(07:55):
It made me realize that intelligence, memory, and computation god
a technical terms, their threads in the long story of life,
stretching from the Big Bang to the future of AI,
and that story is still being written. Billions of years ago.
Tiny fluctuations in a hot soup created galaxies. Today, tiny
(08:19):
choices in our daily lives will shape what comes next
for us, for our kids, for whatever Life three point
zero becomes. So here's what I'm taking from this as
a father, as someone who believes in getting better bit
by bit. First, tell your kids this story. Tell them
they're made of stardust. Tell them that every atom in
(08:42):
their body has traveled thirteen point eight billion years to
be here. That's not science classic, that's magic. Second, remember
that growth happens bit by bit. The universe didn't rush
stars took millions of years to form. Life took billions
of years to evolve. You don't need to transform overnight.
(09:05):
Just one percent better today than yesterday. That's enough. Third,
we're not just reading the story of the universe. We're
writing the next chapter. Every choice you make, every habit
you build, every kind word you speak, that's you adding
to this cosmic story. In my episode about grief and loss,
i said something that feels relevant here too. Suffering breaks
(09:32):
us open, and through that crack, the light gets in.
Maybe that's what the universe has been doing all along,
breaking things open, stars exploding, life evolving, consciousness emerging, all
so the light can get in. I'm not a scientist.
I'm just a dad runner, a writer trying to make
sense of this beautiful, messy world. But reading this book
(09:57):
reminded me of something important. We were part of something bigger,
and that means our small daily efforts matter more than
we think. When you journal in the morning, you're exercising
a consciousness that took thirteen point eight billion years to develop.
When you choose to be kind, you're using stardust to
(10:21):
create light in someone else's life. When you improve one percent,
you're continuing the universe's work of growth. And evolution. So tonight,
look up at the stars with your kids. Tell them
the story. Tell them they're made of those lights. Tell
them that billions of years from now, someone else might
(10:41):
look up and wonder about us. And tell them that
right now, right here, they get to decide what happens next.
Bid by bit, choice by choice, day by day, we
are not just reading the story of the universe. We
are the ones writing the next chapter. Thanks for listening,
And if this resonated with you, you go back and listen
(11:01):
to my episode about the invisible mistakes we make and
the one about why I almost didn't write my book,
because they're all connected. We're all connected thirteen point eight
billion years leading to this moment. To you listening to this,
that's not an accident. That's the universe experiencing itself, one
(11:25):
bit at a time. Let's be better, bit by bit
I picked up a book last month. It's called Life
three point zero by Max Tegmark. I thought i'd learned
about artificial intelligence, about the future of technology. I didn't
expect to be pulled thirteen point eight billion years back
in time, and I definitely didn't expect to cry. But
here's what happened. As I was reading about the Big Bang,
(00:24):
about the birth of stars, about how life first appeared,
I kept thinking about my daughter, and I realized someone
should have told me this story when I was a kid.
So today I want to tell it to you, not
as a science lesson, as a parent talking to other
parents about where we came from, about what we're made of,
(00:47):
and about what this means for the next generation. Let
me take you back thirteen point eight billion years ago.
There was the Big Bang. Now, I don't know if
this is apps so slutely too, but it's the story
that science tells us, and honestly, it's beautiful. Everything we
(01:08):
see today, stars, planets, even us, was once squeezed into
something unimaginably small, and then it exploded outward. At first,
the universe was nothing but a hot soup of particles,
no stars, no light, no beauty, just noise. But inside
(01:29):
that soup there were tiny bumps places just a little
denser than the rest. Those bumps grew into galaxies. Hundreds
of millions of years later, gravity pulled atoms together, and
the first stars were born. Inside those stars, hydrogen atoms
(01:50):
fused into heavier elements carbon, oxygen, silicon, iron, and when
those stars died, they exploded, spreading those across the universe.
Here's the part that stopped me. The calcium in our
bones it was once inside a star. The iron in
our blood cooked inside a star that lived and died
(02:13):
billions of years ago. The oxygen we breathe stardust. We
are literally made of stardust. I sat there with the
book in my hands, thinking about my fourteen year old daughter,
and I thought, why didn't anyone tell me this when
I was her age? Why did science class feel like
(02:33):
memorizing formulas instead of discovering our story. Why did I
learn about the periodic table without learning that every element
in it came from the death of a star. This
isn't just science, this is who we are. At some
point on Earth, atoms organized themselves into something extraordinary, and
(02:55):
the structure that could copy itself. The first life form
from their life kept doubling, growing, evolving until it learned
to walk, to think, to write, to dream, and eventually
here we are wondering about it all. Max Tegmark talks
about three stages of life, and this is where it
(03:16):
gets really interesting. Life one point zero biological life, think bacteria, plants, animals.
They can survive and evolve, but only through slow genetic changes.
Their software is fixed in DNA. Both the hardware and
the software evolved together. Life two point zero cultural life.
(03:42):
That's us humans. We don't just evolve biologically. We learn,
We write books, we teach each other, We build societies.
