Tremendous

An angel investor's take on life and business

  • The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 5

    “It’s interesting how many mistakes you can make if you just keep going.”

    Warren Buffett

    Warren Buffett is the greatest investor of all time. He must do everything right…right?

    Dead wrong. Warren has made a lot of mistakes too. And in this final hour of the recent Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, he gives priceless advice on how to get past them.

    Making Mistakes

    “I can think of all sorts of things that could’ve been done differently, but so what. I’m not perfect.”

    Warren is quick to mention that he’s made numerous mistakes in life.

    He didn’t buy Google, even though Geico was using Google’s ad services all the time. He also lost billions on an investment in Dexter Shoes.

    In fact, even his original purchase of Berkshire itself was a mistake.

    The old textile mill he bought was going nowhere. That’s why he had to retool it into the conglomerate it is today.

    The thing is, only Warren remembers these mistakes. I had to look them up.

    His good decisions put him so far ahead that the losers never mattered.

    Moving On

    You expect successful people to be highly self-critical. But Warren isn’t:

    “I don’t believe in lots of self-criticism…”

    For an investor, that makes a lot of sense. Some losses are inevitable. Beating yourself up over each one won’t get you anywhere.

    This is especially true in venture capital. Losses are the rule — if you’re investing early, probably 80% of your companies will go to zero.

    If every mistake makes you hate yourself, you won’t last long! That’s true in investing, and it’s true in the rest of life as well.

    “You can’t solve everything in life. You do the best you can with it.”

    Being Grateful

    Warren has lived an incredible life. At 93, he’s still going strong and doing what he loves: making great investments.

    I’d assume he has some superior knowledge or set of habits. But Warren chocks up a lot of his success to luck.

    “Anybody who says ‘I did it all myself’…they’re delusional.”

    As someone who came from a poor background and has found some degree of success, I’m often tempted to say “I did it all!” But that’s not true.

    I went to many wonderful schools full of teachers who cared. My family looked after me and sacrificed for me.

    Whatever I’ve been able to do, I’m only responsible for a small part of it.

    Wrap-Up

    I had a wonderful time watching Warren deliver wisdom over the 6 hours of the annual meeting! Of the entire 6 hours, here’s the line that stuck with me most:

    “I’ve made mistakes occasionally, but they filtered out over time. We learn.”

    I oughta get that tattooed on my forehead. It’s a wonderful thing to remember.

    We try, we fail, we try again. Over time, if we make a few good decisions and are fortunate enough to live in a wonderful country like this, we come out way ahead.

    I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I did. Have a wonderful weekend!

    What have you learned from Warren? Leave a comment and let us know!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on investing:

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 4

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 3

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 2

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 1

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 4

    Warren Buffett has seen a lot of crazes in his 82 years investing. The Nifty Fifty, the dotcom bust, and the 2008 crisis. Through it all, he kept doing the same thing: buying great businesses at reasonable prices.

    Today, I dug into the sixth hour of Berkshire’s recent annual meeting. I learned a lot about avoiding fads, having a prepared mind, and moving quickly when opportunity knocks.

    Avoiding Manias

    Warren sticks to what he knows well: buying great businesses at reasonable prices. Real estate booms and crypto crazes swirl around him, but never move him.

    “Getting a decent result should be reasonably easy so long as you don’t get talked out of doing what’s worked in the past, and don’t get carried away with fads, and don’t listen to people that have different interests…”

    When I first started angel investing in 2021, I saw crypto startups raising Seed rounds at a $100 million valuation every day. They had nothing but a deck.

    “Am I missing something?” I thought to myself. “Maybe. But I’m going to keep doing what I think makes sense.”

    Instead of backing the buzzy cryptos, I invested in little startups doing unglamorous things. One was Rilla, an AI tool to help contractors sell more that I invested in during the fall of 2022.

    Today, Rilla is at $14 million ARR. Most of those crypto startups are probably gone.

