MNTS #26
[Week 45/ Year 2023] Neuromancer, Hobart, Simmons, Housel, Dalio, Cowen, Coat Hangers
Mainly, Notes To Self - my weekly attempt to compress everything noteworthy I read, watched, listened to, and discovered during the past week.
Hey! Quick note before we jump into things. This week marks the 26th consecutive edition of this newsletter (woo!), which (for me) is a significant milestone. Over the years, I’ve had several starts and stops writing different versions of weekly newsletters, but this is my longest consecutive streak. I recently caught a clip on social media of Morgan Housel on the Tim Ferris podcast where he says (paraphrasing)
“The variable I want to maximize for is consistancy, can I execute on this strategy over the next 50 years”
I love this perspective, and I believe the main difference this time was my mental framing from the start; when I committed to hitting publish on this project, I asked myself, “What can I commit to doing for a decade?” this simple reframing has made all the difference. Using consistency and long time horizons for endeavors that compound is a recipe for permanent alpha. Just show up.
Lastly, I actually look forward to and enjoy collecting and assembling this each week because I reduced the friction and established a workflow that makes this commitment realistic and manageable. Publishing a weekly newsletter is a skill to be acquired and honed over time, a fact I definitely underestimated in my prior attempts.
Here’s to another 2,574 editions of MNTS.
New Post-Book Notes
Reading
I randomly happened to read these three pieces back to back to back earlier this week, and they all seem to be pulling at the same thread from different directions. It’s always fascinating to me when a sequence like this occurs. I’m not exactly sure how to untangle these yet but it’s definitely got my wheels turning.
For some context Ray Dalio and his hedge fund Bridgewater and Associcates were underfire last week due to Rob Copeland’s book The Fund which is described as “The unauthorized, unvarnished story of famed Wall Street hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio.”
As a student of Dalio’s Principles I found this to be a useful opportunity to check for potential blindspots.
What’s the Matter With Bridgewater? by Byrne Hobart (paid)
Bridgewater is, in terms of total dollars produced for investors, the most successful hedge fund of all time, having earned some $46.5bn in returns.
See also Bridgewater Had Believability Issues by Matt Levine
They contain contradictory extremes — instead of being an ‘individual,’ each of them is a ‘multitude’…
That may perfectly sum up how extremely successful people operate. Of course they have abnormal characteristics. That’s why they’re successful! And there is no world in which we should assume that all those abnormal characteristics are positive, polite, endearing, or appealing.
I expect that the author will promote his book by saying outlandish things, people will make what they make of it, and I will keep doing what I’m doing without being distracted by it. I suspect that most people won’t be drawn into the gossip and will continue to decide for themselves whether or not what I’m passing along is of value to them. If they like it, I will keep providing it. If they don’t, I won’t. Also, the book won't matter to people who know Bridgewater and me well, and they are the people who matter most to me.
So to me everything written and alleged about Bridgewater probably has some kernal of truth to it, you can’t have extreme results without some extreme beliefs and extreme behaviors. Ultimately, it’s up to us as individuals to parse what we want to borrow from or replicate in our personal quests for success. I for one am appreciative of Dalio’s willingness to share his opinions and strategies however flawed they might be. I only wish more people of Dalio’s ilk had the cahones to do the same.
Listening
I’ve been following Tyler Cowen for many years, and I think this is the most unique and interesting interaction he’s recorded. I believe taste in music says a lot about a person, so to me, this episode is uniquely insightful. Rubin and Cowen are full of insights about the history of the music shared. I found this added context wildly intriguing, which sent me down several musical rabbit holes, one of my favorite pleasures. I wish Rick Rubin did more guest these guest DJ Episodes.
Random
Picked up a new coat rack on Offer Up this week. She gets my heart rate up faster than anything else I’ve experienced. 🥵
So far, I love incorporating this into my usual training as a warm-up and cash-out, but it will be interesting to see how much use this gets over the long haul.
Until next week.
Stay spirited, stay resilient.
Andrew