No. 707 – November 15, 2026
Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter full of timeless ideas and insights you can use in life and work. (Read the archives). Not subscribed? Learn more and sign up.
Tiny Thoughts
Honesty sounds like disrespect when you are demanding worship.
Become the person you are looking for, and they will find you.
Open-minded people update when the evidence changes, not when the person making the argument does.
Insights
Richard Hamming on picking what to work on:
“If you do not work on an important problem, it’s unlikely you’ll do important work.”
Charlie Munger on how to destroy your life:
“There are only three ways a smart person can go broke: liquor, ladies and leverage.”
Carl Jung on how to create our own suffering:
“The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life. They become bitter, critical, or rigid, not because the world is cruel to them, but because they have betrayed their own inner possibilities. The artist who never makes art becomes cynical about those who do.”
The Knowledge Project
My guest this week is Jon McNeill, the former President of Tesla and the co-founder and CEO of DVx Ventures.
We discuss: how to use speed as an advantage, diagnose problems, shorten emails, marketing with no budget, how Neuralink got started, and so much more. Hundreds of people are already calling it the best podcast of the year (read the comments on YouTube).
Listen on YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | X | Transcript
+ Members have access to an extended and ad-free version of the podcast.
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week.
— Shane Parrish
P.S. A cooper crafting a wood barrel.
P.P.S. My favorite socks are on sale.