    Moving Fast

    “There is an aspect of knowing a whole lot, and having a whole lot of experiences, and then seeing something that turns on the light bulb.”

    Warren rarely sees a deal that suits him, especially in today’s pricey market. But when he does, he moves fast.

    He’s able to do that because he knows what he’s looking for. His perspective is informed by scads of research and thought over generations.

    He also knows that great opportunities don’t last long.

    I try to take the same approach in startupland. Last year, I invested in a wonderful company with rapid growth and an intensely focused founder. I put in my commitment quickly, concerned the round would fill up.

    Turns out it didn’t — the angel allocation only filled 60%. The round closed and that was that.

    A lot of other angels who saw that deal probably hemmed and hawed and wound up missing out. But I knew that a giant market, rapid growth, and an intensely committed founder checks my boxes, so I was comfortable making a bet quickly.

    That little startup has more than tripled revenue in less than a year and is nearing the $10 million ARR mark. It pays to be decisive.

    Wrap-Up

    There will always be another investment fad. And there’s nowhere more prone to them than tech, home of the new.

    I don’t care if it’s AI, crypto, or anything else, you need paying customers who love your product. When I see that, I move fast.

    What have you learned from Warren? Leave a comment and let us know!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on investing:

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 3

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 2

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 1

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 3

    An auditorium full of med students jump to their feet, erupting in cheers. They just found out they’re going to school for free.

    This was the scene at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in February (you can see the video and news story here). The source of the $1 billion donation making it possible: an unassuming professor at the school.

    So where did Dr. Ruth Gottesman get all this money? She and her husband, David, were early investors in Berkshire Hathaway.

    Warren played the wonderful video of Ruth announcing the donation at Berkshire’s recent annual meeting. You can see his face light up afterward as he says:

    “And that’s why Charlie and I have had such fun running Berkshire.”

    Warren and Berkshire as a whole never forget their higher purpose: to produce resources to make society better. Many Berkshire shareholders also use their assets to make a better world.

    “…they don’t feel they have to create a dynasty or anything. They give it back to society.”

    Warren and his shareholders are not misers living in hovels and squirreling away every cent. They live very comfortably, just not ostentatiously. Warren adds:

    “They’ve all lived good lives. They haven’t denied themselves anything you know, they have second homes…”

    Devotion to a higher purpose is something many great investors have in common.

    You’ll see the same at Sequoia, the best venture capital firm in history. Their conference rooms are named after major LP’s, like Harvard and MIT. This makes sure everyone remembers why they’re there: to support research and education that moves humanity forward.

    Like anyone else, sometimes I get stressed, tired, bored, you name it. But as I meet with startups, I’m trying to keep in mind Warren’s lessons.

    We’re investing to create resources to do awesome things. We have a chance to improve technology, science, education, you name it.

    What could be more exciting than that?!

    What have you learned from Warren Buffett? Leave a comment and let us know!

    Pop in tomorrow for part 4 of the Berkshire annual meeting!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this.

    More on investing:

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 2

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 1

    Talking Follow-On Strategy with JCal

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 2

    “You’re entering the best world that’s ever existed…”

    Warren Buffett

    Warren sits on stage, flanked by men he respects and loves working with. From that perch, he gives out priceless advice on investing and life.

    Today, I dug into the third hour of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. Warren tells us his views on investing in India, working with great people, and living a meaningful life.

    Let’s dig in!

    Sticking to What Works

    Warren sticks to what he knows: investing in the US, Canada, and a few other countries.

    One shareholder asked him about opportunities in India. While Warren is clear that India has enormous potential, he asks a critical question:

    “The question is do we have any advantage…”

    The situation for me in venture is exactly the same.

    There are fantastic startups in India, Nigeria, China and many other places. But there are excellent investors in those regions who know the market and meet the great founders before I do.

    How would I have any advantage?

    Working With People You Respect

    “I told Charlie in the last few years, ‘I’d never seen anyone who was peaking at 99’.”

