Podcast Notes Playlist: Latest Episodes

Top Takeaways Of The Week

​Podcast Notes Book Collection: 2024 Edition (150+ books and counting…)​

Business: When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

* One of the best books about philanthropy

* Source: Brent Beshore’s recommendation to Shane Parrish (PN)

Economics: The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History by David Hacket Fischer

* Explores the recurring cycles of price inflation throughout history, connecting economic trends to broader social and cultural changes

* Source: Rudyard Lynch’s recommendation to Tom Bilyeu (PN)

Entrepreneurship: Mastery by Robert Greene

* The value of mastering a skill set

* Source: Sam Parr’s recommendation to Andrew Wilkinson (PN)

Investing: Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger

* Charlie Munger understood incentives and human psychology, but never used that knowledge to manipulate others

* Source: Warren Buffett’s recommendation to shareholders (PN)

Productivity: The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting The Right Things Done by Peter Drucker, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

* Three books that embody the evolution of productivity

* Source: Cal Newport recommendation to Chris Williamson (PN)

Leadership: The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

* Great lessons about running a business and being a leader

* Source: Marc Andreessen’s recommendation to Rick Rubin (PN)

Motivation: Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby

* The key insights into Michael Jordan’s competitive spirit and how it made him the greatest basketball player of all time

* Source: Ben Wilson book review (PN)

Seeking Truth: The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch

* Naval Ravikant praises David’s work, considering him the smartest human alive

* Source: Naval Ravikant and Niklas Anzinger in discussion (PN)

Psychology: …

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​Naval Ravikant: How To Know What’s True, Are We Destroying the Earth, Collectivism vs. Individualism, The Biggest Threats to Western Civilization, and More | Arjun Khemani Podcast ​​

​Top 7 @naval quotes:​

* “how to know what’s true” edition: “Free markets are also a source of truth-seeking. For example, if I think Alphabet is a great stock and I buy it, but I turn out to be wrong, then the truth of the market will punish me as the feedback comes in, and I will lose my money.”

* A group is not a truth-seeking entity: “Individuals can seek truth and then, based on that, they can choose to cooperate with others for limited periods of time to effectuate that truth or to have something come out of it.”

* Are we running out of resources? Nope. “There’s not a single resource you could point to that was a resource in the classic commodity sense that had any real value where we ran out in some harmful way.”

* “If climate change is an issue—and it’s hard to discuss because it’s become so politicized—we can carbon capture out of the environment.”

* “Whether it’s nuclear fusion, rocketry, immortality, fighting viruses, or computing, almost all the innovation of the last 50 years has come in the unregulated industries.”

* This is what AGI people get wrong: “There’s no intelligence that can fundamentally understand something humans can’t understand.”

* Everybody wants the latest and greatest of everything: “Would you even go back 10 years and lose out on all the medicines, computing, knowledge, and travel we’ve invented? Absolutely not. I wouldn’t even go back to the iPhone 14.”

​Why You Have Advantages Over Elon and Bezos: ​

* You probably have more time to go to the gym than they do

* They have the same iPhone you do

* They might eat slightly better food, but it’s basically the same

​Popper’s concept of falsifiability is key: Statements that can’t be disproven are meaningless, e.g., “we live in a simulation.”

* The free will debate is similarly non-falsifiable and unproductive

​There’s no such thing as misinformation: “Your information is my misinformation; my information is your misinformation.”

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​Explaining The Silk Road – History102 With Rudyard Lynch and Erik Torenberg ​​

“Totalitarianism is a very feminine attempt to gain total order over your life. It’s basically asking for daddy state to peg you harder.” – Rudyard Lynch

* “The state is at best a dildo. It can never be a real penis, and thus it will never really satisfy you.” – Rudyard

​What Woke Really Is: Wokeness is one of six different types of totalitarian movements in history and it perfectly fits the definition of totalitarianism

​What Was the Silk Road: The Silk Road was an emergent phenomenon that developed over thousands of years due to discrete connections between the four major Eurasian civilizations, which were Europe, the Middle East (Islam), India, and China

​The 3 Peaks of the Silk Road:​

* First peak: Roman-Han Dynasty Golden Age

* Second peak: The Islamic Golden Age

* Third peak: The Mongol Empire

​A paradox of the Silk Road: As the system integrates closer, it shatters because it integrates too much

* The convergence of disease pools from around the world; in one instance, one-third of Eurasia’s population was killed by a plague as a result of disease pools converging

​Fracincense Was a Legit Luxury Item: The Silk Road was mostly luxury trading, except for the late medieval period in the Indian Ocean Silk Road

* Arabia exported horses, frankincense, and myrrh

* China was completely addicted to Arabian frankincense; this was one of the most significant trading nodes of the 11th century!

