143 entries indexed
The U.S. stock market has been supported by passive investing and buybacks, pushing valuations above long-term averages. Rising interest rates have not lowered stock prices as expected, showing a shift in market dynamics. This makes the market fragile and prone to sharp, deep crashes when investor sentiment changes.
Building a strong social life helps you connect with winners and improves your quality of life. Focus on being positive, useful, and true to yourself to create meaningful relationships. Surrounding yourself with multiple social circles gives you support, knowledge, and new opportunities.
Being a man means showing respect, taking responsibility, and always striving to improve yourself. Value close relationships, stay true to your word, and handle challenges with calm and confidence. Focus on meaningful experiences, health, and kindness while avoiding distractions and negativity.
This website offers a growing collection of life-changing articles and videos. It includes topics on life, art, business, and inspiring interviews. The content is free to access and regularly updated for education and personal growth.
Laws and regulations alone cannot stop wrongdoing unless breaking them brings real and certain punishment. In India's financial markets, weak enforcement lets dishonest sellers keep harming customers without serious consequences. To protect people, authorities must enforce rules strictly and punish offenders harshly, not just make more rules.
To succeed in your career, be reliable, create value, and focus on doing the work. Surround yourself with talented people and learn from feedback to grow faster. Remember, your employer may not be loyal, so take charge of your own path and act on good advice.
To change your life, you must first change who you are, not just your actions. Spend one day deeply questioning your goals and identity to find true clarity. Then, use that insight to create clear, meaningful goals that guide your new path.
Devdutt Pattanaik contrasts Western and Indian views of money. \nThe West treats money as a clear system for trade and capitalism. \nIndia sometimes treats money as sacred and even worships wealth.
Social media tricks your brain to feel like time is passing faster by weakening your memory and focus. This makes you lose track of moments and forget what you saw, shortening your sense of life. To feel time slow and richer, choose new, meaningful experiences and avoid getting lost in endless scrolling.
The essay explains how chasing rare jackpot wins often leads most people to lose everything over time. This mindset has spread in culture, making many take huge risks that hurt the average person while only benefiting a few winners. The author suggests focusing on steady, reliable growth and finding deeper meaning beyond risky bets.
You often fail because you view failure negatively and don't learn from it. Success requires a mindset shift, where you embrace mistakes as essential for growth. To improve, develop a strategic plan, analyze your identity, and adapt your approach to align with your goals.
The author argues that living at the extremes leads to a more fulfilling life, while the middle ground fosters mediocrity. He shares his resolutions for 2025, emphasizing simplicity in exercise, investing, and relationships. The piece encourages readers to embrace unique experiences and prioritize personal growth over societal expectations.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a troubled Russian writer, found meaning in life through struggle rather than comfort. His philosophy suggests that true happiness comes from the journey, embracing freedom, and accepting the pain that accompanies love. Ultimately, he believed that seeking a higher purpose and understanding the supernatural aspect of existence leads to a more fulfilling life.
Fabrice Grinda shares his experience in hosting Jeffersonian dinners, where a small group engages in a single, deep conversation on thought-provoking topics. These dinners encourage equal participation and respectful dialogue, allowing guests to share personal stories and insights. The goal is to foster meaningful connections and stimulate intellectual discourse, contributing to a vibrant exchange of ideas.
The text discusses the trend of gamification in various aspects of life. The author explores how many things are being turned into games for engagement and motivation. Visit Gurwinder's blog for more information on this topic.
Jung's five pillars of a good life focus on physical and mental health, relationships, beauty, work satisfaction, and philosophical outlook. He emphasizes progress towards happiness rather than seeking pure happiness, drawing on personal experience and modern research to support his approach. Jung's well-rounded strategy includes elements like deep relationships, appreciation of beauty, and finding a sense of purpose or transcendence.
Kevin Kelly shares 101 valuable pieces of advice, including being open to learning, embracing failure, and celebrating the success of others. He emphasizes the importance of self-improvement, staying humble, and being kind to others. Kelly's advice encourages personal growth, resilience, and a positive outlook on life.
