This week, we continue our journey with Arnold by learning how he rose to the top of the bodybuilding world in only an 8 year span!!

As a 15 year old kid in Austria, Arnold wasn't on anybody's radar to become the next bodybuilding sensation. Certainly no one thought he would become the Mr. Universe champion as a teen... yet his unbreakable self confidence and relentless work ethic just catapulted him to the top that much quicker than all his peers.

This episode is filled with gold, from Arnold's inspiring mentality, to how he was able to differentiate himself from other greats, to his actual lifting routines that you and I can adopt today. I highly recommend you listen - whether you are someone going for greatness in your own field, or simply want a little inspiration for your next workout. Enjoy!

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Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder - Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Recommendation of the Week: How to Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps (it's not what you expect...)

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The Web of Ideas: The Education of a Bodybuilder (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

2:40 - A teenager with a dream

9:30 - Greatness requires OBSESSION

16:40 - Conventional wisdom produces conventional results...

23:34 - Work hard in the dark to shine in the light

32:38 - Utter self belief

37:40 - "Arnold, what can you do to be special and different?"

44:22 - Total concentration

48:55 - Cementing himself as the best

This week we dive into Arnold Schwarzenegger's book 'Be Useful,' offering insights into how he reached the pinnacle of success across bodybuilding, acting, and politics. Arnold shares the 7 tools that were most influential for his life, including setting an ambitious vision, outworking his peers, and giving back. He describes how he was able to sell the sport of bodybuilding into the mainstream, and how those training habits easily transferred over to acting. He was doubted constantly by friends and fans, but his determination and positive mindset kept pushing him to break through perceived barriers. This episode is filled with stories that we can all benefit from - enjoy!

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Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life - Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Recommendation of the Week: Arnold Documentary on Netflix

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The Web of Ideas: Be Useful (my notes on the book)

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2:56 - Arnold's Journey: From vision to bodybuilding champion

12:33 - Never think small

18:01 - Work hard in the dark to shine in the light

24:05 - Sell sell sell

34:38 - Post-traumatic GROWTH

41:18 - Become a learning machine

45:56 - The importance of giving back

We loved making this episode because it's part Darwin evolutionary biology and part Buffett investing wisdom! In the book, Pulak Prasad shares how he has built his investment philosophy based on evolutionary survival, and how many lessons surprisingly cross over into the finance world. His approach may seem simple, but it is effective:

1) Avoid Big Risks

2) Buy High Quality at a Fair Price

3) Don't Be Lazy - be very lazy

He's used this strategy to grow his investment firm, Nalanda, into a $5 billion fund, practicing what he preaches on a daily basis. But his book differs greatly from most investment books, because he incorporates examples across evolutionary science, such as deers in the wilderness, taming wild foxes, growing rabbit populations, and much more. These stories serve as a powerful connection to investing because they teach us how businesses can structure themselves to survive the long haul, how investors can overcome their natural FOMO instincts, and how compounding can creep up on us unlike anything we've ever seen before. I think this episode will be informative for investors, operators, and all science nuts alike. We hope you enjoy it!!

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What I Learned About Investing From Darwin - Pulak Prasad

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Recommendation of the Week: Dakshana Foundation

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The Web of Ideas: What I Learned About Investing From Darwin (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

3:04 - Avoid Big Risks: would you bet your life on your next investment?

12:22 - Buy high quality at a fair price

20:37 - What rats and antifragile businesses have in common

28:13 - Using the past to assess the future

38:31 - Don't be lazy... be very lazy

45:48 - What we mistake when we talk about compounding

In this episode we cover Andy Grove's famous book, Only the Paranoid Survive. Andy Grove was a co-founder and former CEO of Intel, leading the company through some of its best years as it established a stronghold over the growing PC market. In this book, he talks about the many challenges they faced before getting to that point.

Andy Grove views technological change through the lens of strategic inflection points, sharing how you can either be disrupted into oblivion because of one, or cause one onto others. He describes the struggles Intel faced as its success in the memory business was eroded, and how they had to let go of their old identity to build a lasting business.

Fortunately, Intel had been quietly working on another chip, the microprocessor, at the same time, so now they could focus all their energy on this product and lead the PC revolution. We discuss many of his insights around disruption, and how it has impacted countless industries since, such as discount retailing, cable TV, film photography, and newspapers. Enjoy!

