Cyrus Yari

I read Timeless books & share what I learn. Ideas you can apply to life & business. 🎙📚 Rational Founder 🔜 @ (prev. Rational VC, top-25 podcast)

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

some personal news: ~6 months ago i joined tesla as a senior software engineer. as the quoted tweet below says, am doing a bit of everything, & not a trad swe role, rather "full-stack operator" building a lot of 0-to-1 really cool internal stuff i can't really talk about.

i'm going to share in this 1 tweet some of my thoughts around careers.

ppl are surprised that i'd go back to a corporate role, well. this reminds me of when @antoniogm joined apple after yrs of independence (except he got paid wayyy more & i haven't had a slack crusade attack me).

i believe if u take a role it should only be to challenge urself & learn/grow. not decay like most jobs.

let me just tell u that this is not a trad corporate. the hype is real. the ppl are insanely talented & obsessed. it operates at mega startup speed. the ppl are next level. i will aim to do really great work here, & whenever i'm done, i'll be done with big companies forever (or employment for that matter). this was an exception given how it functions (like a literal rocket ship).

as munger stated taking this multidisciplinary path is not easy & he doesn't recommend it. it's very humbling to be around so many 100x coders or other technical ppl. u really need to have a lot of humility. i've had many "high status" non-technical operating role offers on the plate last few yrs that i've turned down (all had v nice pay). instead decided to double-down on my later-acquired technical skills. seems i have some disease where i seek endless discomfort & learning/improvement.

as @kevinyien says: "Your career is not a ladder, it's a game. Those who treat it like ladder will make linear progress at best and let their fear hold them back. Those who treat it like a game will collect the resources, find the people, and build the skills that compound — and have fun doing it!"

my immigrant mum says i jump around career paths too much - she doesn't quite understand <3

my limited free time is still spent on @rationalvc - that's the eventual life's work. but it was always important to me to not be another charlatan vc investor/podcaster/writer, rather one who has a multitude of ("rare & valuable" skills, h/t cal newport) & operating xp, & has worked w the best ppl for each skill. when u want to learn smthing u do it around the best.

skill-stacking, at intersection of a few things (h/t @naval). thinking in decades, not months. just placing asymmetric bets & optimising for high-leverage skills that when combined will be a variance amplifier (h/t @jposhaughnessy)

i remember @stephsmithio made a cool tweet once about the various jobs she's held. if i do decide to go all-in on something (say a startup) it will be worth it (i hope) given the combination of skills i've developed. since my teens the various roles i've held or skills i've developed:

- software & product engineer
- design / uxui
- product
- biz dev / sales
- vc investing
- podcasting / writing / videos
- video & audio editing
- interviewing
- 4 yrs @ svb - part of founding team for svb uk/eu (did corp-fin, lev-fin, venture debt etc. basically a finance bro, expanded like achaemenid empire while managing $200million portfolio in my early-20s)
- investment banking
- sold real estate
- built digital marketing agency
- built & sold a boutique co-living company
- worked in aggressive call centres (sales) - cold-calling, 80% of workforce regularly got cut, i was youngest out of ~200 salesppl & regularly in top 5% performers - did this full-time while studying a full-time degree
- door to door sales
- built london's largest teen events company in my teens (profitable)
- ebay store / ecommerce stuff starting age 13
- & list goes on...

----

"learn to build, learn to sell. if you can do both, you will be unstoppable." - @naval

Onwards.

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

the PM role used to be the real "full-stack operator" - almost non-existent nowadays which is why I took it up on myself to expand skillset.

in current role i do:

-frontend/backend/data
-design/figma/uxui
-business stuff/meetings
-user interviews
-managing stakeholders/project

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

Just like natural strength & fitness, not many things in life are as 'proof of work' as having (truly) full professional fluency in a language. I'm talking 'harder' languages like Deutsch. Can't cheat it. Not shitty duolingo/pimsleur, I mean if they dropped you in a tiny bavarian village without your phone, could you live there? If you had to conduct business, i.e. AI/automation for an old family-run manufacturing business in Baden-Württemberg, could you do it?

I'm currently entirely immersed, but even then won't enough to read/write/speak like a native, and despite being here, all of my business is conducted in english, so I'm thinking to get a part-time job in a bookstore or something (in addition to the current 4-5 hours a day of studying which has taken over my life). Could call it a side quest but it takes over your life for 2-3 years so not much 'side' in that. But it's a beautiful process to **truly** learn a new language, so it's worth it.

