The Best of Collab Fund

You don’t have to know exactly what the future holds to know that some people will handle it better than others. Money can bring happiness but it also brings complexity, and complexity can quickly…

«The four most dangerous financial traits are: FOMO, an addiction to the appearance of certainty when none exists, impatience, and laziness.»

I like the idea of the reverse obituary: Write down what you want your obituary to say, then figure out how to live up to it. Everyone’s will be different, but I suspect most people would want their…

«I like nice things. I have some fancy things. But I’m always struck by the contrast here of what people want vs. what they aspire to.»

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…

«In the absence of variety, bad ideas tend to stick around, which is also exactly what happens in closed societies and large corporations.»

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.»

The fastest way to get rich is to go slow. Many beliefs are held because there is a social and tribal benefit to holding them, not necessarily because they’re true. Nothing is more blinding than…

«We should be careful praising winners or criticizing failures, because they often made similar decisions with different degrees of luck.»

A few short stories whose lessons apply to many things: Author R.L. Stine is one of the bestselling authors of all time. His Goosebumps series of scary kids books have sold over 400 million copies.…

«A book is far more than what the author wrote; it is everything you can imagine and read into it as well.”»

“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…

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…

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…

«Tribes reduce the ability to challenge ideas or diversify your views because no one wants to lose support of the tribe.»

A few lines I came across recently that I liked: “The appetite for applause counts amongst the lowest of human character traits.” – Jan-Willem van der Rijt “A great way to understand yourself is to…

«“People in their 30s know where the world is going because they’re going to do it. I’m in my 80s so I have no idea.” – Daniel Kahneman»

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.»

I remember reading an article years ago about a father in Yemen who lost a son to starvation, only to have another child fall dangerously ill. Desperate, he turned to tribal elders who recommended a…

«People can be led to believe and defend almost anything, because the goal of a belief is often not to discover what’s true»

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.»

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…

«Treating words like they cost you something is the right mindset.»

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.»

I think there’s an “ideal” net worth for everyone, when money not only stops bringing pleasure but becomes a social liability. And that number is probably lower than most people think. Business…

«They figured out what so many other people – the rich, the middle class, the aspiring rich, and everyone in between – failed to recognize.»

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.”»

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…

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 greatest innovation of the last generation has been the destruction of information barriers that used to keep strangers isolated from one another.»

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.»

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch once nearly died of a heart attack. Years later he was asked what went through his mind while he was being rushed to the hospital in what could have been his…

«Psychologist Jonathan Haidt says people don’t communicate on social media; they perform for one another. Spending money is like that, too.»