The Timeless Parable of Mr. Market
There is no one better to explain the concept of Mr. Market than Warren Buffett, who has used to to make billions of dollars and remain calm when all around him were losing their heads. In the 1987 …
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The Joy of Finding Things Out
Canadian filmmaker Reid Gower created the Feynman Series, a trilogy of physicist Richard Feynman’s penetrating insight into domains outside of physics. Consider the first, Richard Feynman on …
Zibaldone
I picked up a copy of the first complete English edition of Giacomo Leopardi‘s Zibaldone. Giacomo Leopardi is the most radical and channelling of nineteenth-century poets and thinkers, yet the …
The Great Books
We all want to read more. If reading older books is exponentially more beneficial for acquiring knowledge than reading newer things, then reading the great books is a good place to start. These books …
Iatrogenics: Why Intervention Often Leads to Worse Outcomes
Iatrogenics is when a treatment causes more harm than benefit. As iatros means healer in Greek, the word means “caused by the healer” or “brought by the healer.” Healer, in …
Inversion and The Power of Avoiding Stupidity
Charlie Munger, the business partner of Warren Buffett and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is famous for his quote “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never …
10 Things I Learned Reading Brad Stone’s The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
I really enjoyed Brad Stone’s The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Anyone who wants to better understand the dynamics of disruption or just gain a better understanding of the …
Much of What You’re Going to Do or Say Today is Not Essential
If you’re a modern knowledge worker, your typical day might look something like this: you go to work, read and reply to emails, attend meetings, grab a coffee, have lunch, attend more meetings, …
Jeff Bezos’s Reading List
The back of Brad Stone’s excellent new book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, contains a list of a dozen books “widely read by executives and employees that are …
Marcus Aurelius on How to Act and Four Habits of Thought to Eliminate
Some advice from Marcus Aurelius in Meditations: Never under compulsion, out of selfishness, without forethought, with misgivings. Don’t gussy up your thoughts. No surplus words or unnecessary …
How to Run a Country: Ten Lessons for Modern Leaders
“I seem to read the history of all ages and nations in every page — and especially the history of our country for forty years past. Change the names and every anecdote will be applicable to …
Neil Gaiman on The Importance of Reading, Libraries, and Imagination
Neil Gaiman, who brought us one of the best commencement speeches ever, chimes in on with a lecture explaining why using our imaginations is an obligation for all citizens. The correlation between …
Stephen Hawking’s Theory of Everything Animated in 2.5 Minutes
Don’t have time to read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time? Don’t worry. In two and a half minutes, The Guardian’s Made Simple series explains why black holes are doomed …
The Decision Maker’s Edge: Why Less Data Beats Analysis Paralysis
The more information you gather before making a decision, the more likely you are to make a poor choice. Sound crazy? Keep reading. The Raw Truth About Information Overload We’ve all been there: …
The Science of High Performance
Research shows that knowing what you want to accomplish is more important than performance … at least at the start. But once you know where you’re going, you can accelerate progress by …
Heraclitus’s Fragments: Ancient Wisdom for a Changing World
Many fail to grasp what they have seen,and cannot judge what they have learned,although they tell themselves they know. Heraclitus As with Baltasar Gracián and The Art of Worldly Wisdom, the …