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Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company - Andrew Grove

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Recommendation of the Week: Apollonia's Pizzeria in LA

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The Web of Ideas: Only the Paranoid Survive (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

3:01 - Intel abandons their identity of memory chips for something better

12:34 - Change is the only constant in technology

15:03 - The PC inflection point

21:46 - A few examples of Innovator's Dilemma disruption

29:27 - Only the paranoid survive

34:31 - Predicting the impact of the Internet in the late 90s

An episode dedicated to the investing legend, Charlie Munger. Enjoy!

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The Tao of Charlie Munger - David Clark

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Recommendation of the Week: Trader Joe's Peanut Thai Salad is back!!!

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The Web of Ideas: The Tao of Charlie Munger (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

2:09 - What qualities make up a wonderful business?

11:04 - Berkshire under Charlie's blueprint

20:20 - The value of long-term permanent capital

25:50 - Staying in your circle of competence

32:50 - A few of Munger's biggest warnings

39:50 - Timeless life advice

In this episode, we cover Influence - Robert Cialdini's seminal book on the 6 principles of persuasion. This book was so influencial on Charlie Munger that he even gave Cialdini shares of Berkshire's class A stock, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today!

We discuss how the principles of reciprocation, commitment & consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity are used against us and beneficial to us in the business world. We also talk about how many of these principles can be useful in your personal lives, such as for setting goals you'll stick to and building meaningful relationships. We hope this episode will be both insightful and entertaining - enjoy!

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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini

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Recommendation of the Week: Online Catan

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The Web of Ideas: Influence (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

4:17 - Reciprocation

10:37 - Reject then retreat technique

14:06 - Commitment & Consistency

20:44 - Social Proof

28:27 - The Liking Principle

35:02 - Authority Bias

43:39 - Scarcity

This episode continues our two part series on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. In this episode, we learn the origin story of the terrorist group Hamas, told firsthand by their founder's son, Mosab Hassan Yousef. We share his perspective growing up in the Palestinian region of the West Bank, internalizing a deep hatred of Jews and their role in the Palestinian people's suffering. As he reaches his teenage years, Mosab begins to rebel and tries to get involved in the conflict himself, which lands him in prison for over a year. It was this time in prison that ended up being transformative for Mosab.

He starts to build relationships with Israelis, learning that they treat him respectfully and are willing to help him complete his studies. At this fitting time, Mosab attends a Christianity lecture on "loving your enemy", and starts to reflect on what Hamas does wrong in their leadership over the Palestinian people. Over the coming years, he became the top insider spy for Israel's Shin Bet unit, stopping numerous suicide bombings and attacks on Israeli civilians.

We close off the episode describing how Hamas has continued to inflict suffering on the Palestinian people, while terrorizing innocent Israeli civilians as well. Lastly, we touch on the tragic events of October 7th, dispelling some of the most common myths being circulated online. We hope you find this episode informative!

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Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices - Mosab Hassan Yousef

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Recommendation of the Week: When Things Fall Apart

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The Web of Ideas: Son of Hamas (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

11:33 - Hamas starts to protest

18:17 - Peaceful coexistence is the last goal for Hamas

26:05 - The problem is not Israel's policies, it's Israel's right to exist...

28:42 - An eye opening time in prison

36:13 - Placing the blame on Hamas & Yasser Arafat

40:55 - The Green Prince: Israel's ultimate spy

44:12 - Hamas would never stop short of taking back all of Israel

48:19 - "The Palestinian people were as oppressed by their own leaders as they were by Israel"

49:47 - A villian more terrifying than your worst nightmare - Hamas & October 7th

1:03:46 - Free Gaza, from HAMAS

This week's episode is extra special to us. In this episode, we dive into the history of Israel and the conflict in the Middle East, attempting to provide nuance to an extremely polarizing subject. We answer questions like: are Israelis colonizers? Is Israel an apartheid state? Why do we even need a Jewish state? Who is the real threat in the Middle East?

Based on the fantastic book by Noa Tishby, we learn how Jews first populated the land of Israel over 2500 years ago, and established an ancestral homeland there across hundreds of years. We discuss the beginning of the Zionist movement - an effort to re-establish a safe state for Jews - which was ultimately accepted by the world after the horrifying events of the Holocaust. We then walk through the many wars and potential peace deals between Israelis and Palestinians, where a final deal for peace was abandoned by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2000. Shortly afterwards, we see the rise of Islamic Jihadist movement and the terrorist group Hamas, who have expressed no interest in peace and would rather eradicate their neighbors. We conclude by discussing some of the progress Israel has made recently by establishing peace with a few of their other Arab neighbors. We hope for peace in the region and look forward to sharing part 2, on Son of Hamas.

