My Digital Garden
This is my digital garden for "big important ideas" that I think about often. I wrote more about my thought process for a digital garden here.
"Take a simple idea and take it seriously.” (Charlie Munger)Investing 101 2.0
The art of investing is taking finite resources (time, energy, money, attention) and employing them to optimize an outcome. I’m fascinated by the first principles of what it means to simultaneously learn to become a great investor while reinventing the art form.
Live The Library“When you find a writer whose words enter your mind with deep impact and influence, pay attention. Diversify your library, of course. But when you find someone whose words inspire you, drink deeply from the well they have dug.” I constantly look to collect ideas from the peoplle who most effectively inspire me.
Historical FuturismEver since I came across the Institute For The Future, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of how people predict the future and understanding how we can look at previous predictions to understand the future. What if you could look at how people in the 1900s thought about the 2000s? What did they get right? What did they get wrong? And why?
Open-Source KnowledgeI’m obsessed with Roam Research. I love Wikipedia. I’m fascinated by the interconnectivity of all the thoughts and ideas that make the world go round. More people should treat their ideas like software that is open source, and in active development. Instead, people treat their ideas like a bridge; stable, but slowly decaying.
The New CityI spent a lot of summers with my family in Luna, New Mexico. We would drive through small towns and my Dad and I would talk about “what makes a city.” Cities get built up around natural resources, large companies, universities. What will the cities of the future look like?
Climate Change
As an investor I see too many people think about climate change as a vertical to be weighed and measured alongside construction tech, SaaS, and neobanks. Climate change is not just a threat it is the threat. But it is also a fundamental opportunity. Climate adjustments will represent the greatest global adjustment in the last hundreds of years.
The Republic of Letters 2.0Historically institutions acted as gatekeepers to knowledge. Over time smart people thinking about hard problems started writing letters that transformed a generation of thinking. Mlle de Lespinasse, Benjamin Franklin, Giustina Renier Michiel, John Evelyn, and countless others made up the Republic of Letters. The internet has unleashed a similar dynamic among democratized thinkers and creators.
Bookstore EconomicsThere are few places I love more than a good bookstore. Two of my very favorites are Green Apple Books in San Francisco, The Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, and Powell’s in downtown Portland. While I studied accounting in undergrad I never pursued it professionally. In another life I would love the chance to spend my time thinking through the books for bookstores and how they economically make their business model work most effectively.
Human NatureOn the one hand, people will act in their own self-interest and should be left free to do what they want, giving unfettered power to the people. On the other hand, people are riddled with inadequacies and easily swayed by misaligned incentive. They need guard rails, guidance, and systems to ensure people are protected from each other and themselves.
My Digital Sandbox
This is my collection of ideas that aren’t watered enough to make it to my digital garden. I wrote more about my thought process for a digital sandbox here.
Name | Last Updated | Status | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
Journalism | Aug 23, 2024 8:56 PM | Journalism | |
Criminal Justice System & Private Prisons | Aug 17, 2024 11:51 PM | PrisonCriminal Justice | |
Too Many Startups? Or Too Few Good Founders? | Aug 14, 2024 2:43 PM | ||
Academic Research | Aug 7, 2024 7:44 PM | Education | |
Modularization of SaaS | Jul 29, 2024 8:20 PM | ||
Synthetic Data | Jul 29, 2024 8:18 PM | AI / MLData | |
