North Star Podcast

My guest today is Jason Zweig, a personal finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He's also the author of the revised edition of Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor, which Warren Buffett has described as "by far the best book about investing ever written." We begin the episode by discussing the evening Jason spent with Charlie Munger at his home in Southern California. Then we talked about Jason's collaboration with Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize winning behavioral economist. We discuss Jason's time growing up on a small farm in upstate New York, and why Jason's Wall Street Journal columns are intended to save investors from themselves. Then we had a conversation talking about the power of small details and communication, and why writing demands fresh language. And nearly every single part of this conversation applies to my online writing course called Write of Passage, where I teach students to launch a personal website, build their writing habits, and attract an online audience. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. SHOW TOPICS LINKS: Find Jason online: Twitter Website WSJ’s The Intelligent Investor Other mentions: Charlie Munger, Unplugged by Jason Zweig (Paywall) The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolf The Years of LBJ by Robert Caro SHOW NOTES 1:38 What Jason learned from his six-hour long conversation with Charlie Munger, delivering the same information in different and entertaining ways, why you should bet on regression to the mean instead of being procyclical when it comes investing. 8:00 What are the similarities between Charlie Munger and Daniel Kahneman, why you have to be ready to kill your darlings when it comes to writing, and what does Jason’s information diet looks like. 24:10 How Jason thinks about the idea of “saving investors from themselves”, the role of entertainment in Jason’s writings, why clichés are a symptom of lazy thinking, and inflection points in Jason’s career 42:10 How growing up in rural New York fueled Jason’s intellectual curiosity, how Jason would approach building a writing career if he was just starting out, and why you should treat words like 45 pound dumbbells. 55:44 Pivotal moments that influenced Jason’s writing process, the importance of being able to take criticism well, and how Jason uses collective intelligence to improve his thinking 1:08:17 The dangers of learning too narrow a lesson, how Jason was as a young college student, and why overconfidence might a positive influence for young writers SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

My guest today is Austin Rief, the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Morning Brew, a daily email newsletter with the latest news from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Austin started the company when back when he was a student at the University of Michigan. And now Morning Brew has more than 1 million subscribers. This conversation is about all things email from growth through attention to strategy. We talked about Morning Brew’s early growth strategies, its ever growing referral program, and the power of exclusive content for loyal subscribers. And then we talked about my own Monday Musings newsletter and my online course called Write of Passage and how people like you and me can harness the power of email. When it comes to media and commerce, Austin is one of my very favorite people to talk to. I hope you enjoy this episode. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. SHOW TOPICS LINKS: Find Austin online: Twitter Morning Brew Other mentions: Pocket sweetgreen Bonobos Substack SHOW TOPICS 1:50 How Austin thinks about building virality into the product, how to optimize paid marketing for your consumer brand, and having a unique pitch to your advertisers 10:16 The framework of “need vs. feed” in advertising, the origin story of Morning Brew, building memorable experiences, and how not having the weight of being successful can be good 21:33 Doing things that don’t scale, Morning Brew’s referral program and partnerships with other newsletters, and A/B testing 28:00 Building Morning Brew for other industries, using the psychology of readers to design the product, and aligning misplacing and underpricing of marketing channels with your specific product 39:52 Thinking about the tradeoff between depth of content and legibility, why you should make your product for a very specific person, and the under exploration of non-personal influencers 50:21 What are Austin’s axioms of growth, having multiple revenue streams to build a moat, the switch for Austin’s focus from growth to retention, and why your own customers are your build marketing channel 1:00:57 Why Austin loves sweetgreen, focusing on authentic experiences, the importance of a personal newsletter, and the future of the newsletter space SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

My guest today is Jason Fried, the Co-Founder and President of Basecamp, a Chicago based company that builds web based productivity tools. Jason is famous for his contrarian approach to work and his blog Signal vs. Noise. On this episode, we talked about both of them. We recorded this conversation at Basecamp's headquarters in Chicago. In this conversation, we discussed Jason's new book, It Doesn't Have To Be Crazy at Work. We also discuss Jason's philosophy of work and dive deep into how Jason was able to maintain control of Basecamp and build a business that mirrored his beliefs. We talk about the history of Chicago architecture, why Jason values time in nature so much, and how designers should balance the trade offs between elegance and utility. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. SHOW TOPICS LINKS: Find Jason online: Twitter Basecamp Signal vs. Noise ReWork Podcast People mentioned: David Heinemeier Hansson Brian Eno Other mentions: Great Chicago Fire Equinox SHOW TOPICS 1:30 What was the “ah-ha” moment when Jason realized that the way we work is broken, the measures at Basecamp that he cares about, and how the entire business is structured around how they work 5:15 Keeping things intentionally small, why “hustle porn” is overrated, how management pushes people towards made-up, unnecessary expectations 11:03 How Jason thinks about moments vs hours mode of working, how to build a profitable business from day one, creative vs hard work 16:03 How good habits can form the backbone of a good workplace, how Jason structures his days, how projects are structured at Basecamp 23:50 How the end goal determines how you work, how Basecamp is able to sponsor $5000 vacations every year for all its employees, how scratching your own itch can lead to a really good business, the origin story of Basecamp 33:45 Basecamp’s “content” strategy and why Jason doesn’t call it that, why failure is overrated in the software industry, why focusing on the fundamentals is the key to sustainable business 41:10 Growing your business like an oak tree, Jason’s favorite buildings in Chicago, how the Great Chicago Fire shaped the cities architectural landscape 53:10 Why aesthetics are not important, optimizing for the right things, Brian Eno, and why being able to articulate how you’re thinking is a powerful tool 1:04:10 Equinox and how high friction can lead to better experiences, how Jason thinks about pricing, and why softwares don’t need to give away a large part of their product 1:11:35 Why Basecamp doesn’t have any salespeople, why Basecamp is what Jason chooses to spend his time on, and what was the moment when he realized that Basecamp could be his life’s work SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

My guest today is Jason Stein, a general partner at Steins, an investment management business and holding company that provides capital and strategic partnership to consumer brands, media and technology companies. Jason also founded Laundry Service, an advertising agency that sold to Wasserman Media Group in 2015. And full disclosure, I worked for Jason at Cycle Media, the sister company of Laundry Service, and that's where we met. In this episode, we talked about the direct to consumer commerce wave, sports advertising and also the future of marketing. And this conversation begins with a story of how Jason use Twitter to recruit me back when I was a senior in college. I hope you enjoy this episode. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. SHOW TOPICS LINKS: Find Jason online: Twitter Steins Mentions: Laundry Service Chris Cox Chris Daniels Front Office Sports The Short Bus by Jonathan Mooney TikTok David’s tweet on the DTC wave Dollar Shave Club $1.2B Exit David’s new course on writing online, Write of Passage SHOW TOPICS 1:07 How Jason uses Twitter and why he thinks advertising begins with creating a great product, and how social media can be leveraged for product development 5:27 Why Jason thinks Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey are working on the right problems, how writing can help you become an “influencer”, and the addictive incentives of social media 9:08 Why long form content is not dead, why David thinks “Always be paranoid” is the most important thing he learned from Jason, and why Facebook and Twitter are facing the problems they are today 16:19 Jason’s mindset while building Laundry Service, the importance of a personal end goals, the difficulty of building a services business, and why you should always “Make it about the work.” 25:27 Why Jason is a bit jealous of David, how Steins is different from VC firms, and why is Front Office Sports so important? 35:28 The viral spread of TikTok, why Jason loves it, and how algorithmic feeds become important as a social network scales up 38:17 Why “nothing is binary”, the DTC wave, and why DTC brands are still reliant on wholesale and traditional retail channels 47:08 Why does sports advertising suck, misaligned incentives, and why it’s different to own a brand than be a brand agency

My guest today is Erika Nardini, the CEO of Barstool Sports. Barstool was started by Dave Portnoy in 2004. And Erica first learned about the company when she was living in Boston and she immediately became a fan. Now if you don't know about Barstool Sports, they are one of a kind. They cover sports and pop culture through a uniquely Barstool lens and they produce blogs, videos, and podcasts. They are part-media company, part-subscription service, part e-commerce company, and Barstool is responsible for many of the memes I grew up with. They are all over the place. For example, Barstool has an amateur boxing league with pay per view events called Rough and Rowdy. And some of their other shows include Chicks in the Office, Pardon My Take, Spittin Chiclets, and Schnitt Talk. In this conversation we explore every aspect of Barstool – from personalities like Big Cat, Uncle Chaps and El Presidente. We talked about the future of advertising, how Barstool things about its future, and how memes on social media become e-commerce products. Then we talked about Barstool's hiring philosophy, and how being an internet native impacts ad reads and content strategy. I hope you enjoy this episode. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. SHOW TOPICS LINKS: Find Erika online: Twitter Barstool Sports People mentioned: Dave Portnoy (El Presidente) Jon Bellion Ellie Schnitt Dan Katz Keith Markovich Kevin Clancy Caleb Pressley Other mentions: Pizza Reviews by El Presidente Chicks in the Office SHOW TOPICS 1:47 How Erika thinks about Barstool as a company and the future of media companies 5:41 The different personalities at Barstool and what Erika thinks makes them unique and authentic, the meaning of “being from the internet”, why Pizza Reviews are a premium format 14:03 Erika’s view of relationships that personalities have with their fans on the Internet, how that’s evolved over time, and all things Jon Bellion 18:09 Why the music industry has had such a tough time getting disrupted from within 20:52 The future of sports, what Erika thinks about sports rights in different leagues, and the idea of company orientation deciding end product experience 29:03 How sponsored content can be used effectively by brands, creative freedom for influencers, and how Erika found Barstool 33:16 David finding out about Barstool memes like “Saturdays are for the boys”, how that turns into an e-commerce product, and the balance between creative freedom and monetization 36:57 How Erika thinks about hiring at Barstool and the Barstool “it” factor 40:06 How is Barstool using data to influence decision-making, how people move through the Barstool brand, how internships turn into jobs for self-starters 47:17 Ecommerce at Barstool, switch from industries to media companies, which sports league would Erika bet for a 10-year time frame? 51:10 How have video games impacted Barstool, golf personalities, people stealing the Barstool way of doing things and why ultimately that doesn’t help them 1:00:10 Why did Erika choose to spend her career in the intersection of content and technology and monetization?

My guest today is Nick Kokonas, the Co-founder of The Alinea Group of restaurants. His restaurant Alinea has been named the best restaurant in America and also the best restaurant in the World. Nick is also the Co-founder and CEO of Tock incorporated, a reservations and CRM system for restaurants with clients in more than 20 countries. In this episode, we dive deep into the restaurant industry. Nick and I begin by discussing how he applies behavioral economics to his bars and restaurants. Then we talk about the design of Next bar, the Aviary, and how he's thinking about the upcoming redesign. We explore many aspects of the restaurant industry. From menu design, to branding, to reservations, to designing experiences. We talked about why golf is the greatest sport in the world, how to increase throughput at a bar or restaurant, and the virtues of dynamic pricing. We also compare and contrast high end restaurants around the world from New York to Argentina. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. Show Notes LINKS: Find Nick online: Twitter Tock The Alinea Group People mentioned: Grant Achatz Richard Thaler Steve Stallard Bryson deChambeau Other mentions: Misbehaving by Richard Thaler Tegui Contra Publican Moto Cypress Point Crosby Street Hotel SHOW TOPICS 1:49 How Nick came to meet Noble Prize winning Economist Richard Thaler, how he applies behavioral economics to the restaurant business, and how small behavioral cues can lead to big changes in results 7:05 Why does Nick care about metrics like revenue per minute per seat instead of average check size, the importance of throughout, and the new Flex AI tool offered by Tock 11:22 Why has the restaurant industry not adopted dynamic pricing? 14:34 Is fine-dining around the world becoming all the same due to Instagram? How has shifts in information created a new kind of chef who mixes art and science at a very early age? 21:44 How does Nick look at food costs and why are truffles so expensive? 25:50 How does the Alinea group manage the trade-off between hospitality and efficiency, and the thought-process behind the new re-design. 31:06 How Chicago’s West Loop become such a hotspot for good restaurants, parallels with New York’s Meatpacking district of Chelsea, and the importance of real estate in the restaurant business 35:31 Importance of giving false choices in parenting and in restaurants 39:02 The origin story of Tock and how it delivers a superior experience for restaurants and customers 51:10 Why Nick becomes every business plan with the experience of going to the place, what’s wrong with most business plans for restaurants, and behind-the-scenes drama at high-end restaurants 58:17 Why are Half Mezcal Margaritas Nick’s favorite drink? 1:00:30 Why Nick enjoys playing golf, David’s story about sneaking into Cypress Point, and how Bryson deChambeau is changing golf 1:07:30 What does Nick think about effective business writing, the importance of editing, being ok with saying “I don’t know” and Trump’s ability to distill ideas into simple rhetoric. 1:13:00 Why did Nick called everyone into work on Chicago’s Polar Vortex day and willingness to do things that others don’t. 1:17:30 How is Nick prepping for the macro environment slowdown given that restaurants are one of the least recession proof industry? 1:18:57 Why people don’t like to make decisions, and why Nick will never work with anyone who can’t make decisions – even if they are the wrong ones. 1:20:36 Nick’s requirements for hospital hotel and why he likes the Crosby Street Hotel in NYC. 1:23:49 How Nick and Grant studied the dew point of water to avoid condensation at the tables in Alinea. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

