No. 651 – October 19, 2025
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Tiny Thoughts
The first line is the most important.
Too many otherwise smart people bury the most valuable part of the message at the end. Delete everything but what’s necessary.
Good writing is clear, conversational, and as short as possible.
We’re wired for novelty, but life rewards repetition.
Good ideas are rare. When you find something that works, you’ve found gold. But instead of mining it, we go looking for more gold.
We’d rather have ten ideas that might work than one that does.
A lot of success in life is just putting yourself in a position for good things to happen to you.
+ Be reliable
+ Avoid drama
+ Help other people win
+ Take care of your body
+ Take care of your mind
+ Live below your means
+ Treat your job as if it matters
+ Take care of your relationships
Simple, but not easy.
Insights
Comedian George Carlin with an important truth:
“Everyone driving slower than you is an idiot, and everyone driving faster than you is a maniac!”
Author William James Dawson on money:
“The thing that is least perceived about wealth is that all pleasure in money ends at the point where economy becomes unnecessary. The man who can buy anything he covets, without any consultation with his banker, values nothing that he buys.”
Author Haruki Murakami on the plateau of talent:
“They can’t take it any further. And why not? Because they won’t put in the effort. Because they haven’t had the discipline pounded into them. They’ve been spoiled. They have just enough talent so they’ve been able to play things well without any effort and they’ve had people telling them how great they are from the time they’re little, so hard work looks stupid to them. They’ll take some piece another kid has to work on for three weeks and polish it off in half the time, so the teacher figures they’ve put enough into it and lets them go to the next thing. And they do that in half the time and go on to the next piece. They never find out what it means to be hammered by the teacher; they lose out on a certain element required for character building. It’s a tragedy.”
The Knowledge Project
Warren Buffett called Tracy Britt Cool his “fireman” due to her reputation at Berkshire Hathaway for turning around struggling businesses. Today, Britt Cool is the co-founder of Kanbrick, where she is applying her knowledge to the middle market.
This interview is packed with depth and nuance. You’ll learn how to turn around a dying business, the specific process she uses for hiring, how to evaluate an investment, and so much more.
Here are 10 of the highlights I took away from this episode and my research:
1. Everything is capital allocation.
2. Structure creates outcomes.
3. If you’re on slide 112, something is wrong.
4. Don’t fight the trend. Skate where the puck is going.
5. The best candidates don’t apply; you have to find them.
6. People can’t copy discipline.
7. Everything takes longer and is harder than you think.
8. Avoid people who hand-wave and go all over when you ask a simple question.
9. If you’re not having fun four days out of five, it’s not the right fit.
10. Get the system working.
+ Listen to the full episode on Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Web | X
Want to go even deeper?
+ Read the complete list of all 32 highlights.
+ Read the 16 deeper lessons.
Etc.
+ I enjoyed reading this profile of Joshua Kushner.
Thanks for reading,
— Shane Parrish