Planning Ahead Is the Key to Living With More Spontaneity
“It may seem counterintuitive, but spontaneity often can’t happen without a bit of advanced planning”
23 semi-controversial predictions for 2023
The Munger Operating System: How to Live a Life That Really Works
“To get what you want, deserve what you want. Trust, success, and admiration are earned.”
More…
A lot of people ask me why I wrote my first business book, NightLife Lessons. The answer is simple: it was mostly a bucket list item for me, and not about making money. Sure, I wanted to help myself by looking back and writing down what I’ve learned over the years, in the hopes of helping other startup entrepreneurs on their journeys. But for the most part, I just wanted to see if I could write a book…and then hold it in my hands. Below, I'll share a bit about the process of writing my book and what it was like for me.
I’ve been funding and advising startup founders and entrepreneurs for almost a decade now. As part of that role, I often find myself telling stories from my own experiences building startups, to help founders not only deal with their current struggles, but also avoid pitfalls that might lie ahead of them.
More …
Bear Market Investing Strategies
“Harry Schultz has been identifying bear market warning signals and teaching people how to prepare a profitable survival portfolio in light of these signals for over thirty-five years through his highly acclaimed newsletter, The International Harry Schultz Letter, which reaches subscribers in over ninety countries. The 1960s' classic book Bear Markets has been fully updated and revised to reflect the unprecedented changes taking place in today's volatile economic environment-making it extremely relevant to the current financial market. This book provides the necessary tools for investors to construct a portfolio that will allow them to protect and grow their money under the most severe bear market conditions through technical analysis and models of numerous bear market variables. Bear Market Investing Strategies offers practical and approachable strategies that every investor needs today.”
How scientists want to make you young again
“Research labs are pursuing technology to “reprogram” aging bodies back to youth.”
Old Frugal Habits Die Hard: Why I Force Myself to Spend More
“Why enjoying your money is so damned hard!”
Scientists are using AI to dream up revolutionary new proteins
“Huge advances in artificial intelligence mean researchers can design completely original molecules in seconds instead of months.”
“What follows is his brilliant explanation of what this maddening, often absurd, and always fascinating technology means, and where it might go.”
How to complete an impossible challenge
“There’s no need to hide under the bed covers – with the GOD principle you’ll be able to achieve your goals, big or small”
You weren’t supposed to see that
“Widespread prosperity, it turns out, is incompatible with the American Dream. The only way our economy works is when there are winners and losers. If everyone’s a winner, the whole thing fails. That’s what we learned at the conclusion of our experiment. You weren’t supposed to see that. Now the genie is out of the bottle. For one brief shining moment, everyone had enough money to pay their bills and the financial freedom to choose their own way of life.
And it broke the fucking economy in half.”
We now know the big bang theory is (probably) not how the universe began
“The Big Bang still happened a very long time ago, but it wasn’t the beginning we once supposed it to be.”
Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective
“Why does modern life revolve around objectives? From how science is funded, to improving how children are educated -- and nearly everything in-between -- our society has become obsessed with a seductive illusion: that greatness results from doggedly measuring improvement in the relentless pursuit of an ambitious goal. In Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, Stanley and Lehman begin with a surprising scientific discovery in artificial intelligence that leads ultimately to the conclusion that the objective obsession has gone too far. They make the case that great achievement can't be bottled up into mechanical metrics; that innovation is not driven by narrowly focused heroic effort; and that we would be wiser (and the outcomes better) if instead we whole-heartedly embraced serendipitous discovery and playful creativity.
Controversial at its heart, yet refreshingly provocative, this book challenges readers to consider life without a destination and discovery without a compass.”
Five Things I Know about Investing
In this essay, Dartmouth finance professor Kenneth R. French explains five investment principles that he uses as the foundation for a holistic approach to portfolio design.
The Key to Behavior Change is Identity Change
Use the psychology of self-image to transform your habits for good.
How Unboxing Elaborate Packages Became an American Pastime
American consumers can’t resist the lure of a well-designed container.
