This Week I Learned #47
““Go to bed smarter than when you woke up””
2019-04-22
Chance brought me back to a Chuck Akre interview from 2014 on investing in businesses that compound. A great question to ask management to see their priorities: "How do you measure your success in this company?". For a compounder to do what they can do for multi-decades they need the right shareholders that can allow that to come to fruition, this naturally includes ownership level of insiders but also the institutions. The institutions involved can impact the priorities of management. His recommendation of Markel 5 years ago has resulted in a compounded annual growth rate of 10.41%, decent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEO5G1SjCeU&feature=youtu.be
2019-04-23
Joe Rogan's interview with Dr. Gad Saad, Evolutionary Psychologist. Key Learnings:
1) A study that looked at 720 couples saw only 1 couple have the woman be taller than the man. Height is one such fundamental requirement for mating regardless of ethnicity, religion or other identifiers. I guess i’m that 1/720.
2) There are only 14-16M Jews in the world. Yet 30% of the Nobel prize winners are Jewish.
3) In regards to Judaism, women in the Judaism faith cannot marry men who are not of that faith. Yet, the proper way for the man to convert is if he is driven by faith, not by obligation. Unlike many other faiths that focus on mass multiplication and adoption, the Judaism faith focuses on detracting people. So that they only truly join because they intrinsically want to.
2019-04-24
Went to first Indie Hacker meetup today. Indie Hacker is a community of entrepreneurs operating profitable, bootstrapped, often remote companies. Key learnings: 1) Most individuals there have not launched company or are pre-revenue. 2) Many are chasing ideas and not leading with passion (i.e. seeking for problems to build a business around). 3) 100% men + 90% developers/designer crowd. 4) Biggest problem they faced once they achieved profitability is retaining talent. Before then, it's all about 'product market fit' (growth + marketing + pricing). 5) Profitable ventures included services in email automation, advertising for Amazon dropshippers, driver's education online courses, saas marketing.
2019-04-25
"Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it." - Jim Rohn
2019-04-26
Reed Hastings, Neflix CEO, earned $300M+ in compensation in 2018. This includes the sale of his stock. Though I am a fan of some Netflix Original content and applaud Netflix's reinvention from a DVD delivery service, such actions by a founder and CEO raise into question his commitment to Netflix for the decades to come. This makes Bob Iger's $65M compensation look small but its laughable how ridiculous CEO pays have risen in corporate America. It's actually the butt end of a joke Japanese CEOs would tell me in my investor meetings: "We are not required to disclose individual executive compensation but rest assured we don't do what the Americans do <ensues laughter from everyone>".
2019-04-27
Learning about the burning point of oil. I wondered why cooking steak on high heat led to so much smoke. Turns out different oils like olive oil and avocado oils have different "smoke points" and this not only impacts the nutritional component of the oil itself but also can result in more smell/smoke from cooking. Hence, for the high heat cooking like searing steak may be best with avocado oil but most at medium heat should be fine with extra virgin olive oil.
2019-04-28
I've been noticing a drop in my Netflix usage. An article by the WSJ notes that of the top 10 shows accounting for most viewership minutes, 8 are not Netflix originals. The most watched shows are The Office, Friends, Parks and Recreations and Greys Anatomy. I think it was in this order. All have the parent content producers launching their own streaming service and Netflix is in danger of losing their most popular content. What I'm most curious about is how modern day sitcoms have perished and people are still obsessed with watching shows of the past. I'm guilty of watching countless reruns of Friends, the Office and Parks and Recreation. What is it about these historic shows that modern day shows cannot recreate? https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflix-battles-rivals-for-its-most-watched-shows-friends-and-the-office-11556120136
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