Profile of The Profile
Takeaway
Posts by Year
2020
Review of Substack in 2020
Takeaway
Cost of capital in the 21st century
Takeaway
Chaos and control
Takeaway
War of the words
Takeaway
Not everything is insider trading
Takeaway
Food as a service
Takeaway
How to get back to better
Takeaway
Fluctuat nec mergitur
Takeaways
Bruce Lee’s striking thoughts
Takeaway
Smartphones are boring, what’s next?
Takeaway
Would you cosign your AI chess partner?
Takeaways
Dan Wang on China 2019
Takeaway
2019 newsletter year in review
This was the 2019 annual review for the newsletter I write at Avoid Boring People:
We suck at taking feedback, here’s how to get better
Over the holidays I read Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, and thought it was one of the better books I’ve read in the past year. It ...
2019 annual reflection
I’ve written before about doing year end reflections. For 2019, I’ve updated the questions and made a new template based on other helpful articles I saw. I a...
2019
Saber Capital info vs time edge
I’ve found John Huber’s categorisation of investment edge indispensable in thinking about investing. He recently wrote more about it here [1].
Information speed and investing alpha
This week’s post is commentary on Geoff Yamane’s piece on information speed and investment alpha
2019 Punch Card Conference notes
I was lucky enough to get invited by a friend to the 2019 Punch Card Conference, the annual event for Project Punch Card, “a nonprofit that supports underrep...
Lux Capital annual dinner notes
I’ve been following Josh Wolfe of Lux Capital for a while now, as he’s sharp and also unafraid to call people out. Lux recently gave a short presentation at ...
How to conduct effective premortems
I’m a fan of conducting pre-mortems before projects since they help pre-empt problems. Gary Klein, Paul Sonkin, and Paul Johnson discuss common mistakes and ...
Job shadowing the job shadowing people at Hoppin
If you liked this, sign up for my monthly finance and tech newsletter
Final message of Boone Pickens
If you like this, you might like my monthly newsletter on finance and tech
John Chambers webinar
I attended a webinar with John Chambers recently, below are the takeaways:
Public secrets
If you like this, you might like my monthly newsletter on finance and tech
Always be raising
This is a lightly edited version of my monthly newsletter. Sign up here
Notes from Button’s 2019 TAP summit
I had the privilege of getting an invite from James Teodorini to Button’s TAP summit 2019. Button hosted a great lineup of speakers and organised an excellen...
A thousand true fans
I came across Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 true fans essay recently, and thought it was relevant to what I’m trying to do now with the website and the newsletter. Hig...
Developing a circle of competence loop
Benton Moss of Circle of Competence recently published a revised framework of how he thinks about developing a circle of competence. My thoughts on the docum...
Set a reminder in your personal CRM to read this
This is a lightly edited version of my monthly newsletter. Sign up here
Stanford prison experiment or Stanford prison acting class?
I’ve previously written about the replicability crisis in science. I recently learnt about criticisms of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment that I hadn’...
The benefits of friendship
Following up on last week’s post about different types of friendship, this week I’m going over the benefits of friendship, drawing on articles I found online...
Why can’t we be friends?
I recently organised group drinks for 12 people, a meetup for 8, and two separate dinners for 4. I like bringing people together, especially if the people th...
100 year old movie
I’m fascinated by things that deal with time. From experiments that show how memory and time are linked, to organisations that aim to last 10,000 years, seei...
Increasing nudge awareness
If you’ve used a travel site before, you’ll be familiar with a page that looks like this:
Query review
A friend launched a new project recently, Query News. This is a walkthrough of what the project is and some suggestions I have.
Would you buy the Libra Neopet Kin token?
This is a lightly edited version of my monthly newsletter. Sign up here
The controversy around Tim’s Vermeer is missing the point
I just learnt about Tim’s Vermeer, a documentary by Penn and Teller about inventor Tim Jenison’s attempt to reproduce a Vermeer using technology advanced for...
Ad targeting myths
People rightfully have privacy and other concerns in the current age of location sharing and targeting, which has been catalysed by GPS. The ability of ad ta...
Broken heart syndrome
“Aujourd’hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas.” The opening lines of The Stranger by Albert Camus captivated me when I first read it [1] a...
Improving forecasts and incentivising communists
*This is an adapted post from my email newsletter. Sign up here*
Becoming a millionaire in 80 million ways
*Disclaimer: The below is an opinion and for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for inv...
Review of Substack in 2019
Disclaimer: I was introduced to Substack by an employee there. Also, I’ve refreshed this review for 2020 here
Wechat creator talk notes
Wechat creator Allen Zhang [1] gave a long speech early this year about the app. The chinese version can be found here, and wechat also published an english ...
Set a microwave timer for 13.7bn yrs
*This is an adapted post from my email newsletter. Sign up here*
Investing and information
Conviction level: 80%
Hong Kong small cap stock plunges and pledges
I learnt about Webb-site this year and read some interesting articles about how stock pledges were causing small cap stock plunges here and here. This is a r...
P values - you (and I) are getting it wrong
*I’m neither a statistician nor a researcher; let me know if my summary below is inaccurate*
AI advances and investing insights
*This is an adapted post from my email newsletter*
Temporal illusions
Your nose is closer to your brain than your knee. Obvious.
Sam Altman’s conversation with Tyler
Tyler Cowen recently hosted a conversation with Sam Altman, who until recently was the longtime President at Y Combinator, a well known startup accelerator. ...
Why I write
Conviction level: 95%
Moloch the judger of social credit
This post is long and there’s no summary provided. Waste your time Read of your own volition.
Replicability Crisis
I remember standing in a bathroom with my arms on my hips in a superman pose, staring at the mirror. “This feels weird” said one side of my brain. “But…scien...
Tell me why
Conviction level in this idea: 60%
Where I stand
Conviction level in this idea: 80%
Dunning on Dunning-Kruger
Dumb people think they’re smart. Smart people think they’re dumb. This is a simplistic overview of the Dunning-Kruger effect. David Dunning explains more in ...
Bet against self control and sonic weapons
Interesting things I’ve read this month
2018
Long tails and chinese art theft
* Note: this is a backdated post from an email I sent to friends, edited for personal content and context
Selection bias and China trade
* Note: this is a backdated post from an email I sent to friends, lightly edited for personal content and clarity
Picking careers
* Note: this is a backdated post from an email I sent to friends, lightly edited for personal content and context
2017
Specialists vs Generalists
* Note: this is a backdated post from an email I sent to friends, lightly edited for content and context
What I’d want to learn in investment banking
Note: this is a backdated post from a framework I used in the past, edited for brevity. If you like this, you might like my newsletter:
Who is Claude Shannon?
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past
Morgan Housel’s top beliefs
* Note: this is a backdated post on notes I took in the past, edited for clarity
Richard Hamming on research
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past
Convertible arbitrage and short exposure
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past. Further disclaimer: Some of my ex-colleagues worked on this deal
Notes on fooled by randomness
* Note: this is a backdated post from notes I took on Taleb’s book in the past
Carlson’s decision making process
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past
2016
What is a sales learning curve and why is it important
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past
Tortoise vs hare
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past. If you like this, you’ll like my monthly finance and tech newsletter
Chandoo’s excel worst practices
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past
Excel calculation efficiency
* Note: this is a backdated post from something I took notes on in the past