Who made these circles in the Sahara?Deep in the Sahara, far from any towns, roads, or other signs of life, is a row of markings in the sand. There are dozens of them stretching for miles in a straight line in central Algeria, each consisting of a central point surrounded by a circle of 12 nodes, like numbers on a clock. And when we started making this video, no one seemed to know what they were.
How to Understand Things“what we call 'intelligence' is as much about virtues such as honesty, integrity, and bravery, as it is about 'raw intellect”
The Benefits of Optimism Are Real“Having a positive outlook is the most important predictor of resilience.”
Why Talking to Strangers Is the Best Thing You Can Do for Your Mental Health
“If we can only break through the awkwardness barrier, striking up conversations at random is the cheapest form of therapy there is.”
Fecal Transplants Reverse Key Signs of Aging
“Scientists from England’s Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia have found that transplanting fecal microbiota from young mammals into older ones may help reverse key signs of aging in the gut, brain, and eyes.”
More….
A question I’m often asked is, "How do I minimize the tax due on my estate?" While there are many possible answers to that kind of question, Family Limited Partnerships are one of the most popular ways available for moving assets and money, with minimal tax consequences. And while Family Limited Partnerships are complicated and not without drawbacks, the potential advantages are worth understanding.
There are two main benefits to establishing Family Limited Partnerships: asset protection, and estate planning.
When life was literally full of crap
“If you want a single, vivid, and frankly disgusting example to hold in mind to remember how much our lives have improved over the last ~150 years… Consider shit.”
The high-return activity of raising others’ aspirations
“This is in fact one of the most valuable things you can do with your time and with your life.”
“We have evolution to thank for shielding us from complete self-knowledge.”
How insects become airborne, slowed down to a speed the human eye can appreciate
“Whether you have an abiding interest in insect biology, or simply enjoy watching events that happen very, very quickly played back very, very slowly (and who doesn’t?), this short video from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University is a dazzlingly wild ride. Guided by the biologist Adrian Smith, who heads the lab, the film captures a series of 11 different winged insects – including a praying mantis, beetles and weevils – as they propel into flight at a riveting 3,200 frames per second, and are slowed down roughly 200 times for your viewing pleasure.”
What I Am Reading:
“The first rule of a happy life is low expectations. If you have unrealistic expectations you’re going to be miserable your whole life. You want to have reasonable expectations and take life’s results good and bad as they happen with a certain amount of stoicism.”
A Brief History of the Calorie
The measure of thermal energy expended by exercise was adapted from the study of explosives and engines.
The Future of Money
If you’re looking to understand how money moves across banks with SWIFT or how money moves across borders from Omaha to Ouagadougou through correspondent banks or how changes to these systems impact geopolitics, the Future of Money is your ticket.
What I Am Reading
Investing in Web3 Credentialing
Credential networks and on-chain digital identities are a core component of the Web3 stack.
The History and Origin of Meditation
“You may already have a meditation practice that works for you, or you may be new to the concept and looking to build your knowledge and understanding of how meditation can bring value to your daily life. Either way, the history of meditation is fascinating and well worth exploring.”
We’ve Been Thinking About Pain All Wrong
The main purpose of pain is not to alert you of physical harm, but to motivate you to get out of a harmful situation and into a safe one.
I can only promise you that it's going to get weirder
“Technology is always changing the nature of human life.”
Keanu Reeves Knows the Secrets of the Universe
“Guy’s always working—sixty-eight movies in thirty-five years. Playing killing machines, doofuses, romantics, messiahs, and devils. But always Keanu. Which always means something more.”
How to Remember You’re Alive
“One way to appreciate virtually any moment of your life is to pretend that the whole thing is already over.”
More …
At the age of thirty, I was starting over in the dating world, and looking for the total package: someone smart, pretty, easy to be around, and definitely someone with whom I would have great chemistry. That’s a tall order, even under the best circumstances. But when you’re running two companies, and have next to no free time? Practically impossible! So I decided it was time to use my aptitude for innovation on a totally new subject: myself.
