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Ben Wilson

Host & Creator, How to Take Over the World · 13 appearances on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

hostfounderoperator@BenWilsonTweets ↗takeoverpod.com ↗

Ben Wilson is the creator and host of How to Take Over the World, a podcast analyzing the habits and tactics of transformative historical figures. He also served as a producer and frequent on-air collaborator on the My First Million podcast.

15statements → 10claims → 5claims resolved → 40%fully supported → 3.73/5average certainty → 2.07/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 46said about them ↓

2 supported 2 partly supported 1 contradicted 5 not checkable as stated how the 10 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

3 predictions · 7 assertions · 1 opinion · 4 insights · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 10 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 5 are resolved, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ben argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Wilson: Blitzkrieg was an American invention, not internal Nazi doctrine
“Blitzkrieg was sort of a marketing stunt. It wasn't anything that the Nazis talked about internally. It's really something like an American invention to explain German success.”
Ben Wilson Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 8:34 Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369)

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
60 federal agents infiltrated Silk Road with fake transactions
“That's 60 federal agents who were on there doing like fake sales or fake buys and bust.”
Ben Wilson Dec 29, 2021 ▶ 32:03 The Story of Dark Web Kingpin Ross Ulbricht

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
100% certainty 3
60% certainty 4
none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ben Wilson on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ben Wilson said on My First Million that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Wilson: MrBeast admitted wagering tens of thousands on crypto gambling
“I was talking with him and he was like, yeah, I can't really gamble because I'm kind of a gambling addict. And he talked about like I don't want to say the name of the game, highly addicting crypto gambling site that he would be wagering like tens of thousands…”
Ben Wilson Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 13:45 Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369)
Opinion
Ben Wilson: Malcolm Gladwell is full of crap with little substantive value
“I think that Malcolm Gladwell is full of crap. Most of his stuff is, like, of little to no value.”
Ben Wilson Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 23:55 Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369)
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Crypto hype is peaking and will face a major disillusionment phase
“I think we're right at like the top of the initial hype cycle for crypto. We're going to hit like a big Like disillusionment period where a lot of people are going to leave the space and then it will find its footing and find some legitimate uses a few years f…”
Ben Wilson Dec 29, 2021 ▶ 5:31 The Story of Dark Web Kingpin Ross Ulbricht
Insight
Ben Wilson: Success requires shedding embarrassment and fully committing to the bit
“The idea of just like throw away your shame and embarrassment, whatever you're trying to do, just fully commit to the bit and you're going to be really successful. I think that's very true.”
Ben Wilson Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 6:04 Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369)
Assertion Supported
Wilson: Blitzkrieg was an American invention, not internal Nazi doctrine
“Blitzkrieg was sort of a marketing stunt. It wasn't anything that the Nazis talked about internally. It's really something like an American invention to explain German success.”
Ben Wilson Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 8:34 Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369)
Assertion Supported
Ben Wilson: CEOs Have Higher Addiction Rates Than General Population
“People who achieve a lot, CEOs you'd think that like they don't have problems with substance abuse, right? Cause these are highly functioning people, but it actually turns out that they have higher rates of addiction and substance abuse than the general popula…”
Ben Wilson Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 11:48 Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369)
Insight
Ben Wilson: YouTube videos must be gripping second-by-second
“Cause podcasts like you listen to as you're washing the dishes, like it doesn't matter that it's not gripping every second of the audio, but for YouTube, like it does need to be gripping every second, like really needs to pull people second by second.”
Ben Wilson Jul 19, 2022 ▶ 5:08 Our Producer Had A 90-Minute Phone Call With Mr Beast…
Insight
Ben Wilson: Great creators follow unreasonable passions over safe choices
“And so for Mr. Beast, it's just like the, don't let anyone convince you that you need to be working on the reasonable thing. Like you need to follow your unreasonable passions because some, somehow great things are going to come out of that.”
Ben Wilson Jul 19, 2022 ▶ 9:56 Our Producer Had A 90-Minute Phone Call With Mr Beast…
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Wilson: Remote workers will increasingly congregate around niche hobby communities
“And I think as people can now choose where they want to live, they're going to start congregating more in groups of like, I don't know, group around their hobbies or like vegans, how they want to eat. I don't know, like random niches.”
Ben Wilson Jan 12, 2022 ▶ 5:21 Saas Companies that Anyone Can Start with Rob Walling
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Startup and autonomous cities will be the next big crypto trend
“The other thing that I'm like super interested in, and I think is going to be a big space for the crypto type people. Going forward is idea of like startup cities, autonomous cities like kind of building a new way of living from the ground up”
Ben Wilson Dec 29, 2021 ▶ 1:54 The Story of Dark Web Kingpin Ross Ulbricht
Assertion Partly supported
Ross Ulbricht was never charged with or convicted of murder-for-hire
“Yeah, so to be clear, he was never convicted of this. In fact, he was never even charged with putting out these hits.”
Ben Wilson Dec 29, 2021 ▶ 34:11 The Story of Dark Web Kingpin Ross Ulbricht
Assertion Partly supported
DEA estimated Silk Road processed $1.2 billion in illegal drug transactions
“This is like DEA estimates. So they say 1.2 billion dollars worth of illegal drug transit transactions took place.”
Ben Wilson Dec 29, 2021 ▶ 51:38 The Story of Dark Web Kingpin Ross Ulbricht
Insight
Wilson: Strategic breakthroughs like Amazon require concentrating resources on narrow targets
“It's not just going fast, although fast is important, but it's that like focusing tons of resources on a small focal point. So like to go back to the Amazon example, it's starting with bookstores, right? It's starting with just books. Like I'm gonna take tons …”
Ben Wilson Oct 1, 2022 ▶ 9:47 Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369)
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ben Wilson: MrBeast calls interesting people during night walks
“At night he goes for walks and he just calls people who he thinks are interesting. And he tries to like download their brains and learn anything that he can.”
Ben Wilson Jul 19, 2022 ▶ 3:57 Our Producer Had A 90-Minute Phone Call With Mr Beast…
Assertion Contradicted
60 federal agents infiltrated Silk Road with fake transactions
“That's 60 federal agents who were on there doing like fake sales or fake buys and bust.”
Ben Wilson Dec 29, 2021 ▶ 32:03 The Story of Dark Web Kingpin Ross Ulbricht

