Mike's Notes

Nothing new here, just a reminder -- which we all need.

Buffett isn't brilliant because he's rich. Fellow billionaire Seymour Schulich wrote, "The word ‘billionaire’ is a very crude and inaccurate measure of how well I have played the game of life.”

Buffett is popular because of how he did it, not what he did. This episode looks at 5 ways.

1/ Buffett seeks few possessions.

2/ Buffett waits "for the right pitch."

3/ Buffett focuses on results.

4/ Buffett values good work over good tools.

5/ Buffett is a (patient) pattern recognizer.

Intro music from BenSound.com.

Outro music from K-391.

Inspiration: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/person-to-person-warren-buffett/

Donation: http://cash.me/$mikedariano

Two ideas today; stakeholders and culture.

Stakeholders are the people you answer to; investors, advertisers, internet providers, and spouses.

Culture is the spirit of a place. It's something "you have to see to believe."

This podcast was inspired by: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2016-06-24/interview-with-wesley-gray-masters-in-business-audio. Intro music from BenSound.com. Outro music from K-391.

Even though he lived (and thrived) 100+ years ago, Milton Hershey succeeded in business using techniques people still suggest today. In this episode we'll look at seven of them.

1/ Hershey was a relentless tinkerer.

2/ Hershey had a deep understanding

3/ Hershey had a supportive spouse.

4/ Hershey had a moment.

5/ Hershey had good people around him.

6/ Hershey was lucky.

7/ Hershey escaped the competition.

Intro from Bensound.com

Advertising parodies are funny but prove serious things. In this podcast episode we look at three:

1/ How stakeholders influence range of motion.

2/ Gray areas, and lines not to cross.

3/ Why good comedians are deep learners.

Inspiration from http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/commercial-parodies-1.3637767 Intro music from BenSound.com

One way we "fool ourselves" (Feynman) is the sunk cost bias. Dr. John Cooke saw it in his academic research, Mohnish Pabrai saw Charlie Munger avoid it, and Richard Thaler saw it but didn't know it.

What are sunk costs, and how can we avoid them? After asking the question, Feynman also gives us the answer.

Though the founding times were 40 years apart, both Knight (http://amzn.to/1YehxD3) and Thiel (http://amzn.to/1UkFFTc) have similar thoughts about starting businesses. This episode looks at five:

1/ Why to look for secrets. 1:05

2/ Where to look for secrets. 2:37

3/ Relentless searchers. 4:43

4/ Good people. 7:45

5/ Org. culture. 9:20

Intro music by BenSound.com

Inspiration: Eight Men Out by Eliot Asinof http://amzn.to/22xPejF

Lessons.

1/ We get emotionally invested in the thing we do. 

2/ Home field advantage helps; from sports to law to war.

3/ Dominos can fall in unexpected directions. 

4/ In strengths are weaknesses and in weaknesses are strengths. The players were incredibly unorganized, and they earned less in bribes than promised. But, this proved to be their (legal) escape hatch.

5/ Extras help. Airplanes have extra space, companies have extra money, bodies have extra parts. The people who came out of the scandal best were the ones who had extra resources going in.

6/ Conditions matter. The macroeconomics conditions of World War I suppressed player’s salaries. The conditions of frustration during the initial discussion led to some players agreeing but having second thoughts.

Inspiration: http://amzn.to/1TOa0ba

Big ideas:

1/ History isn't always rosy, with quotes from Charlie Munger and Marc Andreessen.

2/ Two paths diverged in a woods...and Ponzi went with the devil on his shoulder.

3/ Incentives matter. Part of the reason Ponzi was so successful was because of his salesmen.

Read more at, https://thewaiterspad.com/2016/06/08/charles-ponzi/

#016 Six takeaways from SebastianJunger's podcast with Tim Ferriss by MIKE

From being your best customer to knowing the pot odds and ante, deGraff shared a few good ideas.