Our software can change within a lifetime. If you learn
a new language, you're upgrading your operating system. If you
change a habit, you're rewriting code. The hardware is still evolving,
(04:03):
but the software we can customize it. And that right
there is where my be better bid by bit philosophy lives.
You see, for billions of years, the universe moved step
by step particles to atoms, atoms to stars, stars to planets,
planets to life. Nothing happened overnight. Everything happened bit by bit,
(04:28):
and we're the same. We don't need to transform completely.
To grow, we just need to believe in one percent
daily progress. If you listen to my earlier episode about
the invisible mistakes we make every day, you know what
I mean. We compare ourselves to others, we give our
time away, we let fear decide for us. But growth,
(04:51):
real growth, It happens when we make tiny choices consistently.
Just like the universe built galaxies from tiny bumps in
a soup of particles, we build better lives from tiny
choices in our daily routines. Now, life three point zero,
this is where we're heading. Technological life. Life that can
(05:16):
design both its hardware and software. It can rewrite itself,
improve itself, grow faster than biology ever allowed. That's artificial intelligence,
and honestly, it's both exciting and terrifying. Reading this made
me pause. For billions of years, the universe moved slowly.
(05:38):
Now we stand at the edge of a new step,
one where intelligence itself might no longer be limited to biology.
And I thought, what do I tell my daughter about this?
Here's what I realized. This story, this thirteen point eight
billion yere journey, isn't just about the universe out there.
It's about the universe in here inside of the same
(06:01):
laws of physics that shaped galaxies also shaped the atoms
in other bodies. The same process that forged us stars
also forge the conditions for life, consciousness, and eventually, our choices.
When I think about this, I feel two things at once,
(06:22):
humility and empowerment. Humility because we're so small in this
vast cosmic story. Empowerment because if life could climb from
a lifeless soup to something capable of writing poetry and
building apps, then what excuse do we have for not
(06:44):
evolving a little bit each day. I want my daughter
to know this story not as something dry or intimidating,
but as a story of who she is and where
she came from. I want her to feel the wonder
that she is made of stardust, to know that life's
ability to adapt, learn and grow is inside her too.
(07:07):
In my episode about why I almost didn't write my book,
I talked about the voice that stopped me. Who are
you to share this? But here's the thing. We are
all made of the same cosmic elements. We're all part
of this thirteen point eight billion year story. Our lived
experience matters not because we're experts, but because we're human
(07:32):
and we've figured something out. If more of us learned
to see ourselves as part of this grand journey, maybe
we treat each other with more care, Maybe we treat
our planet with more respect because we are not separate
from the universe. We are the universe experiencing itself. Life
three point zero opened my eyes in ways I didn't expect.
(07:55):
It made me realize that intelligence, memory, and computation god
a technical terms, their threads in the long story of life,
stretching from the Big Bang to the future of AI,
and that story is still being written. Billions of years ago.
Tiny fluctuations in a hot soup created galaxies. Today, tiny
(08:19):
choices in our daily lives will shape what comes next
for us, for our kids, for whatever Life three point
zero becomes. So here's what I'm taking from this as
a father, as someone who believes in getting better bit
by bit. First, tell your kids this story. Tell them
they're made of stardust. Tell them that every atom in
(08:42):
their body has traveled thirteen point eight billion years to
be here. That's not science classic, that's magic. Second, remember
that growth happens bit by bit. The universe didn't rush
stars took millions of years to form. Life took billions
of years to evolve. You don't need to transform overnight.
(09:05):
Just one percent better today than yesterday. That's enough. Third,
we're not just reading the story of the universe. We're
writing the next chapter. Every choice you make, every habit
you build, every kind word you speak, that's you adding
to this cosmic story. In my episode about grief and loss,
i said something that feels relevant here too. Suffering breaks
(09:32):
us open, and through that crack, the light gets in.
Maybe that's what the universe has been doing all along,
breaking things open, stars exploding, life evolving, consciousness emerging, all
so the light can get in. I'm not a scientist.
I'm just a dad runner, a writer trying to make
sense of this beautiful, messy world. But reading this book
(09:57):
reminded me of something important. We were part of something bigger,
and that means our small daily efforts matter more than
we think. When you journal in the morning, you're exercising
a consciousness that took thirteen point eight billion years to develop.
When you choose to be kind, you're using stardust to
(10:21):
create light in someone else's life. When you improve one percent,
you're continuing the universe's work of growth. And evolution. So tonight,
look up at the stars with your kids. Tell them
the story. Tell them they're made of those lights. Tell
them that billions of years from now, someone else might
(10:41):
look up and wonder about us. And tell them that
right now, right here, they get to decide what happens next.
Bid by bit, choice by choice, day by day, we
are not just reading the story of the universe. We
are the ones writing the next chapter. Thanks for listening,
And if this resonated with you, you go back and listen
(11:01):
to my episode about the invisible mistakes we make and
the one about why I almost didn't write my book,
because they're all connected. We're all connected thirteen point eight
billion years leading to this moment. To you listening to this,
that's not an accident. That's the universe experiencing itself, one
(11:25):
bit at a time. Let's be better, bit by bit
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