​The Europeans Killed the Silk Road (That in the Mongols Killing Everyone): The Europeans entered the Indian Ocean trading system in the early 1500s by sailing around the bottom of Africa

* First the Portuguese, then the Dutch

* The Portuguese seized control of the entire Indian Ocean system in a ten-year period

* The land routes of the Silk Road eventually died out because the oceanic trade routes were better

​Mongolian Death Toll: The Mongols killed close to 100 million people in the pre-industrial world

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​Dr. Bernardo Huberman: How to Use Curiosity & Focus to Create a Joyful & Meaningful Life | Huberman Lab​

There are ways to know what’s true and what’s not true: “Reading about physics and understanding that there are laws that tell you how things work gave me a tremendous sense of order and power.” – Bernardo

There are two things our brains weren’t made by evolution to understand intuitively: relativity and quantum physics

Bernardo explains the basics of relativity:

* Einstein discovered that the speed of light is constant, no matter how fast you’re moving relative to it

* This makes simultaneity (two events happening at the same time) relative

* For example, Andrew and Bernardo might agree it’s 1:10 now, but if one of them moves very fast, their clock would show a different time

Chaos Theory: Bernardo was one of the discoverers of chaos in several physical systems, a tiny difference in initial conditions can take you to very different outcomes

* “In classical mechanics, chaos is all about sensitivity to initial conditions.” – Bernardo

* Chaos exists in almost every physical system, even in neurons in the brain!

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Business

* Active Listening by Carl R. Rogers

* Key reading for getting better at negotiations

* Source: Chris Voss’s recommendation to Jordan B. Peterson (PN)

* When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

* One of the best books about philanthropy

* Source: Brent Beshore’s recommendation to Shane Parrish (PN)

* Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan

* A simple guide to creating great advertisements

* Source: Chris Beresford-Hill and Tim Ferriss in discussion (PN)

* Words That Work by Frank Luntz

* Mastering the art of words

* Source: Chris Beresford-Hill and Tim Ferriss in discussion (PN)

Economics

* The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin

* Analysis of bank bailouts

* Source: Michael Saylor and Peter McCormack in discussion (PN)

* Broken Money by Lyn Alden

* “Money” is the biggest total addressable market in the world, and the money now is currently broken

* Source: Dylan LeClair recommendation (PN)

* The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History by David Hacket Fischer

* Explores the recurring cycles of price inflation throughout history, connecting economic trends to broader social and cultural changes

* Source: Rudyard Lynch’s recommendation to Tom Bilyeu (PN)

* Fiat Food: How Government, Industry, and Science Manufacture the Foods We Eat by Matthew Lysiak

* Why inflation has destroyed our health and how Bitcoin may fix it

* Source: Matthew Lysiak’s appearance on We Study Billionaires (PN)

Entrepreneurship

* Zero to One by Peter Thiel

* One of the most commonly recommended books for entrepreneurs

* Source: Multiple

* Only The Paranoid Survive by Andrew Grove

* Must read for all entrepreneurs

* Source: Morgan Housel and Chris Williamson in discussion (PN)

* Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours by Noah Kagan

* The idea of starting a business is often so overly romanticized that people never make the jump into entrepreneurship

* Source: Noah Kagen’s appearance on Deep Questions with Cal Newport (PN)

* Mastery by Robert Greene

* The value of mastering a skill set

* Source: Sam Parr’s recommendation to Andrew Wilkinson (PN)

* Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

* How to overcome creative roadblocks

* Source: Chris Beresford-Hill and Tim Ferriss in discussion (PN)

* Chase, Chance, and Creativity by James Austin

* Talks about how certain people attract luck and how luck can be created

* Source: Mike Maples, Jr. recommendation to Lenny Rachitsky (PN)

* Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb

* The impact of randomness and luck on success

* Source: Cyrus Yari and Iman Olya book review (PN)

* Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb

* “You cannot separate knowledge from contact with the ground. Actually, you cannot separate anything from contact with the ground.” – Nassim Taleb

* Source: Cyrus Yari and Iman Olya book review (PN)

* Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw

* “I got married at Carnegie Hall because of my love for Andrew Carnegie… He did a lot of bad things, but he was mostly amazing” – Sam Parr

* Source: Sam Parr’s recommendation to Andrew Wilkinson (PN)

* Tycoon’s War by Stephen Dando-Collins

* Cornelius Vanderbilt: How his mind worked and why you wouldn’t want to compete against him

* Source: David Senra book review (PN)

* Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow

* Most successful entrepreneurs can be honest family men, too

* Source: Sam Parr’s recommendation to Andrew Wilkinson (PN)

* The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How To Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo

* Nobody had more compelling presentations than Steve Jobs

* Source: David Senra book review (PN)

* How To Be Rich by J. Paul Getty

* “I would like to convince young businessmen that there are no surefire, quick, and easy formulas for success in business” – J. Paul Getty

* Source: David Senra book review (PN)

* Sam Walton: The Inside Story of America’s Richest Man by Vance H. Trimble

* Discover the rags-to-riches tale of billionaire Sam Walton, founder of the discount chain Wal-Mart and America’s richest man, in this study of old-fashioned values like honesty and hard work

* Source: David Senra book review (PN)

Investing

* What I Learned About Investing From Darwin by Pulak Prasad

* How to beat the market, the biggest mistakes investors make, why history is more important than projections, and how natural selection applies to investing

* Source: Kyle Grieve book review (PN)

* The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

* Understanding the difference between price and value

* Source: Bill Ackman’s recommendation to Lex Fridman (PN)

* The Algebra of Wealth by Scott Galloway

* “America is a loving, generous place if you have money. It is a rapacious, violent place if you don’t.” – Scott Galloway

* Source: Scott Galloway’s appearance on The Rich Roll Podcast (PN)

* A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market by John Paulos

* Source: John Paulos appearance on Infinite Loops with Jim O’Shaughnessy (PN)

* Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger

* Charlie Munger understood incentives and human psychology, but never used that knowledge to manipulate others

* Source: Warren Buffett’s recommendation to shareholders (PN)

* Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition by Michael J. Mauboussin

* Making decisions is part of life, this is how you make better ones

* Source: John Paulos and Jim O’Shaughnessy in discussion (PN)

* Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson & Financial Intelligence: A Manager’s Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean by Karen Berman and Joe Knight

* Books that Ateet Ahluwalia gives people who join his firm

* Source: Ateet Ahluwalia recommendations to Jim O’Shaughnessy (PN)

* eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work by Randall Stross

* An intriguing insider’s look at the rise of Silicon Valley through the lens of the pioneering venture capital firm Benchmark Capital

* Source: Aarthi Ramamurthy and Sriram Krishnan in discussion (PN)

* Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

* How the insiders got exposed

* Source: Joseph Stiglitz and Tyler Cowen in discussion (PN)

Productivity

* Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity by Gloria Mark

* Illustrates four myths about attention span

* Source: Cal Newport book review (PN)

* The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting The Right Things Done by Peter Drucker, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

* Three books that embody the evolution of productivity

* Source: Cal Newport recommendation to Chris Williamson (PN)

* Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

* How to embrace the fact that you can’t do everything

* Source: Cal Newport recommendation to Chris Williamson (PN)

Leadership

* The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

* Great lessons about running a business and being a leader

* Source: Marc Andreessen’s recommendation to Rick Rubin (PN)

* Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

* Frequently recommended over and over again this year

* Source: Bill Gurley, Michael Mauboussin, and Patrick O’Shaughnessy in discussion (PN)

* Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

* Sci-fi novel but also a great way to study leadership

* Source: Tim Ferriss recommendation to Chris Williamson (PN)

* Art of War by Sun Tzu

* Do not assume that your enemy thinks in a similar way that you do

* Source: Source: Jocko Willink recommendation (PN)

* Adventures of a Bystander by Peter Drucker

* A captivating journey through his encounters with remarkable individuals who influenced his thinking and shaped the world of management

* Source: Jim O’Shaughnessy’s recommendation to Ateet Ahluwalia (PN)

Motivation

* The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho & Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks

* Helped Mike Posner on his spiritual journey

* Source: Big Sean recommendations to Mike Poser (PN)

* Driven From Within by Michael Jordan

* Written during his career peak

* Source: David Senra book review (PN)

* Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby

* The key insights into Michael Jordan’s competitive spirit and how it made him the greatest basketball player of all time

* Source: Ben Wilson book review (PN)

Deep Thinking

* The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch

* Naval Ravikant praises David’s work, considering him the smartest human alive

* Source: Naval Ravikant and Niklas Anzinger in discussion (PN)

* The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger

* “Life is not a mystery anymore” – Thomas Metzinger

* Source: Thomas Metzinger’s appearance on Making Sense with Sam Harris (PN)

* Gold by Haleh Liza Gafori (a new translation of Rumi’s poems)

* Remedy for overthinking before bed

* Source: Tim Ferriss recommendation to Chris Williamson (PN)