By the time I hit my early 30’s, I had been living in New York City for my entire life. The years had been full of highs and lows, both personal and in business. There was my father’s passing, when I was only a kid. My mom’s struggle with chronic health conditions and building a business to support us. The typical ups and downs of middle school and high school. Falling in love with nightlife at the very young age of 14, and staying in love with it through high school, college, and beyond. Working like crazy to get into med school, only to realize that it wasn’t for me, and dropping out to join the dot com boom (and bust). And of course, the all-consuming task of building Joonbug into a juggernaut that effectively brought the nightlife industry into the digital age.
More ….
This is a few short stories about things that never change in a world that never stops changing.
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
“Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.”
More …
The Age of Funcertainty!
When this era draws to a close – in as ugly a manner possible I can only assume – it may well be remembered as having been more irrational than the Dot Com Bubble and zanier than the Roaring Twenties. It’s worth pointing out how long those infamous moments lasted. They didn’t feel like “moments” to those living through them. They went on for quite a while. As can this.
If history is any guide, the Age of Funcertainty may just be getting started.
How to perform well under pressure
To perform well under pressure, you need several elements in place: an ability to distance yourself from destructive thoughts and self-talk; a way to cope with overwhelming feelings; the mental flexibility to respond in the most effective way; and, finally, to know what matters to you.
Why Americans Are Always Running Out of Time
Technology only frees people from work if the boss—or the government, or the economic system—allows it.
More …
What I Am Reading
This is how your brain makes your mind
“Your mind is in fact an ongoing construction of your brain, your body, and the surrounding world.”
The New Science of Clocks Prompts Questions About the Nature of Time
“Studies of the simplest possible clocks have revealed their fundamental limitations — as well as insights into the nature of time itself.”
You'll Never Login the Same Way Again
“Wallet-based authentication will dominate in the next decade because it puts the user in control, where we want to be. The wallet replaces the username, the password, and the cookie.”
More ….
Meet Altos Labs, Silicon Valley’s latest wild bet on living forever
“Altos hasn’t made an official announcement yet, but it was incorporated in Delaware this year and a securities disclosure filed in California in June indicates the company has raised at least $270 million, according to Will Gornall, a business school professor at the University of British Columbia who reviewed the document. In addition to Bezos and Milner, the company may have additional wealthy tech figures and venture capitalists as investors.”
George Eastman: The Greatest Technology Entrepreneur in U.S. History?
“Eastman was the “total entrepreneur”—marketing genius, financial wizard, great employer, both a visionary and a hands-on inventor and designer. Over the years, he became one of the most important philanthropists in American history, perhaps foreshadowing Bill Gates’s diverse interests. Above all else, George Eastman was “his own man”—a unique personality of independent mind. “
The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
"I’ve learned more about how to think and reason well from Julia Galef than from almost anyone."—Dylan Matthews, senior correspondent at Vox
Keep Your Identity Small
“Most people reading this will already be fairly tolerant. But there is a step beyond thinking of yourself as x but tolerating y: not even to consider yourself an x. The more labels you have for yourself, the dumber they make you.”
more …
The Power of the Marginal
“If you really want to score big, the place to focus is the margin of the margin: the territories only recently captured from the insiders. That's where you'll find the juiciest projects still undone, either because they seemed too risky, or simply because there were too few insiders to explore everything.”
The Tacit Knowledge Series
“Tacit knowledge is ‘knowledge that cannot be captured through words alone’.
This series explores how expertise is tacit, why the research around extracting tacit knowledge is more important than the literature on deliberate practice, and how to go about acquiring tacit knowledge in the pursuit of skill acquisition.”
More …
Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, commonly referred to as GRATs, are a financial instrument that allow a property or asset owner to pass appreciating assets to their heirs with minimal, if any, estate tax consequences. Affluent taxpayers often turn to GRATs (and capitalize on the higher estate tax exemption eligible under the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017) as part of a creative, proactive strategy in planning their estates.
So how can you benefit from a GRAT? The first step is for you, the grantor, to contribute an appreciated asset(s) to an irrevocable, fixed trust. You would then be entitled to receive an annuity from the asset during the term of the trust. Keep in mind, this annuity is not the same as the income generated by the asset. The grantor of the asset is eligible for an annuity based on the fair market value of the asset at the time it was put in trust, not simply the income generated from the asset.
More …
