Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors

By Outlier AcademyBusiness Investing

Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors episodes

October 03, 2023 Trailer - #165 Book Breakdown (Part 1 of 2): “The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America” by Lawrence Cunningham | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
The Essays of Warren Buffett by Lawrence Cunningham
For over 50 years, Warren Buffett has written an annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders. Many people set it as a goal to read all of Warren’s shareholder letters chronologically. Which is certainly a fascinating way to see how Berkshire Hathaway evolved year after year.
This book is different. It breaks from this chronological order to instead group things Warren has said over the years by topic. So, for instance, you can see his ideas on the importance of culture or the power of incentives holistically — as a single body of work.
What I love about this book is the focus on Warren’s ideas. Warren Buffett has built one of the largest conglomerates in history — full I’d incredible companies from See’s Candies to GEICO — from a standing start in 1965. I would argue that if you only have time to study one entrepreneur and investor, that you should study Warren Buffett.
There’s no better way to do that than with this book. I know it’s one I’ll be rereading for the rest of my life.
Notes & Transcript
Find my full notes and transcript for this episode at outlieracademy.com/warrens-essays.
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Extra Stuff
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2 min
October 02, 2023 #171 Investor Letter Breakdown: “The Anxieties of Business Change” by Warren Buffett | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
In 1985, Warren Buffett had to make an incredibly difficult decision. Which was whether to shut down the textile business Berkshire Hathaway — the original business Warren acquired, which was where Berkshire Hathaway got it's name.
In today's episode, I break down that decision and why the ultimately closed the business with a summary of Warren Buffett's Annual Letter from 1985.
Why cover this?
Because it's a fascinating look at how Warren went about making a phenomenally challenging decision — one that was close to his own heart. And I think it offers a lot of insight into how we can all go about analyzing and ultimately making difficult decisions in our own work and lives.
Here's a quick excerpt of that letter:
Over the years, we had the option of making large capital expenditures and the textile operation that would have allowed us to somewhat reduce variable costs.
Each proposal to do so looked like an immediate winner. Measured by standard return on investment tests, in fact, these proposals usually promised greater economic benefits than would have resulted from comparable expenditures in our highly profitable candy and newspaper businesses.
But the promised benefits from these textile investments were illusory.
Many of our competitors, both domestic and foreign, were stepping up to the same kind of expenditures. And once enough companies did so, their reduced costs became the baseline for reduced prices industry-wide.
Viewed individually, each company's capital investment decisions appeared cost-effective and rational. Viewed collectively, the decisions neutralized each other and were irrational, just as happens when each person watching a parade decides he can see a little better if he stands on tiptoes.
After each round of investment, all the players had more money in the game and returns remained anemic. Thus we faced a miserable choice.
Huge capital investment would have helped to keep our textile business alive, but would have left us with terrible returns on our ever-growing amounts of capital. After the investment, moreover, the foreign competition would still have retained a major continuing advantage in labor costs.
A refusal to invest, however, would make us increasingly non-competitive, even measured against domestic textile manufacturers.
I always thought myself in the position described by Woody Allen in one of his movies. "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction." Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
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22 min
October 02, 2023 Trailer: #171 Investor Letter Breakdown: “The Anxieties of Business Change” by Warren Buffett | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
In 1985, Warren Buffett had to make an incredibly difficult decision. Which was whether to shut down the textile business Berkshire Hathaway — the original business Warren acquired, which was where Berkshire Hathaway got it's name.
In today's episode, I break down that decision and why the ultimately closed the business with a summary of Warren Buffett's Annual Letter from 1985.
Why cover this?
Because it's a fascinating look at how Warren went about making a phenomenally challenging decision — one that was close to his own heart. And I think it offers a lot of insight into how we can all go about analyzing and ultimately making difficult decisions in our own work and lives.
Here's a quick excerpt of that letter:
Over the years, we had the option of making large capital expenditures and the textile operation that would have allowed us to somewhat reduce variable costs.
Each proposal to do so looked like an immediate winner. Measured by standard return on investment tests, in fact, these proposals usually promised greater economic benefits than would have resulted from comparable expenditures in our highly profitable candy and newspaper businesses.
But the promised benefits from these textile investments were illusory.
Many of our competitors, both domestic and foreign, were stepping up to the same kind of expenditures. And once enough companies did so, their reduced costs became the baseline for reduced prices industry-wide.
Viewed individually, each company's capital investment decisions appeared cost-effective and rational. Viewed collectively, the decisions neutralized each other and were irrational, just as happens when each person watching a parade decides he can see a little better if he stands on tiptoes.
After each round of investment, all the players had more money in the game and returns remained anemic. Thus we faced a miserable choice.
Huge capital investment would have helped to keep our textile business alive, but would have left us with terrible returns on our ever-growing amounts of capital. After the investment, moreover, the foreign competition would still have retained a major continuing advantage in labor costs.