    Warren’s admiration for Charlie Munger is palpable. But what I found fascinating is that it extends to everyone he works with.

    When you see Vice Chairs Greg Abel or Ajit Jain take a question, Warren looks at them with a wonderful expression.

    He admires them. Indeed, I think he loves them.

    When you spend that much time together with great people, it can happen! In both business and his personal life, Warren works hard to surround himself with good people:

    “If you get that in your life, you cherish those people, and you sort of forget about the rest.”

    We’re all going to deal with folks that are difficult sometimes. But having those wonderful people around you is all that matters — and we can forget about the rest!

    Advice for Life

    Charlie’s advice was to “invert, always invert.” Warren applies that to how to live a good life.

    “I would try to…figure out how you want to look back on your life and think about yourself and start today to go on the path that leads to that goal. And expect some difficulties along the way, but if you’re thinking that way, you’re more likely to get there.”

    At 93, Warren has seen more of life than most. And I find his life enviable.

    He does what he wants all day, finds it super interesting, and never wants to stop. And, sure, most of us wouldn’t mind having $136 billion.

    I want to have interesting work that creates something great, and nice people around me. So each day, I work toward that.

    Speaking of which, I have to get to a meeting with a founder! Better wrap this up…

    Wrap-Up

    Warren sticks to what he does well and does it with people he admires. I can’t think of a better way to spend your days!

    Focusing on the great people around us and letting the rest go — that’s the best way to spend however much time we have.

    Pop in tomorrow for Day 3 of the Berkshire Annual Meeting!

    What have you learned from Warren? Leave a comment and let us know!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on investing:

    The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 1

    Poor Charlie’s Almanack

    Talking Follow-On Strategy with JCal

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • The Berkshire Annual Meeting in Five Days: Day 1

    “Warren, if people weren’t so often wrong, we wouldn’t be so rich.”

    Charlie Munger

    I’ve always wanted to watch the whole Berkshire annual meeting. This year, I’m finally doing it, and I’m sharing everything I learned with you guys!

    This will be a 5 part series going throughout this week. Let’s get started!

    Making Mistakes

    Sitting on that stage as the greatest investor of all time, Warren seems like he never makes any mistakes. But as he explains, nothing could be further from the truth:

    “Sometimes we’ve done things that were big mistakes and we never get close to fatal mistakes and every now and then we do something that really works.”

    The success we see is his good decisions compounding. Any mistakes he’s made, few but Warren himself remember.

    “I’ve made mistakes occasionally, but they filtered out over time. We learn.”

    In investing in startups and in life in general, I will always make mistakes. Some will be big.

    But so long as we don’t risk ruin and we keep doing our best, we can succeed beyond what we ever thought possible.

    Keeping At It

    Warren has been investing since he was 11. Today he is 93.

    When I ask myself “Why is Warren so good?” that’s a big part of the answer. He’s kept at it and learned for over 80 years!

    If anyone does anything for 82 years, they’re bound to get pretty good at it. Warren is smarter than most, but even for an average person, that much experience and time is bound to bear fruit.

    “…the math of compounding and a long runway have done wonders.”

    I’ve been investing in startups for just over 3 years now. I’m no Bill Gurley, but I know a lot more than I did when I started.

    Once that clock hits 10 years, 20 or more, imagine how much I’ll know! I just have to keep at it.

    Ignoring the Markets

    Berkshire owns huge positions in a variety of stocks, including Apple, American Express and Coke.

    Those stocks can fluctuate wildly. Warren ignores those fluctuations, saying “…we pay no attention to those at Berkshire.”

    Venture capital fluctuates more than just about anything.

    In 2021, companies got valued at $1 billion on $10 million a year in revenue. Today, I’ve seen great companies growing fast raise at just 2 or 3 times revenue in some cases.

    Are those businesses suddenly garbage? No.

    They’re still making customers happy and making money. So I’m more excited about backing them now, not less!