To do great work, focus on projects that deeply interest you and work hard on them. Try many different things to discover what suits you best, even if others don't see their value. Great ideas often come from persistent effort, curiosity, and seeing problems in new ways.
Mark Manson discusses the importance of embracing struggles and challenges rather than solely pursuing happiness. He suggests that happiness is a byproduct of our actions and gratitude, not a constant state to achieve. Focusing on goals and personal responsibility is key to finding fulfillment in life.
The text shares insightful quotes from various thinkers on life, happiness, and personal growth. It emphasizes self-reflection, the importance of relationships, and the need to challenge our beliefs. Overall, it encourages readers to consider their values and how they impact their lives.
The fastest way to get rich is to go slow.
Venkatesh Rao discusses various topics including failures of imagination vs. failures of nerve, the \"paycheck people\" mentality in the industrial economy, risk-taking and privilege, and the importance of courageous decision-making in unlocking the process of meaning-making. He also explores the idea that rationality can lead to nihilism, and the need for people to test their agency by facing challenges that break their assumptions about the world. Overall, he emphasizes the importance of cultivating a nuanced understanding of risk and agency in order to navigate the complexities of
All of the interesting systems (e. g.
A gallery of real world marketing examples from successful companies. Want to perfect your cold email, boost referrals or improve SEO? Browse the case studies or filter by category. See something you like. And get inspired. It's like Dribbble, but for marketers.
\"The unhappiest people in the world are those in the international watering places. Parties every night, golf every afternoon. Drinking too much, talking too much, thinking too little.\" -Richard Nixon
The majority of your lifetime investment returns will be deter- mined by decisions that take place during a small minority of the time.
How to maximize returns during market panics
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The Most Important Forces Shaping the World
How narratives shape the economy, and why our ability to tell stories is changing
People aren’t deliberate enough about choosing what to work on. To paraphrase the words of John O’Donohue, we are blind to the complacency that passes for ambition in modern society. Too many of our smartest minds are working on trivial tasks and spending their time in corporations where they feel invisible. The vast majority of my
In just 3 minutes, help us better understand how you perceive arXiv.
A friend of mine who is thinking about starting a new hedge fund recently asked for my advice. I wrote him this letter. While this friend is thinking of starting a hedge fund, I think many of the questions are relevant to starting any new platform. I know you’ve been thinking about starting your own […]
Browse through previous lessons by Startup School teachers and mentors
#1 Paid Crypto Substack, Tech, RE and WiFi $. Equal Opportunity, Unequal Results. Not Legal or Financial Advice. Advisor for Synapse Protocol 2022-2024.
Smart people often believe wrong things because intelligence can serve goals other than truth, like status or belonging. Skilled reasoning lets them justify beliefs they want to hold, not what is true. Humility and curiosity, not raw smarts, steer intelligence toward truth.
Merlin's Wisdom Project (Draft). GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.
A few things I’ve come to terms with…
Unequalled insight on career and personal finance. Click to read Mind Without Boundary, by David Alade, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
Stoicism, an ancient philosophy embraced by figures like Marcus Aurelius, Thomas Jefferson, and Nelson Mandela, provides a timeless remedy for the challenges of the modern age. It encourages focusing on what can be controlled, such as our reactions and perceptions, rather than being distracted by external factors beyond our influence. By emphasizing virtues like temperance, gratitude, and the acceptance of fate, Stoicism offers a path to inner peace and contentment amidst the chaos and distractions of the digital era. By addressing emotions like desire, anxiety, and anger, Stoicism provides a practical guide to navigating life's challenges with resilience and wisdom.
1/\n\nGet a cup of coffee.\n\nIn this thread, I'll walk you through Income Statements:\n\na) What they are,\n\nb) What key things about a business we can learn from them, and\n\nc) Some important caveats we should keep in mind while reading them.
In \"The Pathless Path,\" Paul Millerd shares his journey of finding freedom and fulfillment beyond traditional full-time work. He emphasizes the importance of pursuing what truly brings joy and creativity, rather than just chasing financial success. By exploring unconventional paths and connecting with others, he discovered a deeper sense of purpose in life.
