jameslal

Technology Entrepreneur and World Traveller. Born in the US but live in Beijing and spend a lot of time in Tokyo and San Francisco...

[jameslal @jameslal]

The audio version of the book that has helped over 100K entrepreneurs is finally out! Glad I teamed up with @VeritasInLux to do the audio version as it sounds great. Really brings the material alive! Check it out! https://t.co/zqFIngwrYe

[jameslal @jameslal]

The last time the U.S. tackled government waste and fraud at the level DOGE is doing now was the Truman Committee during WWII. Before he was president, Harry Truman led a bipartisan Senate effort under FDR that exposed massive corruption in defense contracts and saved billions. It was one of the most effective oversight campaigns in U.S. history—and it helped launch Truman to the presidency. DOGE feels like the modern version of that. https://t.co/rRfHitpwaG

[jameslal @jameslal]

@davidfickling @opinion Well written and researched. Kudos @davidfickling

[jameslal @jameslal]

@chaseleantj @SaveToNotion #Tweet

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@hasantoxr @SaveToNotion #Tweet

[jameslal @jameslal]

@Feynmanism_ @SaveToNotion #Tweet

[GeniusThinking @GeniusGTX]

A "cognitive bias" is a systematic error in thinking that ruins decision-making.

The 12 most powerful cognitive biases I've found:

[Farzad 🇺🇸 🇮🇷 @farzyness]

X Has Already Won

Elon Musk closed the acquisition of Twitter, now X, in October of 2022. Once that deal was closed, a bunch of advertisers left the platform out of fear of their brands being impacted by the new “Freedom of Speech” rules that X was looking to implement.

The premise was that ads would be shown next to content that advertisers don’t want to be associated with, and because X would now allow more “improper” content, the chances of having a negative ad experience could increase.

After leaving the platform for a few weeks, almost all advertisers have come back, albeit with lower ad spends. However, earlier this year, X gave guidance that the platform is near cash-flow neutral, minus debt obligations. This means that even though the platform has suffered losses in terms of ad revenue, the company is close to being self-sufficient.

In other words, no outside cash has to be brought into the company to keep it alive, as long as the trend continues.

Fast forward a few months, and after controversial comments made by Elon and an effort by Media Matters to encourage advertisers to boycott the platform, advertisers left again.

However - just like the first time, after a few weeks, advertisers are beginning to come back. There’s confirmation that Netflix has started to spend ad money on the platform again, and per Elon at his recent conference in Italy, advertisers are beginning to come back to the platform en masse.

I think all of this points to something quite clear - the Overton Window is beginning to shift, and with it, a massively profitable endeavor for advertisers.

For those that are not familiar, the Overton Window is a term used to express what is “acceptable” to be discussed in a given time period. If you compare what is acceptable to be discussed on X today, vs what was acceptable on Twitter pre-acquisition, you can very clearly see that the “acceptable” topics are much more diverse and plentiful. This means that the Overton Window has shifted.

Another example of this is also on YouTube. A few days ago, Mario hosted a space with Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, and other folks discussing Alex’s reinstatement and a bunch of other topics. These topics pre-acquisition would not be admissible under Twitter’s former rules. What’s really interesting is that after making this edited content available on YouTube, YouTube has a) not taken down the content from the platform and b) allowed monetization on the content.

This implies that advertisers are now becoming comfortable advertising on content that they weren’t comfortable with in the past.

What does this mean for X? It’s quite simple - X’s willingness to stand for Free Speech, even when the CEO makes statements that cause the business to temporarily lose revenue, is creating a brand new market for advertisers that previously did not exist precisely due to an unwillingness to embrace Freedom of Speech.

And because X’s entire approach has been to uphold Freedom of Speech and accept the repercussions that come with it, the platform has positioned itself as the premier place for content that will be generated on this principle.

This same content is a market that advertisers have had 0 access to in the past because of the unwillingness of platforms to embrace Freedom of Speech, and the skittishness of ad agencies to sully their brands with controversial topics. On top of this, it’s a market that is untapped, which will generate billions of views, and billions of dollars, for creators and advertisers alike.