    Warren keeps a laser focus on what’s going on in the underlying business. If I do the same, I can succeed.

    Customers, product, team…nothing else matters.

    Wrap-Up

    I’m so grateful for Warren and Charlie! I’ve learned so much from them.

    They never had to share their wisdom. They’re worth billions and they could’ve just holed up in their offices and kept making more, ignoring the public.

    But I’m so happy they share what they’ve learned with us. Their lessons on persevering through mistakes and focusing on what matters help me every day.

    I hope they help you too!

    Come back tomorrow for part two!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on investing:

    Poor Charlie’s Almanack

    Talking Follow-On Strategy with JCal

    Meet My Latest Investment: Zest

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • The Easy Way to Make Your Investor Meetings 10X Better

    Founders might have to do 50 meetings to get a check. But you can make those meetings 10X better and up your odds of raising money by changing how you answer investor questions.

    Picture Francis sitting on Zoom. I have a list of 8 questions I want to ask the founder in my trusty composition book.

    But we’re 18 minutes into a 30 minute call, and I haven’t had a chance to ask any of them yet!

    The founder has been excitedly telling me about his company. And I’m starting to get excited about it too!

    But the downside of that excitement is the presentation can lose focus.

    Structure Your Meeting Like This

    Here’s a great way to structure meetings: the 1/3 and 2/3 rule.

    Present for the first 1/3 of the meeting. Leave the remaining 2/3rds for Q&A.

    If the investor says they’ve already reviewed the deck and would just like to do Q&A, it’s fine to skip to that too!

    How to Answer Questions

    If you do these 2 things, you will answer questions 10X better than most founders:

    1) Be as specific as possible.
    2) Take about as long to answer a question as the investor took to ask it.

    Let me give you a concrete example of a founder who does this really well.

    Peter from Props was on a recent episode of This Week in Startups, and he presents and answers questions beautifully. Even Jason commented on it.

    Do you see how crisp his answers are? Aim for that.

    What to Avoid

    When you answer questions, you want to avoid nonspecific or meandering responses. Here’s a (fictional) example of what you don’t want to do:

    “Me: How many paying customers do you have?

    Founder: Well, we started out with some pilots and we’re working closely with Bigcorp right now. We have a letter of intent from them and our internal champion, Melissa, is super stoked on the product! She’s telling everyone internally about it, and the deal could come any day. We’re also heading to a conference in Vegas next week which should be really helpful. My COO can’t make it but I’ll be there, we even got a booth.”

    You see what happened there? We took up a bunch of time, and I never got an answer to my question.

    I can only assume they have no paying customers. And I also have less time to find out more about the company.

    Wrap-Up

    Crisp, focused presentation. Crisp Q&A with specific answers.

    That’s what you want to aim for.

    Even if the facts aren’t as impressive as you’d like, investors will respect your candor! And hey, just because you don’t have any revenue right now doesn’t mean you won’t next month!

    By showing that you know how to sell and you’re candid, your stock goes up in the investor’s mind. Use this approach, and those checks will start rolling in.

    What have your investor meetings been like? Leave a comment and let us know!

    Have a great weekend, everybody! Let’s relax, have some fun, and recharge our batteries to do awesome work next week.

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on tech:

    Meet My Latest Investment: Zest

    Talking Follow-On Strategy with JCal

    Chaos Monkeys

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Why We Should Invest in Offensive Military Technology

    Marine special forces are testing robot dogs armed with rifles. A human still makes the decision to fire — for now.

    The robot that Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) is using comes from a company called Ghost Robotics, according to The War Zone. The robots are armed with rifles from Onyx Industries.

    You can see the new robot in action here.

    Metalhead

    I’m not gonna lie — this is pretty creepy. Anyone who’s seen Black Mirror will instantly recognize Metalhead, the killer robots from an episode in 2017.

    It’s amazing how quickly science fiction has become an accomplished fact.

    But I have to admit this could save our soldiers’ lives. Every loss is a family that will never be the same.

