This Week I Learned #78
2019-11-25
Learnings from Joe Rogan’s interview with Bodybuilding Pro Dorian Yates
His training was 4x/week for 45 minutes. Runs contrary to common thinking of needing to train constantly.
Each set was 6-8 reps; to meet the time under tension requirement of 60 seconds for hypertrophy, he incorporated tempo negatives to keep muscle tension there while doing the 6-8 reps
He use to hide his body and wear baggy clothing. A unique low-key kind of bodybuilder who only cared for winning Mr.Olympia and didn’t care so much as to flaunt his physical prowess in every day life. A respectable mindset of someone who is intrinsically driven in a sport that is considered to be filled with highly extrinsically motivated individuals
2019-11-26
Learnings on the creators of the adult cartoon: Rick & Morty.
Creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland met from Channel 101, the precursor to Youtube. The video shows some of the cartoon shows they made on the site and they looks extremely similar to Rick & Morty… and idea from some 10 years ago.
Harmon’s foundation for storytelling came from his reading of Joseph Campbell’s Hero with a Thousand Faces. It’s quite fascinating to learn how the storytelling of Rick & Morty incorporates the themes from Campbell’s ‘Hero’s Journey’.
2019-11-27
Learnings from Kurt Vonnegut’s lecture on the Shape of Stories.
Quite the masterful presentation by a humourful writer. A view on all the types of stories, the type of story that lasts is ones like Hamlet… and strive to find niceness in life.
He was a biochemistry major. He fought in WW2, became a PoW in Nazi-occupied France and was taken to Dresden. He survived the Dresden firestorm that became known for the atrocity of carpet bombing civilians. Upon returning from the war, he sought a masters in anthropology as he became more curious about humanity from what he saw during the war.
He ended up working fro GE given his science background but left at 29 to pursue writing science-fiction given his understanding of humans.
He also talks about how the president should be an actor because politics is a tv show now…. And we have Donald trump now.
“We are on this earth to fart around. And don’t let anyone tell you any different.” - Kurt Vonnegut.
2019-11-28
An article on Wait But Why on Picking Careers. Another long but wonderful article where I:
Prioritized my yearnings based on what I believe to be the priority.
Priority is actually in doing work related to my potential and passion
Close to non negotiable is freedom/lifestyle
Anything outside of the two are non priorities that need to take a backseat and it requires that I be okay with letting morality take a backseat, putting social needs and practical needs on the backseat as well.
Pace x persistence = distance towards career success
A valuable deep dive exercise uncovered that what I’m hoping to do is authentically me… that I’m choosing to do things that are truly related to who I am.. even if I am influenced by others it’s people I admire and I want to be influenced by that person in that manner.
2019-11-29
Interview with Andy Rachleff of Wealthfront and Benchmark.
It started out as a marketplace for investment managers and retail investors, similar to Rachleff’s prior investment at companies like Opentable. They thought if they recruited people then investment managers and advisors would come.
This didn’t work. So, Rachleff started calling users and they told him they didn't care so much about getting their equity managed but wanted everything related to their finances managed.
Pivoted the market. Not the product. Because the product is your expertise and your secret. You don't confirm a product to the market. You find the market for your product. They found their fit by testing it on engineers at social media networks.
Because they were offering a service where you didn't have to talk to anyone and it was seamless, they targeted millennials. Specifically, engineers who hate being sold to. Tf the engineers adopted, then they could be the organic traffic growth for the pragmatic early majority who would trust their smart engineer friends who don’t like to be sold to. The engineers were the early adopter target because these engineers were game for an unconventional option that wasn’t “proven” by the market.
Cool to see how Rachleff also uses the same 2by2 matrix from Howard Marks when analyzing investments and companies.