The other half of the tape: Ben Wilson's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 46 times in 25 episodes on My First Million. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Shaan Puri 27Sam Parr 18Noah Kagan 1

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
001352510202120222023202420252026episodesmentions
0510202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
001.352.510202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 2 mentions in 1 episode
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2023 4 mentions in 4 episodes 1 per episode
2022 15 mentions in 8 episodes 2 per episode
2021 22 mentions in 9 episodes 2 per episode

Appearances (13)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Samir Explains Why 99% Of Content Creators Fail At YouTube | Samir Chaudry Interview Sep 4, 2023 21s
How To Write Off $1,000,000 In Taxes (#447) Apr 25, 2023 10s
Facebook's Stock Is Up 43%, Jack Butcher's NFT Makes Millions & More Tech News (#418) Feb 10, 2023 1m
8 Profitable Side Hustles For The Halloween & Christmas Season (#381) Nov 1, 2022 3s
9 Business Ideas To Profit From The 2022 A.I. Gold Rush (Using Dall-E & GPT3) (#376) Oct 18, 2022 35s
Controversial Business Lessons From Napoleon, Edison, & Hitler (#369) Oct 1, 2022 14m
Our Producer Had A 90-Minute Phone Call With Mr Beast… Jul 19, 2022 6m
How To Get Billion Dollar Business Ideas From Investment Bankers Apr 22, 2022 1s
Saas Companies that Anyone Can Start with Rob Walling Jan 12, 2022 7m
The Story of Dark Web Kingpin Ross Ulbricht Dec 29, 2021 18m
How to Have an Early Adopter Mindset, ConstitutionDAO, Optimizing Twitter Bios, and More Nov 23, 2021 50s
Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, "How Much is Pomp Worth?", and More Nov 19, 2021 15s
How Brumate Made $20M with 0 Employees, Shahid Khan is the Billionaire of the Week, and Mo Oct 12, 2021 55s
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