    Surely, preventing such losses is something worth pursuing.

    What’s more, we’ve been using UAV’s with missiles for years. If we’re okay with that as a society, this isn’t much different.

    Defending the Nation That’s Done So Much For Us

    Many technology investors refuse to invest in offensive weapons. I think that’s absurd.

    Those of us who invest in startups have benefited from America more than almost anyone. And most, like me, never served in the military.

    So how can we refuse to help even in this peripheral way? If we don’t invest in offensive military tech, we’re just expecting a free ride.

    “Can you go over there and risk your life to protect us? We’d love to help but we’re a little busy making money. Thanks so much!”

    My Approach to Military Tech

    I wouldn’t invest in something like the Ghost Robotics dog simply because I don’t do robotics or hardware in general.

    It’s a tough industry and I don’t know much about it. It wouldn’t matter if the robot were a vacuum cleaner or a weapon.

    But if I saw a great piece of software, I’d be happy to make a bet. And that’s true even if the product is used in an offensive way — the OS for the Ghost Robotics dog, for example.

    Lowering the Bar to War

    I’m all for arming our military, but I do have one concern. Making it easier to attack from far away could make the US more likely to go to war.

    Losing our men and women in uniform is a huge disincentive to military action. But if we can strike easily from an air conditioned office in Nevada, we may strike a lot more often.

    I think these endless wars weaken our country. They cost a fortune, often kill many innocent people, and turn other countries against us.

    So while protecting our soldiers is a wonderful thing, let’s have peace as our goal.

    Wrap-Up

    If these killer robots save the lives of our soldiers, I say they’re worth building.

    Even if we don’t, our rivals will. In fact, China and Russia already have them.

    I’d love to see a future where we don’t need weapons and people live peacefully. But let’s be honest — it’s not likely.

    Until then, we have to create and invest in weapons to protect ourselves.

    What do you think of the Marines’ new robot dog? Leave a comment and let us know!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on tech:

    Astribot: Your Future Butler

    Control a Robot with Your Vision Pro!

    Would You Get Microchipped?

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

  • Chaos Monkeys

    Antonio Garcia Martinez sold his startup for $10 million to Twitter just a year after founding. Then at Facebook, he was part of the rise of the most successful startup in the last 20 years.

    This week, I dug into Chaos Monkeys, his inside story of how startupland really works.

    The Biggest Problems Are People Problems

    The closeness of AdGrok was incredible. Martinez even began to recognize the odors of his co-founders, cooped up as they were in a tiny apartment.

    That familiarity can breed contempt. Martinez dealt with one co-founder becoming increasingly disengaged and the other testy.

    It turns out the human element is the hardest part:

    “People go into startups thinking that the technical problems are the challenges. In practice, the technical stuff is easy, unless you’re incompetent or really at the hairy edge of human knowledge — for example, putting a man on Mars. No, every real problem in startups is a people problem, and as such they’re the hardest to solve, as they often don’t have a real solution, much less a ready software fix. Startups are experiments in group psychology. As CEO, you’re both the therapist leader, and the patient most in need of therapy.”

    A wonderful company I invested in some time ago is succumbing to people problems now. They had everything in their favor: a great product, incredible growth, and backing from a top VC.

    But the co-founders couldn’t get along, and one was pushed out. Today, the company is languishing and may not survive.

    What a shame! If you can get the human part right, you’re well on your way to success.

    Facebook vs. Google

    In 2011, Google launched Google Plus to kneecap Facebook and take social media for themselves. For me, this was the most striking story in Chaos Monkeys.

    On a Sunday morning shortly after Google Plus launched, Martinez decided to see what was going on at Google HQ. He drove the short distance from Facebook to the Googleplex in nearby Mountain View.

    Pulling into the parking lot, he noticed something strange:

    “It was empty, completely empty.
    Interesting.
    I got back on the 101 North and drove to Facebook.
    At the California Avenue building, I had to hunt for a parking spot. The lot was full.
    It was clear which company was fighting to the death.”