In your teens / early 20s it's much easier, at 30+ tough due to amount of things on your mind and responsibilities. Still, best time to plant a tree was 20 yrs ago, next best time is today.

Even writing this in English is making me rusty, time to get back to it. Don't zoom in, zoom out, keep compounding. Tschüss.

.@orangebook: "Foreign languages are a great test of long-term patience and self-organization: there is no shortcut regardless of the capital, the tools, the teachers you have access to; it always takes many years of self-discipline, but it also opens up so many opportunities and relationships."

.@aegeantic: "learning a language is about leaving your comfort zone imo, latest advancements incentivizing the opposite innit"

[Will Manidis @WillManidis]

its genuinely shocking to me that we haven't made giant strides in language acquisition due to ai.

it doesn't feel dramatically easier/faster to learn a new language than it was 24-36 months ago. why?

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@olieidel this is very useful navigating ze deutshland entrepreneurship minefield. thx for putting together👍

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@nic_amadio it's been my experience too -&gt; raise pricing &amp; less headaches. more enjoyable ppl to work with, they respect u more, and better results

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@pixero00 yep, you can use those. lots of useful grapheneos guides can be found online

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

2week update: ditched iphone for pixel w/ grapheneos w/ minimalist olauncher + greyscale & heavily dumbed down phone. super functional for comms (what a phone is supposed to be for) & nothing else cos ux/ui so bad. u can't do this on ios.

hence why i've been on here a lot less. suddenly i have time to do intensive deutsch classes finally, doing more client work, working on the new media brand, reading, & more. (in fact managed to do so much suddenly that now i'm sick 🙃).

no matter how much u try to "dumb down" ios, it can't be done, & the end result is your life passes u by on drivel. if ur screen time is >30 mins per day u are sick.

ios is fucked cos it's designed like a slot machine, & u end up on all the apps like X. u can try uninstalling & limitations - doesn't work for some reason. ymmv.

other platforms generate business, X doesn't generate much. X only purpose is for making friends/contacts & nothing else. post & ghost.

macos still too good, but who knows i may switch that to thinkpad w/ linux too at some point.

--

more updates to come soon on the media front & podcasts being built as we speak.

oh & while i'm here: i'm putting dinosaur tech schools/college out of business with an infinitely better solution & offer - and i'm actively getting ppl hired in this current market, more @ rational [dot] school

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@Danny_cowdry so u still have a browser and can get most apps, just that with the setup outlined the uxui is so bad that it doesn't become a habit using them, u only use when u need smthin important

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@ameensol 😂 may u be healthy and the mullas be sick to the bone

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

the og kingpin on the matter:
https://t.co/N98DGlsag9

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@JamesMarsh79 My deepest condolences. May she rest in peace 🙏

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@NapierHolland @loom yep, avoid
https://t.co/dVAKzWSAQ9

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

.@loom is utter dogshite. so is cap-so &amp; all the other 100 variations. enshittification.

@Zoom still goated. zero lags or issues, record for hours &amp; newer features now allow u to present/stream with ur face at the bottom.

how do i know? from recording my course.

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

the aim is to productise urself.

u should never play someone else's game.

e.g. if someone launches a successful podcast and they grew up privileged but u grew up in the hood, u shouldn't try to emulate them.

rather, on ur podcast u should embrace ur difference &amp; productise it.

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@theoliveranwar i found out about tadalafil workout pump the day after a night out in my early 20s 😂

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@MichaelAArouet system doesn't incentivise entrepreneurialism:

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

indeed "try harder" is all they tell folks.

a german tax advisor just told me this is not the country for self-employed or trying harder.

either stay under 25k revenue (lol) given addition of VAT, increased healthcare & plethora of other fuckeries.

OR make 200k+ per year. Middle zone is no-go zone as you get utterly fisted. So if you are a rising self-employed builder, you're truly fucked until you do bigger numbers. (& let's be real, most "online" builders don't get to 200k in the first couple years - the exact time they need more business-friendly policies that doesn't put them off building).

why not incorporate a gmbh? cos once u leave germany u are faced with some of the most obscene taxes known to mankind, which include exit taxes on unrealised gains & more. so one must stay self-employed to maintain long-term optionality.

