quaranta

notes on money, risk and the people who carry it

A List

As a reminder:

The Three Pillars

  • Workout
  • Eat Healthy
  • Read for at least one hour a day

Nothing good can be built if you don't keep those things in check.

Now going beyond:

  • Seek to secure equity in a business that will provide you passive income. You only need to be right once. We call this leverage.
  • Work with your hands and fight as much as you can. (In a controlled setting of course). We call this violence.
  • Go out of your way to earn another person’s respect, and once you have it, try to earn it every day. We call this love.
  • Not everyone will believe the same things as you and even if you disagree, try to seek out why they feel and think this way. Often, you will find a middle ground that helps in your assessments of things. We call this understanding.
  • Don’t memorize formulas. To quote Feynman, Nature weaves her web from only the longest tapestries, and most things are connected. True understanding is connecting the dots and teaching someone else in a simplified way. We call this knowledge.
  • Put yourself in uncommon situations daily. The best scenario is that you lose and learn something deep about yourself that only could have been brought out by such a catalyst. We call this wisdom.
  • Know that you know nothing. Less is more, and that human beings are path-dependent. We call this happiness.

And now further:

  • Happiness without material comfort is playing on hard mode. Possible? Yes - but the older you get the more difficult this becomes.
  • Suffering is a contract you make with yourself to withstand pain for a greater purpose. There is no expiration date.
  • The modern struggle is fighting monetized and weaponized addiction.
  • Nature is brutal. Humans fool ourselves into thinking we are sophisticated creatures, and the winners do whatever it takes while the masses bicker.
  • You cannot achieve true peace, only understanding.
  • If you seek those who speak truth, look for those who are the most quiet.
  • What society wants for you is almost always not what is good for you.
  • Hard sciences teach you to understand the world; business teaches you to misunderstand it.
  • Academia makes wise men bored and makes foolish men dangerous.
  • Duality of freedom: Avoid being a slave but also avoid being a master.
  • Avoid being admired but don’t be disliked (too much).
  • Do not EVER socialize with people who are richer than you if you want to become rich yourself.
  • If you keep finding reasons to be in a relationship, end it.
  • Tell the truth, and people will wonder about you. Lie and people will know exactly who you are.
  • It’s okay to be greedy despite what they tell you.
  • True understanding is breaking something and putting it back together. Start with yourself.
  • You can be many things, but never be weak.
  • Go out of your way to do one nice thing a day and you will never be lonely.
  • If you are lonely, learn a skill and provide value.
  • The most egregious form of disrespect is wasting someone’s time.
  • Time is not the most valuable commodity, information is.
  • You are the king if you can silence a king.
  • If you cannot get equity in a business, then build a business.
  • People hate what they cannot understand, and so your beginning years will be quite lonely.
  • If you cannot get what you want through charity, then get it through force. Offer charity again after.