My guest this week is Andrew D'Souza, the Co-founder and CEO of Clearbanc, a fundraising alternative to traditional venture capital. The company is based in Toronto and helps businesses fuel their marketing spend – because right now 40% of venture capital invested in companies goes directly to funding Facebook and Google ads. Equity is an expensive way for founders to fund repeatable growth and Clearbanc exists to solve that problem. Here's how it works – Clearbanc gives startups anywhere between $5,000-$10 million and in exchange Clearbanc typically receives a 5% to 10% revenue share of that company's earnings until the funding is paid back plus a 6% fee. Now here's the secret, Clearbanc picks merchants by developing technology that scans the merchants' Stripe payments and Facebook ads and that way they can assess the financial health and momentum of the company. In 2018, Clearbanc poured more than 100 million dollars into 500 companies. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. Show Notes LINKS: Find Andrew online: Twitter Clearbanc People mentioned: Chamath Palihapitiya Chip Wilson Tobi Lütke Sam Altman Paul Graham Stewart Butterfield Drew Houston Mike Krieger Other mentions: Clearbanc Social Capital Andreessen Horowitz Y Combinator Lululemon Little Black Stretchy Pants by Chip Wilson Groupon Dragon’s Den It’s always Day One letter Top Hat SHOW TOPICS 1:55 How Systems Engineering helped Andrew helped think about the intersections of different disciplines like Neurobiology, Psychology, Marketing, and Macroeconomics 5:36 Why authenticity is key to building great marketing campaigns and why your job as the CEO is to create the necessary conditions for success 10:12 The origin story of Clearbanc and how 40% of all venture capital goes to Facebook, Google, and Amazon 20:05 How companies build a culture that allow people to fail and how Clearbanc started by funding Uber drivers which keeps them true to their origin story 25:14 How Andrew squares the dichotomy between funding growth through social media and the idea of a disproportionate portion of VC going to Facebook ads 29:42 Airbnb and the future of how cities will evolve around self-driving cars and subscription songs 35:00 Why Andrew thinks that the advent of self-driving cars is more a policy problem than a technological one 40:48 The independence of Canadian provinces and how Quebec has managed to preserve the European culture against huge pressures 47:31 How meeting YC partners showed Andrew that VCs are just one way to build your company 50:43 How Andrew builds and cultivates relationships while building Clearbanc 55:10 What Andrew thought about traveling to Israel and thinking about Jesus as a founder of a movement 58:29 How Andrew returned to his initial passion for selling a product that he believes in through hiring people in positions which were their passion

SHOW NOTES LINKS: Find Alex online: Twitter Social Capital: Snippets People mentioned: Steve Yegge Clay Christensen Travis Kalanick Dan Doctoroff Dr. J. Craig Venter Eric Reis Chamath Palihapitiya Other mentions: Steve's Google Platforms rant Social Capital Y Combinator Andreessen Horowitz Cloud Kitchens Sidewalk Labs 100 Resilient Cities The Organization Man by William Whyte The Lean Startup SHOW TOPICS 2:11 Amazon's Organizational Structure 4:09 Steve's Google Platform Rant 12:42 AWS & The Government 22:53 Disruption as rearrangement 30:47 Thesis-driven Discovery Team @ Social Capital 38:52 The role of transportation in shaping cities 45:47 Suburban vs Urban life 53:13 Sidewalk Labs in Toronto 1:00:11 Chief Resilience Officers in Cities 1:03:03 Alex & his interest in Biology 1:11:28 The Organization Man 1:18:58 What has Alex learned from Chamath Palihapitiya 1:22:05 Alex's writing advice 1:25:02 Ways to Think About Water SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

My guest today is Web Smith, the founder of 2PM, Inc. a curated, subscription-based media company with quick commentary on brands, data, and eCommerce. He invests in and advises for digitally native vertical brands, and spends most of his time in the intersection of digital media and eCommerce. Within the eCommerce industry, Web’s done many tours of duty: he was the cofounding CMO of Mizzen & Main. Before that, he handled marketing at Rogue. Most recently, he was the Director of eCommerce at Gear Patrol. We begin the episode talking about what Web learned working for Rogue Fitness. We discuss misconceptions around eCommerce. We talk about the purpose of advertising and how brands should think about spreading their messages. Then, we dive into the intersection of content and commerce, and explore brands like Supreme who turn off as many people as they attract. We talk about the future of retail, and explore the developing prospects for Dollar General, Wal-Mart, and J-Crew. Finally, we end with a conversation about Web’s journey from a hungry Houston kid to a multi-time founder. Web’s grit shines through in this conversation. I left the conversation in awe of Web’s humility and ambition. Please enjoy my conversation with Web Smith. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. Show Notes LINKS: Find Web online: Twitter 2PM Inc Instagram People mentioned: Jake Thompson Casey Neistat Other mentions: 2PM Inc Mizzen+Main Rogue Gear Patrol Compete Every Day WONE Supreme Primal Kitchen RX Bar Walker and Company Off-White J. Crew SHOW TOPICS 1:12 - How Web began with the e-commerce industry with Rogue, some of the misconceptions he first had with the industry, and a few of his experiences of a blue-collar mentality within e-commerce. 7:20 - Product becoming less of a differentiating factor within e-commerce companies, Web’s thoughts on this, as well as his thoughts on companies doing things in-house versus outsourcing. 11:46 - A few other things that Web looks for within an e-commerce company and some factors that stand out to him. 14:22 - The direct to consumer industrial complex and Web discussing how the real winners of this era are the people that are supporting these brand efforts. Also, a bit on what Web is building within 2 PM and the strategies he’s using. 19:32 - What Web’s original vision for 2 PM was and where the company is currently going. Also, some thoughts on if you’re not doing a paid route, then word of mouth being very important. The most important factor within the Supreme brand discussed, as well. 26:29 - Web’s thoughts on the collaborations that Supreme and Virgil Abloh have done. (Paying $300 for a Supreme branded brick) 29:08 - What Web has learned from CrossFit, his thoughts on it, and a few of his experiences within that community. Also, thoughts on brands relating to being a religion. 36:20 - What is it with the structure of the industries like food, beverage, or cosmetics that makes them not go public. Afterward, discussion on the convergence of media and e-commerce. 49:24 - The rise of dollar stores rising up around the country and Web’s thoughts on this. Also, why the same benefits of these dollar stores (high convenience, close to your home, and low prices) can’t be improved through e-commerce vectors. 54:22 - What stands out about Walmart and what they’re doing within the industry to Web. One of his experiences with Walmart here, as well. 58:46 - Columbus, Ohio being one of the major retail capitals of the world and some thoughts on the things going on within the retail space there. 1:01:41 - What Web has learned from Casey Neistat. His huge amounts of discipline and strict schedules. Where he came from and where he’s going. 1:06:22 - As the cost for testing and launching products go down, more and more companies are coming out with more and different products than what they’re known for. How Casey has also done this. 1:08:31 - The lessons and ambitions Web got from growing up and some discussion on his earlier days and experiences with poverty. How this has translated into him raising his kids. 1:13:13 - Why Web has chosen 2 PM as a way to share his knowledge and to give his gift to the world. Also, what Web deals with within the intersection between e-commerce and media. 1:16:40 - What Web has learned about the craft of writing and how he’s gotten better at it. Why it’s important to always write, especially when you don’t want to do it. 1:19:00 - How Web thinks about talking to people, creating ideas, learning, reading and then making those ideas and that information real and then sharing those with the world. How Web approaches learning through conversation and how he goes about it. “I don’t think you can be all things for all people. If you’re not pissing someone off, you’re doing something wrong.” SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

My guest today is Tal Shachar, the Chief Digital Offer of Immortals, a global eSports organization in Los Angeles where he leads consumer-facing operations. At Immortals, Tal is working to build the most engaged and inclusive community in eSports. Before joining Immortals, Tal lead strategy and growth for BuzzFeed studios, focusing on growing audience and monetizing Buzzfeed’s intellectual property across channels. Before that, Tal worked for an independent media holding company called the Chernin group, and worked with companies like Barstool Sports, the Action Network, and Headspace. And finally, Tal writes for Media REDEF, where he analyzes the media and technology industries. I can confidently say Tal’s articles are some of the best articles ever written on the media business. We devote this entire episode to the future of media. We talk about Netflix, Disney, Amazon, HBO and the changing definitions of scale in the media business. We explore the present and future of niche media and discuss the emergence of food culture on the internet. Then, we talk about some of Tal’s craziest ideas like the differences between Tiles and Feeds, why Hollywood is like an API for Silicon Valley, an how fast feedback loops between digital and physical reality are changing the world. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. Show Notes LINKS: Find Tal online: Twitter Linkedin People mentioned: Ben Thompson Reed Hastings Matthew Ball Benedict Evans Ryan Murphy Ze Frank Peter Chernin Jonah Peretti Seth Godin Fred Wilson Evan Spiegel (my episode with Evan here) Other mentions: Aggregation theory Bytedance SHOW TOPICS 0:35 - The constraints in the past regarding the limited choice people had. Comparing this to now where we have numerous ways to choose various things and how we want them. How this relates to communities emerging - “With limitless distribution and limitless choice, we can find exactly what appeals to us, including other people.” 5:35 - The distinction between a push-discovery and a pull-discovery (having something pushed onto you versus choosing and being drawn to something). Some examples of these. Also, detailing passive and active forms of content consumption. 8:11 - How advertising and subscription business models tie into push versus pull theory (most television being 50/50 split). The passive and active aspects of media, as well. Going into Netflix’s strategy and scaling, and discussing why it doesn’t have advertising or sports. How being at scale has changed and what this means. 20:20 - What some of the bottlenecks are regarding sports media and television. Also, what sports television may look like in the future. 23:10 - Tiles versus feeds. How passive and active consumption ties into both of these (for example, Facebook feeds much more suited for passive consumption). Tile-based consumption being more suited to active consumption. 27:15 - How Disney, Amazon, and HBO use much more different strategies compared to Netflix and why they do this. Going in-depth into their specific strategies. 31:50 - How Tal’s prediction with content leading straight to purchase and how this has largely come to be true. Also, how parts of this prediction have been wrong. Discussion on and examples of focusing at the top of the funnel, and then focusing solely at the bottom of the funnel. A bit on how online shopping may evolve to begin having a similar experience that in-store shopping might have. 40:49 - Who has a structural advantage in the world and some examples of these advantages. How the type of product will be better suited for online distribution versus a more physical distribution. A future increase in the number of direct consumer brands. 44:31 - How the goal is not to pay the least amount but to pay the most for your content. How we’ve gone wrong in terms of how we think about this. Paying for the best content, to then monetize it at the highest rate, and then return to paying for the content again is really what’s going to matter. For passive content, the model is different. 47:19 - How Tal sees Hollywood changing in terms of risk and reward. How Netflix ties into this and detailing that. Discussing the nature of music and the monetary aspect of top-tier content. 54:00 - Discussing media-consumption and how the demand may not be increasing but the supply is always increasing. The opportunity-cost arising. What begins to shift when there is no longer any attention left to give to media. The possible integration of companies using facial expression data from cameras to create even more accessible and efficient data. 58:45 - The idea of Hollywood as an API for Silicon Valley. Some discussion on this idea and how companies use Hollywood as an API. 1:03:34 - If we go back to the 1960s, how music mainly ran the culture at the time. Now, how travel is a shelling point for culture, for people to meet, and in many other sectors. Some examples of this with food, as well. 1:06:54 - What Tal

My guest today is Keith Rabois, the Managing Director at Khosla Ventures. At Khosla, Keith focuses on the consumer internet, education, enterprise, financial services, and digital health. Keith has had a front-seat to Silicon Valley history. He’s had five bosses in his career: Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Reid Hoffman, Jack Dorsey, and Vinod Khosla. In this episode, we talk about the lessons of sports from the San Francisco 49ers to the Oakland A’s. Keith shares a story from his first week at PayPal, where he went on a run with Peter Thiel, which sparked his hiring philosophy. Then, we talk about the future of education, how to find undiscovered talent in society, the power of accumulating advantages, and how to raise the level of ambition in society. Keith has built more billion dollar companies than just about anybody on Planet Earth, and all that wisdom shines through in our conversation. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. LINKS: Find Keith online: Twitter Linkedin Khosla Ventures page Wiki page People mentioned: Peter Thiel Max Levchin Reed Hoffman Jack Dorsey Vinod Khosla Bill Walsh Blake Masters Elon Musk Erik Torenberg Bill Thompson William Safire Pat Riley Jerry Garcia Books mentioned: The Score Takes Care of Itself Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History The Winner Within Other mentions: Khosla Ventures Square Stripe Opendoor Zillow Stratechery Aggregation Theory SHOW TOPICS 1:32 - Outlining the book, The Score Takes Care of Itself and its significance for entrepreneurs. “Rather than focusing on the score, focus on the process and the rest takes care of itself.” Also detailing Bill Walsh, the underlying infrastructure that he built, and the philosophy that successful companies like Square and Apple have used. 4:41 - Leadership lessons that can be learned from sports and the insights that Keith learned from Peter Thiel in the past on evaluating people and on building great companies. Pairing yourself with people that cover your blind spots and weaknesses. 9:20 - Emulating companies like Apple, Amazon, and Tesla rather than companies like Google or Facebook. The problem with people choosing the easier path in building companies and detailing building things from the ground up rather than inheriting other companies infrastructures. 12:28 - Thoughts on people who are naive about markets doing better than those who have more experience and know the markets. Hiring people who have expertise to jump the learning curve that comes with starting successful companies. 15:43 - Ways to accelerate learning and jump learning curves. Reading (primarily books and printed materials), find experts and constantly inquire, and using experts to find the right path to take. How Keith began venturing into real estate and him detailing his journey with it. 21:28 - Keith on using Twitter and his experience with finding a specific thread on China, then meeting the author of the thread. Examples of writing insightful things online and the potential in doing so. Finding people and breaking through to clutter with original content. 26:07 - Detailing accumulating advantages with companies and the effects of them. A few examples of what accumulating advantages may be within companies. A bit on accumulating advantage at the individual level, as well. 32:08 - What Keith has learned from being a bit of a Silicon Valley historian and why conference room names are predominantly Silicon Valley names. Also, a bit on why you would want to understand the history of Silicon Valley and the history of successful companies. Reading less short-form content and long-form content. Being a voracious reader. 36:35 - A musical example of being aware of things in the past and learning from tradition. Mixing original sparks with tradition. Learning more so you can better interpret information. For example, artists seeing ten-times more in a museum than an average person would. 42:47 - Keith describing the process of speech-writing and comparing it with coding. Also detailing what makes certain speeches stand out from others. William Safire’s book on great speeches, Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History. 45:30 - Creating ambition and the fluctuation of ambition over time. Discussing ambition more, spending time with the five most ambitious people you know, and believing that things are possible. Keith’s experience with ambition while growing up and his experiences with moving into tech. Specializing in your strengths and surrounding yourself with complimentary people. 52:28 - Becoming the only person in the world that does what you do and detailing this concept. Where he learned the concept and how Keith describes this for himself. 56:22 - What Keith has learned about organization and productivity that scales down to an individual level. Allocation of time and under-valuing your time. Detailing how the number one predictor of success is knowing how to efficiently allocate your time and how to get the most

