Jared Diamond: How to Get Rich
We’re constantly asked for examples of the “multiple mental models” approach in practice. Our standard response includes great books like Garrett Hardin’s Filters Against Folly and Will Durant’s The Lessons of …
Philosophy
The Island of Knowledge: Science and the Meaning of Life
“As the Island of Knowledge grows, so do the shores of our ignorance—the boundary between the known and unknown. Learning more about the world doesn’t lead to a point closer to a final destination—whose existence is nothing but …
A Parable of Contentment and Happiness
“Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot.” — Ben Zoma *** A short parable on contentment today, from Plutarch’s Life of Pyrrhus, one of a series of biographies by the great Greek historian Plutarch that were later …
The Inner Scorecard: How Warren Buffett Mastered Life
“The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.” — Warren Buffett *** While human behavior is complex and …
20 Rules for a Knight: A Timeless Guide from 1483
“Often we imagine that we will work hard until we arrive at some distant goal, and then we will be happy. This is a delusion. Happiness is the result of a life lived with purpose. Happiness is not an objective. It is the movement of …
Fun with Logical Fallacies
We came across a cool book recently called Logically Fallacious: The Ultimate Collection of Over 300 Logical Fallacies, by a social psychologist named Bo Bennett. We were a bit skeptical at first — lists like that can be lacking …
The Four Tools of Discipline
“The life of wisdom must be a life of contemplation combined with action.” *** Life is full of problems. We can moan about them, or we can solve them. Scott Peck argues in The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, …
Ego is the Enemy: The Legend of Genghis Khan
In his book, Ego is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday tells the story of Genghis Khan and how his openness to learning was the foundation of his success. The legend of Genghis Khan has echoed through history: A barbarian conqueror, fueled by …
Why Fiddling With Prices Doesn’t Work
“The fact is, if you don’t find it reasonable that prices should reflect relative scarcity, then fundamentally you don’t accept the market economy, because this is about as close to the essence of the market as you can …
Francis Bacon and the Four Idols of the Mind
Among the Enlightenment founders, his spirit is the one that most endures. It informs us across four centuries that wemust understand nature both around us and within ourselves, in order to set humanity on the course of self-improvement. …
The HP Way: Dave Packard on How to Operate a Company
In 1960, David Packard gave an informal speech that wasn’t originally intended for publication. In fact the speech only surfaced again during the debate over the merger between Hewlett Packard and Compaq. At the time the leadership of …
The Difference Between Love and Tolerance
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker *** New Jersey Senator Cory Booker‘s new book United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good offers a welcome …
Lewis Thomas on our Social Nature and “Getting the Air Right”
“What it needs is for the air to be made right. If you want a bee to make honey, you do not issue protocols on solar navigation or carbohydrate chemistry, you put him together with other bees (and you’d better do this quickly, for …
Agnes Martin on The Secret of Happiness
“The best things in life happen to you when you’re alone.” *** Agnes Martin was a famous abstract painter and minimalist. In this short interview with Chuck Smith and Sono Kuwayama from her studio in 1997, the 85-year-old …
Seneca on Letting the Eminent Dead Guide You
There’s a core part of Charlie Munger’s operating system for life that we adhere to: Learn deeply from the eminent dead. Bathe in the wisdom of great people who lived before you. He calls it a form of love: A second idea that I …
Mattering Instinct
Why do we need to matter? It sounds like kind of a hollow question. Of course we matter. But when you really consider it, do you think an ant has decided whether it matters or not? When it comes to humans we seem to have a deep …
The Munger Operating System: How to Live a Life That Really Works
In 2007, Charlie Munger gave the commencement address at USC Law School, opening his speech by saying, “Well, no doubt many of you are wondering why the speaker is so old. Well, the answer is obvious: He hasn’t died …
The Road Less Travelled: The Source of Many of the Ills of Mankind
This is a must read. Our view of reality is like a map with which to negotiate the terrain of life. If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are, and if we have decided where we want to go, we will generally know how …
The Iconic Think Different Apple Commercial Narrated by Steve Jobs
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, …
Isaac Asimov: Integrity over Honesty
This thought from Isaac Asimov sums up much of Farnam Street’s ethos in how to operate ethically in the world. From the book he co-authored with his wife How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort. Integrity, is, to me, a somewhat …
Too Busy to Pay Attention
Alan Lightman, the physicist who brought us The Accidental Universe, has also written several works of fiction, including Einstein’s Dreams, presented as dreams Einstein might have had while working as a patent clerk in Switzerland in 1905. …
Friedrich Nietzsche: On Love And Hate
“We must learn to love, learn to be kind, and this from earliest youth … Likewise, hatred must be learned and nurtured, if one wishes to become a proficient hater.” *** German philosopher and writer Friedrich …
The Accidental Universe
* “Be not deceived,” Epictetus writes in The Discourses, “every animal is attached to nothing so much as to its own interest.” Few things are more in our nature than our yearning for permanence. And yet all evidence …
The Two Sides of Seneca and A Lesson on Human Fallibility
If you can withhold moral judgment, Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero is a great historical account of making decisions in complex situations. Here is one way to describe the career of the stoic thinker, writer, poet, and …