Pushing the Edge | Hardpoints

"Managing risk is a huge part of being in the military, running a startup, and working national security. You have to push to find solutions, but you need to make sure it all doesn't blow up.

In **“Pushing the Edge,”** Mike and Neal connect all three worlds — cockpits, data centers, and battlefields — to ask a hard question: *how far can you lean forward before you cross the line from bold to reckless?* They start with the grind of startup life and climate tech, where regulations in one country shape markets everywhere and climate change itself becomes “the greatest market forcing mechanism in history.” From there, they get into what it means to move from survival mode to disruption mode as a founder, and why defining culture and identity early can be the difference between being merely “world famous” and truly **world class**.

On the national security and energy front, they dig into DOE’s rare earths push, mining landfills, and the tension between environmentalism and actually *building big stuff*. They wrestle with AI in critical infrastructure — grids, water systems, even aviation — and whether we’re quietly trading resilience for efficiency and new cyber vulnerabilities. That flows into a candid look at Anduril’s troubled drone tests, why failure is normal in frontier tech, and where pushing too fast can become unacceptable risk.

Finally, they turn to the startup economy and duty: the collapse of Builder.ai as a kind of mini-Theranos, what ESG *really* is (risk management, not vibes), and why governance and personal responsibility matter from junior engineer to board member. The episode closes on the “Don’t Give Up the Ship” controversy, illegal orders, and the moral obligations of people in uniform — plus some personal good/bad/ugly on snowless Colorado winters, camping with kids, and a tech bubble that’s starting to feel wobbly.

If you care about energy, defense, AI, or building companies that don’t implode under their own hype, this one’s a dense, honest lap around the track."