I didn’t mince words last week:
There’s way too much obsession with investments as a way to get rich in the first place. It’s misallocated attention. It’s misplaced energy…Don’t obsess about investing beyond the point of diminishing returns.
Yes, you should absolutely learn about:
- compounding
- saving
- fees
- taxes
- diversification
- implementing or getting help to construct a portfolio with simple rules
Now stop and go home.
I was forceful about this because the exceptions to this are rare enough that caveats shouldn’t minimize the message.
I also recognize that “real talk” like this can feel like I’m putting a lid on your habitat without the courtesy of breathing holes. That’s why I added an emphasis on your human capital in preference to financial capital:
If you want to go big or go home, it’s best to do so on your skills or personal edge.
This brings me to a recommendation that will inspire, educate, and entertain:
David Senra’s Founders Podcast.
It’s some of the best content I’ve discovered in a long time. The premise is simple. David reads biographies and tells you about them.
It’s hard to explain how well done this is. David’s enthusiasm, tone, synthesis, and identification of a few common themes throughout these stories are immensely satisfying. The stories are inspiring even when they deserve admonition.
The narratives remind us that the exertion of our will on the world is murky but ultimately pursuit is a mother’s hand pulling a 7-year-old through the crowded sidewalks of life’s confusion. Yes, it takes time. It takes bumping into pedestrians’ butts. You often don’t know what direction you’re headed in. But eventually, there’s daylight. You are growing. You will get taller to weave through the crowd yourself.
The podcasts are empowering without any pep talks. The subtext binding them all together is enterprise. The primacy of action. The undisputed sense that the world is malleable and you can bend it.
Getting Started with Founders
With nearly 300 episodes, there’s something for everyone. I’ve listened to these:
#207: Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising
#189: David Ogilvy, The Unpublished David Ogilvy
#111: David Geffen, The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells The New Hollywood
#66: Henry Kaiser, Builder in the Modern American West
#21: John Carmack & John Romero, Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created An Empire And Transformed Pop Culture
My favorite so far — inspiration straight into my veins:
#18: Yvon Chouinard, Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
#245: Rick Rubin, In The Studio
…and these episodes were worth heavy note-taking:
- David Senra On Invest Like The Best (Moontower notes)
This episode is not on Founders but instead is Patrick O’Shaughnessey interviewing host David Senra. I listened to it 3x. It was this interview that got me into listening to Founders and my favorite podcast episode this year.
There’s more.
I asked my 4th grader to listen with me and take notes (he’s learning note-taking in school this year). I’ve never asked him to listen to an interview before but I wish someone might have asked me to listen to a discussion like this when I was at such an impressionable age. In my link, I include his notes too! It was fascinating to see what bits stood out to him. (Since the episode is 90 minutes, we broke it up into 3 sessions of 30 minutes over 2 weeks).
[One of the reasons the episode might have been especially fun for him is we just finished watching The Men Who Made America series on the History Channel and Senra discusses many of the “captains of industry” or “robber barons” featured on the TV series.]
My notes discuss some of the common Founders themes that stand out to both Senra and I.
- #93: Ed Thorp, A Man For All Markets (Moontower notes)
An oft-repeated theme on Founders is that the subjects are deeply flawed, often miserable. You are warned to not glorify them but instead extract their deep but narrow wisdom, instead of copying their lives. This episode is special because Ed Thorp is the one person, Senra uses as his own personal blueprint.
And I agree. Thorp in his entirety (or at least what we can know from his public action and writing) is an admirable and impressive individual.
I immediately purchased Thorp’s book and I’m reading it to Zak at night before bed. Thorp’s life is a movie.
I’ve recommended Founders to several friends and the reaction has been universal — “where has this podcast been hiding?” If it gives you half as much joy as I’ve gotten from it it’ll be worth it.
Ok, so recapping.
- Don’t spend any more time than you need to on investments.
They are numbers that go up and down and nobody can prove than know anything. From Why I Share Online And The Decision To Leave Trading:
An aside that is gonna trigger some set of people: I could hand over all my professional dashboards and tools, and it wouldn’t make a difference. You won’t get the same results. Experience, discipline, and creativity are not something you can take from another. And they are foundational to a discretionary strategy. Think about this from a game-theoretic point of view. If I could codify (I tried and couldn’t) what I did, then it would be easy to prove the edge. The strategy would then be automated and be oversubscribed or its owners would never sell it to an investor. The fact that it’s discretionary and cannot be proven except by its eventual outcomes means an investor must always worry that I’m full of shit.
Do you see the paradox?
If the edge is provable, it doesn’t exist for you. So the only hope of finding edge is in your judgment of a discretionary strategy. This is not a worthy use of your time because your confidence can never be high enough a priori to bet an amount that was commensurate with moving the needle. You’re flirting around the edges of a low SNR problem. Unless this is fun, assassinate the FOMO right now by directing your Superman “rationality” eye beam at the paradox, and move on to the next obstacle holding you back from worthy pursuits.
- Gather energy
Check out Founders.
Check out Bill Gurley’s Runnin’ Down A Dream: How To Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love speech that inspired Founders. (YouTube)
That speech also inspired hedge fund manager Alix Pasquet’s presentation:
Learning for Analysts and Future Portfolio Managers (2 hour video)
Despite the investing-focused title of the speech, its central theme is broader:
Learning Is behavioral change!The video is long but I found it worthwhile. The notes will let you judge for yourself.
• Moontower notes (9 min read)
• Frederik Gieschen’s notes (7 min read)
• Presentation slides (download)
- Strike
This old post includes links to light your fire.
• Get Unstuck and Move (10 min read)