Gillian Morris is the founder and CEO of Hitlist, an app that alerts you when there are cheap flights for your dream trips. Fast Company named Hitlist one of the Best Apps of 2017 and the app has been featured as a 'Best New App' by the app store in 83 countries. We begin this episode with a discussion of Gillian’s time as a journalist in Turkey and the time she spent in war zones in Syria and Afghanistan. We talk about Gillian’s experience swimming across Guantanamo, why Tinder is the world’s best travel app, and how to make travel meaningful. Finally, we end the podcast with a discussion of community living and alternative parenting strategies. ------- Guest: Gillian Morris Twitter:@gillianim Medium: https://medium.com/@gillianim ------- Show Topics 1:24 Gillian opens with her passion for travel and how journalism opened the doors to all kinds of adventures and experiences traveling. 5:45 How living in different places and cultures opens and shapes ones perspectives and worldview. 9:00 Gillian shares the misconceptions of the western world regarding some of the Middle Eastern countries she has visited. 12:30 The differences of living in a peace prone vs conflict zone and how it affects the overall quality of life and standard of living. 19:55 Gillian shares her vision for being a catalyst in getting more people to travel as a way to broaden their perspective. How more traveling for the average American could have a profound impact on their sense of the world and themselves. 23:30 Misconceptions about travel and myth that it is extremely expensive. 32:01 David and Gillian discuss communication barriers and opportunities when dealing with new cultures or in new places. 39:35 Gillian on how flights and travelling rules are constantly changing and evolving. Flying and traveling can’t be generalized, but there a processes one can do to make it easier and more accessible. 42:05 David and Gillian discuss the trend of countries relaxing the barriers of entry for tourism and the ensuing results. 50:48 How Hitlist uses intelligence to profile a personalized experience on the app that would be most appealing and tailored to each person. 51:50 David opens of the dilemma of the two sides of privacy and freedom when it comes to subscribers privacy. 52:38 Gillian on how privacy is handled within Hitlist. 57:40 Gillian on learning an instrument and some of the key factors that make it more understandable when learning. 1:04:06 The power of small group environments and the effect of an environment on the development of its individuals. 1:08:40 Looking historically at the issues within society and the traditional family structures vs modern communities. 1:11:40 Parenting and accessibility; creating additional accessibility and affordability when it comes to child rearing for those who are interested, but maybe unequipped or afraid. 1:14:25 Gillian shares a story of her time swimming across Guantanamo.

My guest today is Michael Shellenberger, the Founder and President of Environmental Progress. Michael is one of the world’s leading pro-nuclear environmentalists. He’s been an environmental and social justice advocate for over 25 years. In the 1990s, he helped force Nike to improve factory conditions in Asia and in the 2000s, Michael advocated for the expansion of federal investment in renewables and energy efficiency. In this episode, Michael and I talk about the virtues of nuclear energy and tackle the big misconceptions surrounding it. We explore how media narratives have shaped nuclear energy perception, the virtues and drawbacks of wind and solar energy technologies, why 17% of teachers in California can’t afford a home, the problems with anonymous lawsuits, and the fascinating impact of Proposition 13 on housing in Silicon Valley. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. LINKS: Find Michael online: Twitter Wiki page Environmental Progress page Forbes page People mentioned: Stephen Covey Richard Rhodes Friedrich Nietzsche Jordan Peterson Søren Kierkegaard Books mentioned: Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility (Michael’s book) Hiroshima The Rise of Nuclear Fear Other mentions: Environmental Progress Michael’s Ted talks (first, second, third, and fourth) SHOW TOPICS 1:34 - Michael’s experiences in Nicaragua and Guatemala in 1988 and the effects of culture shock on his sense of gratitude and wealth. David’s own experiences with culture shock here, as well.5:15 - Discussing activism and scholarly work. Michael’s first degree (peace and global studies), his early traveling experiences, him working at a left-wing activist group, and then a few of the campaigns he’s done. Then, how he formed a coalition to push government investment in renewables and clean energies. 8:17 - Some of the technical issues with renewable energies. Also, discussing nuclear energy and fossil fuels. Detailing the story of environmental progress and the power of uranium (a can of it will produce enough energy for your life). 12:12 - The common perspective on nuclear energy and waste (weapons, Chernobyl, Fukushima, and other negative connotations). Michael clearing up some of these common misconceptions. Also, some facts on why solar and wind power aren’t as effective and efficient as most people think. 23:26 - How nuclear power gained its negative view over time. The idea that the more countries with nuclear weapons, the safer the world is. Detailing the nuclear left and the nuclear right perspectives. 31:52 - The range of unexpected things that may happen with nuclear weapons and a few close calls in the past. How the more experience with these devices, the more manageable people are with them. 34:30 - How Michael views changing people’s perspectives with rhetoric. Instead of telling someone what or how to think, rather tell them your experiences. 38:40 - Michael’s perspective on using the media to share his ideas. How people want to follow people, instead of companies. The more personal aspects of social media. 42:29 - How changes with the media influence other things, such as politics. Discussing the benefits that come with being aligned with a particular party. A few of Michael’s favorite role models. 48:09 - How 17% of teachers in California cannot afford to live there and some details on this. The high levels of inequality there and common viewpoints from the homeowners there. 53:24 - Examples of changing human consciousness with images rather than rhetoric and some thoughts on this. Discussing the rate of improvement and development of the world over the years. 59:20 - The change in optimism for the future now compared to the high level that it was in the 1930s. Speaking on a few anxieties that we may have for the future. Also, a bit on unemployment and the replacement of jobs by technology. 1:08:20 - Michael’s idea of extending the time spent in education by a year, removing homework, and extending the school day. Also, improving the social aspect of education and improving the amount of physical activity in schools. A few extra ideas for improving education here, as well. 1:14:59 - What proposition 13 is and how it’s impacting numerous things in negative ways. 1:19:39 - A few things we can learn from Michael. How he filters information to get a higher level of truth than he would otherwise. The adjacent possible and how learning on your own can be much better than how it would be in a traditional setting. Also, a bit on what Michael’s goal is (nature and prosperity for all). 1:26:22 - What Michael does to make sure he’s producing at a consistent pace and producing quality work. 1:29:00 - Michael’s favorite story regarding nature and what inspired him to do so much with the environment and nature. Some powerful closing thoughts from Michael here, as well. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

Introduction: My guest today is Samo Burja, the founder of Bismarck Analysis, a firm that analyzes institutions, governments, and companies for high net worth individuals. There’s never been an immortal human society and Samo is on a quest to find out why. Known for his Great Founder Theory, Samo’s research focuses on the causes of societal decay and flourishing. In this episode, we talk about Samo's Great Founder Theory through the lens of Apple, Amazon and the myths that drive Silicon Valley. Then, we move to a discussion of geopolitical strategy where we talk about China, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, and the importance of Eurasia from a geopolitical perspective, before we jump around between ideas like intellectual dark matter, knowledge transfer, and the story of Singapore. I hope you enjoy this episode. LINKS: Find Samo online: Website Twitter Medium Linkedin People mentioned: Jordan Peterson Jeff Bezos Bill Gates Steve Jobs Peter Thiel René Girard Nassim Taleb Ben Shapiro Jon Stewart Edward Bernays Richard Feynman Tim Cook Elon Musk Wernher von Braun The Wright Brothers Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Neil Armstrong J. Edgar Hoover Satoshi Nakamoto Lee Kuan Yew Henry Bessemer Carl Friedrich Gauss Books mentioned: Zero to One Propaganda The Sovereign Individual Other mentions: Great founder theory (Samo’s article) Amazon Apple Facebook SpaceX Paypal Kayfabe The Daily Show Ford Tesla Walt Disney NASA Man In Space, Man and the Moon, Mars and Beyond (documentaries) The Manhattan Project FBI How Roman Emperors Handled the Succession Problem (Samo’s article) Bitcoin Empire Theory Part I and Empire Theory Part II (Samo’s articles) The Heartland Theory SHOW TOPICS 2:15 - Silicon Valley being a great way to understand the great founder theory and discussion on great founders of our time. Discussion on companies later and the skills necessary for a successful company. 9:30 - Samo on Jeff Bezos’ and learning from Amazon’s ability to communicate effectively. Discussion on the bar-raiser concept within Amazon that negates the typical long-term decline of employee quality. 14:18 - Speaking on retaining people within a company and how Amazon does this effectively. Also, how a lot of the ideas around talent and institutions in Silicon Valley have come from Peter Thiel. How him and his book, Zero to One, factors into these ideas. 19:46 - Samo’s experience living under communism for a few years in Slovenia, a bit on his background, and discussion on communism itself. 25:38 - The different ways of judging and trusting institutions and the world in general. Some examples of this and the best ways to go about trusting something, as well. Living in an attention-based economy. 38:08 - How to go about building truth-based institutions within an attention-based economy and some thoughts on this. Discussion on the tradeoffs of stability and dynamism. 45:28 - Thoughts on how to build the right incentives to promote regeneration and continual growth within a society. Speaking on NASA, it’s creation, and its powerful vision in the past. A bit on the origins of the FBI, as well 56:37 - The design of an institution and the natural course of them. Thoughts on handling and improving the problem of succession. 1:02:55 - The role of death in institutions and how iconic deaths may influence major events and preserve institutions. 1:07:06 - Samo’s belief on who controls Eurasia, controls the world. America’s incentive to have some tension in Europe. Discussion on the relation between a countries economy, its naval force, and its geographical location. 1:12:15 - The Sovereign Individual thesis versus the large nation-states and some discussion on this. Thoughts on tracking every computer and a user's actions. The empowerment of people by technology. A bit on nationalism and tying it to smaller communities. 1:18:13 - Lee Kwan Yew and the radical transformation of Singapore, a bit of history and importance on the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal, and discussion on Samo’s term, intellectual dark matter. 1:29:55 - How we might be able to teach tacit knowledge, the advantage of video with this, and some examples of learning tacit knowledge. How education should be and how Samo learns and consumes information. 1:37:20 - What Samo would have said to himself and done differently ten years ago in terms of learning through conversation and from people more effectively. The significance of gaining perspectives from multiple cultures. 1:38:36 - How Samo can help us travel more effectively in terms of heuristics to think through and with learning more tacit knowledge.

My guest toady is Patri Friedman, a political theorist whose on a mission to increase competition in government. In 2008, Patri founded the Seasteading Institute with a mission create sovereign ocean colonies and "establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems.” We spend tons of time talking about Seasteading and competitive governance in the episode. We also talk about the incredible foresight of Marshall McLuhan, the impact of modern technology on government, the future of the nation-state, the rise of city-states, and the rise of digital addictions in the internet age. I hope you enjoy this episode. This episode is everything the North Star Podcast is supposed to be: wild, wacky, weird, and wonderful. Patri has so many new and thought-provoking ideas. I hope you enjoy this episode.

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast My guest today is James Clear, a writer focused on how we can create better habits, make better decisions, and live better lives. He recently published a new book called Atomic Habits and after reading it, I just had to interview him. In this episode, we explore the nooks and crannies of habit formation. We discuss habits through a series of conversations about James’ favorite activities: baseball, travel, weightlifting, marketing, and writing. A former ESPN academic All-American college baseball player, James has an uncanny knack for taking important ideas and making them simple and easy to implement. There’s so much actionable wisdom in this episode, so find a pen, grab a piece of paper, and press play. I hope you enjoy this episode. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. Links James Clear’s Website James Clear’s Twitter Atomic Habits by James Clear Show Topics 1:45 David shares his thoughts on “The Power Broker” and what makes it such an informative and impressive book. 5:50 James describes his reading habits and reading structure; specifically diving into where and what mediums he finds to be the most information rich and accessible. 9:20 – James discusses the dilemma of prioritizing “classic” books that have stood the test of time, compared to the new ideas that are innovative and have built on previous knowledge; but have not yet been tested by time. 10:35- David and James begin to delve into habits, specifically in regards to fitness and the personal responsibility that’s required. 13:45 – Sports habits; how the lessons of sports ,when applied well, can have major impacts on our habits and success in life. 18:00 - David and James continue to examine various sports and the habits and lessons they have learned from them. 27:59 - All behaviors produce multiple outcomes across time.” – James goes in depth explaining this fascinating insight about the broad influence our actions can have on our immediate and distant futures. 34:30 David descries how he structures some of the rules he has set for himself in order to make a positive effect on his goals. 35:30 – James expands on how David’s habits and structure help develop freedom and spontaneity. 38:50 – Examples from Lebron James and Brett Favre serve as case studies that explore some of the incredible feats of awareness and “one step ahead” kind of thinking that result from years of habit development. 41:44 - James shares his thoughts on compounding habits and the potential long-term gratification. 44:55 - The importance of starting small when it comes to habit forming, rather than becoming fed up with failure when overreaching. 45:55 – David questions James on “How do habits effect or influence ones identity.” 50:53 – Tips and advice on building habits by starting small and working your way up. 53:46 – “A habit must be established before it can be improved.” James explains the importance of establishing a habit and building on it. 56:15 – How our environment and surrounding influence us and open up new opportunities. 1:00:30 – James shares his thoughts and advice on keeping up habits when on the road or traveling. 1:04:00 – James shares how his love for photography was kindled and developed. 1:07:10 – David and James continue to discuss the art and unique interpretations of photography 1:11:45 – James shares some of his writing habits and strategies used as he built up his website and articles. 1:22:10 – James goes down the rabbit hole with a question that has been on his mind: “Does conscious arise from language” Mentions 1:45 – The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro 8:30 - The Lessons of History 9:18 - Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 21:20 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitszkin 38:07 - Cleaning the Glass Hey again, it’s David here one more time. If you love to learn, you can sign up for my weekly newsletter, the Monday Musings, where I share the coolest things I learn every week, along with links to new articles and podcasts.

