Here are ten lessons from William H. McRaven’s 2014 commencement address, which I can highly recommend to watch. 10 Life Lessons from Basic SEAL training: 1. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.“If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.” 2….
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China vs. Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is mission-driven, pure, about making a dent in the universe. Abundance mindset. Copying is shameful. China is market-driven, hyper-competitive, survival of the fittest. Scarcity mindset. Culture of copying. In Beijing entrepreneurs often joke that Facebook is the most Chinese company in Silicon Valley, for its willingness to copy and its fierce competitiveness. While…
My experiences with fasting
Last year, I started listening to more health related podcasts, and fasting kept coming up. Since then, I experimented and fell in love with it. I do a daily 13-hour circadian rhythm fast (I use Zero to help me) I did a 5-day ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet once and plan to do it more often…
The Power of Defaults
You can 9x your results by choosing the right default, as shown by organ donation statistics: If people need to check a box to not donate (“opt-out”), the consent rate is between 85% and 99%. If people need to check a box to donate (“opt-in”), the consent rate is between 4% and 27%. “Opt-in” vs….
The Lindy Effect
I love simple heuristics. Here is one: The Lindy effect is a concept that the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things like a technology or an idea is proportional to their current age, so that every additional period of survival implies a longer remaining life expectancy. In other words, the longer a product/company/idea already…
Don’t listen to what people say. Watch what they do.
Don’t ask your money manager for stock recommendations. Ask him which stocks he owns personally. Don’t listen to the theories of your business school professor. Ask him about his own industry experience. Don’t ask for advice. Ask for a demonstration of their methods. Don’t listen to what people say. Watch what they do. (I learned…
Deferred gratification
Recently I watched this Q&A with Charlie Munger. Pure wisdom, and two hours very well spent. He talked about a key principle of (value) investing: Deferred gratification We live in a world of instant gratification. It’s very hard to get rich if you eat your seeds, instead of planting them. That’s what makes value investors…
Don’t overpromise
Two cautionary tales: Theranos was a privately held health tech company, becoming infamous for its false claims to have developed blood tests that only needed very small amounts of blood. I recently read Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, detailing this whole story. Pretty scary stuff. Robinhood recently announced a new Checking & Savings service with…
Zero-based budgeting
Simplify your life by using this powerful principle: Remove something completely. Then add back what you miss. Instead of “I want to use Facebook less often”, remove it completely and then add the elements back that you miss. Instead of “Let’s keep this, because I might need it someday”, get rid of it now and…
Alternative VCs
I love the idea of reinventing venture capital. Here are some great examples: Patagonia’s venture capital fund: invests in environmentally and socially responsible start-up companies, providing long-term, patient capital. I highly recommend reading Let My People Go Surfing by founder Yvon Chouinard. Y Combinator: invests small sums at the seed stage, but in large batches…