I do not suspect we’ll see another advertisers boycott in the future because of this dynamic. There’s way too much money to be made, and now that the Overton Window has shifted to where the “public” is now “comfortable” with listening to dissenting and controversial opinions, advertisers will be tripping over themselves to advertise on X over the long term.

In my opinion, people respect the notion of being allowed to think for themselves, and because this has been subdued for far too long, there will be an avalanche of interest for content that is specifically challenging and controversial. Ultimately, this will be massively profitable for advertisers due to the engagement and attention it’ll receive from the public.

I posited when Elon bought the platform that X would win if they could make Freedom of Speech profitable, and I think we’re starting to see glimpses of this being the case.

[jameslal @jameslal]

@SahilBloom @SaveToNotion #Tweet

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

One week ago, the world lost a legend.

Charlie Munger was a treasure trove of wisdom—and most of it had nothing to do with investing.

10 of his most powerful insights for a life well lived:

(Note: Long post, bookmark for future)

1. The Most Valuable Riches Take Time

"The desire to get rich fast is pretty dangerous."

While this quote has traditionally been applied to investing (given it was his primary arena of public success), I believe its true meaning extends well beyond dollars and cents.

Whatever "rich" you're going after...

• Strong, durable relationships
• Physical strength or endurance
• Mental health and mindfulness
• Financial success

...know that it won't happen overnight.

It will take a long time—probably longer than you've ever imagined—but the most valuable "riches" of life are always worth waiting for.

Keep your compass pointed in the right direction, stay the course, and get "rich" slow.

2. Avoid the Second Arrow

"Generally speaking, envy, resentment, revenge, and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought...Life will have terrible blows, horrible blows, unfair blows, it doesn’t matter. Some people recover and others don’t. There I think the attitude of Epictetus is the best. He thought that every mischance in life was an opportunity to behave well. Every mischance in life was an opportunity to learn something and that your duty was not to be immersed in self-pity, but to utilize the terrible blow in a constructive fashion. That is a very good idea."

In 1953, a 29-year-old Charlie Munger faced a series of crushing blows, losing his 9-year-old son to leukemia, his wife to a divorce, and his money to the medical bills.

Very few people could have recovered from that series of events.

But recall the Parable of the Two Arrows:

The Buddha once asked his student, "If a person is struck by an arrow, is it painful?" The student nodded, yes.

The Buddha then asked, "If a person is struck by a second arrow, is that even more painful?" The student again nodded, yes.

The Buddha then explained, "In life, we cannot always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. The second arrow is optional."

Charlie Munger was struck by the first arrow (harder than most of us can imagine), but he stared into the darkness and realized that the second arrow was optional.

When we encounter the inevitable challenges of life, we can all do the same.

3. Develop Real Knowledge

"The first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form...You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head."

There are two types of people:

• People who know how to talk about the thing.
• People who know the thing.

You encounter plenty of Type 1s: You hear them talking at every cocktail party and networking event. They wax poetic on a variety of topics, but when pressed for detail, they crumble. The knowledge is all on the surface. They know how to talk about the thing, but they don't know the thing.

You encounter few Type 2s: Those with real, deep knowledge are rarely the loudest in the room. They are generally too busy developing their depth or acting on it to be found talking about it.

The goal is to be Type 2 in a few domains—and to spend time with more Type 2s in the domains where you aren't one.

4. Live What You Want to Receive

"How to find a good spouse? The best single way is to deserve a good spouse...To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want."

The most important relationship advice I've ever received:

Make a list of the values you want to find in a partner, then go out and actually embody those values yourself.

You can't hope to attract a set of values that you yourself aren't embracing.

Similarly, as a parent, you can't hope to teach a child a set of values that you aren't walking with.

Live what you want to receive.

5. Invert, Always Invert

"All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there."

Two thousand years ago, Stoic philosophers engaged in a seemingly peculiar daily exercise: they would sit quietly and imagine—in excruciating detail—all that could go horribly wrong in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

They referred to it as premeditatio malorum—the pre-meditation of evils.