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast My guest today is Steve Schlafman, a venture capitalist, leadership coach and partner at Primary VC. This episode is a wide-ranging, emotional journey through the nooks and crannies of investing, introspection, and sobriety. Steve is a man of many passions. In the business world, he’s invested in breakthrough companies like Zipline, Brightwheel, Bark & Co., Managed by Q, Bowery Farming, Citizen, Care/Of, Boom Aerospace, TheSkimm and View The Space. Our exploration of investing was driven by five themes: leadership, market demand, customer focus, emotion, and human impact. Outside of the office, Steve lives a sober life free of alcohol and other substances. He’s a passionate cyclist and rides more than 2,500 miles every year. This episode is particularly profound. Steve and I down down, deep into the depths of human emotion — from struggle, to pain, to addiction, to wonder and joy. I hope you enjoy this episode. Subscribe to my “Monday Musings” newsletter to keep up with the podcast. Show Topics 3:30 – Steve explains his role and his program learning what’s called “transformational coaching” and how he became attracted to the idea of coaching. 6:30 – The value of coaching and common misconceptions of how a coaching can push and direct people. As Steve puts it, as a coach, “you shouldn’t be trying to fix, but instead, [trying] to understand. You’re not coaching the issue, you’re coaching the client.” 9:50 – The mindset of a good coach. 10:30 – David raises the questions of what makes a good coach versus a great coach. 11:04 “Self management” as a coaching mechanism. 13:45 – Steve reflects on coach Belichick and what he admires about him as a coach. 15:45 – Steve continues to dive into some of the abilities beyond coaching that Belichick exemplifies, namely the ability to asses and project players potential before even becoming their coach as well as his ruthlessness and situational awareness. 19:25 – The “human centric investment philosophy” Steve pursues. 22:48 – Steve dissects genuine leadership and how it’s relevant to success as a coach and individual. 26:45 – Where does that “drive” that successful people share in common come from? 29:20 – Steve explains “Market Demand” via a story about opiate addiction and recovery. 30:10 – David and Steve dig a deeper into the opioid crisis and how they have seen it affect those around them 35:15 – Digital desensitization; how our modern relationships to tech and social media have been affecting our empathy and view of what’s going on in the world around us. 38:14 – What makes a brand a brand and the following and loyalty that having a good brand generates. 42:00 -Steve gives some examples of how great things happen organically, and not always when planned. 47:50 – David reflects on the form of expression and communication GIFs introduced when communicating digitally. 52:40- Having children is on a downward trend. David and Steve discuss some of the factors surround this new trend. 55:45 – Steve shares some of his observations from his recent trip to Sweden and the perceived quality of life by its residents. 01:02 – Steve shares some of the reasons he fell in love with cycling and what makes the sport so unique and non mundane to him. 01:08- Steve talks sobriety and what it means to him. He details the positive and transformative effects it has had on his life. Subscribe to my “Monday Musings” newsletter to keep up with the podcast.

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Subscribe to my Monday Musings Newsletter to Keep Up with the Podcast My guest today is Daniel Gross, a partner at Y Combinator, the world’s best startup studio. Daniel focuses on artificial intelligence at Y Combinator and recently founded AI Grant, a distributed AI Research Lab. Daniel was born in Jerusalem, Israel and was accepted into the Y Combinator Program in 2010. At the time, Daniel was the youngest founder ever accepted. In 2013, Cue was acquired by Apple. At 22, Daniel was leading several search and AI efforts across the company spanning iOS, OS X and Apple Watch. In 2017, Daniel joined Y-Combinator as a Partner. He launched YC AI, Y-Combinator’s first vertical dedicated to investing in AI companies. In 2018, Daniel founded Pioneer. Pioneer is a search engine for the millions of “Lost Einstein’s” — extraordinarily creative people around the world who have the talent, but lack opportunity. Once identified, Pioneer and makes small investments to support whatever project they’re working on. In this episode, Daniel talks about the experience of coming to America and starting a company with Y Combinator. He talks about the power of seeing life like a video game with levels, and fast, continuous feedback. Daniel also shares lessons from John D. Rockefeller on business, decision making, and company building. Finally, Daniel talks about Israel and shares his insights on why the country is so innovative. Purchase the Transcript SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP with THE PODCAST. Show Notes 5:40- Daniel talks about some of things he became fascinated with early on in life. 8:20 How Daniel took an early interest in coding through video games and reverse engineering. 8:50 The “gamifacation” strategy Daniel uses to set goals and motivate himself. 9:20 “Everything in life is some form of a video game” Daniel explains how life can be similar to a video game in terms of seeing stages of life as levels, and setting goals and strategies to progress one from level to the next. 11:22 Daniel delves into what motivates people and specifically how our need for approval is not necessarily something to be ashamed of. 14:00 Daniel talks about YC’s earlier years and his first encounter with Steve Jobs. 16:00 Daniel describes his initial vision to create a “personal” search engine capable of sorting through your own personal data. 17:10 Daniel explains a variety of features and functions that AI and his coding have on iOS and OS devices 18:15 How will we interact with artificial intelligence in the future? 21:00 The pitfalls of trying to superimpose the current futuristic thinking rather than expecting the unexpected. 22:56 New tech often seems like a toy or novelty at first, up until it becomes mainstream. 23:27- Daniels offers his perspective on the bottlenecks we have on scientific progress and the current lack of diversity in terms of ideas. 26:00 Entry barriers most start ups have to face and overcome when entering AI development. 27:32 Daniel speaks about Assembly A.I., a start up that YC worked with. 29:30 Daniel explains the benefits of reevaluating a strategy when stuck on a challenging “level.” 34:45 David suggests the first steps to perusing progress is surrounding yourself with great people or ideas. 35:09 Reverse engineering your vision, into a plan. How to set “levels” as goals when playing the game of life. 37:39 How vital of a role our environment plays in our development and pursuit of of progress. 38:15 Optimizing for a city versus a small group and the importance of one’s surroundings when pursuing a goal or idea. 39:38 Social/professional groups and their validity while shifting to a digital format. How strong are our online relationships when it comes to motivating us? 43:06 What makes Israel so different and innovative? 45:20 Daniel describes the first and second Intifada in Israel and the resulting send of community that was cultivated during the shared suffering. 47:46 “Scarcity creates greatness” How Israel innovates out of necessity rather than experimentally. 51:30 The “harsh” culture of Israel and its contribution to the deterrence of pursuing potentially good or risky ideas. 53:45 How optimism can be both a positive outlook for growth, but can also lead to false or unrealistic expectations 57:00 Daniel on how we can learn from history when looking at it from a cyclical point of view. 1:00.24 – How ‘stupid little ideas” can turn out to be some of the most innovative endeavors when pursued. 1:01.38 “Fitness as a ticket of admission to the world” and how it enables us to better experience more aspects of life. Purchase the Transcript SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST.

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast My guest today is Arianna Simpson, the Managing Director at a cryptocurrency hedge fund called Autonomous Partners. Arianna’s background is fascinating. She grew up in Italy and spent time in Zimbabwe, where she got a first-hand perspective on hyper-inflation and what it does to people. That’s where we began this conversation. Then, we moved on to learning. Arianna is a voracious reader. At one point in her life, she was reading 300 books per year. We also talk about her love for Burning Man and how to find new ideas on the internet. We explore how and why San Francisco has the culture that it does, and explore Arianna’s investing philosophy. Please enjoy my conversation with Arianna Simpson. Subscribe to my “Monday Musings” newsletter to keep up with the podcast. Arianna Simpson Links Arianna Simpson’s Twitter Arianna Simpson’s Website David Perell’s Website North Star Media North Star Podcast “Tall Poppy Syndrome” Show Topics 2:18- Arianna discusses her childhood in Italy and her frustrations with bureaucracy. 3:00 Arianna discusses her philosophy of optimism and reveals why she’s excited about the future. 4:11 Arianna compares Italian culture with American culture. She discusses how growing up in Italy shaped her worldview. 7:50 David explains the concept of “tall poppy syndrome” and discusses his trip to Australia. 9:00 Arianna shares lessons and learnings from her time in Zimbabwe, and tells a story about running elephants. 10:30 The wild and vastly different realities of life in Zimbabwe compared to the US. 12:00 Arianna describes how cryptocurrencies became relevant in Zimbabwe despite its lack of infrastructure. 12:30 David and Arianna dive into the relationship between culture and money. 14:30 Money touches everything; beyond capitalism it touches our culture, how we eat, our security, and just about everything 16:30 The appeals of crypto in regards to transparency and cutting out the middle man. 18:45 Arianna gives some examples of financial catastrophes, such as the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management. 20:19 What makes crypto different? 21:30 Human psychology and how it drives peoples long term financial decisions 23:05 Arianna explains a “multi-year horizon” as a good starting point for long term financial planning 24:30 Investing is not that hard in terms of intellectual complicity, it’s the emotional side and risk management aspect that present the real challenge. 24:50 How Venezuela may be one of the best real world examples of the security and necessity for crypto. 27:30 What should governments think about when they think about cryptocurrencies. 30:10 The history of money and why understanding it may be more helpful than we realize. 31:38 if crypto is not backed by anything, what makes it any better than monopoly or make believe money? 33:02 David ask Arianna to breakdown and explain what the learning processing looks like when learning about crypto online. 35:20 How Arianna spends and managers her time studying both and history and projections of crypto 39:29 David and Arianna dive into books and learning from reading and how it fits in as a way of life. 47:20 How cross-pollination of ideas can lead to surprising creative discovers 48:45 What makes San Francisco special? 50:49 Arianna explains a concept she calls “the suspension of disbelief” and shows why it applies to San Francisco. 54:00 Arianna shares some of the special factors that make Burning Man such a great experience for her. 57:31 Arianna shares how she likes to rebel against her own fears by challenge them and facing them. Subscribe to my “Monday Musings” newsletter to keep up with the podcast.

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Keep Up with the North Star Podcast by Subscribing to My Monday Musings Newsletter My guest today is Derek Thompson, a Senior Editor at The Atlantic who writes about media, culture and economics in America today. I first discovered Derek’s writing while researching the state of Hollywood for an essay I was working on last year. Derek cultural observation has stuck with me ever since. Derek wrote that Hollywood audiences are ignoring movies that aren’t a sequel, adaptation, or reboot. This statistic stuck with me: In 1996, none of the top 10 movies were sequels. Twenty years later, in 2016, more than half of the top 10 movies were sequels, adaptations or reboots. In this episode, Derek talks about his background in acting and his love for Hamlet. Together, we nerd out on the magic of theater and the surprisingly large differences between what happens in the theater and what happens at the movies. Then, we explore taste and culture. We talk about Stewart Brand’s “Pace Layers” theory of architecture, Japanese Emperors, what fashion can teach us about the world, and the history of impressionism. We investigate how blockbuster success isn’t a matter of chance, but a fascinating intersection of power, network science, art, and sheer brilliance. Here's my conversation with Derek Thompson. Links Derek’s Twitter Account Derek’s Articles Derek’s Podcast Derek’s Book — Hit Makers Show Notes 3:45 Derek expresses his appreciation of theater 5:51 Derek explains why Hamlet is one of the greatest plays in history 7:08 What made Shakespeare so great? 9:30 Derek discuss the features of Shakespeare’s writing that make it so timeless 9:53 What makes a perfect movie? 11:00 Derek discusses some of the best movies and plays written over the last several decades 12:15 The key differences and difficulties of getting theater to a screenplay 15:00 The cannon of art has a different meaning now. The real question is “what is the best?” 17:23: “We often conflate familiarity with fact.” Derek speaks about familiarity and its influence on our perceptions of facts and quality. 17:50 How our modern perception of cannon has changed as we have begun to question and challenge its history and validity 19:30 Our sense of “good taste” and how it’s defined in the contemporary age 20:19 “Cultural Capital” and “Cultural Omniscience” 22:47 The shift of culture from valuing scarcity to valuing familiarity 23:45 Modern celebrity and the rise of “manufactured intimacy” 25:50 Formality, and how its quickly losing its reverence and relevance in modern culture. Why is the world becoming more formal? 28:00 Derek takes a closer look at how informality has affected modern culture, specifically in the case of presidential speeches 31:45 The blurring line between work and home 32:20 How taste is trained or influenced 37:59 “M.A.Y.A- Most advanced, yet acceptable” 38:56 The sweet spot of familiar and surprising 42:02 Derek picks a point in history he would go back to if he had the chance 50:00 The over-looked and under-rated importance of art history 55:39 Derek delves into the concept of nature vs nurture and the influential and guiding elements of personal development 57:47 Derek talks about his favorite authors. 59:35- How should writers explain complicated ideas? 1:12.04 - Non fiction and journalism compared to the ironic honesty and realism of fictitious writing. 1:07.57 Derek’s take away thoughts on the craft of writing and shares his strategies for learning and information consumption. Mentions 5:53 Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction 21:30 Jon Bellion, The Making of Luxury 25:18: A Matter of Taste: How Names, Fashions, and Culture Change 37:03: Raymond Lowey 44:06 Louis XIV 47:28: Beowulf 57:50 Philip Roth 58:39 Jonathan Franzen 58:45 Donna Tartt Click Here to Keep Up with the North Star Podcast

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast | PlayerFM Click Here to Keep Up With the North Star Podcast My guest today is Austen Allred, the founder of Lambda School — a revolutionary new school. Here’s how it works: Lambda School trains people to be software engineers at no up-front cost. Instead of paying tuition, students agree to pay a percentage of their income after they're employed, and only if they're making more than $50k per year. If you don't find a job, or don't reach that level of income, you'll never pay a cent. So, how does tuition work? There are no up-front costs for Lambda School; they only get paid when students do. Once you’re earning at least $50k per year they'll pay back 17% of your income for the first two years, and total tuition is capped at $30,000. In an age where continuous learning is essential and student debt has skyrocketed, I’m struck by this model. Information is everywhere but learning is still difficult. Online, it can be hard to push through the difficult moments that get you over the hump or find others to share the journey with. Austen has some exciting solutions and we devote this entire conversation to the present, past and future of education. David Perell and Austen Allred Time Stamps 2:50 - Understanding the trade offs of the job market when making education choices 7:33- How Lambda compares to other universities or colleges 13:01 - Austen describes some of the problems with online education 14:43 Participation differences between pre recorded lectures and interactive lectures 15:50 Austen describes living out of his car during his beginnings in Silicon Valley 21:40 Lambda’s end goal and pursuit of sustainability for both the school and its students 22:49 Shifting peoples perceptions on education and the future 24:10 How the current public education system fails to teach people “how” to learn. 27:05 Why hasn’t education changed much over the past 50 years, and how can we change it? 30:50 Austen explains his perspective on the pitfalls and shortcomings of the current high education system and student loans 34:10 Student loan payments and the adverse effects on the borrower 36:05 How apprenticeships fit into the modern education system and how the affect both job readiness for the apprentice, as well as the impact on a mentor. 43:00 The growing divide among society and conflicting schools of thought among sub regions of the USA. 48:30 Austen shares some Lambda School success stories. Click here to learn more about my company, North Star Media. You can support the North Star Podcast by leaving a review on iTunes. Or you can share the podcast on Twitter or Facebook. To listen to other episodes or learn more about the North Star, you can connect with me directly at perell.com and you can always reach out on Twitter at david_perell.