The George Washington of Venture | Jul 27, 2024 1:34 PM | ||
The Hits Business | Jul 27, 2024 12:23 PM | ||
The Siren Song of Raising a Venture Fund | Jul 27, 2024 12:07 PM | Venture CapitalFirm Building | |
 | Jul 27, 2024 11:52 AM | PoliticsCulture | |
VC Is NOT An Apprenticeship Model | Jul 27, 2024 11:52 AM | Venture Capital | |
Chief Evangelist | Jul 27, 2024 11:48 AM | Written | Storytelling |
Storytelling | Jul 26, 2024 8:13 PM | Storytelling | |
The Death of Venture Capital | Jul 25, 2024 1:57 PM | ||
Deteriorating Attention Spans | Jul 24, 2024 7:46 PM | Psychology | |
Universal Basic Income | Jul 23, 2024 5:28 PM | ||
Unions | Jul 23, 2024 4:54 PM | Firm Building | |
Shaved Head vs. Hair Plugs | Jul 19, 2024 6:16 PM | ||
Everyone Wants To Be Walt Disney | Jul 16, 2024 10:47 PM | Storytelling | |
College 2.0 | Jul 16, 2024 10:36 PM | Education | |
The Calming Affect of Indie Thinking | Jul 12, 2024 7:52 PM | Firm Building | |
America: An Investment Memo | Jul 10, 2024 7:24 PM | Written | |
Family as an Asset | Jul 10, 2024 5:41 PM | Family | |
Cancel Culture | Jul 9, 2024 11:07 PM | ||
Future of Interfaces | Jul 8, 2024 8:33 PM | ||
Request For Startups | Jul 8, 2024 6:39 PM | ||
The Rise & Fall of DevRel | Jul 8, 2024 4:30 PM | EngineeringStorytelling | |
The Death of Knowledge | Jul 3, 2024 2:02 PM | EducationCulture | |
In-Group Think | Jul 1, 2024 7:21 PM | Psychology | |
The Death of Colleges | Jul 1, 2024 5:11 PM | Education | |
The Death of Software | Jul 1, 2024 1:22 AM | ||
Monoculture & Pluralism | Jun 28, 2024 11:05 AM | ||
Agglomerators Keep Agglomerating | Jun 25, 2024 12:36 PM | Venture Capital | |
One Person Unicorn | Jun 24, 2024 11:01 PM | ||
Ambition & Hard Work | Jun 23, 2024 1:49 AM | ||
The Subscription Economy | Jun 22, 2024 2:38 PM | ||
Consolidate or Die | Jun 22, 2024 2:37 PM | ||
Green Bubble 2.0 | Jun 22, 2024 2:37 PM | ||
The Virtue of Progress | Jun 22, 2024 2:36 PM | ||
Curiosity | Jun 22, 2024 2:35 PM | ||
Creator Economy | Jun 22, 2024 2:33 PM | ||
Private Schools | Jun 22, 2024 2:32 PM | Education | |
 | Jun 22, 2024 2:32 PM | ||
1000x Engineer | Jun 22, 2024 2:27 PM | AI / ML | |
The Root of All [Everything] | Jun 22, 2024 2:24 PM | Culture | |
Forecasting | Jun 22, 2024 2:23 PM | Storytelling | |
Which Came First, The Funder? Or The Founder? | Jun 22, 2024 2:22 PM | Venture Capital | |
Maximizing Shareholder Value | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Investing | |
 | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Storytelling | |
Any Competitive Round is Undervalued | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Venture Capital | |
Unification of the Narrative | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Storytelling | |
Deviant Sh*t | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Psychology | |
Writing | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Writing | |
The Content Crunch | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Writing | |
VC Subsidies | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Venture Capital | |
Research Driven Firms | Jun 22, 2024 2:18 PM | Venture Capital | |
The Art of Incubation | Jun 22, 2024 2:17 PM | Investing | |
Building a Product-Led VC | Jun 22, 2024 2:17 PM | Venture Capital | |
Hype Cycles | Jun 22, 2024 2:17 PM | Venture CapitalPsychology | |
Inequality of Outcomes | Jun 22, 2024 2:17 PM | Venture Capital | |
Generational Transition in Venture | Jun 22, 2024 2:17 PM | Venture CapitalFirm Building | |
Silver Tsunami | Jun 22, 2024 2:16 PM | Demographics | |
AI-Native Companies | Jun 22, 2024 2:16 PM | Written | AI / ML |
Risk Management | Jun 22, 2024 2:16 PM | Written | Investing |
Tastemaking & Curation | Jun 22, 2024 2:16 PM | Design | |
Holding Companies | Jun 22, 2024 2:02 PM | ||
Oh Say, What is Truth? | Jun 22, 2024 2:02 PM | Written | |
Engagement Farming | Jun 22, 2024 1:59 PM | ||
From Private To Public / Crossing The Chasm | Jun 22, 2024 1:53 PM | ||
Science Fiction | Jun 22, 2024 1:34 PM | ||
What Could Go Wrong? | Jun 22, 2024 1:31 PM | ||
The Midas Curse | Jun 22, 2024 1:09 PM |