Every month I try to share the most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share with your friends.

Here are five links worth reading…

Every month I try to share the most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share.

Here are five links worth reading…

Jane Street and the Arbitrage Royal Family by Hide Not Slide

The Ocaml advantage: How Jane Street leaned on an obscure coding language to hire better programmers and climb to the top of the prop trading food chain. 

Listen: Packy McCormick: Web3 & Smart Optimism (World of DaaS Podcast)

A fascinating conversation with a true optimistic thinker about the future of tech in the next five years, and the next 50 years. Packy thinks deeply about the root forces driving innovation and progress. 

Should America Go All In On Ukraine? by David Sacks

Sacks is one of the most lucid foreign-policy thinkers. Here he reviews the nuclear threat from a risk analysis perspective. 

Breaking: Elon Musk is Not Stupid by Sven Schnieders

Decoding what looks like bad decision making and finding simplicity on the other side of complexity— or, the metrics that really matter in evaluating early-stage companies.

San Francisco: The Reckoning is Here by Peter Yared

There’s been lots written about the decline of San Francisco and what it means for tech and the country as a whole. This is an honest, straightforward look at what went wrong driven by data (not partisan buzzwords). Essential reading for anyone who cares about American cities.  

Bonus (Humor): I Work from Home by Colin Nissan.

The funniest thing I have read all year.  

HT: Eugene Chong

Bonus (Framework): From Nostradamus to Fukuyama by Scott Alexander

Predictions are one of the biggest drivers of “discourse.” A useful spectrum for thinking about predictions, and whose predictions are doomed to misinterpretation.  

More reading links at https://twitter.com/AurenReads 

Books:

The Strategy of Denial – Elbridge Colby

HT: Michael Kratsios

Leadership and Self-Deception – The Arbinger Institute

HT: Jay Friedman

The Kill Chain – Christian Brose

HT: Dave Fitzgerald

The Key Man – Simon Clark & Will Louch

Tweet of the Month:

You will learn more about business from “The Wire” than you will from two years at HBS.

— Auren 𝐇𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧 (@auren) October 16, 2022

Join the 100,000+ subscribers to Five Links

Every month I try to share the most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share with your friends.

Here are five links worth reading…

Every month I try to share the most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share.

Here are five links worth reading…

A Triumph of Avoiding the Traps by David Carr

Twelve years on from its original publishing, this article on Oprah Winfrey’s success is still essential reading for everyone, especially entrepreneurs. On the value of knowing your strengths, staying in your lane, and leading with authenticity. 

Listen: Tim Urban: Zooming out on Everything (World of DaaS podcast)

A wide-ranging conversation with one of my favorite thinkers. Tim Urban can talk about anything and covers nothing short of love, death, time, and artificial superintelligence in this conversation. 

6 Discontinued and Uncommon U.S. Currency Denominations

The unknown history behind the $500 bill, the $1000 bill, the $5000 bill, the $10,000 bill, and even the $100,000 bill.

Caesar vs. Dominance-Oriented Status Seekers by Rob Henderson

A bit of Shakespeare and social science. Dives into the correlation betweens status-seeking and political discontent, and two distinct psychological profiles of discontent: populists and dominance-oriented status seekers.    

Siting Bank Branches by Patrick McKenzie

A deep dive into the mechanics of choosing bank branch locations and setting up branch networks. Significantly more interesting and nonobvious than it sounds. 

Bonus (Advice): A Manual for the Low-EQ CEO

Being a low EQ CEO isn’t totally uncommon, but it can be a severe disadvantage as a leader. As someone who’s spent years figuring out how to overcome these disadvantages, I hope this guide will help other low EQ leaders (and those who work with them). 

Books:

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time by David Einhorn

Fiction: “East of the West” by Miroslav Penkov

A beautiful short story about growing up in Serbia, falling in love, and disappointment.

Silicon Valley Porn Star by Jason Portnoy

HT: Jason Portnoy

Tweet of the Month:

Imagine if your company outsourced everything it wasn’t good at and focused only on what it was good at.

— Auren 𝐇𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧 (@auren) September 5, 2022

Join the 100,000+ subscribers to Five Links

Every month I try to share the most mind-expanding links to read/watch/listen. If you find these interesting, please do share with your friends.

Here are five links worth reading…

Understanding Jane Street by Byrne Hobart
Should the smartest students continue going into prop trading instead of trying to cure cancer? Everyone’s heard of Jane Street but do you understand what they really do?

Listen: Sheila Heen: How to Navigate Difficult Conversations
Difficult conversations are challenging and necessary. Life is filled with them, yet most people don’t know how to navigate them effectively. Here are tactics to get better at difficult conversations.

Status, Vulnerability, and Status Vulnerability by Erik Torenberg
Cancel culture, tall poppy syndrome, and a holistic look at how our personal motivations play out on a global scale as status games. Very useful advice for how to escape the status rat race.

Listen: Terry Kawaja: The Future of AdTech
The AdTech world changes every 18 months driven by new regulations and technology changes. But the current downturn may have a lasting impact on the landscape.

The Midwit Trap
Why are we so dismissive of simple solutions? Sometimes the smartest people are the first to complexify a solution when the simple solution is the best answer.

Bonus: The Inside Story of Carlos Ghosn’s Brazen Escape From Japan
The James Bond-esque lead-up to smuggling former Nissan exec Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a musical instrument case.

Bonus Listen: Founders podcast by David Senra
My new favorite podcast. Senra gives a good summary of biographies of entrepreneurs.
HT: Patrick O’Shaughnessy

Graph of the Month: The best founders are both Smart and Positive.
… but most smart people are negative

Books:

The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate (fiction) by Ted Chiang (must read)
I don’t normally read fiction but this short-story (18-pages) by Ted Chiang is amazing. Highly recommend.
HT: Tenzing Shaw

The Seven Sins of Memory by Daniel Schachter (really interesting)
HT: Sheila Heen

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
HT: Marissa Shandell

Build by Tony Fadell
HT: Tony Fadell

Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi

Bloodchild (fiction) by Octavia Butler
HT: Mary Therese Jackson

Tweet of the Month:

the biggest privilege in life is to have at least one parent that loves you unconditionally.
if you have that, then you are lucky to be massively privileged.

— Auren 𝐇𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧 (@auren) August 1, 2022

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