The Best of Collab Fund

Tesla has single-handedly transformed the landscape of the automobile industry worldwide in less than two decades. Before it, almost no car companies were seriously invested in developing all-electric…

This is a short story about what happened to the U.S. economy since the end of World War II. That’s a lot to unpack in 5,000 words, but the short story of what happened over the last 73 years is…

Steven Pressfield wrote for 30 years before publishing The Legend of Bagger Vance. His career leading up to then was bleak, at one point living in a halfway house because it had cheap rent. He once…

«A unique skill, an underrated skill, is identifying the optimal amount of hassle and nonsense you should put up with to get ahead while getting along.»

Steamboat Willie put Walt Disney on the map as an animator. Business success was another story. Disney’s first studio went bankrupt. Later cartoons were monstrously expensive to produce, and financed…

This article originally appeared on Fortune.com. David Paul Gregg invented the CD, which is amazing and changed history. But you’ve probably never heard of him because CDs aren’t difficult to make,…

Amazon launched 22 years ago this week. Its first web page shows its early days: What’s neat about this isn’t what’s changed. It’s what’s stayed the same. The line, “One million titles, consistently…

«Each iteration is a front-line battle where you’re exhausted from the last war but overconfident from its victory. So the odds keep stacking against you»

You spend years trying to learn new stuff but then look back and realize that maybe like 10 big ideas truly changed how you think and drive most of what you believe. Brent Beshore recently listed the…

A few things I’ve come to terms with: There is rarely more or less economic uncertainty; just changes in how ignorant people are to potential risks. You should obsess over risks that do permanent…

«Most assholes are going through something terrible in their life. People hide their skeletons, which requires blind forgiveness of their quirks and moods because you’re unaware of what they’re dealing with.»

“No one has to tell you you’ve come to the right place. The look of merchandising authority is complete and unmistakable.’’ That’s how the New York Times described Sears in 1983. '‘In the markets we…

If you find something that is true in more than one field, you’ve probably uncovered something particularly important. The more fields it shows up in, the more likely it is to be a fundamental and…

«“your margin is my opportunity,” which is the same concept. The biggest opportunities happen when a hot talent meets a cold industry.»

An irony of studying history is that we often know exactly how a story ends, but have no idea where it began. Here’s an example. What caused the financial crisis? Well, you have to understand the…

The night before the D-Day invasion, a nervous Franklin Roosevelt asked his wife Eleanor how she felt about not knowing what would happen next. “To be nearly sixty years old and still rebel at…

«The future is always endlessly unpredictable. What changes isn’t the level of uncertainty, but the level of people’s complacency.»

Will Smith writes in his biography that: Becoming famous is amazing. Being famous is a mixed bag. Losing fame is miserable. The amount of fame almost doesn’t matter. It’s the trajectory that people…

«Will Smith writes in his biography that: Becoming famous is amazing. Being famous is a mixed bag. Losing fame is miserable.»

There’s a saying – I don’t know whose – that an expert is always from out of town. It’s similar to the Bible quote that no man is a prophet in his own country. That one has deeper meaning, but they…

«“All businesses are loosely functioning disasters” Brent Beshore says. But it’s like an iceberg, only a fraction is visible.»

In 2004 the New York Times interviewed Stephen Hawking, the late scientist whose motor-neuron disease left him paralyzed and unable to talk since age 21. Apparently in a good mood, the Times asked…

«there’s almost a complete ignorance of expectations, especially managing them with as much effort as we put into changing our circumstances.»

A lot of things don’t make any sense. The numbers don’t add up, the explanations are full of holes. And yet they keep happening – people making crazy decisions, reacting in bizarre ways. Over and…

«The concept of economic value is easy: whatever someone wants has value, regardless of the reason (if any), and its value is higher the more it’s wanted and the less there is of it.»

Three rare and powerful skills: 1. Understanding how people justify their beliefs in a way that makes you respect their delusions. A rare and useful skill is understanding that people you find to be…

Jan 25, 2022 SHARE ↓ Scott Adams, the Dilbert creator, says he doesn’t have any extraordinary skills. He’s a pretty good artist. He’s kind of funny, an OK writer, and decent at business. But multiply…

«most incredible things come from compounding, and compounding isn’t intuitive because the incremental inputs are never exciting on their own.»

Do you know what’s happening in this picture? Literally one of the most important events in human history. But here’s the most amazing part of the story: Hardly anyone paid attention at the time.…

A trick to learning a complicated topic is realizing how many complex details are a cousin of something simple. John Reed writes in his book Succeeding: When you first start to study a field, it seems…

«Most people are blind to their own faults. As Ben Franklin wrote, “Vice knows she’s ugly, so she hides behind a mask.”»

David Cassidy seemed to have the best life you could imagine. A teenage heartthrob who sold out arenas and was so popular his shows turned into stampede risks. From the outside it looked like as…

«False confidence makes the eventual reality all the more shocking. Some are more susceptible to risk than others, but no one is exempt from being humbled.»

In 1984 Jane Pauley interviewed 28-year-old Bill Gates. “Some people call you a genius,” Pauley said. “I know that might embarrass you but …” Gates deadpans. No emotion. No response. “OK, I guess that…

By age 35, Akinola Bolaji had already spent two decades scamming people online, posing as an American fisherman to con vulnerable widows into sending him money. The New York Times asked the Nigerian…

«2. A good question to ask is, “Which of my current views would change if my incentives were different?”»

Nov 2, 2022 SHARE ↓ The most important decisions in your life may be whether to marry, who to marry, and whether to have kids. But none of those topics are taught in school. They’re hardly even…