World

Getting benefits from a community requires some personal sacrifices

(Excerpt from Mindfuck Monday 17 Aug 2020 by Mark Manson) Basically: living in a community has benefits, but those benefits require that each individual makes sacrifices. Politics is then the discussion of these...

August 20, 2020| World Read More

Globalisation introduces volatility spikes

(Excerpt from “The Interesting Times” email 21 Mar 2020 by Taylor Pearson) As a thought experiment, imagine 100 ladders lined up against a long wall. Each has a 10% probability of falling over. If the...

March 22, 2020| Entropy, Investing, Nonlinearity, World Read More

Why are there more Indians than other Asian races as American companies’ CEOs?

(Extracted from The Economist 29 Feb 2020 edition) Some 11% of associates at American law firms are Asian, but only 3% of partners are. In technology Asians makeup over 30% of the workers but less than 15% of bosses. In...

March 7, 2020| Machiavellian, World Read More

United States geographical advantage

(Extracted from What I Believe Least by Morgan Housel) I believe past performance is not an indicator of future returns. Markets change, history surprises, and performance is cyclical. But it’s one of the things I...

January 19, 2020| World Read More

Give more capabilities without increasing complexity

(Excerpt from Bloomberg on Bloomberg) Humans are loath to change and nervous about anything difficult to understand. More capabilities, better efficiency, increased reliability, fewer controls—all are benefits buyers...

October 4, 2019| Tech Read More

7 questions every business must answer

(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) seven questions that every business must answer: The Engineering QuestionCan you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements? The Timing QuestionIs now...

September 21, 2019| Strategy, Tech Read More

How to get your business idea?

(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) There are two kinds of secrets: secrets of nature and secrets about people. Natural secrets exist all around us; to find them, one must study some undiscovered aspect of the...

September 21, 2019| Strategy, Tech Read More

Be selective about what you work on. Think hard before you work hard.

(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) The power law is not just important to investors; rather, it’s important to everybody because everybody is an investor. An entrepreneur makes a major investment just by...

September 21, 2019| Focus, Life, Nonlinearity, Tech Read More

Rule for Venture Capital: Invest in companies with the potential to return the value of the entire fund

(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) Our results at Founders Fund illustrate this skewed pattern: Facebook, the best investment in our 2005 fund, returned more than all the others combined. Palantir, the...

September 21, 2019| Nonlinearity, Tech Read More

You can change the world with careful planning

(Excerpt from Zero to One by Peter Thiel) The greatest thing Jobs designed was his business. Apple imagined and executed definite multi-year plans to create new products and distribute them effectively. Forget...

September 21, 2019| Strategy, Tech Read More

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