Long-Term Money
Morgan Housel opens with a fact that resets everything: Adam Smith wrote that it was common in 18th-century Scotland to meet a mother who had borne twenty children and had not two alive. Queen Anne of England had 18 children. Not one made it. Today we complain about grocery stores having too many options. The piece is a meditation on how profoundly life has improved in ways so total and complete that we've lost the ability to see them as progress. The compounding of human knowledge across generations is the most underrated investment thesis of all time, and this piece makes that case better than almost anything I've read.
A Navy SEAL Breathing Technique to Stay Calm and Focused
Former Navy SEAL Mark Divine's box breathing method has been around for years but I keep coming back to it. The technique is almost embarrassingly simple: inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, hold empty for four. What I find interesting is the physiology behind it. At 16 to 20 shallow breaths per minute, most people are running their nervous systems slightly hot all day. Slow that to five or six full breaths and you're running a completely different operating system. Divine practiced this standing in line, sitting in traffic, before workouts. The point isn't that breathing is magic. The point is that you have a direct line to your autonomic nervous system and almost nobody uses it.
The 12-month window
On a recent episode of No Priors, investor Elad Gil made an observation that's worth sitting with: for most companies there is roughly a 12-month period where the business is at peak value, and then it crashes out. Lotus, AOL, Mark Cuban's Broadcast.com all caught that window. A lot of great companies didn't. This matters especially right now because a significant portion of today's AI startup landscape exists because the foundation models haven't expanded into their category yet. As founders openly acknowledge, that won't last forever. The question for everyone building in this space is: do you know which phase you're in?
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Should you confront your worries or try to banish them?
If you have a distressing thought, shoving it out of your mind will only work for so long. It will camp out in the unconscious, biding its time until it can emerge again, often through physical sensations, behaviors, emotions or dreams.
This Investor Raised Billions by Making Complicated Ideas Simple
Want to build influence with great ideas and simple writing? Look no further than Howard Marks. Most smart people use big words and plastic jargon to reinforce the barrier between themselves and “the common folk.” Howard, on the other hand, breaks down this barrier, and that’s why his ideas are so influential.
What is a Family Office and Why Does it Matter? by Ron Diamond
There are roughly 15,000 Family Offices around the globe which currently control approximately $10 trillion in assets. In comparison, there is only $6.5 trillion globally in the entire hedge fund world. But even more important than the size Family Offices currently are, we are about to experience the largest transfer of wealth in history.
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There are pivotal times in life, times when you re-examine your priorities, beliefs, and your life-trajectory. August 3rd, 2015, was one of those moments for me, because on that morning, I had a near-death biking accident, in Montauk, New York.
In 2013, I purchased a summer house in Montauk, in the Hither Hills area. We lived in New York at the time, and went to Montauk a lot during the summers, so it made sense. But in late 2014, we moved to Miami. Still, we decided we would keep the Montauk house. We loved everything about the quiet town of Montauk, from our house, to the beach, the restaurants, everything. Flying up to spend the summers there would be great.
In August 2015, after a three-hour flight and five-hour drive, we finally arrived in Montauk: myself, my wife, and my little daughter, who was then about one and a half. After quickly unpacking, we headed out to dinner, making grand plans for all the places we would go and things we would do for the rest of the month. But as the old cliche has it, “Tell God your plans, and watch Him laugh.”
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With wellness rituals and techniques like yoga and meditation in the mainstream, almost everyone is aware to some level that mindful breathing is a healthy practice. But what if a simple, straightforward breathing technique could significantly impact your health and even heal an injury?
Ever heard of Wim Hof? At this point, probably so. He’s risked life and limb multiple times to set records, usually involving ice: longest time swimming in icy waters, longest time in direct, full-body contact with ice (yes, that’s essentially being buried up to your chin in ice), fastest half-marathon running barefoot on, you guessed it, ice. He’s also done a few mountain climbs in nothing but shorts and shoes, and in an unusual break from his more polar pursuits, he once ran a marathon… in the desert… without water… and rehydrated afterwards with beer.
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