CDOQ

Earlier today I finished reading, Range (by David Epstein), an interesting book that makes a case of learning about multiple disciplines (becoming a "generalist") vs. specializing early in life (becoming a "specialist"). I found the case to be compelling probably because I am a generalist with broad experience.  Charlie Munger has talked about the same idea for decades. The study of complex systems is based on breaking the boundaries of academic disciplines.  The world needs both specialists and generalists. A lot more specialists than generalists.  Regardless, one has to pursue disciplines one is curious about. Some people are curious about a lot of things. 

Society is evolving to prioritize feelings over duty. It is dangerous. 

A company's technological competitive advantages are head start advantages in a race. If the company slows down in technology development, competitors catch up. 

Investment finance, as taught by business schools, is a study of sophistication and precision applied to guesswork. 

Charlie Munger, age 99, still sharing his wisdom, humor, and mistakes.  Notable Munger line from the Daily Journal ($DJCO) shareholder meeting - dumb is forever. 

Feelings don’t move the world forward. Action does. 

China realized that running the economy is more important than avoiding all COVID deaths because eventually more people might die because of a bad economy. 

Illogic in others can be used logically. 

Eventually, something widely useful will come out of blockchain and crypto technologies. 

It used to be that fiction was more important to the peace in society than the reality. 

Fiction is more dangerous to the peace in a society than the reality. 

Ambiguity can be beautiful.  Sunset in Cabo San Lucas 

Almost everything is relative. 

Intensity of expression declines with age. 

Politicians provide simple answers to complex problems. Management consultants provide complex answers to simple problems. 

Crisis clarifies. 

All human systems have their own variation of irrationality. 

It is not important to know everything but critical to know the difference between what you know and what you don't know. 

The happiest people are the ones not looking for happiness. 

Around three years ago, I started a podcast, Valley Nordic , with a Norwegian venture capitalist, Arne Tonning , as an experiment. Arne and I think differently about the the world. He has a Nordic and a venture capitalist perspective on technology companies and I have a silicon valley perspective on business. Hence, the podcast is titled Valley Nordic. We started as an experiment to see if we record our conversations and post them online, would anybody listen. A few days after our first episode was released, we got feedback that we needed topics for our episodes:) In essence, the podcast is a free flowing conversation between Arne and I on business, culture, and technology with our diverse perspectives as they relate to selected topics.  Thanks to our listeners, we published our 100th episode last week.  We looked into 27 companies and we were right about their growth challenges and their valuations. See the complete podcast episodes index:   Episode T...

All industries have their own versions of irrationality. 

Necessity is the father of acceptance and acceptance is the mother of peace. Hence, necessity is the granddaddy of peace. 

Everybody is a leader on LinkedIn.  Everybody is an advisor on Twitter.  Everybody is good-looking on Instagram.  Everybody is an entertainer on Tiktok.  Everybody not keeping with the times is on Facebook.  Influencers are the most influenced.  All are seeking attention and corporations are monetizing that attention. 

Tree inside a leaf                                                            

Money can buy everything except things that are not for sale. 

The most dangerous stories are the ones that only exist in your head. 

"Calculus is a story of infinitesimal change in integrate dimensional space - one dimensional, two dimensional, three dimensional space. We need a theory of infinitesimal  change in fractional dimensional and dynamic  dimensional space. No such theory exists."  - Stephen Wolfram

There is no digital world without the physical world. 

This post is an update on societal and business trends I identified in 2019. 2020 year-end update is in shown in blue font and this 2021 year-end update is in purple font.  At the end of 2019, I wrote down the list of societal trends I had been noticing over the years because I wanted to actively observe these trends in 2020. A pandemic happened in 2020 and we are still living in it. Surprisingly, almost all trends (19 out of 20) are still continuing. Following are my  Y ear  E nd of  2020   U pdates (YE2020U; all new 2020 text is in blue) to the trends.  ----- 2019 is coming to an end and continuing my quest to better understand human behavior, I wrote down the twenty trends I have been noticing for a few years. It would be interesting to observe these trends in 2020 to see how they evolve and if they achieve wider adoption. There are multiple reasons why these trends have emerged but in this article we will only look at what the trends are. Unless specifi...