Friday Finds: Cars, China, Prestige, Selfies, New York

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Hi friends,

I spent the week in New York, highlighted by a visit to the Christian Dior exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum and Porter Robinson’s Nurture live show. Speaking of Robinson, I’m going to premiere my documentary about him at a movie theater in Austin on December 5th, so let me know if you'd like to attend.

Second, I'm hiring a marketing lead for Write of Passage. We're planning to teach almost 1,000 students next year and this person will shape the future of our brand and the content we produce.

Here’s what I want to share this week:

1. ​Beware of Chasing Prestige: When people don’t know what to do, they chase prestige. But as I write in this mini-essay, prestige can be a trap.
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2. YouTube Workshop: Next week, I’m hosting a free workshop with my video production team. We’ll talk about what we’ve learned in our first 10 months making videos and growing the channel together. If you’d like to join, you can register here.
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3. ​Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Marketing Tactics: How does the same person become the world’s most prominent bodybuilder, a real estate mogul, a successful entrepreneur, and the governor of the biggest state in America?
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   One answer: excellent marketing. This YouTube video is all about Arnold’s marketing philosophy.

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Today’s Finds

​Where Ideologies Come From: Why are so many old ideologies coming back into the public sphere? This essay offers an answer through the prism of a social science article called Ideologies of Delayed Industrialization. It describes the persistent cultural patterns that follow the same kinds of rapid and transformative societal changes that the Internet is now bringing to society. When the tectonic plates shift, leaders jostle for power by integrating old ideologies with the fashions of the present. From Ghandi to Confucius to The New York Times, this essay describes the persistence of this cultural pattern.

Formula One: One of my recipes for learning faster is to do something with people who are obsessed with that thing. It’s not just that ultra-passionate people know more than the average person. Even if they did, you can look up most information online. The benefit of surrounding yourself with passionate people is that their passion rubs off on you through a process of osmosis. Humans are mimetic and always will be. The faster we acknowledge how much others shape our interests, the better. To that end, the Internet can be a portal to people with particular passions — crafts, countries, people...whatever. . This YouTube channel illuminates the technical beauty of Formula One racing. Start with this video about corners or this one about tire wear. For an entry point into the culture of Formula One, I recommend this Netflix documentary.

The World’s Most Influential Intellectual: If you’ve never heard of Wang Huning, it’s time to change that. As one of Xi Jinping’s closest advisors and arguably China’s leading ideological theorist. In Chinese literature, his position is known as dishi, which translates to “Emperor’s Teacher." For 20 years, he’s predicted that America will decline because of nihilism and hyper-individualism — both of which have led to skyrocketing inequality, the destruction of the family, and the utter destruction of its heritage. This piece offers an introduction to his ideas, while this piece dives into the man himself.

Eugene Wei: To the extent that my work consists of betting on smart people, I’m happy to have been the first person to host a podcast interview with Eugene. He was one of the first people on Amazon’s finance team and led product at Hulu and video for Oculus at Facebook. He’s far more right-brained than the kinds of people I usually meet in Silicon Valley. For a short introduction to his thinking, I recommend this interview ,which builds upon his film background and love for movies. For something more in depth, I recommend Selfies as a Second Language or his three-part essay series about TikTok’s success.

The Theory of Constraints: When I started working with Tiago Forte, I learned how the Theory of Constraints shows up all over the place. For instance, my first introduction came through this excellent multi-part series about bottlenecks and supply chains. It’s essentially a summary of The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt (I recommend the audiobook). The theory provides an entry point to productivity, from personal tasks to global supply chains. To see how The Theory of Constraints is practically relevant, I recommend this Twitter thread about the Long Beach port and all the container ships camping out nearby. The idea that “you should always choose the most capital intensive part of the line to be your bottleneck” demands a deep think.