Highlights: Great Lessons from our Guests

Here is a compilation of lessons from our guests, including quotes from the discussions. These are the topics covered:

• Gaining an Edge
• Importance of Having a Good Physique
• Are You Using Technology, Or is it Using You?
• and more…

Specialize and Gain an Edge:

Ludvig: This is really interesting–to become specialized. You said you were more visually oriented and this is something that you understood. Did you understand this at an early age or?

 

Martin Sandquist: Yes, I think so. Like I said, when I was 15, I started reading fundamental analysis and company reports and I just couldn’t really get my head around it. It wasn’t something that clicked in me so it took some while. Then, I found technical analysis when I was 16….. I started reading about it and I just became fascinated with the patterns and everything.

The Importance of Having a Good Physique

Because first impressions matter. And, in the words of Alexander Bard, “You can tell if someone is an infant or grown-up just by looking at their body.”

Alexander Bard: You get an infantilized human being. And this is the tragedy of our times. This has happened on a massive scale…. They stop trying. They stop making an effort, because they get the same reaction to everything they do all the time. Well, that’s exactly what an obese infantilized person does all the time. It’s just like, “Okay, so I won’t make an effort. We should be given everything we want at any given time, like a tit! without making an effort”. And the nanny state fosters people to think that way on a massive scale, and consumer societies also foster people to think that way on a massive scale. So this instant gratification, anything you want, constantly without any effort…. What’s detached from that is the idea that you do get a reward for something you do, because you made an effort, and you happen to have a talent for it!

 

Ludvig: Right. But then they go to social media or the internet, and they maybe haven’t developed their talent, and then they get beat on. And then they feel really angry and victimized.

 

Alexander Bard: And then they start new groups of people who’re victimized together. It’s like a race towards the bottom. This is what’s happening on a massive scale in society. Infantilization spreads. And it’s then rewarded. It creates a certain laziness and ignorance that then gets rewarded again.

 

Ludvig: You’re really describing how it comes to be. But then it becomes a self-sustaining feedback loop in the body.

 

Alexander Bard: Yes.

 

Ludvig: It becomes part of their homeostasis.

 

Alexander Bard: Exactly. This is my point.

 

Ludvig: It becomes their physiology.

 

Alexander Bard: You can literally look at a person’s physiology today and tell whether they’re infantile or whether they’re grownups. That’s scary, but that’s the truth.

Are You Using Technology, Or is it Using You?

We’ve developed all these time saving devices but people are busier than ever. It can take months to arrange something as simple as a dinner for 3 couples because people are so busy today. People are busy doing a lot of things they shouldn’t be doing because they don’t know what they should focus on.

-Barry Schwartz

Futurist Martin Ford On a Healthy Future Society

In order for society to properly adapt to robots, AI, and job loss, cultural ideas like The Protestant Work Ethic need to be eradicated.

Meaning: it needs to become more socially acceptable (than currently) to be unemployed or working part-time. If this does not happen, and cultural values remain the same in this aspect, then a large number of the population will be stigmatized, depressed, have low self-esteem and feel bad. 

Casey Gauss’ Entrepreneurial Advice

When it comes to developing a new product or service, “Good Enough” is good enough.

Don’t optimize the last 10-20% (before launching a product), do that last part (which takes longest) in conjunction with active customers. When you are in charge of a large budget project or a business with many employees, you cannot be a perfectionist, it will slow you down too much. That often means being willing to take a loss, in order to get a bigger win.

Tyler Cowen on keeping up with change:

3 things scarce in today’s economy:

1. Quality land,
2. intellectual property,
3. and specialized skill sets.

Your skill set must benefit synergistically from advances in computing power and Internet technology

Your profession/skill set must benefit synergistically from advances in computing power and Internet technology. The key question is: “Are computers and the internet augmenting your productivity, or are you competing against computers?

Look at this chart:

[Right-click view image to enlarge]

[Pictured: Average number of transistors in a CPU vs Employee productivity]

[Employee productivity is the dotted line on the bottom]