No. 538 — Aug 20th, 2023 — Read on FS — Free Version

FS

On avoiding foolish opinions:

"The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants."

— Source

Insight(s)

Value-based marketing:

"Marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. This is a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get a chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. And so we have to be really clear what we want them to know about us. One of the greatest jobs of marketing the universe has ever seen is Nike. Remember Nike sells a commodity. They sell shoes. And yet when you think about nike …. In their ads they don’t ever talk about the product. ... What does Nike do in their advertisements? They honour great athletes. That’s who they are. That’s what they are about. Our customers want to know who is Apple and what is it we stand for. Where do we sit in this world. What we’re about isn’t making boxes for people to get their jobs done … "

— Steve Jobs

Tiny Thought

Nine sources of advantage:

1. Raw talent/intelligence - Some people are just naturally better and smarter.
2. Hard work - Some people work harder.
3. Differentiation - Seeing the world differently. Doing something different. Reading different books. Interpreting the same information differently.
4. Process / Discipline - Creating a process and following it. Working out every day is a great example.
5. Talent Collector - The ability to hire the best people and get the most out of them.
6. Patience - A lack of patience changes the outcome.
7. Ability to take pain - Are you willing to look like an idiot to get better? How much risk are you willing to take, AND, importantly, can you handle the losses?
8. Temperament - Keeping your head when everyone else is losing theirs.
9. Luck

Most of these are within your control.

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A Question to Ask Yourself

Only members have access to this section.

ETC.

Why you have no time:

"Better technology means higher expectations, and higher expectations create more work."

— Source

Product First or Code First?

"Programming is about building products that solve problems for users not about writing beautiful code for its own sake ... If the product doesn’t work well, the code is not good."

(While this is about programming, the insight applies to many things.)

— Source

The Royce Funds. Small-cap specialists.

Thanks for reading,
— Shane

P.S. A visualization of hot air rising.