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast | PlayerFM Keep Up with the North Star Podcast Here My guest today is Devon Zuegel, a writer of code and writer of words who spends her time unlocking human potential through incentive design and tools for thought and cities. In this conversation, we jump from coordination problems to urban planning to travel to architecture. We compare cities like Singapore and San Francisco and talk about the power of urban density and architecture to make us happier and healthier. Then, we talk about writing, specifically the three tiers of common knowledge, how to find good ideas, and the concept that Devon calls playing chess with yourself. One thing sticks out from this podcast and other conversations with Devon. Above all else, Devon lives in obsessive pursuit of high leverage ways to spend her time and energy. In the past, that’s led her to computer science and in the future, I suspect it will lead her to cities and infrastructure. Why cities? Devon offers an excellent answer. Cities are big enough to have real importance in the world and small enough to be nimble and somewhat understandable and there are a lot of cities. You can actually hope to make some comparisons in a way that you can’t really do with countries. Please enjoy my conversation with Devon Zuegel. Links Bloom Algorithms To Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions Georgism Devon’s articles related to this episode: Advice on Writing Why Flaking Is So Widespread in San Francisco A Day In Singapore: Urban Identity 2:03 Devon on coordination problems and the problems they’ve caused, such as climate change and housing issues, and how clever solutions to these problems are the reason humans have progressed so much in the past hundreds of years 6:19 Human cognition and thought as it is augmented by media, cities and blockchains and the benefits of this augmentation 8:10 The most classic tool for thought and why it’s such a catalyst for healthy and productive cognition, long term and short term memory function and increased IQ 16:41 Devon’s writing process and why she defines it as playing chess with herself 17:45 How Devon has been able to get her writing to flow and the three categories of topics available to write about, common knowledge, obscure knowledge and the intersection in the middle 20:17 Devon’s theory of on why people in San Francisco are so flaky in comparison to sister cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City 28:16 How Devon chooses what rabbit holes she wants to go down prior to writing an article and how to make most topics interesting by creating a model around the idea 32:25 What makes Singapore so interesting to Devon, in regards to history, culture, GDP growth, etc. and her major observations after visiting the country 47:20 The moment Devon became aware of the effect of architecture and how it can make employees less involved with their colleagues by not promoting micro-interactions 50:53 The five metrics that a house should be described with, that are never used, when being promoted on websites like Airbnb, Zillow, Craigslist, etc. 57:00 Devon chooses the three metrics that she’d pick when it comes to the city she lives in and the home she’s living in for maximum interaction, convenience and mental economy 1:03:16 Algorithms To Live By and why Devon sees it as the best self help book she’s ever read, despite it not being a self help book 1:05:37 Devon’s opinion on Georgism and how people talk about economics as a spectrum from capitalism to socialism or communism and the third category of economic goods that it doesn’t touch upon 1:07:30 Devon’s changing opinions and her epistemic status placed on each of her blog posts written with a strong opinion 1:10:03 Devon’s philosophy of travel and why she views it as scale free regardless of how many or little places you visit 1:11:51 Devon’s philosophy of productivity and how she writes down dozens of notes and uses long form emails to repurpose her ideas into publishable articles Subscribe to my “Monday Musings” newsletter to keep up with the podcast. Quotes “I am very interested in coordination problems. I think that they explain a lot of the problems that we see in the world, everything from climate change to nuclear disarming to issues in cities to making it so that people can actually live where they are the most productive to housing policy. I could go on and on. The solution to coordination problems is incentive design, and clever solutions that are some of the reason humans have been able to progress to the extent they have throughout the past few hundred years.” “The most classic tool for thought, and one that I think we tend to take for granted, is writing. Most people think of writing as a way to communicate ideas that they’ve had in their head to other people. Obviously, it does serve that purpose and people sell books for a reason. But, I think it goes way beyond that.” “In the last year, I have found that writing has gotten a lot

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast | PlayerFM Keep up with the North Star Podcast. My guest today is Michael Nielsen a scientist, writer and computer programmer who works as a research fellow at Y Combinator Research. Michael has written on various topics from quantum teleportation, geometric complexity and the future of science. Michael is the most original thinker I have discovered in a long time when it comes to artificial intelligence, augmenting human intelligence, reinventing explanation and using new media to enable new ways of thinking. Michael has pushed my mind towards new and unexpected places. This conversation gets a little wonky at times, but as you know, the best conversations are difficult. They are challenging because they venture into new, unexplored territory and that's exactly what we did here today. Michael and I explored the history of tools and jump back to the invention of language, the defining feature of human collaboration and communication. We explore the future of data visualization and talk about the history of the spreadsheet as a tool for human thought. “Before writing and mathematics, you have the invention of language which is the most significant event in some ways. That’s probably the defining feature of the human species as compared to other species.” LINKS Find Michael Online Michael’s Website Michael’s Twitter Michael’s Free Ebook: Neural Networks and Deep Learning Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science Quantum Computation and Quantum Information Mentioned In the Show 2:12 Michael’s Essay Extreme Thinking 21:48 Photoshop 21:49 Microsoft Word 24:02 The David Bowie Exhibit 28:08 Google AI’s Deep Dream Images 29:26 Alpha Go 30:26 Brian Eno’s Infamous Airport Music 33:41 Listen to Speed of Life by Dirty South Books Mentioned 46:06 Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig 54:12 Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut People Mentioned 13:27 Rembrandt Van Rijn’s Artwork 15:01 Monet’s Gallery 15:02 Pierre Auguste Renoir’s Impressionist Art 15:05 Picasso’s Paintings 15:18 Paul Cezanne’s Post-Impressionist Art 25:40 David Brooke’s NYT Column 35:19 Franco of Cologne 56:58 Alan Kay’s Ted Talk on the future of education 57:04 Doug Engelbart 58:35 Karl Schroeder 01:02:06 Elon Musk’s Mars-bound company, SpaceX 01:04:25 Alex Tabarrok Show Topics 4:01 Michael’s North Star, which drives the direction of his research 5:32 Michael talks about how he sets his long-term goals and how he’s propelled by ideas he’s excited to see in the world. 7:13 The invention of language. Michael discusses human biology and how it’s easier to learn a language than writing or mathematics. 9:28 Michael talks about humanity’s ability to bootstrap itself. Examples include maps, planes, and photography 17:33 Limitations in media due to consolidation and the small number of communication platforms available to us 18:30 How self-driving cars and smartphones highlight the strange intersection where artificial intelligence meets human interaction and the possibilities that exist as technology improves 21:45 Why does Photoshop improve your editing skills, while Microsoft Word doesn’t improve your writing skills? 27:07 Michael’s opinion on how Artificial Intelligence can help people be more creative “Really good AI systems are going to depend upon building and currently depend on building very good models of different parts of the world, to the extent that we can then build tools to actually look in and see what those models are telling us about the world.” 30:22 The intersection of algorithms and creativity. Are algorithms the musicians of the future? 36:51 The emerging ability to create interactive visual representations of spreadsheets that are used in media, internally in companies, elections and more. “I’m interested in the shift from having media be predominantly static to dynamic, which the New York Times is a perfect example of. They can tell stories on newyorktimes.com that they can’t tell in the newspaper that gets delivered to your doorstep.” 45:42 The strategies Michael uses to successfully trail blaze uncharted territory and how they emulate building a sculpture 53:30 Michael’s learning and information consumption process, inspired by the idea that you are what you pretend to be 56:44 The foundation of Michael’s worldview. The people and ideas that have shaped and inspired Michael. 01:02:26 Michael’s hypothesis for the 21st century project involving blockchain and cryptocurrencies and their ability to make implementing marketplaces easier than ever before “The key point is that some of these cryptocurrencies actually, potentially, make it very easy to implement marketplaces. It’s plausible to me that the 21st century [project] turns out to be about [marketplaces]. It’s about inventing new types of markets, which really means inventing new types of collective action.” Host David Perell and Guest Michael Nielsen TRANSCRIPT Hello and welcome to the North Star. I'm your host, David Per

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast | Click Here to Keep Up with the North Star Podcast Our guest this week is Kevin Kwok and this episode is a special treat. Kevin was an investor at Greylock Partners, where he mainly focused on marketplaces, cryptocurrencies, and autonomous vehicles. Kevin is particularly interested in understanding the underlying structures that shape industries and the core loops that drive companies. And among other things is currently working on a class on loops, network effects, and growth models. In this wide-ranging conversation, Kevin and I jump between various topics such as A/B testing cities in China, Saudi Arabia and the future of democracy, and why we have democracies in countries and dictators in companies. Then, Kevin distills lessons from five extremely long biographies — four of them about US President Lyndon B. Johnson and one of them about Robert Moses, the “master builder” of New York City. Drawing on those Caro biographies, Kevin talks about power, where it originates, and how to think about systems. Kevin has an in-depth knowledge of political history, governments, technology and growing a company in the internet age. Today, we’ll weave all of those threads together. Links Kevin on Twitter Kevin’s Website The Power Broker, Robert Caro Lyndon B. Johnson Biographies, Robert Caro Time Stamps 1:27 Kevin talks about Robert Caro and his biographies on Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson 3:08 How systems are the underlying reason for power in governments and companies 6:49 Kevin’s observations on the significant similarities between governments, religions and companies 10:27 Kevin defines his theory of loops and how they are a pattern that can be seen in the most successful businesses 14:03 Kevin’s observation on how successful governments and businesses use loops to scale 17:34 The two ways Kevin sees legibility, why it’s so important in creating synchronization between founders and employees, and how it’s the reason for Uber’s success 22:32 Kevin’s fascinations with Stripe’s thoughtful leaders and their transparency in growing the company 28:26 Why the outcome of loops is a leverage effect and how leverage can remove constraints and compound systems for more gain and less effort 34:49 Kevin talks about China’s goal to urbanize more of its country through A/B testing and his opinion on the pros and cons of their strategy 40:35 A brief history of Saudi Arabia, and its implications about whether democracy is declining. 46:25 Kevin’s opinion on the future of currency and how cryptocurrency is reshaping markets and their functions 51:32 Kevin talks about how infrastructure shapes how residents interact with their cities and the underlying problems that can arise 57:44 Kevin’s take on the new trend of contrarianism, how we’ve seen this pattern before and how to be most effective with a contrarian view 1:00:20 How Steve Jobs was a perfect example of contrarianism followed by impact 1:01:58 Kevin talks about his current focus on loops and his hope that humans continue pushing and testing this frontier Quotes “It’s too easy to see what other people are doing. It’s so easy to raise capital if you can paint a compelling case for why there’s a good return. The best companies are companies that have these internal compounding proprietary advantages that get better and are impossible for anybody else to do other than them. That’s what I mean by loops. There’s different ways this can look. For example, network events as people come and talk about them is an example of a loop. The value of the user increases as more people join the network and that’s an internal loop that other people, who don’t have your network and don’t have your users, can’t benefit from.” “People try to figure out how to build these systems that are independent from their hours put in. Fundamentally, your scarce resource is your hours. There’s just some finite cap and the level of productivity you can get. You can get more productive but there’s a finite cap to how much more productive you can get on your hours. As long as your output is contrast by your hours, there always is some cap to it. The question is, how do you get increased leverage on that and, how do you keep increasing the leverage on that at some point? Ultimately, capital is actually less of a constraint if you have a working business model than just the cognitive load and your ability to actively work on different things.” “Think about how much has been shaped structurally, without even realizing it, by the decisions that were made by people crafting the Internet standards. All of those decisions people made have had huge downstream impacts on every layer that has been built on top of them. I don’t think we regret that. I think that we look at it and we say, let’s make sure we do all of the good things there. Let’s also think about the mistakes we’ve made as we create other industries, whether that’s the current waves of finance, or the current waves of te

