Topics

• Aging · 3
• Business · 14
• Creative Process · 1
• Investing · 5
• Learning & Teaching · 5
• Life Wisdom · 12
• Natural Sciences · 3
• On Writing · 4
• Risk & Uncertainty · 4
• Startups · 4
• The Future · 2
• Towards Greatness · 4
• World Affairs · 3

• Julia B. on the limitations of animal models
• José Luis Ricón on noise and/or programmed aging as root causes of aging
• José Luis Ricón on death and the Stockholm syndrome

• Horace Dediu on how the iPhone might be solving the innovator dilemma
• Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on how long it takes to dig an economic moat
• Patrick McKenzie on crafting a narrative for decisionmakers then solving backwards to the artifacts that would create it
• The back story of PUBG, Fornite, and battle royale video games
• Charlie Munger explains what made the success of Coca-Cola possible
• Patrick McKenzie on how he “discovered” his online brand
• Patrick McKenzie’s anecdotes about finding and joining online communities
• John Collison reading recommendations about the history of successful B2B companies
• John Collison on the similarities of Uber and cable companies
• Horace Dediu thinking out aloud about the Apple Glasses
• Horace Dediu on how Apple is usually not a first mover
• Horace Dediu on how Apple does beta testing
• Horace Dediu on Apple Silicon as a source of competitive advantages for Apple
• Steve Jobs pitching the App Store

• Daniel Gross on the similarities of Swedish House Mafia’s creative process and Apple’s design process

• Munger’s investing style has been more audacious than Buffett’s
• Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on when it is time to buy a house
• John Collison on the jobs-to-be-done of accounting
• John Collison on the challenges of accounting for R&D and intangible capital in software businesses
• John Collison on why the early 2000s had a Telco bubble, not a Dot-com bubble

• Todd Simkin on Lev Vygotsky’s ideas of teaching by finding the apprentice’s zone of proximal development (ZPD)
• V. I. Arnold on the perils of “pure” deductive-axiomatic mathematics
• Michael Nielsen on writing as an antidote to the illusion of understanding
• Nabeel Qureshi on habits to cultivate if you are to really understand things
• Michael Faraday recreated things from scratch to establish “ownership” over ideas

• Todd Simkin on the principle of charity in conversations, negotiations, and trading
• Todd Simkin on conversation techniques that seem dull but actually help others think and reason
• Shane Parrish and Todd Simkin on cognitive shortcuts, belonging, and tribalism
• Charlie Munger on why “full-time” multidisciplinary thinking is not for everyone; but learning the big ideas is
• Charlie Munger on avoiding too much top-down theorization about ethics; better to engage with life practically
• Gian-Carlo Rota on the advice we give others
• Charlie Munger on his golden rule, to deserve what you want
• Charlie Munger on not trying to be a prodigy, just trying to avoid the inanities, including the inanities of the prodigies
• Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on what they admire about each other
• Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on how they first met
• Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on friendships and the benefits of choosing to be a high-quality person
• Harj Taggar on how, in conversations, human motives get in the way of truth seeking

• V. I. Arnold on mathematics being an experimental science
• V. I. Arnold explaining the physical intuition behind some math concepts
• V. I. Arnold’s book recommendations

• Michael Nielsen on writers’ open moves
• Michael Nielsen on the risks of writing
• Michael Nielsen on how hard it is to write well
• Patrick McKenzie on some of the benefits of writing online

• Kris Abdelmessih's reading recommendations on decision making under uncertainty
• Todd Simkin on teaching by judging the decision process, not just the results
• Todd Simkin on how to calibrate and improve your probabilistic assessments
• Todd Simkin on overcoming cognitive biases by communicating well with the right kind of group

• Elad Gil on product-market fit (again)
• Stewart Butterfield on the famous Slack pivot
• Elad Gil on how he spots product-market fit
• Andy Rachleff on how he defines product-market fit

• Richard Hamming on legal challenges computers face in medicine
• Gwern Branwen on OpenAI’s bet in the scaling hypothesis

• Charlie Munger recounts the pivotal steps of his professional life
• Charlie Munger explains Warren Buffett’s extreme success
• Charlie Munger on what it takes to get very far ahead in life, and what’s attainable by “non-naturals”
• Nima Arkani-Hamed on the important skill of turning big ideas into sharp questions

• Moisés Naím on corruption in South America and the link between commodity-based economies and populism
• Charlie Munger on China’s remarkable success under a peculiar model; Adam Smithian capitalism but no free speech
• Charlie Munger’s cautious comments on recent US fiscal and monetary policies

Alternatively, browse notes by tag.