A lot of things don’t make any sense. The numbers don’t add up, the explanations are full of holes. And yet they keep happening – people making crazy decisions, reacting in bizarre ways. Over and over. Historian Will Durant once said, “logic is an invention of man and may be ignored by the universe.” And it often is, which can drive you mad if you expect the world to work in rational ways. A common cause of everything from divisive arguments to bad forecasting is that it can be hard to distinguish what’s happening from what you think should be happening. Two short war stories to show you what I mean. The Battle of the Bulge was one of the deadliest American military battles in history. Nineteen thousand American soldiers were killed, another 70,000 wounded, in just over a month as Nazi Germany made an ill-fated last push against the Allies. Part of the reason it was so bloody is that Americans were surprised. And part of the reason they were surprised is that in the rational minds of American generals, it made n...
20 useful frameworks on startups, investing, writing, & life
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Constantine Sandis 2 pages 1 file Philosophy Ethics Philosophy of Action Scalability converts qualitative statements into quantitative
There’s a saying – I don’t know whose – that an expert is always from out of town.
Everyone knows how difficult it can be to achieve goals and follow through on new, positive habits. We want to exercise, but it’s so much easier to watch Netflix. We want to homecook our meals, but it’s so much more convenient to order food on DoorDash. We want to knock a bunch of errands off […]
There aren’t many iron laws of money. But here’s one, and perhaps the most important: If expectations grow faster than income you’ll never be happy with your money. One of the most important financial skills is getting the goalpost to stop moving. It’s also one of the hardest. First, a little story about the 1950s. “The present and immediate future seem astonishingly good,” LIFE magazine’s January, 1953 cover story begins. “The country has just lived through what was economically the greatest year in its history” it wrote. It had done this with “10 straight years of full employment, through new management attitudes which include an increasing realization that the well-paid worker, who does his job under healthy and agreeable conditions, is a valuable worker.” Wealth came so fast to so many it was jarring. “In the 1930s I worried about how I could eat,” LIFE quotes one taxi driver. “Now I’m worrying about where to park.” If these quotes don’t surprise you it’s because the 1950s are so often remembered as the gold...
Dancoland, Season 3 Episode 15
Plus: dLocal, Tencent, Lemonade
In this chat Harsh and Pooja cover a wide variety of topics around self-improvement and business
Markets and smart incentives can guide resource use and improve institutions. \nHarberger taxes and other \"radical market\" ideas let owners set prices but face taxes and buyouts to reduce holdouts and inefficiency. \nWith good defaults and helpful AIs, these market designs could be tested in smaller, decentralized settings before wider adoption.
Hey everyone, I’m happy to share this week another podcast chat with Jim O’Shaughnessy on his show, Infinite Loops. (Feels like this might be a recurring thing.) Alex Danco: Makes a Scene | Infinit…
Some things scale well. Double their size and you get double the output (or more). Other things don’t, and my God is it important to know which is which. Let me tell you about Robert Wadlow. He was enormous, the largest human ever known. A pituitary gland abnormality bombarded Wadlow’s body with growth hormone, leading to staggering size. He was six feet tall at age seven, seven feet tall by age 11, and when he died at age 22 stood an inch shy of nine feet tall, weighed 500 pounds, and wore size 37 shoes. His hand was a foot wide. He was what fictional stories would portray as a superhuman athlete, capable of running faster, jumping higher, lifting more weight and crushing more bad guys than any normal person. Like a real-life Paul Bunyan. But that was not Wadlow’s life at all. He required steel leg braces to stand and a cane to walk. His walk wasn’t much more than a limp, requiring tremendous effort. What few videos of Wadlow exist show a man whose movements are strained and awkward. He was rarely seen standing...
David Byrne, from the Talking Heads, wrote a book recently called How Music Works that’s filled with interesting insight into the mechanics and the detail of how music gets made, and how scenes get…
The Venture Capital market has historically done a poor job of discerning which Lending Platforms will become valuable, and which ones won’t.