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Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth - Noa Tishby

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Recommendation of the Week: Trader Joe's Peanut Satay Noodles

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The Web of Ideas: Israel - A Simple Guide (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

4:15 - Are Israelis colonizers? What are Jews claims over the land of Israel?

15:33 - Why do we even need a Jewish state?

25:53 - Is Israel an apartheid state?

29:01 - How do the surrounding Arab states help the Palestinians?

34:22 - A couple more wars and hope for peace

42:59 - Who is the biggest threat in the Middle East?

47:18 - A villian more terrifying than your worst nightmare - Hamas

50:32 - Western democracy is alive & well in the Middle East

56:58 - How can we reach permanent peace?

In this episode, we cover the rapid rise and stunning fall of crypto darling, FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried and his firm FTX provide us with a number of incredible INVERT lessons, such as never installing a board or CFO, hiring anyone who walks through the front door, spending hundreds of millions on sports marketing in a non-core market, and lacking all forms of accountability. We discuss how the internal controls within FTX ran counter to the company's external perception, as tons of VCs and celebs wanted to get in on the action even when they didn't know what was going on under the hood. When crypto prices plummeted in late 2022, SBF tried to be a messiah in the industry, going around and saving multiple failing enterprises, but we quickly realized FTX may not be on stable footing themselves. We hope you enjoy this one!

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Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon - Michael Lewis

John Ray Testimony Highlights - WSJ

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Recommendation of the Week: Funny skit song Cop Cuties

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The Web of Ideas: Going Infinite (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

2:56 - An unconventional childhood

8:04 - Optimizing for effective altruism

16:20 - Alameda Research... a vessel to save some vast number of lives?

23:19 - Capilizing on crypto's speculative frenzy

30:14 - "No experience necessary"

33:45 - Investor FOMO

37:02 - One giant dragon's liar of Alameda & FTX assets

40:31 - You can an endorsement deal! You get an endorsement deal!

48:00 - A complete absense of checks and balances

49:52 - Unlimited funds or unlimited customer deposits?

57:15 - But we didn't have criminal intent!

1:00:41 - Alameda's special privileges

1:02:41 - Bankruptcy...

In this episode we tell the story of Marvel, going back to way before Robert Downey Jr donned the Iron Man suit! Our story starts in 1961, when Stan Lee created the relatable Fantastic Four comics to compete with the superheroes Batman and Superman. Over the next 3 decades, Stan Lee went on to create incredible heroes such as Spiderman and Iron Man, sparking a tulipmania-like bubble in adult comics.

As the 90s rolled around, Marvel was saddled with debt and ready to take advantage of this fan hysteria. Only problem was - the bubble burst! Marvel, now overleveraged and facing declining sales, had to declare bankruptcy. This opened the door for an unlikely buyer to step in - Ike Perlmutter - a leader in the toy business.

As they sold rights to escape bankruptcy, Perlmutter, along with David Maisel and Kevin Feige, thought up a way that they could become a content producer themselves. They would use their characters as collateral, secure a $525 million loan, and take a swing with their own big budget superhero film: Iron Man. As you know, the rest was history.

Join us to hear the wild early stories of Marvel, how they created the movie studio, the subsequent Disney acquisition and decade-long hot streak, and what the future holds for this beloved company. Enjoy!

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MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios - Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, & Gavin Edwards

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Recommendation of the Week: Tim Ferriss interviewing David Maisel

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The Web of Ideas: The Reign of Marvel (my notes on the book)

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Show Notes:

2:12 - Stan Lee and the tulip mania of comic books

7:06 - The burst of a bubble

11:07 - Ike Perlmutter steps in to acquire Marvel

15:14 - Selling off their top IP to escape bankruptcy

21:24 - The magic of David Maisel

28:02 - Iron Man's secret weapon? plausibility...

34:54 - The beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

41:41 - The start of a historic run

46:56 - Marvel's creative committee - a classic case of the tail wagging the dog

52:02 - A momentous SONY & Marvel collab

1:00:11 - The culmination of a decade of Marvel dominance

1:03:13 - What does the future hold for Marvel?