A refusal to invest, however, would make us increasingly non-competitive, even measured against domestic textile manufacturers.
I always thought myself in the position described by Woody Allen in one of his movies. "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction." Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
3 min
September 09, 2023 Bonus: Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create a Category Of One | Nicolas Cole, Author and Co-Founder of Category Pirates
“Writers without niches are starving artists. Because again, they’re just competing in these massive competitions. Writers with niches are category kings.” — Nicolas Cole
Nicolas Cole shares the lessons he’s learned as one of the internet’s most-read writers, including why he’s fascinated with reverse engineering written work—from James Patterson novels to Twitter threads—into templates writers can use, why all great writing changes the reader, why his superpower is his ability to endure boring things for longer than others, and so much more.
EPISODE GUIDE AND TRANSCRIPT
https://www.outlieracademy.com/episode/140
WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5QJhLoabFV1ZZfgVIIWmGqjKzbhe0N7o
CHAPTERS
(00:00:00) - Introduction
(00:07:37) - Service Businesses, Linear vs Infinite Scaling, and Picking a Bag of Problems
(00:10:02) - Ship 30 for 30 and Finding Your Niche
(00:17:01) - The Origin Story of Category Pirates and Snow Leopard
(00:20:13) - Category Creation, Competition, and Being Different vs Better
(00:28:48) - Content-Free Content and Blinding Glimpses of the Obvious
(00:35:34) - The Content Pyramid: Levels One, Two, and Three
(00:49:44) - The Content Pyramid: Level Four (Making Non-Obvious Connections)
(00:55:32) - Debunking Common Myths About Writing and Category Creation
(01:04:10) - The Difference Between More Views and More Dollars
(01:11:37) - What is Category Creation?
(01:14:27) - How to Create a Category: Weird Problem + Weird Solution
ABOUT THE BOOK
Snow Leopard: How Legendary Writers Create A Category Of One by Category Pirates (Nicolas Cole, Christopher Lochhead, and Eddie Yoon) shares why all legendary writers who stand the test of time create a category of one. In decades past, David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, Leo Burnett, Gary Bencivenga, Al Ries & Jack Trout, and many more master communicators have all written about the psychology behind how messages spread. Snow Leopard builds on their work with dozens of new insights and frameworks, and brings category creation and design into the digital age.
💌 FREE NEWSLETTER
https://newsletter.outlieracademy.com/
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1 hr 21 min
September 08, 2023 #170 Friday 5: Being larger than the situation, loving the work, and the problem you face when your dreams come true | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Episode Guide
Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/170.
YouTube & Substack
Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack.
Join Outliers Club
Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now →
Get in Touch
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/
Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact
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6 min
September 06, 2023 #169 Book Breakdown: “Turning the Flywheel” by Jim Collins | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
No matter what your walk in life, no matter how big or small your enterprise, no matter whether it's for-profit or nonprofit, no matter whether you're CEO or a unit leader, the question stands: How does your flywheel turn?
Turning the Flywheel is a monograph that was meant to accompany Jim Collins' famous book Good to Great — which is all about what separate good companies from great ones, and how companies can make the journey to greatness. As Jim Collins writes in Turning the Flywheel:
I wrote this monograph to share practical insights about the flywheel principles that became clear in the years after first writing about the flywheel effect in Chapter 8 of Good to Great. I decided to create this monograph because I've witnessed the power of the flywheel, when properly conceived and harnessed, in a wide range of organizations: in public corporations and private companies, in large multinationals and small family businesses, in military organizations and professional sports teams, in school systems and medical centers, in social movements and nonprofits.
Since learning about the concept of the Flywheel, I've since explained it and helped many of the portfolio companies I've invested in — both personally and through my venture fund Ligature — to create and implement their own flywheel.
It's a fantastic way to force deep strategic thinking as it forces you to identify the disciplines, that sit far above any product or month or quarter, that will help you build and sustain momentum. The best flywheels are both timely and timeless, acting as a source of strength in turbulent times and a fantastic guardrail when making strategic decisions.
Flywheels ultimately explain why some companies build momentum and others don't.‍
Episode Guide
Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/169.
YouTube & Substack
Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack.
Chapters
(0:00) Chapters coming…
Join Outliers Club
Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now →
Get in Touch
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/
Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact
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1 hr 5 min
September 06, 2023 Trailer - #169 Book Breakdown: “Turning the Flywheel” by Jim Collins | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
No matter what your walk in life, no matter how big or small your enterprise, no matter whether it's for-profit or nonprofit, no matter whether you're CEO or a unit leader, the question stands: How does your flywheel turn?
Turning the Flywheel is a monograph that was meant to accompany Jim Collins' famous book Good to Great — which is all about what separate good companies from great ones, and how companies can make the journey to greatness. As Jim Collins writes in Turning the Flywheel:
I wrote this monograph to share practical insights about the flywheel principles that became clear in the years after first writing about the flywheel effect in Chapter 8 of Good to Great. I decided to create this monograph because I've witnessed the power of the flywheel, when properly conceived and harnessed, in a wide range of organizations: in public corporations and private companies, in large multinationals and small family businesses, in military organizations and professional sports teams, in school systems and medical centers, in social movements and nonprofits.