A truth that applies to many fields, which can frustrate some as much as it energizes others, is that the person who tells the most compelling story wins. Not who has the best idea, or the right answer. Just whoever tells a story that catches people’s attention and gets them to nod their heads. C. R. Hallpike is a respected anthropologist who once wrote a review of a young author’s recent book on the history of humans. It states: It would be fair to say that whenever his facts are broadly correct they are not new, and whenever he tries to strike out on his own he often gets things wrong, sometimes seriously … [It is not] a contribution to knowledge. Two things are notable here. One is that the book’s author doesn’t seem to disagree with the assessment. Another is that the author, Yuval Noah Harari, has sold over 27 million books, making him one of the bestselling contemporary authors in any field, and his book Sapiens – which Hallpike was reviewing – the most successful anthropology book of all time. Harari rece...
Prime Minister Modi should launch a digital rupee – and back it with digital gold.
Alex Danco's Newsletter, Season 3, Episode 2
A short introduction to why we want the things we want.
On Mimetic Violence and the Necessity of Restraint
A couple years ago when I started this newsletter, the inaugural post was an introduction to René Girard. I’ve been meaning to rewrite it for quite some time. Today – Election Day, 2020 ̵…
Inflections in finance and tech. Click to read The Diff, by Byrne Hobart, a Substack publication.
Summary Chaord comes from the combination of two words: chaos and order. This exemplifies the behavior of any self-governing organism, organization, or system which harmoniously blends characteristics of order and chaos; patterned in a way dominated by neither chaos or order; characteristic of the fundamental organizing principles and nature Key Takeaways Community Organizations moving from […]
Conversations about ideas should help you understand what you think. They need more tension than a regular conversation but not so much that you're afraid to share nascent thoughts. The best...
For a sector whose success is so closely tied to the steady flow of economic activity, what happens when the world stops spinning? What does the next leg of financial inclusion look like in India?
First, become highly skilled and do the work so your work is clear and valuable. \nNext, build the right network so people notice and refer you. \nTogether this brings disproportionate opportunities, respect, and influence.
When we experience loneliness, it’s only possible because of an underlying feeling of disconnection. Here's how to get connected.
Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade, but it's not too early to ask why, and what we need to do about it... Our nation and our civilization were built on production, on building. We built roads and trains, farms and factories, then the computer, the microchip, the smartphone, and uncounted thousands of other things that we now take for granted, that are all around us, that define our lives and provide for our well-being. There is only one way to create the future we want for our own children and grandchildren, and that's to build.
We are led by high-functioning sociopaths, in our politics and our economy, and nowhere is this more apparent than in our war against COVID-19. It's a power thing. Read more
A warning against the most common pitfall of the freedom of youth. This letter can save your life and help you avoid a lifetime of pain, shame, and regret.
Summary Bloom argues that the individual is merely a “cell” within the larger group and that these groups are the primary units of selection no genes and human psychology. Hierarchy is front and center in Bloom’s understanding of the world. “This book is about the social body in which we are the unwitting cells. It […]
In this classic game theory experiment, you must decide: rat out another for personal benefit, or cooperate? The answer may be more complicated than you think.
Nothing that’s happened had to happen, or must happen again. That’s why historians aren’t prophets. Wars, booms, busts, inventions, breakthroughs – none of those things were inevitable. They happened, and they’ll keep happening in various forms. But specific events that shape history are always low-probability events. Their surprise is what causes them to leave a mark. And they were surprising specifically because they weren’t inevitable. A lot of things have to go right (or wrong) to move the needle in what is an otherwise random swarm of eight billion people on earth just trying to make it through the day. The problem when studying historical events is that you know how the story ends, and it’s impossible to un-remember what you know today when thinking about the past. It’s hard to imagine alternative paths of history when the actual path is already known. So things always look more inevitable than they were. Now let me tell you a story about the Great Depression. “After booms come busts,” is about as close to...
To all the awesome people I’ve met in my life,
Some tips on writing a cold email.
