Passive Mindfulness with Oleg Stavitsky, CEO & Co-Founder of Endel
The Most Important Thing
Check out Endel in the app store and try it out for yourself to see if you love it as much as I do.
About Oleg Stavitsky
The CEO and Co-Founder of Endel, Oleg Stavitsky innovates at the intersection of technology, art, and nature. Through Endel, he has created a cross-platform audio ecosystem that leverages neuroscience to create personalized, sound-based adaptive environments that can improve health, well-being, and mood. Prior to Endel, Stavitsky co-founded BUBL in 2013 in Russia. A brand that applies digital art methods to kids apps, BUBL was featured by Apple and acquired by Fox&Sheep, one of top-three biggest kids apps publishers. Along with an elite design and coding team, Stavitsky has built seven BUBL apps, all of which have received an App Store Editor's Choice award, and many of which were selected to Best of App Store lists. Before BUBL, Stavitsky was a Features Editor at Igromania, Russia's biggest gaming magazine, and a producer at KranX Production, a videogame producing center founded by the creators of cult-classic PC titles like Vangers and Perimeter. Oleg also founded the award-winning V3 Agency, which he grew to 40 people and sold in 2016 to Berlin-based fintech company Aureum. V3 built apps for some of the biggest Berlin startups, including Kitchen Stories (acquired by Bosch) and Memorado, and also won numerous awards, including the Google Design Award, iF Design Award, and German Design Award.
Leveraging his diverse experiences in the confluence of gaming, digital and mobile technology, art, design, science, and consumer trends, Stavitsky continues to create unique businesses that impact millions of people and open the doors to meaningful experiences and further innovation.
About Endel
Endel app creates personalized soundscapes to give your mind and body what it needs to achieve total immersion in any task. Completely aligned with the circadian rhythm, these finely-tuned personalized sounds are good for stress reduction, productivity boost, deep work, daily relaxation, calm sleep. Endel’s soothing soundscapes are algorithm-powered and designed to gently rise and fall in line with your immediate internal and external conditions like location, time zone, weather, and heart rate.
Episode Overview:
In this episode, Oleg and I discussed quarantine in Berlin versus the US, whether technology was the right approach to try to solve mental health issues, the effect of music on our neurology and mental health, why it’s important to include artists in the creation of technology, and the difference between noise, sound, and music.
I learned a ton and hope you will too.
My Favorite Quotes:
“We’re trying to create a technology that will help us evolve as a species”
“I don’t think any of those things individual can help us. Technology itself is not enough. Art itself is not enough. Art is struggling to reach people these days because it needs to be more impactful and for that it needs technology. And all needs to be based in science in order to work.”
“Why do we build technology? Because human nature, we want more now.”
“Please be aware that you’re playing a game, which allows you to see through the game.”
“The more you mindlessly consume information, the more you get swept in this vortex.”
“I used to call Endel ‘Passive mindfulness,’ because it affects your cognitive state through the neuroscience of sound.”
“Technically music is organized sound.”
“I now have this professional ‘illness’ where everything is music to me, everything is constantly blending into a soundscape.”
“We’re one of the companies that collects data on you, but not to serve you ads, to make your life better.”
“Everything is neutral man”
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 – Talking about quarantine
5:00 – Is technology the right solution for mental health issues today
10:00 – Circadian Rhythms
16:00 – Technology and human nature
20:00 – Venture capital and incentives
25:00 – Why Oleg started Endel
30:00 –Berlin and Los Angeles
40:00 – How does Endel help solve information overload?
45:00 – Difference between noise, sound, and music
50:00 – Sound in Augmented Reality
55:00 – The future of Endel & human/technology relationship
Episode Links:
Oleg’s Info
Oleg’s Speech: Spiritual Evolution Through Technology at the Transformative Technology Conference
Endel Info
Other Resources & References
Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, PhD
How to Play the Game by Alan Watts
Brian Eno’s 15 Essential Ambient Works
Music is Everywhere – John Cage
Marc’s Info:
Marc Weinstein, host of the Look Up! Podcast is a public speaker for corporations, universities, and conferences. Click here to view past talks and to book Marc