    Beating the Big Guys

    Facebook was successful in 2011, but Google was far larger. Nonetheless, Facebook prevailed. Google Plus never became popular and folded quietly a few years later.

    This is how smaller companies can beat the giants.

    For Google, Google Plus was but one in a wide variety of products. For Facebook, social media was all they had.

    Facebook had the will to fight to the death. Google didn’t.

    If you’re running a startup and you are worried about a big competitor, keep in mind that you have something they don’t: single-minded purpose. You care deeply, and it’s this or nothing.

    Your competition is a Product Manager in a giant organization with numerous priorities. You can beat them, if you try.

    Wrap-Up

    In the end, Martinez was fired from Facebook when the company shelved the product he was working on. He never saw much of the millions he hoped for. But his book was a hit, reaching the best seller list.

    Chaos Monkeys paints a vivid picture of life inside a startup. For Martinez, it was intense, emotional, and by turns rewarding and dispiriting.

    As someone who invests in startups but never started one, I learned a lot from Chaos Monkeys about the stress founders are under. That will help me relate to them better in the future.

    Have you read Chaos Monkeys? Do you plan to?

    Leave a comment and let us know!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on business:

    Poor Charlie’s Almanack

    Meet My Latest Investment: Zest

    Talking Follow-On Strategy with JCal

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Poor Charlie’s Almanack

    At age 29, Charlie Munger’s marriage was falling apart and his son was dying of leukemia. “A friend remembers that Charlie would visit his dying son in the hospital and then walk the streets of Pasadena crying.”

    I cannot imagine anything worse. And yet, Munger came back from it.

    He went on to have a total of 7 children and lived to age 99. Along the way, he accumulated a net worth of over $2 billion doing what he loved — investing.

    That’s a life well lived, as far as I’m concerned. So I dug into his book, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, with gusto.

    Resilience

    One of the biggest lessons I learned from Charlie is resilience.

    Few people have encountered harder circumstances. His son Teddy died young. Later, Charlie suffered complications from cataract surgery so severe he had to have his left eye removed.

    Charlie also had reversals in business. The investing partnership he ran prior to Berkshire took two losses of over 30% in the 70’s, despite having an excellent overall record.

    Every time, Charlie kept going. In one of the talks in the Almanack, he gives advice on how to be miserable:

    “My third prescription to you for misery is to go down and stay down when you get your first, second, or third severe reverse in the battle of life.”

    We’re all going to suffer setbacks and tough things in our lives. But the next time I run across one, I’ll be thinking of Charlie.

    A Multidisciplinary Approach

    One of the most fascinating parts of the book for me was Charlie’s portrait of his partner, Warren Buffett:

    “If you watched him with a time clock, you’d find that about half of his waking time is spent reading. Then a big chunk of the rest of his time is spent talking one-on-one, either on the telephone or personally, with highly gifted people whom he trusts and who trust him. Viewed up close, Warren looks quite academic as he achieves worldly success.”

    So what exactly is Warren reading? If he’s anything like Charlie, it just might be a history book.

    Charlie advocates a multidisciplinary approach to business. He focuses on absorbing the key principles from a huge variety of disciplines: psychology, biology, history and more.

    Most investors are watching CNBC or reading TechCrunch. They’re not reading books on psychology or physics.

    Most investors aren’t performing that well either. To beat everyone else, you need a different approach.

    I just ordered Clinical Psychology: A Very Short Introduction. After that, I’m planning to read similar books on a variety of fields.

    Then, like Munger, I want to apply the key insights of those disciplines to business.

    Understanding Our Minds

    Munger wraps up this wonderful book by giving us a list of common reasons why we behave irrationally.

    For example, what Munger calls the “social proof tendency” gets us doing whatever everyone else is doing. This effect is disastrous in financial markets — think about all those $100 million crypto seed rounds in 2021.