If you follow applied mechanism design or decentralized governance at all, you may have recently heard one of a few buzzwords: quadratic voting, quadratic funding and quadratic attention purchase.
In college I first heard Jason Fried from Basecamp talk about how making money is a skill—like playing the drums or piano—that you can get better at over time. That resonated with me immediately. I wouldn’t expect to be able to sit down at a piano for the first time an
To explain this point I need to burn my reputation with some group of people, and I'm going to choose bus ticket collectors. There are people who collect old bus tickets.
Complicated stuff can stem from a handful of common roots. Understanding those common roots can be more important than trying to wrap your head around complexity. To show you what I mean, let me tell you a story about stories. Tens of millions of fictional stories have been published, written by authors of every age, culture, and life experience that exists. Most never knew each other or read each other’s work. Their stories range from prehistoric battles to science fiction. Stories are perhaps the most diverse things our imaginations have ever created. But all of these stories – every story, according to author Christopher Booker – take shape in remarkably similar ways. “There are a small number of plots which are so fundamental to the way we tell stories that it is virtually impossible for any storyteller ever entirely to break away from them,” Booker writes. He argues only seven plots exist in the history of fictional storytelling: 1. Overcoming Monsters, 2. Rags to Riches, 3. The Quest, 4. Voyage and Return,...
Ergodicity - the average outcome of the group is the same as the average outcome of the individual over time.
Trends and observations from running a Twitter account with 80k+ followers. On attention seekers, haters, personal brands, doers, outrage, addiction, and online communities.
Startups need to create barriers, called moats, to protect their innovations from competition. While some startups may start with a moat, most must develop one over time to ensure long-term success. Understanding the different types of moats can help entrepreneurs evaluate their competitive advantages as they grow.
David explores how Christianity and religion shape Peter Thiel's worldview and success. Read here.
It has become popular lately to call for the breakup of so-called Big Tech. Such calls have come from Senator and Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, the…View Post
“Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight Eisenhower One of the primary frameworks I use in my work is something I call the business production function. It’s a diagnostic tool that lets me quickly look at the four big categories of business and asks: which one of these is the current limit? Which of... [Read more]
CoVenture got started during my senior year of college. I’m often asked “how did you convince your first LP’s to back you?”
A great business is like a great money manager. They take money in, invest it, and turn it into more money. In the case of a company, it can invest its money into manufacturing plants, marketing, h…
There are 3 paths to financial independence: inherting a lot, selling your company, or cutting out all the fun stuff a la FIRE. What if none are compelling?
Our individualistic culture inflames the ego and numbs the spirit. Failure teaches us who we are.
Whenever I feel uninspired, I look to a collection of my favorite quotes and passages I keep in a document on my computer or marked in my books (my idea bank). Today was one of those days. As I was re-reading some of these and remembering why I love writing, reading, and the power of […]
The document \"11 Secrets That Will Make You More Secure On The Internet\" delves into various strategies to enhance online security and privacy. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the difference between security and privacy, offering tips from using strong passwords to implementing two-factor authentication. The document also covers practices such as full disk encryption, firewall usage, and regular software updates to bolster digital security. Additionally, it provides insights on safeguarding against SIM swapping attacks, utilizing VPNs for secure internet browsing, and adopting a skeptical mindset to combat phishing attempts effectively.
https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2019/02/why-are-people-miserable-at-work
6 steps to synch your finances with your partner by standardizing the numbers (Mint or YNAB), using sub-accounts, stress-testing, identifying money values.
I am on the board of a company that is currently at breakeven. The business is low on cash, and last year they didn’t make money — but…
Many people waste time on the internet due to constant access through mobile devices. To regain control, the idea of \"Digital Minimalism\" encourages a 30-day break from optional technologies and a focus on activities that truly matter. After the break, you can reintroduce technology that positively supports your values while managing your screen time more intentionally.
In April, in a small town on a small island in a small string of islands trailing down from the main part of Japan, the world’s then-oldest person died.
Why don't facts change our minds? This article explains the logic of false beliefs and proposes a better system for constructive conversation.
