Dru's Notes

Dru's Notes

By Dru RileyBusinessEntrepreneurshipEducationSelf-Improvement
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Dru's Notes episodes

  • The Pattern Behind Every System Collapse | Daily Essay

    Habit systems, airline networks and 17th-century warships all fail the same way: not from a catastrophic shock, but under the weight of too many reasonable additions.

    Featuring: Hyman Minsky, Courtland Allen, Michael Santoro, Lyn Montgomery, Klas Fleming, Joseph Tainter

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    Chapters:

    (00:00) Stability is destabilizing

    (00:04) Fifteen years of habit lists that grew until they broke
    (00:27) Southwest Airlines loses track of its crews, Christmas 2022
    (01:12) The Vasa sinks 1,300 meters from the yard that built her
    (01:59) Joseph Tainter on why complex societies end
    (02:12) Too many reasonable additions

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    3 min
  • I Chose to Be Worst at Replying | Daily Essay

    Send me an email on Tuesday and you hear back the following Monday. That lag buys six days of unbroken focus, the same way Costco's 14% markup cap and Southwest's single aircraft type bought each company the thing it actually sells.

    Featuring: Thomas Sowell

    Watch on YouTube

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    3 min
  • How I Stop Procrastinating | The Single Page Method | Daily Essay

    Avoiding the work does not mean you are lazy. It means the step in front of you is too steep.

    Featuring: John Steinbeck

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    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

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    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) Resistance means the step is too steep

    (00:25) John Steinbeck stalls before writing East of Eden
    (00:45) Shrinking the step to one page a day
    (01:04) The resistance is a measurement problem
    (01:20) Shrink the first move until starting takes no effort

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    2 min
  • Why Poker Pros Fold What Investors Buy | Daily Essay

    Erik Seidel folds king-nine because a weak side card leaves you drawing to second-best. Warren Buffett skipped that fold in 1962, spent 20 years buying looms for a dying textile mill and put the bill at over $200 billion in forgone compounding.

    Featuring: Erik Seidel, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Maria Konnikova, Doyle Brunson, Derek Sivers

    Watch on YouTube

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) Erik Seidel folds king-nine as a trouble hand

    (01:01) Warren Buffett buys Berkshire Hathaway's textile mill
    (01:38) Twenty years pouring money into new looms
    (02:03) Charlie Munger's Too Hard box
    (02:18) Derek Sivers on hell yeah or no

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    3 min
  • I Quit Daily Writing in My 20s and Regretted It for Years | Daily Essay

    I gave up daily writing in my early 20s. Life got chaotic and the habit felt expendable.

    Featuring: Henri Frédéric Amiel

    Watch on YouTube

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) Giving up daily writing in my early twenties

    (00:31) Writing organized my thinking and built discipline
    (00:53) Writing put more people in my life than any conference

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    2 min
  • Stop Wasting Your Off Days | Daily Essay

    A packed schedule breaks from overuse. An empty schedule atrophies from underuse. Without a deadline tomorrow, tonight slips to midnight because of Parkinson's law: give a night no reason to end and it stretches. Meanwhile, stacking back-to-back commitments works like corporate financial debt: one unexpected fire wipes out the entire day. Morgan Housel runs his days at 80% capacity for the same reason. Structure your calendar with enough due tomorrow that tonight ends on time, and enough slack that a surprise costs an hour instead of the day.

    Featuring: Morgan Housel, Cyril Northcote Parkinson

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) A phone deadline that slips to midnight

    (00:17) Parkinson's law governs evenings too
    (00:34) A packed Monday schedule with no buffer
    (00:53) Morgan Housel on debt and the range of outcomes
    (01:12) An empty schedule fails from underuse
    (01:19) Housel runs his days at 80 to 90 percent capacity

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    2 min
  • Habit Banking: How to Keep a Streak Without the Panic

    Sugarcane farmers in India get paid once a year at harvest. Tested on cognitive puzzles before and after, the score gap matched a lost night of sleep or 13 IQ points. Daily habit streaks create the exact same bandwidth tax: the daily worry of missing a day creates dread that makes the habit feel heavy. Habit banking removes the daily deadline pressure by building a forward reserve, letting you keep the streak without the panic.

    Read the essay: https://druriley.com/habit-banking-how-to-keep-a-streak-without-the-panic/

    Watch on YouTube

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) Banking a marketing block ahead so a skipped day holds

    (00:27) Sugarcane farmers score lower on puzzles before the harvest payout
    (00:57) A tax on bandwidth
    (01:10) Habit banking gives the bandwidth back
    (01:25) A reserve removes the risk of snapping the streak

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    2 min
  • Software Engineers Were Modern Scribes | Daily Essay

    Nine years back I quit my tech job on 3 years of savings and a software skill. I spent 8 hours a day turning product specs into working code; today an agent does that in seconds.

    Watch on YouTube

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) An agent writes code that used to take eight hours a day

    (00:21) Scribes press marks into wet clay for a debt
    (00:43) Gutenberg's press turns out more in a day than a scribe in a year
    (01:19) Power moves from the copyist to the publisher
    (01:28) Coding agents generate entire codebases from a prompt
    (01:51) Three jobs remain when building gets cheap

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    3 min
  • The Math of Inevitable Success | Daily Essay

    If you understand the base rate and avoid the risk of ruin with each attempt, success stops being a question of if. It becomes a question of when.

    Featuring: Pieter Levels, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Octavia E. Butler, Maria Konnikova

    Watch on YouTube

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) Three months of coding Shommi and zero sales

    (00:43) A job board scraper that went nowhere
    (01:07) Pieter Levels ships 12 startups in 12 months
    (01:35) Only four of 70 plus projects made money
    (01:50) The 5% rule and the odds of zero hits
    (02:35) Iteration pace decides how long the math takes

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    4 min
  • Ron Hill's 52-Year Daily Running Streak | Daily Essay

    I fast on a range from 12pm to 2pm. Most days I make it to 2pm. A range helps your habit survive volatility.

    Featuring: Ron Hill, Bruce Lee, John Maynard Keynes, Charles Darwin

    Watch on YouTube

    Read the full post

    Brought to you by:

    Trends.vc: Discover new markets and opportunities. https://trends.vc/

    HeadsUp: Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. https://headsup.bot

    Multi: Turn any content into a YouTube video. https://makemulti.com

    Chapters:

    (00:00) Fasting on a range from 12pm to 2pm

    (00:30) Ron Hill runs one mile a day for 52 years
    (00:57) A range helps a habit survive volatility

    Where to find Dru:

    Essays: https://druriley.com/

    X: https://x.com/DruRly
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dru-notes
    Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/drus-notes/id1888795427
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3lFHqgKxuvEHmdiEUfYShG

    Subscribe to Dru's Notes for a new episode every day.

    Click here to view the episode transcript.

    2 min

About Dru's Notes

From the publisher's feed

One mental model each day in a few minutes. Habits, business, building products and thinking clearly. From Dru Riley, founder of Trends.vc.