How to Recognize What You’re Really, Really Good At, Death of a Flywheel, The Impossibility of Being Charlie, and More

Hello, and happy Sunday! 

First, some housekeeping: Every is live on Spotify with Evan’s first audio essay. If you prefer to be informed verbally, give it a listen. Like and subscribe so you can get our essays in your feed, and let us know what you think in the comments.

Now, on to everything we published this week, along with our take on the latest tech and business news. 

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Our stories

“How to Recognize What You’re Really, Really Good At” by Jason Feifer: You could do things you suck at, or you could do things you’re good at. The tricky bit is that the delta between good and suck is smaller than you think—and identifying what you are good at is the biggest challenge of all. Entrepreneur editor in chief Jason Feifer tells you how to find your excellence. Read this if you want to lean into your strengths. 

“Will Google’s Bard Be a Destination Chatbot?” by Dan Shipper/Chain of Thought: Sundar made like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally this week: Google released a new AI model and faked the demo. However, Dan thinks that the technology isn’t wholly bad—there is a possibility that it can break out beyond the Google ecosystem. Read this if you are trying to figure out if there is any way to escape OpenAI’s monopoly. 

"The Impossibility of Being Charlie" by Evan Armstrong/Napkin Math: Charlie Munger was widely admired. He was a billionaire. He was an author whose signature work has been republished in three editions. Many people in finance worship him, and of course Evan wants to emulate his success. The only problem? He has no idea how. Read this if you struggle to connect the dots between successful people and your own life. 

"Death of a Flywheel" by Evan Armstrong/Napkin Math: When a company takes all the market share it can, it can either grow into a new market, or slowly shrivel and die. Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway have gone far beyond what anyone expected, but can they take it further? Read this if you want to figure out the relationship between innovation and market size.