Episode Details

In this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, host Stewart Alsop sits down with Daniel Segundo to discuss why today's social networks have evolved into entertainment networks and how Daniel is building Bien, a social app focused on depth over breadth. Daniel shares his journey from trading commodities to creating a platform designed to keep users genuinely connected to their inner circle, inspired by insights gained while meditating in caves in India. The conversation covers everything from the problems with the "like button" and algorithmic feeds to Daniel's contrarian approach of removing public-facing engagement metrics and using voice notes as the primary interaction method. They also explore the challenges of building consumer social products, the impact of AI on development, and Daniel's philosophy drawn from Eastern mysticism and his study of Ramana Maharshi. To learn more about Bien, visit bien.social or follow Daniel on Twitter at @DanielPSegundo.

Timestamps

00:00 Daniel introduces Bien as a real social network, contrasting entertainment networks disguised as social platforms
05:00 Building with AI tools allowed bootstrapping the app before hiring a five-person team for professional development
10:00 Social networks evolved into entertainment networks optimized for engagement and advertising rather than genuine connection
15:00 The advertising model incentivizes dopamine delivery and algorithmic content over posts from actual friends
20:00 Removing the like button and public comments forces deeper interaction through private voice notes instead
25:00 Social graphs become stale over time because unfriending feels awkward, so people curate for weakest relationships
30:00 Matrix and Nostr protocols enable interoperable messaging, suggesting a Cambrian explosion of new social apps
35:00 Depth matters more than metrics—success means users actually feel closer to their inner circle
40:00 Voice notes combined with photo sharing mimics natural storytelling behavior when friends gather in person
45:00 Meditation in Ramana Maharshi's caves in India inspired reflections on silence, self-inquiry, and building products mindfully

Key Insights

1. Daniel Segundo was inspired to create Bien after recognizing that existing social networks excel at breadth but fail at depth of connections. While meditating in caves in South India, he went through his phone contacts and realized only about 5 percent of his 1,700 contacts were people he actually wanted to stay close to, with the remaining 95 percent being noise. He saw that tools like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have solved the problem of maintaining surface-level relationships across broad networks of people, but there was no good tool for maintaining deep connections with your inner circle beyond basic messaging apps like iMessage or WhatsApp, which still suffer from having too many contacts with access.
2. The fundamental problem with current social networks is that they have become entertainment networks rather than true social networks, driven by the advertising business model. Instagram only shows content from your actual friends about 7 percent of the time, with the rest being algorithmically suggested content designed to maximize engagement and ad revenue. The like button, while useful for maintaining broad social graphs and understanding your status in larger groups, reduces complex human relationships to superficial interactions. This creates what Segundo calls a circus-like experience where you are constantly bombarded with entertaining content rather than meaningful updates from people you care about, and the advertising model incentivizes this transformation because the product is ultimately about delivering dopamine to keep people scrolling.
3. Bien removes traditional social media features like