Investing on Instinct, Writing Philosophy, and More

Happy Sunday! 

The markets have been painful this week with stocks getting crushed, Bitcoin down 20%, and new Omicron fears rattling everyone’s portfolios. Come find sweet refuge in the content that we created for you this week.

Investing On Instinct

Evan Armstrong / Napkin Math

Sequoia Capital turned $11M in $495M in less than 12 months with their investment in Youtube. Their investment memo had 23 grammatical errors.  Masayoshi Son turned a $20M investment in Alibaba into a stake valued at $150B (!!!) all based on the look in the founder Jack Ma’s eyes. This week Evan explores the question: why are the best investments done with so little data? Citing examples as diverse as his own marriage and Marc Andreesen’s blog posts, he argues that the more data there is available, the easier the future is to forecast, and the more people arrive at consensus, driving down returns. He also gives some strategies for honing your own intuition when it comes to making investment deals.

Read.

How To Write Philosophy with Dr. Pamela Hieronymi

Dan Shipper & Kieran O'Hare / Superorganizers

Great writing is sometimes described as “complex ideas, made simple.” There is perhaps no field that requires more depth and nuance in its writing than philosophy. Wrestling with the great questions of existence and translating those ideas into words on a page is an incredible skill. This week’s Superorganizers features Dr. Pamela Hieronymi, a philosophy faculty member at UCLA and consulting philosopher on the acclaimed TV show, The Good Place. In this piece, she teaches her unique reading and writing processes that allow her to think through and write clearly about these tricky subjects.

Read.

Li Jin on the journey behind Variant’s new $110M fund to back the ownership economy

Nathan Baschez & Li Jin / Means of Creation

Li plays an Uno Reverse card this week and switches from the host chair to the guest one. This episode of Means of Creation is about Li’s newest venture fund, Variant Ventures. The $110M vehicle is not just focused on creators like her previous fund, but on the impact that crypto/web3 can have on all participants in online ecosystems. By moving from the “creator economy” to the “ownership economy” Li’s goal is to help make a more equitable internet.

Listen.

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You're Invited!

Member’s Only Event: $10k Work with Khe Hy

Khe Hy / radreads.co

We have a special event this week in our Discord! Khe Hy, former MD at BlackRock and current founder of RadReads (radreads.co) teach us how to build a productive work system: $10K Work—a modern productivity approach to getting the right things done.

If you can do it hungover, it's $10 work. We've all been there, whether it's Inbox Zero, bottom-less Slack threads and perfectly formatted Excel spreadsheets. Now consider, what's an activity that's 1,000x more impactful? An activity that will truly move you closer to your goals. Learn about the dynamic duo of skill and leverage — and how it leads to the magic of $10K Work.

The event will be hosted live on the Every Discord this Wednesday, December 8th at 10am EST/1pm PST. We'll cover:

• How to identify (and execute on) your highest leverage tasks
• How to prioritize, even when everything is a priority
• How to confidently say no to low-value work