rgonam

[Tomas Pueyo @tomaspueyo]

Why is Madrid the capital of Spain?

Madrid is quite unique:
• No river
• Very recent
• Tiny when it became a capital
So why?

[Boyan Slat @BoyanSlat]

Recently, I decided I wanted to read every page of one of my favorite websites, @OurWorldInData.

I’m about halfway now.

Here are the 30 most surprising things I’ve learned about the world so far! 🧵

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

Think you can detect AI writing? Experts can't.

This paper had editors from top linguistics journals try to do just that and "reviewers were largely unsuccessful in identifying AI versus human writing, with an overall positive identification rate of only 38.9%." HT @EnglishOER

[Daniel Ek @eldsjal]

Podcasters - what if I told you could offer your pod to any listener around the world, in their own local language but still keep it in your own voice? That’s the pilot we’re launching @Spotify!

It’s called Voice Translation and using AI, translates podcasts episodes into alternate languages, all in the podcaster’s voice. It’s pretty insane. Take a look and let me know what you think!

https://t.co/wwUYsd3Mgo

[Dan Primack @danprimack]

Was curious so went to @pmarca account. Then clicked on bio link to his Substack. This is what popped up, and I've replicated it elsewhere.

If Elon wants to fight with Substack and kill embeds, his perrogative. But this is straight up lying. Twitter knows the link isn't "unsafe"

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

If someone asked me to give investing advice to a 30-year-old today who had just made their first million, I would first point them somewhere else. I’m not a financial advisor and don’t think I’m qualified to give anyone financial advice. The particulars matter too much. But if they insisted, I might say:

(1) If you want to play in early-stage tech investing (or anything high-risk, high-reward), ensure you have a plan for developing an ENORMOUS informational advantage. Aim to develop new skills and relationships through portfolio companies so that you can win over time, even if you “fail” with many bets going to zero. Only bet what you are comfortable losing and what you can recoup in other ways. Though my angel investing snowballed, I began with $10K checks and advising for sweat equity. Think of this as tuition for a real-world MBA. Are you willing to move to the hub of activity to ensure the best possible information and deal flow, as I did when I moved to SF lifetimes ago? Or make commensurate commitments or sacrifices to ensure you are in a position to win? If not, I’d suggest choosing a different game. Other people will take the initiatives that you won’t, and they will beat you. Much of early-stage investing is cooperative, but let’s not kid ourselves, a lot of it is competitive, and not everyone will podium finish.

(2) For the rest—which could be everything—follow Buffett’s advice. Keep it simple.

One cautionary example of doing the opposite: I spotted the COVID curve ball early, and I made a lot of very “sophisticated” (complicated) decisions related to investing, and the associated research, diligence, phone calls, and so on chewed up an unbelievable amount of time and energy. Eighteen to twenty-four months later, I’d done very well but decided to look at how passive S&P 500 returns would’ve added up over the same period, and… they were roughly the same. Of course, you can’t always bank on this outcome, but beware of seeking complexity if you’ve been rewarded for problem-solving throughout your life. Looking back over the last 15+ years, the handful of investment decisions that made all the difference have been simple and were somewhat obvious to me, no major gear-grinding required.

(3) Knowing when to buy isn’t enough. Have policies and rules for when you will sell, or the universe will punish you with very bad and very expensive decisions.

(4) Don’t discount luck, including lucky timing. I started angel investing seriously in 2008 and hit a golden window of converging trends, cheap valuations (by today’s standards), and an uncrowded playing field. The financial crisis had culled the herd of a ton of investors and fair-weather founders. It was a target-rich environment, even for someone with very little to invest. Micro-VCs were just cracking out of their shells, and the big players hadn’t started assailing the seed stage stuff. In retrospect, it was a wildly rare combo of things. I don’t believe I could replicate what I did in 2008–2012 now.

(5) Personally, I’ve largely stepped back from angel investing to double down on writing and the podcast (The Tim Ferriss Show, soon to hit 1B downloads). This comes from a desire for more predictability and less stress. I love the excitement of startups, and I’ve had some lucky wins, but I don’t find it nearly as interesting as developing creative muscles that bring in forecastable revenue year after year. For me, that has compounded more reliably than the all-or-nothing bets. Massive ups and downs in sectors like crypto also take a toll that reduces my creative batteries. In this chapter of my life, I think simplicity is the name of the game (e.g., finding one decision that removes 100 decisions).

(6) Over-optimizing is just as bad, if not worse, than under-optimizing. Past a certain point, buying extra Skittles just doesn’t fucking matter.

Continue reading: https://t.co/CVXVWAKuGM

[Jon Erlichman @JonErlichman]

In 2003, Ben Affleck discussed the future of streaming services.

This was 5 years before Spotify.

And 4 years before Netflix streaming.

[Compound248 💰 @compound248]

“Hi, my name is Timothy Ferriss, and I’m a Guest Lecturer at Princeton University twice a year…”

Before @tferriss was “Tim,” a slightly nervous “Timothy” asked Charlie & Warren in 08 to advise a newly successful 30-yr old, non-investment professional how best to invest.
1/x👇🧵

[Rodrigo Fernandes @rodrigofm]

Now, you will be able to do much better.

Bellow, you have a link for an open spreadsheet (no e-mail required!) that will do exactly that for you.

https://t.co/EhpMV7Dx6y

[Bill Gurley @bgurley]

[Unconventional, but here goes...]

If you know someone who would be perfect for the $SFIX CEO opportunity, we are all ears. Looking for operating prowess, strong product instincts, & a strong cultural leader. Please send serious leads to: [email protected]

[Please retweet]

[The Transcript @TheTranscript_]

LinkedIn CEO @ryros: "Pre-pandemic, ~1% of all jobs posted on LinkedIn were remote. As of today, that number is ~14%...but that's not the fascinating part. What's fascinating is north of 50% of all job applications on a daily basis on LinkedIn go to that 14% of remote jobs" $MSFT

[Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla]

“.. $ASAN CEO wins quote of the week:

‘I'm CEO of the Asana company, but lately, Jay Powell has been CEO of the stock price'.”

(via MS desk)

[Lane Shackleton @lshackleton]

Early in my career, I sucked at keeping up w/ people. I didn’t have a system.

And personal CRMs never quite fit...or evolve with me. Instead, they reduce people down to LinkedIn profiles & transactional interactions.

Here’s my take on a CRM that is a little more human.

[Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA @GRDecter]

I read the 30 page FTX Bankruptcy court filing.

How bad were FTX's internal controls?

Here are the worst examples 👇

[delian @zebulgar]

Its impossible to write comedies with this good of a script

SBF pitches the sequoia partnership

Vision? "Buy a banana with fake internet money"

Blows the partnership away. Wow.

During the partner meeting ? PLAY LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

This is god-tier comedy

[The Transcript @TheTranscript_]

"I tell my guys in finance, I don't want you guys to ever benchmark anybody else because you can only get bad ideas." -$AAPL CFO L. Maestri:

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

Jeff Bezos on what a great business looks like:

[rgonam @rgonam]

@AS_baloncesto @diarioas @juanjimenista Enhorabuena - pero os sugiero un titular diferente. Es para celebrar la selección y no discutir un titular nazi

[Michael Girdley @girdley]

The simple, foolproof meeting format we use to oversee dozens of companies generating over $100mm / yr:

... a 🧵 👇