The text discusses how we mistakenly identify with our thoughts and feelings, causing us to feel stuck and burdened by problems and habits. By realizing that our experiences are temporary and not who we are, we can let go of clinging to them and find freedom and well-being. Understanding this perspective can lead to a lighter, more peaceful way of living.
Creating “smart villages” is a more sustainable opportunity to drive growth than converting chaotic urban environments into “smart cities.”
Innovation grows when people imagine a better future and connect with the material world, like manufacturing and engineering. Losing industrial jobs means fewer young people learn important skills, which slows technological progress. To boost growth, we need more hopeful stories about technology and more hands-on experience with how things are made.
Amazon launched 22 years ago this week. Its first web page shows its early days: What’s neat about this isn’t what’s changed. It’s what’s stayed the same. The line, “One million titles, consistently low prices” seems like marketing guff. But it helps explain why Amazon has dominated where others have failed. The allure of the Internet in 1995 was betting on change. New paradigms born. Old strategies discarded. Something requiring radically different thinking. Yet Amazon’s focus from day one was as old as it gets. Selection and price. Businesses have pursued the idea for millennia. Jeff Bezos once explained why this was critical: I very frequently get the question: “What’s going to change in the next 10 years?” That’s a very interesting question. I almost never get the question: “What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?” And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two. You can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time. In our retail busines...
“Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom…is…
One of the best ways to solve problems in life is to use the mental model of inversion. Read this article to learn how to become a better thinker today.
What do the calendars of entrepreneurs, VIPs, and famous business people look like? When I met Taylor Pearson, we nerded out over scheduling. We’d compare notes, ideas, and theories on how to optimize our time. In the weirdest exchanging of pictures in my life, we’d share pics of… Our calendars. Naughty, naughty Noah. Because I’m...
Deciding to marry can be difficult because relationships are complex and often filled with both love and frustration. People often struggle with their feelings, leading to confusion about whether to stay together or break up. Understanding your deal-breakers—what you absolutely need in a partner—can help clarify this important decision.
Almost everyone systematically under-allocates resources to the fat tails. We tend to spend most of our time and energy thinking about the middle, because we see the world through a bell curve lens, and most of the area in a bell curve is in the middle. But in reality, we live in an 80/20 world, where the top 1% of fat tails account for 50% of the results. The people who understand this seem to attract luck, but really they’ve just adopted the 80/20 curve model.
Assuming you have some vague goal or sense of which direction you’d like to move, ask: “What do I have?” If you start by assessing “what are the means that I have readily available”, then determine “what are the ends given those means”, the problem changes from figuring out what you want, to imagining future possibilities given existing means.
Agency just accelerated and no one told you. The internet has accelerated disintermediation and increased agency more than any prior technology, but it’s only been commercially available for a couple of decades.
Prior to this moment, you didn’t even know there was such a thing as sacred cows. There was simply the capital T–Truth, and nothing else.
How to not mess up the most important decision of your life.
I turned 30 last week and a friend asked me if I'd figured out any life advice in the past decade worth passing on. I'm somewhat hesitant to publish this because I think these lists usually seem...
Coming out of college or out of a traditional corporate job, most people think like turkeys. I thought like a turkey. Based on our understanding of the world having spent our entire lives in Mediocristan and the fact that up until relatively recent history, we have lived in Mediocristan, a turkey’s view of the world is highly rational. It’s also wrong. “A turkey is fed for a thousand days by a butcher; every day confirms to its staff of analysts that butchers love turkeys “with increased statistical confidence.” The butcher will keep feeding the turkey until a few days before Thanksgiving… [The] turkey will have a revision of belief— right when its confidence in the statement that the butcher loves turkeys is maximal and ‘it is very quiet’ and soothingly predictable in the life of the turkey.” -N.N. Taleb
\"The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you'll be.\"
To stop being lazy and get more done, create a detailed schedule for your tasks and prioritize your time effectively. Focus on fewer, more meaningful tasks and plan your week ahead to ensure productivity. Emphasize deep work over shallow tasks to achieve greater success and satisfaction in your work.