(& yes as a gmbh u can invest in real estate but that's a fool's game, old game by ppl who have no experience actually operating real estate. + fooled by randomness & bias)

CONCLUSION: Germany's tax system was designed around employment and Mittelstand companies with employees, not the new age of work. Actually not even for self-employed work 20 years ago. Stifling innovation. Dinosaur age. oh & let's not forget the very generous €1,000/year capital gains allowance if u want to invest in index funds, L-O-L fuck off.

long-term not the play. oh how the mighty have fallen (pattern here w western europe)

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

fooled by randomness.

"Consider the left and right columns of Table P.1. The best way to summarize the major thesis of this book is that it addresses situations (many of them tragicomical) where the left column is mistaken for the right one."

love it.

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

⏳

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

No, you cannot walk 10,000 steps daily, get 8 hours of sleep, cook every night, clean every day, take care of a family, make time for your own hobbies, and still be productive at work every day. This is not just propaganda, it is nonsense. Free yourself from it.

[amin eftegarie @eftegarie]

“There is no such thing as a failed soldier, dead or alive (unless he acted in a cowardly manner) — likewise, there is no such thing as a failed entrepreneur.”
— Nassim Taleb

[Ronit Pereira @CAronitpereira]

“I am not a victim, I’m a survivor. I don’t like any feeling of being victimised, so I just put my head down and adjust without ever feeling betrayed.”

“It’s a very counterproductive way to think as a human being.”

- Charlie Munger. 2011

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

solid advice that the normie german (masses) can't even comprehend.

what's diabolical is that in germany there's no tax incentives for investing in index funds (€1k per year tax free on capital gains is a joke). US has Roth IRA, UK has ISAs, so savvy Germans need to migrate 👍 there's other countries in europe or structures way more efficient.

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

@Porkchop_EXP sad

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

indeed "try harder" is all they tell folks.

a german tax advisor just told me this is not the country for self-employed or trying harder.

either stay under 25k revenue (lol) given addition of VAT, increased healthcare & plethora of other fuckeries.

OR make 200k+ per year. Middle zone is no-go zone as you get utterly fisted. So if you are a rising self-employed builder, you're truly fucked until you do bigger numbers. (& let's be real, most "online" builders don't get to 200k in the first couple years - the exact time they need more business-friendly policies that doesn't put them off building).

why not incorporate a gmbh? cos once u leave germany u are faced with some of the most obscene taxes known to mankind, which include exit taxes on unrealised gains & more. so one must stay self-employed to maintain long-term optionality.

(& yes as a gmbh u can invest in real estate but that's a fool's game, old game by ppl who have no experience actually operating real estate. + fooled by randomness & bias)

CONCLUSION: Germany's tax system was designed around employment and Mittelstand companies with employees, not the new age of work. Actually not even for self-employed work 20 years ago. Stifling innovation. Dinosaur age. oh & let's not forget the very generous €1,000/year capital gains allowance if u want to invest in index funds, L-O-L fuck off.

long-term not the play. oh how the mighty have fallen (pattern here w western europe)

[Cyrus Yari @CyrusYari]

same goes for making timeless podcasts. there are maybe 2 guys each successfully doing the monologue pod thing. or the acquired pod duo were recently interviewed by author Michael Lewis. He asked why don't more ppl do what u guys do?

Answer is simple: no one wants to do the work. It's all shortcuts, hacks, context-switching, what makes a quick buck. But reading a book cover to cover submerged in highlights like I did and making an episode on it? Seems easy but it's not.

Or the acquired guys spending an entire month basically doing a massive research project before making a pod ep.

Find where is the real work that a) feels like play to you, & b) looks like work to others. Then do that.

But pls stop falling for all the bs like "here's how to use AI to make $$" - yeah you can, but most likely you won't. And if you are one of the few w a brain geared to operate that way, are you gonna compound it for a very long time? If not play then you will burnout and crash cos it's not your game.

we say we understand compounding, but even i don't truly understand power of compounding.

get out of the bubble, find what's play to u but work to others, & compound the hell out of it. by all means necessary. stop playing other ppl's games.

"Most people don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own." - Derek Sivers

"I am 100% happy to watch you get really rich doing something that I have no interest in doing." ― Brent Beshore

[Jarek Lewis @jarrylew]

I’ve seen over 100 versions of posts like this that say, “Here’s how to make 6 figures with AI by helping local businesses”

You know how many posts I’ve seen that say “I MADE 6 figures with AI by helping local businesses”?

ZERO