Podcast Notes Playlist: Business

• “The best businesses are forever assets.” – Bill Ackman 
• It is optimal to invest in businesses that have a low probability of getting disrupted 
• Price is what you pay; value is what you get  
• In investing, you can do very well if you avoid losing money and have a few great hits 
• Price matters: You can buy the best business in the world, but you will not earn a particularly attractive return if you overpay for it 
• It is best to invest in growing businesses that are easy to understand and that will generate cash over the long term 
• Progress compounds in a similar way that money compounds
• Never invest money that you cannot afford to lose 
• “Harvard has become a place where free speech is not tolerated on campus, or at least free speech that’s not part of the accepted dialogue.” – Bill Ackman  
• Lowercase diversity, equity, and inclusion are good; it is the uppercase“DEI” ideology that is problematic 
• The only person who can cause you more harm than a thief with a dagger is a journalist with a pen 
• The current problem in politics is that the party system is not working properly; the parties are self-interested and are not incentivized to do what is best for the country 
• Technology will save us; we must return to a meritocratic world 

Bill Ackman is an investor who has led some of the biggest and controversial financial trades in history. He is founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

Transcript: https://lexfridman.com/bill-ackman-transcript

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• Check out the episode page

Dr. Jordan Peterson speaks with author, teacher, and prior hostage negotiator Chris Voss. They discuss the necessity of prioritizing needs and wants, how to navigate the job market to fit your best potential, how and why to go after a raise, the primacy of invitational collaboration over compelled, and how Voss succeeded in many real-world hostage negotiations.

Chris Voss has served as the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group, and the lead Crisis Negotiator for the NYC division of the FBI. Chris was a member of the New York City Joint Terrorist Task Force for 14 years, a recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement, and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service. Chris has taught business negotiation courses at the University of Southern California, Georgetown University, and Harvard University. He has also guest lectured at Northwestern University and at schools abroad. Currently, Chris works with Insite Security as their Managing Director of the Kidnapping Resolution Practice.

- Links -

2024 tour details can be found here https://jordanbpeterson.com/events  

Peterson Academy https://petersonacademy.com/  

For Chris Voss:

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thefbinegotiator/?hl=en

On X https://twitter.com/fbinegotiator?lang=en

Sign up for Chris Voss’s Newsletter https://www.blackswanltd.com/no-oriented-questions

“Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” (book) https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805

Learn to negotiate with the Black Swan Group https://www.blackswanltd.com/ 

•  Check out Ben’s website

To watch this episode on YouTube, tap here: https://youtu.be/xlwwhAeknkA

• Your survival may depend more on your personality than upon danger, the enemy, the weather, the terrain, or the nature of the emergency 
• Survival depends a great deal on your knowing and facing the situation, but you are part of the situation 
• Taking action reduces fear; there is nothing that makes fear worse than hesitation 
• Survival requires the ability to detach from the situation
• “You can only improve your weaknesses if you’re humble enough to admit them.” – Jocko Willink 
• Both pessimism and unrealistic optimism are equally dangerous to survival 
• Seek out things that make you uncomfortable so that you become more comfortable with being uncomfortable 

Psychological Aspects of Survival, 1954 Air Force Manual.

• The study of economics is a way of carrying forward big ideas about the world 
• The best economists have real depth and breadth in their work 
• Risk aversion is context-dependent 
• The emergence of AI agents will show that Hayek was right about how decentralized systems evolve 
• When a nation allows for free trade, a shockingly high percentage of the productivity gains come from the worst firms being bankrupted by the free trade 
• “My worry is that energy becomes too cheap and people, at very low cost, can destroy things rather easily.” – Tyler Cowen
• In the coming world of AI, effective people will segregate their tasks in a way that reflects their comparative advantage; this will lead to a bifurcation of personal productivity

It was a great pleasure speaking with Tyler Cowen for the 3rd time.

We discussed GOAT: Who is the Greatest Economist of all Time and Why Does it Matter?, especially in the context of how the insights of Hayek, Keynes, Smith, and other great economists help us make sense of AI, growth, animal spirits, prediction markets, alignment, central planning, and much more.

The topics covered in this episode are too many to summarize. Hope you enjoy!

Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here. Follow me on Twitter for updates on future episodes.

Timestamps

(0:00:00) - John Maynard Keynes

(00:17:16) - Controversy

(00:29:43) - Fredrick von Hayek

(00:47:41) - John Stuart Mill

(00:52:41) - Adam Smith

(00:58:31) - Coase, Schelling, & George

(01:08:07) - Anarchy

(01:13:16) - Cheap WMDs

(01:23:18) - Technocracy & political philosophy

(01:34:16) - AI & Scaling

Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano is an entrepreneur and technology investor. He runs his family office which makes private investments, along with owning majority stakes in a number of operating businesses.

Additionally, Pomp hosts popular conversations on “The Pomp Podcast,” which has been downloaded more than 50 million times. Pomp also writes a letter that is read by more than 250,000 investors each morning.

Pomp’s interests lie at the intersection of finance, technology, entrepreneurship, and economics, which he tweets about extensively to his more than 1.6 million followers.

0:00 - Intro

3:11 - Incumbents and Competition in the Age of AI

5:12 - Media’s Relationship with Technology

9:48 - Individuals vs Institutions and the Future of Content

11:46 - Consensus, Truth, and Misinformation

15:47 - How to Cut Through the Noise

18:47 - The Decline of Trust in Institutions

24:10 - Balancing Optimism and Cynicism

26:46 - National Debt

33:22 - Bad Legislation, Bad Politicians, and Bad Incentives

37:54 - Growing Our Way Out of the Problem

42:19 - Autonomous Cars, Pig Heart Transplants, and How Innovation Propagates Itself

49:22 - Legislating Technology

55:04 - Increasing the Number of Entrepreneurs in Society

1:03:08 - When Better Technology Doesn’t Mean Better Outcomes

1:05:24 - Talent Allocation

1:10:56 - What Does Pomp Do Every Day?

1:19:52 - Lessons From 1300 Interviews

1:21:56 - On Fame, Audience, and Parasocial Relationships

1:29:23 - The State of Crypto

1:34:14 - Institutional Adoption of Crypto

1:37:20 - Is Slow-Moving Bureaucracy a Bug or a Feature?

1:42:02 - Remote Work and Regulatory Arbitrage

1:46:22 - Promising Cities and the Internet as an Equalizer

1:50:03 - Lessons From War

1:58:07 - What Should More People Be Thinking About?

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Joe Lonsdale is one of the most prominent investors in technology. He's the co-founder of Palantir, 8VC, Addepar, and the Cicero Institute — and one of Balaji's longtime friends. We have fun talking about education, longevity, space, and the little matter of completely reforming all governments with the internet.

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YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ny93ZjlR93g