Since learning about the concept of the Flywheel, I've since explained it and helped many of the portfolio companies I've invested in — both personally and through my venture fund Ligature — to create and implement their own flywheel.
It's a fantastic way to force deep strategic thinking as it forces you to identify the disciplines, that sit far above any product or month or quarter, that will help you build and sustain momentum. The best flywheels are both timely and timeless, acting as a source of strength in turbulent times and a fantastic guardrail when making strategic decisions.
Flywheels ultimately explain why some companies build momentum and others don't.‍
Episode Guide
Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/169.
YouTube & Substack
Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack.
Chapters
(0:00) Chapters coming…
Join Outliers Club
Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now →
Get in Touch
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/
Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
4 min
September 04, 2023 #168 Essay Breakdown: “How To Do Great Work” by Paul Graham | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Episode Guide
Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/168.
Paul Graham's essay on "How To Do Great Work" begins with the following words:
If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like? I decided to find out by making it. Partly my goal was to create a guide that could be used by someone working in any field. But I was also curious about the shape of the intersection. And one thing this exercise shows is that it does have a definite shape; it's not just a point labelled "work hard." The following recipe assumes you're very ambitious.
As we're all both very ambitious and focused on doing great work, it felt appropriate to cover this essay as a sort of book in miniature. The essay itself comes in at a staggering 11,800 words or nearly 30 pages when printed.
"How To Do Great Work" explores curiosity, the source of originality, the relationship between breaking rules and new ideas, and how being naive is a form of independent mindedness. As well as why being self-indulgent helps you find overlooked problems, why big ideas are more often questions than answers, and why the best questions grow while you work to answer them.
YouTube & Substack
Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack.
Chapters
(0:00) Chapters coming…
Join Outliers Club
Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now →
Get in Touch
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/
Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact
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1 hr 39 min
September 04, 2023 Trailer - #168 Essay Breakdown: “How To Do Great Work” by Paul Graham | Outliers with Daniel Scrivner
Paul Graham's essay on "How To Do Great Work" begins with the following words:
If you collected lists of techniques for doing great work in a lot of different fields, what would the intersection look like? I decided to find out by making it. Partly my goal was to create a guide that could be used by someone working in any field. But I was also curious about the shape of the intersection. And one thing this exercise shows is that it does have a definite shape; it's not just a point labelled "work hard." The following recipe assumes you're very ambitious.
As we're all both very ambitious and focused on doing great work, it felt appropriate to cover this essay as a sort of book in miniature. The essay itself comes in at a staggering 11,800 words or nearly 30 pages when printed.
"How To Do Great Work" explores curiosity, the source of originality, the relationship between breaking rules and new ideas, and how being naive is a form of independent mindedness. As well as why being self-indulgent helps you find overlooked problems, why big ideas are more often questions than answers, and why the best questions grow while you work to answer them.
Episode Guide
Explore the big ideas, takeaways, and transcript for this episode: outlieracademy.com/168.
YouTube & Substack
Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack.
Chapters
(0:00) Chapters coming…
Join Outliers Club
Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now →
Get in Touch
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/danielscrivner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/
Email: https://www.danielscrivner.com/contact
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2 min
September 02, 2023 Bonus: How They Built Elo Health - Building the Future of Personalized Daily Nutrition
On the latest episode of How They Built It, we decode how Elo Health has created an entirely new Smart Nutrition category. Elo’s Smart Supplements and Smart Protein improve your energy, focus, and more with vitamins and supplements made just for you. Elo finds and fills your nutrient gaps with a mix of blood testing, your wearable activity data, and one-on-one dietitian support.
YouTube & Substack
Watch this episode on YouTube or get new episodes in your inbox with Substack.
Notes & Transcript
Find my full notes and transcript for this episode at outlieracademy.com/156.
Join Outliers Club
Listen to episodes a week before they're released publicly. Remove all ads. And get access to exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, hand-written transcripts, bonus articles, and more. All for just $149/year or $19/month. Join now →
Chapters
(0:00) Chapters coming…
Get in Touch
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielscrivner/
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1 hr 2 min

About Outliers with Daniel Scrivner: Explore the Greatest Innovators, Founders, and Investors

From the publisher's feed

Learn from history's greatest innovators, founders, and investors with a mix of interviews and summaries of the best books, essays, and lectures. Each week, Daniel Scrivner decodes the ideas, strategies, and frameworks used by the best innovators, founders, and investors. Past guests include Scott Belsky (Adobe), Gokul Rajaram (DoorDash), Kevin Kelly (WIRED), Sir Ronald Cohen (IMPACT), Erling Kagge (Everest Explorer), along with the founders of Wealthfront, Public.com, Primal Kitchen, 1-800-GOT-JUNK, Levels, and Eight Sleep. Visit OutlierAcademy.com for episode notes, searchable transcripts, videos, and more.

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