This Week I Learned #45
““Go to bed smarter than when you woke up””
2019-04-08
Brian Singerman of Peter Thiel's Founders Fund interview on Invest like the Best podcast. I loved learning about how he is not a founder but still an all star investor. Many top VCs are not founders and that being a requirement can actually create blindspots for skills that are not necessarily transferable. He also is a gut driven investor who doesn't pay much attention to financials and quant metrics. This is another refreshing insight from a world that is obsessed with data porn as if a lot of numbers and data really can make a difference in a job that is all about investing in people. He develops judgment by investing a lot and looking at a a lot of companies. That's how you become a better investor. You invest a lot. http://investorfieldguide.com/singerman/
2019-04-09
Tim Ferriss interview with Eric Schmidt of Google. Learned about the existence of Bill Campbell. The coach to Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer, Jeff Bezos and many other titans of industry. He sat on the boards of some of these tech giants and he coached all these individuals for free. He's motto was "I don't take money, I don't take stock and I don't take shit.". Bill approached every problem not with a business strategy but by thinking of which people to allocate to tackle that problem. It's always inspiring to learn about someone doing something I hope to do and learning about Bill's existence made me extremely happy. https://tim.blog/2019/04/09/eric-schmidt/
2019-04-10
"If you're not different from who you were 12 months ago, you didn't learn enough." - Alain De Button
2019-04-11
"The measure of intelligence is the ability to change." - Albert Einstein
2019-04-12
“I would say my biggest learning is it’s probably more people than I ever thought…I probably thought originally it was 70% people and now I think it’s 98% people” - Chris Dixon of Andressen Horowitz on what factors determine investment success. A fascinating podcast interview on Shane Parrish's Knowledge Project. https://fs.blog/chris-dixon/
2019-04-13
Learned about the results of the first American astronaut living in space for close to 1 year. 1) Telomeres, commonly attributed to human longevity when extended .. though not conclusive, have resulted in extending while in space but they radically contract when coming back to Earth. Possibly reducing life expectancy. 2) Staying in zero-G for so long had water in the lower body flooding the upper body, leading to damages in vision due to stress on the optic nerve but this returned to normal eventually. 3) bBne calcification and muscle loss was expected and was a result for such an extended stay. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/medical/we-finally-learned-what-a-year-in-space-did-to-astronaut-scott-kellys-body/ar-BBVReyI?li=AAggNb9&ocid=wispr#image=1
2019-04-14
My friends who complain about Canadian taxes constantly make a case for finding a job in Texas, Washington or Florida because the state income tax is low. Well, for most cases, moving between states will only change your after-tax income by $2000-3000 with the max range difference being $15K if you moved from NY to Delaware. This is based on an income level of $200K in income. But seriously... who would leave Toronto to go live in Delaware. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jrose/2019/04/01/heres-how-much-you-make-on-200000-income-after-taxes-in-all-50-states/?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referral#76c9bd258dd8
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