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Keep Up with the North Star Podcast Introduction My guest today is Sara Dietschy, a YouTuber and content creator based in New York City. With more than 300,000 subscribers, Sara’s created a docu-series, a daily vlog and recently launched a new podcast called The Creative Exchange. Sara is one of the most inspiring people I know. Before she moved to New York, Sara grew up in Dallas, went to college to study computer science, dropped out, and moved to Nashville. Through her work, Sara explores the intersection of technology and creativity. Sara rocks the YouTube scene with her sincerity and a contagious zest for life. The internet spells the end of oppressive creative regimes, the death of gatekeepers and the fall of Hollywood. On the Internet, agility is essential. In this day in age, vlogs showcase the everyday experiences of real people with real stories that exist in real life. We live at a time where people have deep and intimate relationships with their favorite YouTubers — people they’ve never met before that feel like their best friends. Millennials and Gen Z have the luxury to ask what is my passion and use the internet to build a career. On the internet, people want to connect with individuals, not massive companies or a bland television ad. They want to connect with people, not companies, and it’s influencers like Sara that are leading the charge. In this episode, Sara explains how she rose to Youtube stardom and the characteristics she’s noticed between herself and other successful influencers. Sara and I go back to her time as a musician — an on-stage performer who played in front of large audiences. We talk about all the Sundays Sara spent at a local Megachurch in Dallas, where she played in a band and was blown away by top-notch production quality. We discuss what it means to do work you love, and the power of staying busy, how Sara’s built a career around the vlogosphere. Finally, we talk about her first viral moments, how she forced herself to become extroverted and the takeover of new media. Links Sara’s Youtube Channel Sara’s Podcast, The Creative Exchange Sara’s Instagram Sara’s Twitter Sara’s Facebook Sara’s Website Sara on Medium Time Stamps 1:27 Sara talks about who she is and what to expect from her Youtube channel 2:14 How Sara turned from a basketball-loving tomboy into a musician 6:39 Sara’s first love and how it gave her the most creative highs of her career thus far 7:28 Her transition from music to videography and how her church was the driving factor for her moving behind the lens 10:08 Her move to Nashville and how she leveraged value in turn for artist’s time for her first docu-series called Creative Spaces 11:35 Sara’s belief that the harder you work the luckier you get and how she notices serendipity in her life the more she works towards her goals 12:50 Sara’s, very calculated, first viral moments featuring TWO shoutouts from Casey Neistat 17:01 Sara talks about her passion for creativity and what motivates her throughout the process 18:20 The one characteristic Sara has found in common amongst all of her passionate friends and interviewees 24:36 The three pillars Sara believes makes a good Youtube channel 26:26 Sara’s Youtube career, from 0 to over 300,000 followers 33:09 Sara talks about why audiences relate to an individual over a brand 36:22 The clear divide between Hollywood and new media, as proven by the Cannes Film Festival 39:52 Sara’s rule to always be working on something or learning about topics outside of her job in order to have that essential escape 45:40 The changes happening in New York City and Sara’s prediction that Hudson Yards is becoming the next Midtown 50:32 How our ecosystem is built around cars and how storytellers may impact the sharing economy 51:41 Where Sara’s inspiration comes from and how she works with deadlines 55:53 How Sara trained herself to become more extroverted so she could meet more creatives 58:32 Sara’s vision for the future and her perspective to see it as a never-ending journey 1:00:24 How Sara sees her future on Youtube Quotes “Serendipity I think is huge. Being in a place where things are happening is a big deal. If you want to make music videos for country stars for the rest of your life, you have to be in Nashville. If you want to be a creative business type and you want flavors from different industries, be in New York. If you want strictly entertainment and acting, you have to be in LA. I fully believe in location helping tremendously.” “Everyone who is doing something that they love, and it’s never all rainbows and butterflies, but to the people who are doing what they love-it’s because they have gone through so many things before that to figure out what they want to be doing now. I think a lot of people wait around, and wait for something to hit them. They wait for their passion to hit them and it so doesn’t happen that way.” “I myself, as much as a person who creates it and consumes it, am

LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST My guest today is Paul Cooper, who spends his days exploring ancient and modern ruins. I’m going to begin this introduction with a hot take: Paul has one of the best Twitter accounts in the world. Ruins are special. They freeze a moment in time forever. They remind us of the shortness of life and the inevitable entropy of history. Paul's book, River of Ink, is predicated on the idea of bringing ancient cities back to life in a fictional context. In this episode, we talk about the academy in the internet age, compare functional and sacred architecture, and dream about time travel. We explore the strange and perplexing history of the Roman Colosseum and investigate letters written on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia. And now, I invite you to enjoy this journey through space and time, as we explore the many shades of human history. Note: Since I enjoyed this podcast so much, I wrote a short blog post about it. Useful Links Paul’s Book, River of Ink Find Paul Online Twitter Facebook Instagram Paul’s Website Learn More About Paul The Timeless Allure of Ruins, Paul’s BBC Feature Paul’s The Atlantic Articles Show Notes 1:00 How Paul’s childhood, surrounded by castles in South Wales, inspired him to study ancient ruins 1:53 Paul’s first novel, River of Ink, depicts a fictional story of the events that could have taken place during a real thirty-year gap in Sri Lankan history 3:31 Paul’s most surprising takeaway from his year living abroad in Sri Lanka 4:07 Paul is captivated by the spark in imagination that occurs when walking through ancient ruins, a passion he shares with his 39,000 Twitter followers 5:29 Paul questions the transition a building undergoes from functioning structure to ancient ruin 7:26 Why are there flowers in the Colosseum that don’t exist anywhere else in Europe? Paul explains the answer botanist Richard Deacon discovered explaining the ancient mystery 10:38 Ruins: A place where the future is spontaneously canceled. Paul’s observation on ruins and their story as a place where the future was spontaneously canceled 12:34 Paul explains the tension between a building’s first few years and the inevitability that one day it will have to be torn down 15:14 Paul asks: "At what point can you say a ruin is "finished" and it’s permitted to destroy it?" 25:32 Paul talks about the invention of writing and how it has shaped ancient architecture, philosophy, and mathematics 28:24 Get a short peek into Paul’s second book, set in the Assyrian Empire 29:33 If Paul could travel back in time, what would he see? These are his top three choices 31:29 Paul explains the similarity between ancient ruins and ghost towns 39:32 Paul talks about the interplay between ruins in time and what they represent today, explaining how these structures feel oddly static when you enter them 41:40 Paul’s eerie story of a haunted church in Norfolk and why he believes these stories exist 43:55 Paul’s realization that for thousands of years, each person visiting a ruin has brought a different perspective, causing a continuous variation from the truth of ancient structures and historical stories 45:42 Paul’s opinion on what people in the year 5,000 will find the most interesting about today’s civilization 49:57 How the Internet is reshaping academia 53:03 Paul’s observation of the new self-education movement You can support the North Star Podcast by leaving a review on iTunes. Or you can share the podcast on Twitter or Facebook. To listen to other episodes or learn more about the North Star, you can connect with me directly at perell.com and you can always reach out on Twitter at david_perell. And if you enjoyed this episode, you’ll like the episode with Tyler Cowen, a columnist at Bloomberg who writes about economics, history and culture. In the Two Blundering Fools episode, Tyler shares seriously counterintuitive points on travel, the millennial generation and how he thinks about the future. Quotes “Every ruin is a place where a physical object was torn apart and that happened because of some historical force. If a building is ruined, an economic ruin, a closed down factory, it’s been blown up by a bomb, or it’s been abandoned because people moved away-It’s because huge historical forces have washed over it. Each ruin shows a place where the future was just suddenly cancelled. The next day didn’t happen, it was just a ruin. So, each one is a window into a particular historical moment where something changed. That’s what really fascinates me everyday about them.” “Writing is such an incredible thing. It restructures the way we think. Once you know how to read, it’s impossible not to. If I showed you a page of words and said don’t read this, you wouldn’t be able to. Your brain has been forever changed by being taught the ability to read. The ability to store information outside of our brains suddenly frees us up to do a whole load of incredible things. A pre-literate society has a certain amount of knowle

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast | PlayerFM Keep Up with the North Star Podcast Summary Today’s guest is Kyle Chayka, a Brooklyn based writer who has been published in New York Times, Verge, Business Week and more. His studies in International Relations at Tufts University led him to live in Beijing, where he initially noticed the impact social platforms were having on internationalization. In 2015 he wrote his essay, Welcome to Airspace, dissecting the effect of the growing decentralized geography born from technology and digital platforms. Kyle Chayka regularly questions the future of society as the internet becomes commodified through brand ecosystems. His article archive can be found on his website, as well as information on his upcoming book regarding the allure of minimalism, The Longing for Less. Aside from his writing endeavors, Kyle is the founder of Study Hall, a freelance journalist collective coordinating office space and live events for independent writers while promoting a digital community. In this conversation, we talk about the dangerous impact social platforms are having on cultures around the world and how living in the future has become a daunting lifestyle. Why can we visit coffee shops on opposite sides of the world with the same ambiance and aesthetic? We talk about the effect of the digital nomad movement on cultures, countries and politics and the future impact of this lifestyle on the world. And finally, we discuss how the internet has created a commodified identity, where humans are failing to interact successfully within this so called utopian future. You can read Kyle’s essay, Welcome to Airspace, and search his article archive on his blog, linked below. Related Articles That I've Written Naked Brands: The Future of Fashion Equinox is the New Church Wearable Brands Quotes “The problem is that all the coffee shops look the same no matter where you go.” “There’s a decentralized geography in the world now that exists mostly because of technology and digital platforms. The coffee shop theory of Airspace is that all these coffee shops look the same because all of the same people are going to them, no matter what country they are in.” “The way you game the system is by trying to look like everything else that has a good rating.” “Beauty to me is different ways of aesthetic appreciation and not just looking for beauty in things that aren’t stereotypically beautiful.” “The future is this catastrophe.” “People are moving into places they don’t understand or don’t engage with the local community and that can be super destabilizing.” Links Find Kyle online: Kyle’s Blog Medium Twitter Instagram Read Kyle’s articles: Welcome to Airspace (1:37) Reign, Supreme (31:15) Mentioned in the show: Kinfolk (2:28) Brian Eno Music for Airports (26:05) Rent The Runway (28:49) Airbnb (43:39) Bleep (44:39) Neo Yokio (48:35) Everlane (57:19) Gucci (59:05) Lot (1:00:41) Show Topics 1:40 The inspiration behind writing Welcome to Airspace, his essay about the decentralized geography occurring in the world as a direct effect of technology and digital platforms. 4:13 Kyle’s connection between Airspace and rating based platforms like Foursquare and Airbnb 5:10 How Kyle’s initial passion for aesthetic and art was established and how he fell in love with the idea of different perspectives inventing new ways of looking at the world 8:03 Kyle’s definition of beauty and how he gained his appreciation for things that aren’t stereotypically beautiful 9:28 How architecture has shaped Kyle writing career and his opinion on humans’ inability to avoid being impacted by architecture as an art form 11:28 Why Kyle’s writing focus is on architecture and how it encompasses the entirety of the human experience 12:15 Kyle’s take away from medieval art as a representation of the same globalization happening today 15:50 How fashion is the fastest moving cultural form as a direct result of digital platforms instantly exposing what is fashionable to cities on the opposite side of the globe 17:42 How national identities are becoming more blurred as cosmopolitan cities in different countries become more and more like each other and distinct from the conservative cities surrounding them 19:40 Kyle on the reason why the digital nomad has become a global trend 21:08 Kyle’s opinion on the long term consequence of the digital nomad lifestyle as it gentrifies countries and promotes political agendas and urban spaces to be built around long term tourists instead of the local population 22:30 How social media is the driving force behind decentralized geography and how the cro-nut can be invented in New York and sold in Beijing within the same week 27:30 Why social platforms are an intersection between identity and ambiance and how users are taking advantage to brand themselves and their companies 31:15 Kyles thoughts on Supreme and how it’s a constellation of markets and experiences 33:14 How the internet has become a commodified place where thin

LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST Today’s guest is Matt Levine, a columnist at Bloomberg covering finance, Wall Street and the broader business world. Before blogging, Matt spent four years as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, structuring and marketing corporate equity derivatives. Before that, he worked as a mergers & acquisitions lawyer and a high school latin teacher. He’s also a graduate of both Harvard and Yale Law School. Matt’s newsletter, Money Stuff is always fresh and I admire Matt’s ability to discuss complex topics in fresh and engaging ways. In this episode, we talk about Matt's career shift from banking to blogging — from Goldman Sachs, huge and famous, to DealBreaker, teeny and scrappy. Matt shares the ideas that have shaped his worldview and his process for writing. We talk about the books that have influenced him the most, both inside and outside the financial sphere. I particularly enjoyed learning about the Iliad. “The tech startups are like the great laboratories for these questions now because what has happened weirdly is that the people with the best tech startup ideas have what seems to be enormous leverage over the people with the money.” Links: Find Matt online: Bloomberg Twitter Linkedin Matt’s newsletter Mentioned in the show: DealBreaker [2:55] Bloomberg [3:17] Cravath [6:27] Gawker [30:17] BlackRock [37:52] Vanguard [37:55] State Street [37:56] Books mentioned: The Iliad [6:08] Barbarians at the Gate [8:06] The Bramble Bush [18:38] People mentioned: Carl Llewellyn [18:42] Bess Levin [30:36] Tyler Cowen [30:50] (episode with Tyler) Felix Salmon [32:54] Matt Yglesias [33:00] Show Topics 1:00 - Introduction to the episode and a bit of background info on Matt. 2:32 - Matt detailing his financial background, his general background, and where he comes from. 4:19 - How Matt got into classics, a bit on his experiences in college, and his job out of college. 7:00 - The books that have shaped Matt’s perspective and worldview the most and bit on what took him into the world of finance, marketing, and accounting. Also, what some of his experiences were in that field. 11:21 - The aspect of puzzles in these fields of M&A and Matt detailing his journey from investment banking to blogging. 13:40 - How Matt’s day is structured to write, read, do deep work, and not be exhausted afterward. Also, a bit on Matt’s way of writing and learning. 15:55 - Matt detailing how he has learned to easily sift through a lot of the false information that’s commonly found and find true information. Discussion about the reality of financial investing that’s commonly mis-portrayed in the media. 20:14 - Which sorts ideas and life experiences beyond the bank that come up all the time that have been foundational for Matt’s way of approaching the world. Some discussion on law in general, lawyers, and contracts. “You get a certain amount of legal realism baked into you in law school I think and a certain amount of skepticism about the magic functions and words in contracts.” 24:59 - Matt’s partial background in academic finance and how this has helped him understand more in the field of investing. Discussion on shareholders, share buy-backs, and running companies. “The tech startups are like the great laboratories for these questions now because what has happened weirdly is that the people with the best tech startup ideas have what seems to be enormous leverage over the people with the money.” 31:44 - The people that have influenced Matt the most and some discussion on how blogging has changed over the years. 35:30 - What some of the main goals are that Matt tries to accomplish everyday and a bit on the writing that he does. 37:49 - Topics and things that Matt finds the most fascinating to write about and figure out. Discussion on shareholders, index funds, writing, and investing. Hey again, it’s David here one more time. You can support the North Star Podcast by leaving us a review on iTunes. Or you can share the podcast on Twitter or Facebook. To listen to other episodes or learn more about the North Star, you can connect with me directly at perell.com and you can always reach out on Twitter at david_perell. And if you enjoyed this episode, you’ll like the episode with Tyler Cowen, another columnist at Bloomberg who writes about economics and culture. In the podcast, Tyler shares counterintuitive insights on travel, the millennial generation, and how he thinks about the future. Thanks again for listening.

