March 9, 2025 - #619 - read online - Free Version

Welcome to Brain Food, a weekly newsletter of timeless ideas and insights you can use.

Tiny Thoughts

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You get more of whatever you give attention to.

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Be among the best. Pretend you're not. Work harder than everyone else.

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Your reputation isn't just what people say about you—it's the position from which you make every move.

While most people understand that reputation matters, few recognize how it functions as a strategic asset that either unlocks opportunities or leaves you perpetually trapped. The mechanics of this process mirror an unlikely source of wisdom: the game of billiards.

A master billiards player approaches the table with dual vision. While amateurs focus solely on pocketing the immediate shot, professionals focus on how the current shot positions them for the next one. This deceptively simple insight—that present moves determine future options—perfectly captures how reputations function in our interconnected world.

Amateurs celebrate the flashy, difficult shot without noticing (or caring) that they've left the cue ball trapped - making the next shot impossible. On the other hand, the professional might pass on an impressive shot entirely if it creates poor positioning, preferring the modest play that sets up a sequence of future successes. This dynamic perfectly captures the "reputational cue ball concept."

Insights

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Philosopher Baltasar Gracián on giving advice:

“When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.”

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Mary Oliver understood the urgency of living with purpose, aware that life’s deepest regret often arises from passivity and hesitation:

“When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular, and real. I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”

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Marc Andreessen on identifying fake people:

“You ask increasingly detailed questions and people have trouble making things up and things just fuzz into obvious BS, and fake founders basically have the same problem. They’re able to relay a conceptual theory of what they’re doing… But as they get into the details, it just fuzzes out. Whereas the true people that you want to back can do it. What you find is they’ve spent 5 or 10 or 20 years obsessing over the details of whatever it is they’re about to do. And they’re so deep in the details and they know so much more about it than you ever will.”

The Repository

Les Schwab learned firsthand that trusting your gut can defy conventional limits and transform industries:

“I’ve often said that sometimes guts pays off more than brains, because, if I had followed advice, and, if I had had a formal business education behind me, I never would have started the profit sharing contract in the form I did.”

Instead of relying on traditional business practices or expert advice, Schwab trusted his instincts. Had he adhered to conventional thinking, his groundbreaking approach to profit sharing—one that significantly motivated his employees and contributed to his company’s extraordinary growth—would never have come to life.

+ Members can access all my highlights from Les Schwab: Pride in Performance: Keep It Going in the repository.

The Knowledge Project

Josh Wolfe doesn’t just invest in the future—he sees it coming before almost anyone else.

If you want to know what's next in AI from one of the smartest people I know, this is the episode for you. We explore changing information habits, why proprietary data is becoming the true competitive moat, and why blue-collar workers may have the most secure jobs as automation advances. He also had a take that surprised me: As compute power grows and efficiency improves, human relationships and tacit knowledge will become increasingly valuable.

“I think the most valuable thing that AI is going to do, when you ask it questions and it comes up with the answers, assuming those answers are accurate and cross-correlated and double-checked, [is going to be when] they actually say, 'Here are the five questions you didn’t ask.' That is going to unleash real insight.”

+ Listen and Learn on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | FS | Transcript

Mental Model of the Week

V4 | Economics | Interdependence

Interdependence is the web that ties us all together. It’s the recognition that no person, no company, no country is an island. We’re all connected, all reliant on one another in countless ways, big and small. Interdependence is the reality that underlies the illusion of ­ self-­sufficiency. No one is entirely ­self-­made.

Interdependence can be both a vulnerability and a strength. When we recognize our interdependencies, we can leverage them for mutual benefit. We can form alliances, partnerships, and ecosystems. We can create value that no single entity could create alone.

Interdependence is the foundation of synergy, the alchemy of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. On the other hand, if we depend on others for something critical, it can expose us if they fail to deliver or change their minds. It’s easy to be a good partner when things are going well. But you want to be careful with whom you depend in a crisis.

Interdependence isn’t just a macro concept. It’s deeply personal. We’re all interdependent with our families, our friends, our communities. We rely on one another for support, for love, for meaning. Interdependence is the fabric of our social lives.

— Source: The Great Mental Models v4: Economics and Art

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Thanks for reading,

— Shane Parrish
Author of Clear Thinking

P.S. Just a frozen ship sailing.

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