Hunter S. Thompson's letter to his friend, Hume Logan, on finding your purpose and living a meaningful life. The most profound advice I've ever come across.
To endure 20,000 days, 100 vacations, and 100,000 leisure hours with another human being and do so happily, there are three key ingredients necessary.
Given that the choice of life partner is by far the most important thing in life to get right, how is it possible that so many smart people get it so wrong?
The first ET note focused on Information Theory. Read more
You're going to hate hearing this. My only defense is that this is what I wish somebody had said to me around 1995 or so.
Don’t admit that your faith is weak\nDon’t say that you feel like dying\nLife’s hard then it feels like diamonds\nYour home’s just far too gone\nMuch too late to even feel like trying\nCan’t understand what I’m saying…
The document is a transcript of a speech given by David Foster Wallace titled \"This is Water\". In the speech, Wallace discusses the importance of choosing what to think about and how to construct meaning from experiences. He argues that a liberal arts education is not about filling one with knowledge, but rather about teaching how to exercise control over one's thoughts and what to pay attention to. He encourages listeners to be conscious and aware enough to choose what has meaning and what to worship, and not to be a slave to their natural default settings.
A little bit of slope makes up for a lot of y-intercept - slope_vs_starting.md
The narrator is a father who reflects on his behavior from the day before. He realizes that he has been too hard on his son, expecting too much of him, and that he has been neglectful in appreciating the good qualities in his son. He resolves to be a better father the next day and to better appreciate the fact that his son is still a young boy.
Life is a continuous journey of learning and self-renewal, regardless of age. People often feel trapped by their past, but true growth comes from embracing commitments and overcoming challenges. Building meaning in life is essential, and it requires courage, self-reflection, and connections with others.
Harvard Business School’s Christensen teaches aspiring MBAs how to apply management and innovation theories to build stronger companies. But he also believes that these models can help people lead better lives. In this article, he explains how, exploring questions everyone needs to ask: How can I be happy in my career? How can I be sure that my relationship with my family is an enduring source of happiness? And how can I live my life with integrity? The answer to the first question comes from Frederick Herzberg’s assertion that the most powerful motivator isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute, and be recognized. That’s why management, if practiced well, can be the noblest of occupations; no others offer as many ways to help people find those opportunities. It isn’t about buying, selling, and investing in companies, as many think. The principles of resource allocation can help people attain happiness at home. If not managed masterfully, what emerges from a firm’s resourc...
We began this analysis of corporate life by exploring a theoretical construct (the Gervais Principle) through the character arcs of Michael and Ryan in The Office. The construct and examples provi…
My neighbor introduced me to The Office back in 2005. Since then, I’ve watched every episode of both the British and American versions. I’ve watched the show obsessively because I’…
The whole thing’s worth a read but a while back I decided to go through, give it a squeeze, and extract the juicy bits: the books themselves.
Entrepreneurs prefer effectual reasoning over causal reasoning in the early stages of a new venture, which is a creative process that begins with three categories of means: Who they are, What they know, and Whom they know. Effectual reasoning focuses on affordable loss, strategic partnerships, and leveraging contingencies, while causal reasoning focuses on expected return, competitive analyses, and exploiting pre-existing knowledge. Effectual reasoning involves recognizing that the future can be shaped by human action, and that failure can be minimized by allowing it to occur earlier and with less investment.
A couple years ago my friend Trevor and I went to look at the Apple garage.
Well, maybe not. What people usually say is not that they can't think of ideas, but that they don't have any.
friends you trust read your stuff and tell you which bits are confusing or drag; don't (always) make detailed outlines; mull ideas over for a few days before writing; carry a small notebook or scrap paper with you; start writing when you think of the first sentence; if a deadline forces you to start before that, just say the most important sentence first; write about stuff you like; don't try to sound impressive; don't hesitate
You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible.
Paul Graham discusses how moral fashions can distort our understanding of what is true. He suggests that ideas currently considered taboo may seem ridiculous to future generations. To uncover these unthinkable thoughts, we should examine what is suppressed and compare our beliefs with those of the past and other cultures.