The premise: Through the preparation of the mind for the potential worst-case scenarios, we can more aptly avoid such outcomes.

Complex problems are sometimes better solved backwards.

When you encounter a challenging life problem, rather than attempting to solve it forwards, invert and solve it backwards:

• What do you NOT want to happen?
• What actions, behaviors, or conditions would create that undesirable outcome?
• How can those traps be avoided?

Proceed accordingly.

6. Avoid the Ostrich Effect

"I think that one should recognize reality even when one doesn’t like it; indeed, especially when one doesn’t like it."

An ostrich will bury its head in the sand to avoid danger.

How many of us are metaphorically burying our heads in the sand in the face of new information that challenges our worldview?

If you want to be right more than you want to uncover the truth, you're in for a long, hard life. Avoiding knowledge because it doesn't confirm your existing beliefs is a dangerous game that will ultimately lead to your downfall.

Always question your strongly held beliefs. Learn the other side of the argument just as well as your own.

7. Never Mimic the Herd

"Mimicking the herd invites regression to the mean."

As Jeff Bezos said, "Being yourself is worth it, but don’t expect it to be easy or free. You’ll have to put energy into it continuously."

The fight against normalcy is the most important fight of your life.

No one can compete with you, at being you.

8. Create a "Too Hard" Pile

"I just try to avoid being stupid. I have a way of handling a lot of problems—I put them in what I call my ‘too hard pile,’ and just leave them there. I’m not trying to succeed in my too hard pile."

There are no style points in life.

The "too hard pile" is a useful tool for avoiding the stupidity that comes from attempting to tackle the big, complex, scary problem when there's a small, simple, obvious one right in front of you.

A few applications from my own life:

You don't need the fancy equipment and complicated workouts, you just need to show up and move your body in simple ways, every single day.

You don't need the latest, greatest new alternative investments and cutting edge tax strategies, you just need to invest in simple, low-cost index funds and hold them forever.

You don't need the 100 supplements and latest fad diets, you just need to eat 90%+ whole, unprocessed foods.

Avoid things that seem too hard and handle the easy, consistently, instead.

9. Success Follows Interest

"Another thing that I found is an intense interest of the subject is indispensable if you are really going to excel. I could force myself to be fairly good in a lot of things, but I couldn’t be really good in anything where I didn’t have an intense interest."

Most people focus too much on being interesting and not enough on being interested.

Being interested is how you become interesting.

When you pursue your genuine interests, you are prone to deep focus, which cultivates a depth that is impossible to fake.

Success always follows interest.

10. Wisdom Compounds

"Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Day by day, and at the end of the day, if you live long enough, like most people, you will get out of life what you deserve."

Small things become big things.

In the wise words of Mahatma Gandhi, "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

***

Goodbye to a Legend

In a ​beautiful piece​ reflecting on Charlie Munger's life, Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig shared an interaction he had with Munger last month:

I asked what he might want for an epitaph of no more than 10 words. His reply was immediate and full of epistemic humility: "I tried to be useful." Not "I was useful." That would be for other people to judge. But "I tried." That much he knew.

It struck me as perhaps his most important wisdom of all.

To be useful—as a parent, spouse, child, sibling, colleague, friend, or leader—is our highest calling.
We will fall short in various ways along the journey, but we can all strive for this goal.

Here's hoping that at the end of our days, we may all be able to proudly proclaim: "I tried."

If you're still here, I hope you found some new inspiration in these words. If you did, share it with others and follow me @SahilBloom for more in the future.

[jameslal @jameslal]

@EricaClickup AI

[Erica Dias @EricaClickup]

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@TAYVAY_ Chart

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@alxberman Omni

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@nverity13 reply

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@TAYVAY_ Cold

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RA

[Caleb Chae @iamcalebchae]

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(Must follow)

[jameslal @jameslal]

@daniel_dinoia ChatGPT

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@SahilBloom @SaveToNotion #Tweet