Postcard 9: Sunny Days
Discover more from The M&Ms Newsletter
Hi Friends,
I hope you've had an amazing week. The weather is starting to get really nice in this part of the world, and it is absolutely beautiful out there. For the first time in a long time, I met my co-workers in person for a nice lunch. The view of NYC from Hoboken was as beautiful as always.
Let's get into the top ideas from this week.
A few tweets that got me thinking this week:
This paper explores the core personality traits of entrepreneurs:
∙ Capable
∙ Hubristic
∙ High self-esteem
∙ More likely to have done “illicit activities”
But here's the key line: "The number one predictor of entrepreneurship is asymmetric information about skill levels." pic.twitter.com/RNoW9yA58r— David Perell (@david_perell) May 19, 2021
By asymmetric skill levels, the authors refer to people who are more talented than they are credentialed. They're the kinds of people who know how to build a business, even though they never went to college.
Being under-estimated makes them more likely to start a company.— David Perell (@david_perell) May 19, 2021
These tweets by David Perell summarizing the paper "Asymmetric Information and Entrepreneurship" are worth looking over. It makes a lot of sense that the undervalued, who are very skilled, are the ones to get feed up and do it.
A typical cell’s nucleus in your body is 6 micrometers across and holds 2 meters of DNA (and DNA is about 2.3 nanometers wide).
Scaled up 40,000X, that’s like 80 km / 50 mi of human hair being stuffed into a soccer ball.— Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) May 22, 2021
The average human head has 100,000 hairs. So you’d need to shave someone’s head with 80 cm / 2.5 ft length hair to have enough DNA for the soccer-ball-sized nucleus.
So basically put Cher’s hair into a soccer ball and you’ve got a scaled up nucleus.— Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) May 22, 2021
Rules of thumb for consumption:
1. If the content leads to passive consumption, the information quality is low.
2. If the content leads to pausing & rewinding, the information quality is high.— George Mack (@george__mack) August 29, 2020
Top Articles I've read this week:
The Optimal Amount of Hassle by Morgan Housel
If you recognize that BS is ubiquitous, then the question is not “How can I avoid all of it?” but, “What is the optimal amount to put up with so I can still function in a messy and imperfect world?”
Franklin Roosevelt – the most powerful man in the world whose paralysis meant the aides often had to carry him to the bathroom – once said, “If you can’t use your legs and they bring you milk when you wanted orange juice, you learn to say ‘that’s all right,’ and drink it.”
For soccer players, the less brain they use, the better for penalty kicks
Players who were unsuccessful showed elevated activity in the pre-frontal cortex and left temporal cortex areas of the brain. The pre-frontal cortex is the part of the brain associated with long term thinking.
Slutter hypothesized that soccer players, or anyone who has to perform under pressure, could train their brain to control activation of those regions likely to compromise motor performance
Every financial collapse has a villain, Self Help 24, by Stephen Elliot
Every financial collapse has a villain. We blame short sellers, banks, thieves, and conmen. We blame regulations and fraud. But we never blame ourselves. People that should know better join in the euphoria of the moment and lose everything in the crash that, seen from a distance, would appear obvious to a five-year-old child.
We had good reasons for enshrining the principle of innocent until proven guilty, but we ignore that principle because that’s what human beings do. We make exceptions because we’re convinced we’re exceptional people living in exceptional times. And we are not.
Galbraith points out in A Short History of Financial Euphoria, we blame everyone except the responsible party, which is always the crowd.
My Ship30For30 Journey so far
I joined the Ship 30 for 30 May cohort, where we ship 30 essays in 30 days. I managed to ship my first nine so far without dropping the ball. I shared the first two last time; here are the next 7 small essays:
Essay 3: The freedom of a beginner
Essay 4: One good reason is all you need
Essay 5: The Warridor
Essay 6: The Default Rule
Essay 7: Serendipity Comes From Error
Essay 8: Transparency will always be a Core value in my teams.
Essay 9: Don't eat Yogurt and Fish
Thank you again. Don't forget to reach out if you want to discuss any of these articles, ideas, or any of my other writings. My inbox is open; feel free to reply.
Sincerely,
Louie