Guilhermo Gonzalez

Brazilian in California. Business + Data Science @cal #gobears; Product @Compass; Fellow @UnshackledVC ; Investing @ImmersionPartners

[Erik Torenberg @eriktorenberg]

Inspired by a conversation with a friend considering leaving:

There are either three paths:

1. You’re on the right path.
2. You’re exploring something that *could* be the right path.
3. You’re on the wrong path.

The best way to get on the right path is to leave the wrong path.

Which looks to other people like not being on a path.

It invites a lot of judgment, questioning — why haven’t you found your path yet?

Whereas being on any path feels safer to others. No one questions it, not to your face anyway.

Even though you know it’s not the right path. And thus, even though it looks like you’re on the right path, you’re the furthest thing from it, and you’d be closer to the path if you were on no path, even if that feels like a setback because it’s going from certainty to uncertainty. It’s actually a step forward because you’re creating space to find the right path.

A lot of people try to turn the wrong path into the right path. But It’s so much easier to find something great then turn something from bad to great, or even OK to great.

For those uncertain about whether a path that feels mixed can turn into the right path. Ian Rogers has a good line in the Dialectic podcast: “if the cat is bigger than the shit, keep the cat. If the shit is bigger than the cat, get rid of the cat”.

If you need someone to change behavior — in jobs and in relationships — it’s likely a recipe for unhappiness, since it’s out of your control. Especially if they don’t want to change the way you want them to.

(Of course, if you’re a reoccurring reason why your paths continuously feel wrong, you’ll need to work on those because you’ll carry your patterns on your next path.)

When I asked you if you would still be on this path in a few years, you definitively said no. OK, so now you’re definitely leaving, it’s now just a matter of when. Why not leave sooner? What’s keeping you? Often the fear of judgment, fear of change, fear of not the unknown, fear of letting someone down (which is inevitable either way), fear of picking something or someone and it not being the thing,

Well, yes, you might pick the wrong path again, but you’re also on the wrong path now, so what do you have to lose? It might take picking the wrong path a few times before finding the right one.

People rarely regret leaving the wrong path too early, just like people rarely regret firing someone too early. If you have a long string of very short paths, that’s one thing, but usually people feel when they leave something that they could have left it a while ago.

If anything, more people regret not trying more paths, taking the time to explore and learn more about themselves in the process. People spend way more time in the wrong path (which invites learning of its own kind, to be sure) than they do in the wilderness, exploring things and people that could be the right path.

There are all kinds of illusions and delusions that trick us into seeing the wrong path as the right path — our comfort with any path vs no path, other people’s comfort with us on any path vs no path, the “what if x y z can change”, the “what if no other path is better than this path,” the “what if it’s actually me that’s allergic to paths and therefore I’m the problem and I’ll always be the problem so I might as well just stay here…”

Being in truth with yourself about what you feel and what you want is the only practice that can help you and navigate and discern what path you’re on, and then summon the courage to leave it in order to find the right path for you.

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

@AnjneyMidha Interested

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

@maticrobots Done

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

So let me get this straight. You support the Khamanei regime that killed 38,000+ protesters and maimed hundreds of thousands more. A regime that has repeatedly called for Death to America and has killed thousands of our servicemen and citizens. One that has taken away women’s rights and freedoms for the Iranian people.

And then you call our efforts to destroy the evildoers a catastrophic escalation.

You also support those who attack our police force. You take the side of the criminals rather than the victims of violent actors in our city.

How is it that you can’t differentiate between good and evil?

Why is this so hard for you?

[Michael Dell 🇺🇸 @MichaelDell]

I started @DellTech 37 years ago with $1000.
Revenues in 1984 were $6 million.
Last year's revenues were $94.2 billion.
Impossible is nothing.

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

“Oakland is the only American city that has seen three major professional franchises leave within a six-year period: Warriors to San Francisco in 2019, Raiders to Las Vegas in 2020 and the A’s to Sacramento in 2025, with plans to locate permanently in Las Vegas by 2028.”

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

Complete mismanagement and incompetence in public administration. California’s political status-quo prioritizes destructive socialist and extremist policies over value creation and prosperity. The decline of the Bay Area and SF is no accident, but the result

[Marc Benioff @Benioff]

My thoughts are with Ricky Pearsall for a quick and thorough recovery. San Francisco must REFUND the Police not continue to DEFUND the Police. SFPD must be returned to >2000 officers within 18 months from <1400 where it has been allowed to fall, and the police force must be fully empowered to enforce ALL laws. Compensate ALL city employees to recruit the best officers in the country. Our Police need to be empowered now — they need everything to succeed — not this new terrible decision to end pretext stops, or the continued decline in our Police officers on the streets. Our SFPD and Sheriffs and BART Police are the absolute key to a safe and clean San Francisco every day. Reward and recognize them for hiring the absolute best now. San Francisco Police Academy must be expanded for hiring surge. All laws must be fully enforced. Police must be fully funded. The DA's office must prosecute to the fullest level of the law. Return Safety to retail business and residential properties NOW. DISTRICT BY DISTRICT - Police officers need to be enabled to protect assigned districts and rewarded & measured for their effectiveness. Metrics for effectiveness need to be clearly defined and transparent. Let’s institute a Neighborhood Policing model in San Francisco, safety District by District. We can and must do more now with our police force. And finally allow police to do their actual job, not be mired in paperwork or be afraid of being fired, or arrested themselves, when dealing with dangerous felons. ❤️❤️👮‍♀️👮🚔🚓🚔❤️❤️. https://t.co/MoBXF0a7sf…

[Sean Kelly @seanpk]

Peter Thiel recruited Reid Hoffman, Chad Hurley, Sam Altman, David Sacks, and Keith Rabois. Also partnered with Elon Musk.

He's used these 4 questions time and time again to identify 20-year-olds who would go on to be billionaires.

Test yourself with these questions:

[Naval @naval]

“Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”
- Archimedes

[Naval @naval]

You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.

[Tom Loverro @tomloverro]

PREDICTION: There's a mass extinction event coming for early &amp; mid-stage companies. Late '23 &amp; '24 will make the '08 financial crisis look quaint for startups. Below I explain when, why &amp; how it will start &amp; offer *detailed advice to founders* on surviving the looming die-off. /1

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

@Navdeepak_ ✋🏻

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

3 Years late, but this might be the most interesting history and archeology class I’ve heard.

Joe Rogan Experience #1284 - Graham Hancock https://t.co/nQxbcwao8X via @YouTube

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

“Practical men, who believes themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the salves of some defunct economists.” John M. Keynes, The General Theory

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

@gokceguvengg Boston feels like Antarctica

[Chris Cantino @chriscantino]

We bootstrapped to a $100M+ acquisition without venture capital. Here’s how. 🧵

[Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson]

On Aug 1, I woke up and didn’t want to get out of bed.

I felt…blank. Hollowed out. I’d felt this way for months.

I couldn’t enjoy anything.

I didn’t care about work.

I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

I wasn’t necessarily depressed. Objectively life was amazing...

[Guilhermo Gonzalez @guipagnano]

Lisa Abramovicz: *The U.S. is experiencing the easiest financial conditions in history. The question for the Fed: At this point, how much is this helping to boost employment and wages?*