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Subscribe to my Monday Musings Newsletter to Keep Up with the Podcast Tyler Cowen is an economics professor at George Mason University. He runs the Mercatus Center, which bridges the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. He blogs every day at Marginal Revolution, writes for Bloomberg, and hosts his own podcast called Conversations with Tyler. He writes about economics, arts, culture, food, and globalization. As I prepared for this episode, I settled on three things that I wanted to focus on: how Tyler thinks about travel, the rise of China and India, and how he learns so much. Enjoy this exploration of knowledge and culture, and I hope you laugh with us along the way. I particularly recommend Tyler’s most recent book, Stubborn Attachments. Transcript David: Tyler Cowen, welcome to the North Star. Tyler: Thank you for having me. David: So tell me a little bit about where you grew up in northern New Jersey. What was growing up like for you and what were you into as a kid? Tyler: I was born in Kearny, New Jersey, Hudson county, which was a blue collar town, and my father climbed some kind of career ladder from having been bankrupted at thirty, to being upper, upper middle class, so I caught different parts of that income stream. I went to a great high school where I had four or five close friends who were super smart and had a blast. We were like a nerd fest before nerds were cool and I learned something every day but not from the teachers. I loved it and I just knew New York City. David: Well, let's dive into it. I think that one thing that's really interesting about the Internet is I like to say it rewards obsession in a way that the world didn't use to and I think a byproduct of that is nerd culture is, is cool now. Tyler: You know, I specialized in the style of learning before there wasn't an internet and then when the Internet came along, I feel it made me like 20 times more productive. So I'm very lucky to have gotten this extreme productivity boost at about age 40, which is very rare in careers. There are people who might have some kind of productivity turning point when they're 29 or 22, but to get it at age 40, it's given my life a very different trajectory. David: So I know you wrote a book about that, but talk about what was that productivity boost like, how do you think about productivity, and how did that boost manifest itself? Tyler: Well, I worked very hard for years at trying to absorb more information and absorb it quickly and order it effectively and when the way you do that is driving around to used bookstores and carry used books home and read them, well, that's a wonderful thing to do, but when you can just go to your iPad or your laptop and whoosh, it's all there, you're going to do a lot better. Tyler: Whereas people who say do research, they've been made more productive by the Internet in other ways, but they're less concerned with absorbing information. So I feel I've gotten a relative gain compared to many other people. David: So does that mean that you're hopping around between different subjects? Like if I go on marginal revolution, I could go from traveled economics to then yesterday, right, about North Korea and America. So are you hopping around or how has that style of learning changed over the years? Tyler: I have long-term study plans, like part of my long-term study plan is to understand India and China much better. So that's kind of a 10 year project that I'm always in the middle of, but of course using the Internet to help me makes it much easier. Plus travel, travel being a key to learning. We'll get back to that. Uh, and then during the day I just try to keep up with the flow, the flow of good articles and new ideas. Tyler: And you know, the flow always beats me. But you wake up at seven, you go to bed at 11:00 PM, there's interruptions, you exercise, you eat, but the day is the flow, the flow is your day, like it or not. David: Dodging bullets and trying to survive. So there was analogy I got a couple months ago of if, if you're learning is a ship, when you try to steer something for long-term, so say that you want to learn about India in the next 10 years. The advice that I got which I thought was quite good was just steer your ship. So change your twitter feed, change your social streams one or two degrees. How do you think about it? Tyler: I view myself as a prisoner of my passions. So what helps me is to be very motivated to do what I do. So I don't sit down and strategize like what's my optimal career plan? Tyler: I just think what'll keep me involved and I figure they kind of compound interest on that learning will just accumulate and as long as I'm having fun, I'll stay motivated like way past other people and that's going to go well for me. So it's almost a deliberate absence of strategy except for motivating me. Compounding fuels success in almost anything. Albert Einstein once called it the 8th wonder of the world. p

LISTEN HERE: iTUNES | OVERCAST Today’s guest is Geoff Manaugh, who explores the intersection of architecture, technology, and landscapes. As a professor, he’s taught classes in both the United States and in Australia on topics such as blackouts, the future of cinema, geo-engineering, and the possibility of a San Andreas fault national park. In the episode, we talk about how the geography of Los Angeles influences bank heists, the new subterranean structures in Singapore and Hong Kong, caves, and how technology is changing architecture. This conversation will have you exploring new ideas, underground tunnels, sneaking through subway systems, and using blueprints to escape a prison. You can find Geoff online at his blog, BLDGBLOG. “All of the buildings that we interact with every day tend to be completely overlooked and treated as something that isn’t even worth discussing, and yet that’s where we spend most of our lives.” “The real world is so much more interesting than people think it is. There’s no reason to be bored — the world is cooler and more futuristic than you might think.” Links: Find Geoff online: Website Linkedin His book’s site Mentioned in the show: Heat film [8:00] Gangs of New York film [8:37] Prison Break show [19:35] Books mentioned: A Burglar’s Guide to the City [0:49] People mentioned: Geoff Manaugh Michael Mann [8:00] Show Topics 1:53 - Introduction to Geoff and discussion on how he got into the architectural field. 3:15 - Diving into anthropology, ancient civilizations, and Geoff’s interest in both ancient structures and architecture. 5:10 - Some discussion on our current architecture and some speculation on us often being surrounded by a built environment. “All of the buildings that we interact with every day tend to be completely overlooked and treated as something that isn’t even worth discussing, and yet that’s where we spend most of our lives.” 7:50 - Discussing how the infrastructure and landscape of a city influence heists and crime. How our environment is much less passive than we think, and how it actively plays a role in influencing the way that we think and what we do. 11:12 - Figuring out how police view a city, taking advantage of various get-away routes, and the grey-areas often found in get-away routes. 12:55 - How burglars think differently about underground structures. Some discussion on tunneling and its relation to different types of landscapes under a city (sandy soil, bedrock, etc). 16:03 - How advances in technology influence architecture, security in the architectural world, and land boundaries. 18:55 - Speculating how well burglars actually know the building that they’re breaking into, how to easily find out the blueprints for a place, and discussion on burglars exploiting vulnerabilities within cities. 23:32 - How Geoff managed to get in touch with several burglars and learn from them. Also, how we unconsciously act like burglars in our lives. 28:19 - The emerging aspect of digital burglary and some discussion on this, as well as a bit on cryptocurrencies and investments. Also, thoughts on the actual definition of burglary and its relation to architecture. 32:14 - Discussing graffiti artists, people riskily exploring of architecture, and a bit on how we pay for city infrastructures, but yet we aren’t allowed to visit some of them. 34:35 - Geoff explaining various subterranean structures, caves, and underground tunnels. Also, how Singapore has begun to excavate outwards beneath the ocean for storage and other uses, architects designing artificial caves, Hong Kong’s future plans with underground infrastructures, and the powerful sense of awe that we can attain from architecture. 41:54 - Further discussion on the many things that we see, but do not consciously appreciate or really notice. Also, a bit of talk on the mysterious places left behind due to architecture evolving. 43:55 - The future of cities and architecture, and what Geoff is most excited about within these fields. The huge possibilities of technology merging with architecture. Also, a bit on quarantining people, isolating people, and relating both of these to architecture. 47:52 - Discussion on the architectural way of thinking and being efficient as a writer. 49:39 - Geoff’s connection to cinema and his perspective on cinema. A bit on what he’s done for cinema as an architect, as well. 51:12 - What has surprised Geoff while working in the television industry about bringing his book into the media network. Also, Geoff’s thoughts on transferring abstract ideas into a filmable scene. Hey again, it’s David here one more time. You can support the North Star Podcast by leaving us a review on iTunes. Or you can share the podcast on Twitter or Facebook. To listen to other episodes or learn more about the North Star, you can connect with me directly at perell.com and you can always reach out on Twitter at david_perell. And if you enjoyed this episode, you’ll like the episode with Eugene Wei, a film editor who

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Today’s guest is Eugene Wei, who's spent his career working at some of the world’s best technology companies including Amazon, Hulu, and Facebook. He joined Amazon in 1997 after graduating from Stanford and it was at Amazon that he watched Jeff Bezos turn a small little internet bookstore into “The Everything Store” that were all so familiar with. After leaving Amazon, Eugene moved to New York to become a film editor before moving to Los Angeles to become a director. That summer he joined the company that would become Hulu, leading the product, design, editorial, and marketing teams. And since then, he founded and sold a startup called Erly, and worked as the head of product for Flipboard before joining the Facebook as the head of video at Oculus. In this conversation, we talk about the spiritual significance of the second law of thermodynamics and its impact on movies, company building, and personal growth. We talk about the principles of communication and draw lessons from Jeff Bezos on how to communicate clearly and memorably. And finally, we take lessons from Eugene’s time living in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley and explore the ever-fascinating intersection of media and technology. And before we begin, you can find links to his blog, Remains of the Day, along with my favorite posts below. Links: Find Eugene online: His blog Eugene’s most popular posts Linkedin Mentioned in the show: Amazon [0:38] Hulu [0:38] Facebook [0:38] Erly [1:10] Oculus [1:17] Eugene’s Iliad discussion [9:35] (couldn’t find this one) Eugene’s Second Law of Thermodynamics discussion [9:35] UCLA Film School [22:17] Reddit [36:57] Twitch [58:02] Tree of Life film [1:06:53] Interstellar [1:08:15] Books mentioned: Born to Rebel [14:15] The Complacent Class [48:55] The Rise of Superman [59:14] The Iliad [1:02:27] The Odyssey [1:02:27] The Sound and the Fury [1:06:27] People mentioned: Jeff Bezos [1:32] Daniel Day-Lewis [16:55] Mike Tyson [47:24] Tyler Cowen [48:52] (podcast episode with Tyler) Gary Vaynerchuk [53:19] Malcolm Gladwell [1:03:07] Neil Degrasse Tyson [1:03:30] (podcast episode with Neil) William Faulkner [1:05:54] Virginia Wolf [1:05:54] Terrence Malick [1:06:51] Christopher Nolan [1:08:22] Show Topics 0:32 - Some information on the episode guest, Eugene Wei and a bit of background on his career. 1:58 - Introduction to Eugene, what life was like for him early on, and what he got into as a kid. Also, a bit on how he got into the filmmaking scene. 3:32 - Eugene on some of the biases from his parents that he faced regarding a career choice, and a bit on him convincing them to move out west and away from Chicago. 4:56 - What Stanford was like back when Eugene was growing up, how his parents felt about his choice to go there, what things he ended up exploring while there, and what he majored in. 6:55 - How learning with both sides of the brain influenced Eugene after college and how it has been useful for him in the professional context. “I think the general idea of following your interests so that you have an inherent sort of motivator for learning is just super-critical.” 7:54 - Thoughts on underestimating the advantages of a somewhat generalist education compared to an education in a specific field. How having a broad set of skills and a general education has helped him more than if he were to specialize in one field. 9:50 - Eugene on the importance of being deeply intellectually interested in his work. 10:32 - Eugene’s journey towards receiving a job with Amazon in 1997, the choices he made regarding college, and him realizing the growing wave that was the internet back then. 14:11 - Eugene discussing Born to Rebel, an influential book that he read while in high school, and how this impacted him. Also, Eugene discussing fighting the conformist nature that comes with being an older sibling, and some discussion on how the younger sibling likely has a rebellious nature. 15:40 - Further discussion on challenging the conformist nature, pushing yourself into new and challenging areas to grow, and Eugene talking about his decision to leave Amazon and go to film school. “To start over and be a student again forces you into a different frame of mind.” 17:35 - How leaving Amazon to start over and go to film school taught Eugene valuable lessons and positively impacted him. 18:28 - What the second law of thermodynamics is and how it played a role in Eugene’s journey. Some more on him pushing out of equilibrium for growth, as well. 22:01 - What Eugene did for work when he first got into filmmaking and some more thoughts on what the journey did for him. Also, a bit on his next job, which was working for the company that eventually became Hulu. 24:18 - Eugene’s thoughts about the different streaming platforms around that time that he began working for the company that eventually became Hulu. 25:45 - What Eugene learned about how the media and technology industries operate and where they intersect. Some thou

LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST “The holy grail of design is small things that make a big difference.” Scott Belsky helps creative people, teams, and networks make ideas happen. In this episode, we talk about how Scott has merged the worlds of business, technology, and design. Scott shares insights on how to reinvent yourself throughout your career, and discusses the future of media and technology. I love what Scott had to say about design, where he draws from numerous trips to Japan where he was awestruck by the culture, their attention to detail and the care they bring to their craft. Today, Scott is Adobe’s Chief Product Officer and the Executive Vice President of Creative Cloud. He’s a product design and consumer behavior obsessive and founded Behance to organize the creative world and connect creatives with lucrative opportunities, before Adobe acquired the company in 2012. He's a Venture Partner at Benchmark - a venture capital firm based in San Francisco, an early-stage investor, a Product Strategy Advisor to Adobe and Twitter's video efforts, and is co-founder and Executive Chairman of Prefer, a platform that empowers the careers of service professionals and enables people to find professionals they need from people they know. He’s also invested in many of my favorite companies including Sweetgreen, Uber, and Warby Parker. Links: Scott Belsky: Website Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky Tribe by Sebastian Junger Scott Belsky on Twitter Scott Belsky Newsletter Cooper Hewitt Design Museum Seth Godin John Maeda Hyper-Reality Building a Second Brain Connect with Me (I love meeting new people): Twitter Website Email: [email protected] Please leave an honest review on iTunes. It helps people discover the podcast.

LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. I felt fear more times than I can remember, but I hid it behind a mask of boldness. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Douglas Abrams is the founder of Idea Architects, a book publishing, and media company that works with visionary authors to create a wiser, healthier, and more just world. Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have both survived more than fifty years of exile. Both have endured the soul-crushing violence of oppression. And yet despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet. Doug recognized this and asked two simple, yet profound questions: How is this possible? And what can we learn from their example to cultivate more joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering? In celebration of the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday, Doug traveled to Dharamsala, India, alongside Archbishop Tutu for a five-day conversation on the nature of human happiness and suffering, the two Nobel Peace Prize recipients traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. Out of that, came Doug’s new book, The Book of Joy, a New York Times bestseller that probes the very nature of joy itself — the illusions that eclipse it, the obstacles that obscure it, the practices that cultivate it, and the pillars that sustain it. If you enjoyed this episode, you'll also enjoy the episode with Heather Hartnett, where we talk about eastern philosophies and western ways of living and working. Links: Book of Joy Idea Architects Dalai Lama Archbishop Desmond Tutu David Perell, Twitter Follow the Podcast Please leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe to the Newsletter

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures. Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo and an angel investor in Etsy and Tumblr. He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard College, where he studied economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT. In this episode, we talk about what it was like to grow up in Germany, where Albert received an Apple II at a young age. As a teenager, Albert visited America for the first time when he stayed with a family in Rochester, Minnesota — the most impactful travel experience of his life. We talk about how technological progress has shifted scarcity for humanity. When we were foragers, food was scarce. During the agrarian age, it was land. Following the industrial revolution, capital became scarce. With digital technologies, scarcity is shifting once more. We need to figure out how to live in a World After Capital — the title of Albert’s new book — where the only scarcity is our attention. Links: World After Capital Future of the Nation State Decentralization and the Knowledge Age Albert Wenger Twitter Books: Grit Three Body Problem Thinking, Fast & Slow Antifragile Seveneves Beginning of Infinity Please leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one

LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST Ari Paul is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of BlockTower Capital. He was previously a portfolio manager for the University of Chicago's $8 billion endowment. Ari earned a BA in political science from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in economics, entrepreneurship, strategic management, and econometrics & statistics. In this episode, we talk about Ari’s passion for poker, and what the game taught him about investing, risk, and table selection, a powerful concept that applies to just about every field. Ari recently identified what he calls “the opportunity of a lifetime” — cryptocurrency. It led him to start investing in cryptocurrencies, a decision that was guided by Ari’s commitment to stretching boundaries. Finally, Ari discusses his passions for backpacking and travel, and like so many guests, Japan was one of Ari’s favorites. Time Codes: 2:30 - 6:20: Background and departure from science. 6:20 - 9:35: Playing poker and complete information. Tilt. 9:35 - 14:25: Table selection. Phil Ivey. Sharp Ratio. 14:25 - 17:40: Childhood/youth. Building skills and transferring them to trading. 17:40 - 20:30: Value investing vs. momentum investing. Path dependency for crypto. 20:30 - 24:00: All heuristics are regime dependent. 24:00 - 28:25: Shorter attention spans. Analogies. Changing minds. 28:25 - 32:30: Backpacking. Consuming information vs. going off the grid. Stoicism. 32:30 - 35:40: Japan/Osaka/Kyoto. Accelerated living. 35:40 - 40:00: Consciously stretching boundaries ("Life is lived at the margins"). Behavioral economics. Internalizing stereotypes. 40:00 - 43:20: Stretching boundaries applied to cryptocurrencies. Principal component analysis. 43:20 - 44:00: Specializing vs. building bridges in your career. 44:00 - 45:30: Moving away from hard skills 45:30 - 49:20: Perspectives and trust building pre and post internet. Signaling. Psychological bias. Overconfidence vs. familiarity. 49:20.- 50:10: We don't know people like we think we do. 50:10 - 53:35: Blogging and personal brand. Blogging as a way to falsify ideas. Cunningham's law. 53:35 - 57:45: Learning > Ego. Power laws. Combined talents out of necessity can create a combinatorial edge. 57:45 - 59:50: The experience of starting a crypto fund. 59:50 - 1:03:50: Agency when there's no roadmap. MBA students. 1:03:50 - 1:08:45: Breaking through natural momentum. Anchoring. Status quo bias. Fat pitch. Crypto as the opportunity of a lifetime. Hard work, burnout, and compounding. Links: Ari Paul Twitter Blocktower Capital Seth Klarman Benjamin Graham Phil Ivey Sharp Ratio Cunningham's Law Books Mentioned: Vagabonding The Intelligent Investor Antifragile Connect with David: Twitter Subscribe to Receive the Latest Episodes Please leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one

LISTEN HERE: iTUNES | OVERCAST Heather Hartnett is the CEO and founding partner of Human Ventures. She leads the Human Ventures team and advises each of Human Ventures’ portfolio companies. Heather brings a fresh new perspective to the technology scene and Business Insider recently featured Human Ventures as the first female-led startup studio in New York City. Heather was also named one of the 50 Most Influential Women in America by Marie Claire. Before Human Ventures, Heather founded a FinTech company incubated within City Light Capital — a venture capital fund that invests in companies making social and environmental impacts. Heather and I talk about her childhood, and what she learned by traveling the world, focusing on the time she spent in Holland and India in particular. We talk about Heather’s favorite subject: people and the importance of having great energy, a singular vision, and how to get things done. We also explore the intersection of Eastern philosophies and western ways of living and working. Meditation plays a prominent role in Heather’s life and she serves on the Board of Directors of the David Lynch Foundation, which is dedicated to helping children around the world learn to meditate. Heather and I explore the impact of Transcendental Meditation on her life, her work, and her worldview. This was, without question, my favorite part of the episode. Links: Human Ventures Hunter Walk Overview Bob Roth The Autobiography of a Yogi Science of Being and Art of Living Catching the Big Fish, David Lynch Recommended for New Hires at Human Ventures: Hard Things about Hard Things by Ben Horowitz Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Start with Why by Simon Sinek

Listen Here: Overcast | iTunes Josh Wolfe is the co-founder and managing partner at Lux Capital, which invests in the intersection of science and technology at the outermost edge of what is possible. He partners with innovators challenging the status quo and even the laws of nature. The more ambitious, the better. Josh is a published scientist himself. He's a founding investor and board member with Bill Gates in Kymeta, a company that makes cutting-edge antennas for high-speed global satellite and space communications. And before Lux Capital, Josh worked in investment banking and capital markets. Afterwards, Josh co-founded Kurion, which used advanced robotics, engineering, and chemistry to clean up nuclear waste. In 2016, the company was bought for $400 million. In this episode, we talk about it all: Biology, randomness, finance, consciousness, space, Brooklyn, investing, art, risk, and basketball. We start with what he learned growing up in Coney Island, a working class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Josh then shares his investment philosophy and why he likes investing in industries like lots of intellectual property, high barriers to entry and a limited talent pool. And finally, we talk about biology and the history of it— from single-celled organisms to the nature of consciousness — and Josh draws from his experience as a board member at the Santa Fe Institute. I hope you enjoy this wide-ranging conversation as much as I did. Show Notes: 0:00 - 1:45: Growing up on Coney Island. Science, finance, and The Cyclone 1:45 - 3:15: Josh Wolfe's research background, the importance of persistence, introduction to capital markets 3:15 - 6:45: Learning new ideas. Identifying and avoiding BS. Risk and the value spectrum. Killing failure to find paths to success. 6:45 - 9:10: Science fiction novels and the pursuit of truth. Gap between science fiction and actual science is closing. 9:10 - 12:30: Competitive edge is paranoia and a competitive desire to have an information edge. 100-0-100 investing philosophy. Importance of humility and ambition. 12:30 - 17:00: College and early career epiphanies. Embracing randomness and optionality. Avoid boring people. Dinner with Jim Watson, who discovered the structure of DNA. Appreciation for scrappy underdogs. 17:00 - 20:00: A lot of fictional influences including TV, movies, and comic books. Avid consumer of information and any and all information. Curiosity born from information anxiety and overall competitiveness. 20:15 - 21:45: The relationship between art & science 21:45 - 25:05: Mentors are a portfolio of the best ideas and role models such as Richard Feynman. 25:05 - 29:10: Founding story of Lux. Henry Truman Quote: "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know." Competitive edges in investing. Intellectual honesty at Lux Capital. 29:10 - 32:40: In history, there is no linear starting point. Red Queen effect and information consumption. Intellectual honesty, non-obvious ideas, and vigor. 32:40 - 36:50: Consciousness, complexity. Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris debates. Bayesian updating. 36:50 - 40:00: Complexity is chaotic phenomena with universal emergent principles. Lots of parallels with Entropy and the rest of the world. Links: Josh Wolfe on Twitter Lux Capital Santa Fe Institute Coney Island Cyclone Rollercoaster Bill Conway Jeff Hawkins Sam Harris - Daniel Dennett Debate Books: Poor Charlie's Almanack, Peter D. Kaufman Malicious Resplendence, Robert Williams How the Mind Works, Steven Pinker Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman The Minds I - Dennett, Hofstadter Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson Connect with David: Twitter Thanks to Conor Witt for producing this episode.

LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST | PLAYERFM Shane Parrish is a partner at Syrus Partners and the mind behind one of my favorite blogs, Farnam Street. The blog is devoted to helping you develop an understanding of how the world really works, make better decisions, and live a better life. Shane writes about mental models, decision making, learning, reading, and the art of living. He draws from both the sciences and the humanities, expanding the intellectual horizons of his readers, helping them connect ideas, think in multidisciplinary ways, and cultivate meaning in their lives. I first discovered the blog in college and credit Shane for so much of my intellectual curiosity. He writes a weekly newsletter called Brain Food that covers all that he’s learned in the week beforehand. To help you cut through the noise, he includes his favorite books and articles with a high signal-to-noise ratio. He also hosts a podcast called The Knowledge Project. I recommend this episode with Rory Sutherland. In this episode, Shane reveals counterintuitive secrets to learning history through the lens of his recent trip to France. We also dissected one of my favorite mental models — why the map is not the territory. It’s a fascinating one that changed the way I see the world. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Links: Farnam Street Syrus Partners The Knowledge Project The Map is Not the Territory Connect with Shane: Twitter Farnam Street Connect with David: Twitter Website

Listen Here: iTunes | Overcast "Everything you wear is a costume of some kind. Everything speaks to what you're thinking about, what you're feeling, what you represent, and where you're from - so it's very personal." Greg Rosborough is the co-founder and design director of Abasi Rosborough. As a fashion designer, he thinks about the interaction between anatomy and functionality. He designs in juxtapositions, combining ancient with modern, minimal with monumental, and interesting with ease. Greg grew up in Tucson, Arizona where he attended the University of Arizona and worked for the men’s basketball team. Following Arizona, he moved to New York to study Menswear Design at FIT, where an internship at Ralph Lauren landed him his first job as a designer. He also founded UGallery, a curated online art gallery which now represents 500 artists and sells artwork in over 60 countries. In this episode, Greg tells the story of his first trip to New York as an 18 year old, his visit to Bergdorf Goodman, and how it inspired him to become a designer. We talk about his travels to Japan, Istanbul, and Morocco, his favorite books, and how he's fused ideas from various disciplines including architecture and the US Military to redefine the men’s suit. Greg was a 2017 LVMH (Louis Vuitton) Young Fashion Designer Prize Nominee. This conversation will give you a glimpse into the thinking and creativity behind Abasi Rosborough. Links: Zaha Hadid Meditations Man's Search for Meaning UGallery FIT Rick Owens Understanding Media About Abasi Rosborough: Greg Rosborough Neil Patrick Collins - Episode Producer Greg Rosborough

My guest today is Mark Broadie, a Golf Statistician and Professor at Columbia Business School. I first found Mark through his book Every Shot Counts, which transformed golf statistics and analytics forever. Marcus worked with many of the world's best golfers, including Francesco Molinari, and Justin Rose, who became the world's number one golfer as a result of their work together. In this episode, we explore the nooks and crannies of golf statistics, we talked about how different kinds of grasses influence players, why approach shots play the biggest role in success for top golfers. We discussed the math behind the drive for show and putt for dough theory, and dive into the reasons why Tiger Woods was so dominant for so many years. Now I live for conversations like this. I love them. And spending an afternoon with Mark talking about strategy, statistics, and golf, the so called greatest game ever played is about as good as it gets for me. And we begin the conversation talking about the strokes gained measurement system which Mark invented, and which dispelled many of the myths and misconceptions about the game of Golf. I hope you enjoy this episode. SUBSCRIBE TO MY “MONDAY MUSINGS” NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP WITH THE PODCAST. SHOW TOPICS LINKS: Find Mark online: Twitter Columbia Business School Profile People mentioned: Tiger Woods Francesco Molinari Justin Rose Phil Mickelson Tommy Fleetwood Rory McIlroy Steve Stricker Other mentioned: Every Shot Counts by Mark Broadie PGATour.com SHOW TOPICS 1:45 Why drive for show, putt for dough is not really true, an elevator pitch of Mark’s strokes gained statistic, and which information on shots would Mark want access to that he doesn’t already have 10:25 Surprising conclusion about player performance around straight vs. dogleg holes, how does perception line up with statistic when it comes to player reputations, and correlations between birdies, bogeys, and driving distance 19:01 Is closer to the hole always better and what the exceptions to the rule, how the NBA changed it’s mind about three pointers, how Mark thinks about introducing changes to the way things are done in a sport, and the effect that different courses have on player psychology 32:12 The effect of different species of grass on the green on player performance, how some variants of grass are better for worse players, the horses for courses effect, and Mark’s counter-intuitive idea of which are the key holes on a course 40:51 How game theory affects driving decisions in 1:1 situations, what really separates the best players from the just good ones on a particular day among the pros, the TV highlight reel effect for long putts 53:54 How different golf course architects effect how players change their game, how ridiculously good Tiger Woods’ approach shot game was in his prime, and diving deeper into spin rates 1:05:00 How has being a golf statistician changed Mark’s own game, what the biggest mistakes that amateurs make, the most rewarding experiences that have come out of his work, and David and Mark piece together a story about the 2013 US Open 1:15:19 The next phase of Mark’s research that he is excited about