Get the FULL List at Podcast Notes

Seth Godin is a legend. He’s a marketer, teacher, entrepreneur, and author of more than 20 books, including Purple Cow, Permission Marketing, and Linchpin. He also writes one of the most popular and longest-running blogs in the world (approaching publishing 10,000 in a row!) and continues to shape how we think about marketing, brand, product, and creating lasting change in the world. In our conversation, we discuss:

• How to build remarkable products that spread

• The four critical strategic choices that determine your future

• How to develop good taste and high standards

• The role of tension in great strategy

• How Seth used Claude to write his newest book

• Much more

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Brought to you by:

• DX—A platform for measuring and improving developer productivity

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security

• Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/seth-godins-tactics-for-building-remarkable-products

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Where to find Seth Godin:

• Blog: http://seths.blog/

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethgodin

• Website: https://www.sethgodin.com

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Seth’s background

(05:17) Understanding good taste and upholding high standards

(08:09) Become the best at whatever you do

(09:48) Seth’s journey as a product manager

(14:09) What people often get wrong when building products

(16:00) Building a brand in the age of AI

(19:04) Using AI to enhance writing

(22:40) Four critical elements for an effective strategy

(27:38) The role of tension in strategy

(29:15) The concept of the purple cow

(33:11) "Safe is risky"

(34:56) The power of systems

(37:07) Better waves make better surfers

(38:10) Rebranding vs. re-logoing

(43:07) Empathetic leadership

(44:14) Conclusion and farewell

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Referenced:

• Seth Godin on the Tim Ferriss Show: https://tim.blog/2024/03/20/seth-godin-3/

• Persuasive communication and managing up | Wes Kao (Maven, Seth Godin, Section4): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/persuasive-communication-wes-kao

• Spinnaker: https://spinnaker.io

• Ray Bradbury: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Bradbury

• Arthur C. Clarke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

• Isaac Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

• Roger Zelazny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Zelazny

• Herbie Hancock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Hancock

• Fahrenheit 451 (game): https://www.filfre.net/2013/09/fahrenheit-451-the-game/

• RTFM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTFM#

• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com

• Claude: https://claude.ai

• ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com

• Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com

• Steam: https://store.steampowered.com

• P.F. Flyers: https://pfflyers.com

• Steve Blank’s website: https://steveblank.com

• Marissa Mayer on X: https://x.com/marissamayer

• Jaguar unveils new logo ahead of electric relaunch: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr0pw00n7qo

• IHOP Becomes IHOb, the International House of ... Burgers: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/11/618844977/ihop-becomes-ihob-the-international-house-of-burgers

• Oreo’s Super Bowl Power-Outage Tweet Was 18 Months in the Making: https://www.businessinsider.com/oreos-super-bowl-power-outage-tweet-was-18-months-in-the-making-2013-3

• Tesla’s New ‘Ludicrous Mode’ Makes the Model S a Supercar: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/teslas-new-ludicrous-mode-makes-model-s-supercar

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Recommended books:

• This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans (Create a Strategy to Elevate Your Career, Community & Life): https://www.amazon.com/This-Strategy-Better-Elevate-Community/dp/B0D47T8S7N• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable: https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-New-Transform-Remarkable/dp/1591843170

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Open Source bi-weekly convo w/ Bill Gurley and Brad Gerstner on all things tech, markets, investing & capitalism. This week they are joined by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, to discuss becoming Microsoft’s CEO, Advice for CEO’s, Microsoft’s Investment in OpenAI, Legacy Search, Ten Blue Links, Consumer and Enterprise AI, The Future of AI Agents, Infinite Memory, CoPilot, Microsoft’s Capital Expenditure, Open AI’s future, AI safety & more. Enjoy another episode of BG2.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(01:31) Becoming Microsoft CEO

(06:42) Satya’s Memo to CEO Committee 

(10:42) Satya’s Advantage as a CEO

(11:34) Advice for CEOs

(15:01) Microsoft’s Investment in OpenAI

(19:42) AI Arms Race

(23:55) Legacy Search and Consumer AI

(28:07) The Future of AI Agents

(38:32) Near-Infinite Memory

(39:47) Copilot Approach to AI Adoption

(50:26) Leveraging AI within Microsoft

(56:03) CapX

(01:00:20) The Cost of Model Scaling and Inference

(01:15:15) Open AI Conversion to Profit

(01:18:05) Next Steps for OpenAI

(01:19:43) Open vs. Closed and Safe AI

Available on Apple, Spotify, www.bg2pod.com

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Brad Gerstner @altcap

Bill Gurley @bgurley

BG2 Pod @bg2pod

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