    The deprival-superreaction tendency is one I’m especially prone to. We humans view a $10,000 loss as an awful thing, but experience way less pleasure from a $10,000 gain.

    If we can recognize these biases in ourselves and others, we’ll be better at whatever we do.

    Wrap-Up

    Above all, Charlie attributes his success to his rationality. I would add another key trait: resilience.

    Faced with Charlie’s situation as a young man, many people would’ve collapsed into alcoholism or some other dysfunction.

    Charlie did not. He kept going, as hard as that must’ve been.

    As Charlie built Berkshire from the ground up, he tried to make decisions as rationally as possible. For us flawed humans, that’s easier said than done.

    I want to be like Charlie: rational and resilient. If I master that, I can do whatever I want.

    Have you read Charlie’s book? Do you plan to? Leave a comment and let us know!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on business:

    How Charlie Munger Taught Warren Buffett About the Power Law

    Meet My Latest Investment: Zest

    Talking Follow-On Strategy with JCal

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order. 

  • Why I Never Use AI on This Blog

    I recently spoke with a reader of this blog. He noticed something strange about a lot of the other articles in his inbox.

    “Most of the newsletters I get seem to be written by AI,” he explained.

    He’s probably right! But I never, ever use AI to write this blog. Here’s why…

    Respecting Your Time

    You don’t need me to type prompts into ChatGPT for you. And if a blog is written by AI, that’s what they’re doing.

    My goal is to give you an inside view of technology and business from someone who’s in the market every day.

    An AI cannot do that. That requires human experience.

    Writing Helps Me Figure Out What I Think

    As I write, I work out a perspective. And my viewpoint has to be clear, so it makes sense when you read it!

    Here’s an example: in February, I wrote about how consumer subscriptions can make great investments.

    I’ve tended to focus on SaaS and marketplaces in the past. But seeing Duolingo grow into a $10 billion monster, I had to admit consumer subscriptions could produce giant outcomes.

    The research and thinking I did for that post really informed my recent investment in Zest, which is basically Duolingo for cooking. When I read that deal memo, I knew that consumer subscriptions could become big winners.

    Why I Started This Blog in the First Place

    I started this blog in November 2020. It looked like we were going into a second COVID lockdown here in North Jersey. I needed a new, lockdown proof hobby.

    As it happened, we never did have that 2nd lockdown. But the habit of writing stuck — this is the 929th post!

    If I have AI do the writing for me, there goes my hobby!

    As AI becomes increasingly powerful, we must be careful not to let it replace the things we enjoy.

    Perhaps you enjoy playing the guitar. Some day, AI may make better songs than you can.

    But that’s okay! There’s joy in the handmade and imperfect.

    Where AI Fits In

    While I never use AI to do the writing for me, AI can be very helpful in research.

    When I wrote about Astribot recently, I was struck by how different companies are converging on the same design. It reminded me of how Leibniz and Newton both invented calculus independently around the same time.

    I wanted to refresh my memory on the Newton/Leibniz story so I could relate the details accurately. So, I had Perplexity get me up to speed.

    Using AI as a research assistant is helpful and makes the blog better. It’s like Google on steroids.

    Wrap-Up

    AI is an incredible new technology. But too often, we’re letting it drain the authenticity and humanity out of our interactions with others.

    I get laudatory comments on my LinkedIn posts that were clearly written by a computer. Your inbox is probably flooded with machine written content.

    That’s something I’m never going to do here. Dumping machine-written writing on you doesn’t serve your purposes, nor does it serve mine.

    Looking forward to telling you about more interesting happenings in tech and business!

    What do you think of AI writing? Leave a comment and let us know!

    If you enjoyed this post, subscribe for more like this!

    More on tech:

    Meet My Latest Investment: Zest

    How to Get Started Angel Investing

    Talking Follow-On Strategy with JCal

    Save Money on Stuff I Use:

    Fundrise

    This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

    More on Fundrise in this post.

    If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

    Misfits Market

    I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

    I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

    Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order.