Maps
w.177 | Going Pro, Mimetic Desire, Stablecoins = Not So Stable, Declining College Enrollment
Dear Friends,
Hope you’ve had a good week as we run up to the end of 2022. This is a weekend of holiday parties, so I’ll keep this short :)
Today's Contents:
Good Reads: Sensible Investing
Book Review: Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
Song of the Week: Maps
Good Reads: Sensible Investing
Going Pro: 2017 Year in Review - Essay by Brett Beshore of Permanent Equity.
TL/DR: How we went from the world's smallest family office to raising $50M, then $300M, from Missouri:
“All investments are probabilistic guesses about the future and all are imprecise. By not cutting a cost, you’re implicitly betting that it will yield a desirable return, or mitigate a meaningful risk.”
Graham & Doddsvile Fall 2022 - Newsletter from Columbia Business School.
“We are good at finding things that look cheap with explosive upside. But the area where we sharpen our pencils is differentiating between CFAR (cheap for a reason) and TCTI (too cheap to ignore).”
One Of These Stablecoins Is Not Like The Others by Dirty Bubble Media.
Can you guess which one? It’s Tether.
College Enrollments are Shrinking by Kevin Carey in Vox.
The article looks ahead. Why the change? Declining birthrates after 2007. Poor product for this modern job market. This has been in the works for a long time.
Book Review: Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
Here on Amazon.
Tag line: “A groundbreaking exploration of why we want what we want, and a toolkit for freeing ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires.”
The concept of Mimetic Desire is one of those Silicon Valley truism that had it’s moment. My view was that the concept was pretty self-explanatory, so why read a whole book about it? But, after seeing it recommended a few more times, I thought I would take the plunge and borrowed it from Libby.
I’m glad I read the book - it was a pretty quick read - and engaged deeper with the concept. The topics cover a lot of what I experience in life: convincing people of your expertise; the importance of the first follower; accumulating social proof; etc.
The author lost some credibility with the Dan Price example (recall the founder who supposedly gave up $1M in salary to boost employee minimum salary and has since resigned in disgrace). He did get great press though.
A few key quotes/reflections:
On desires, rivalry, and competition:
“Desire, like gravity, does not reside autonomously in any one thing or person. It lives in the space between them.”
“We are more threatened by people who want the same things as us than those who don’t.”
“Rivalry is a function of proximity. when people are separated from us by enough time, space, money, or status, there is no way to compete seriously with them for the same opportunities.”
On creating desire in others:
“The investors who molded their own desirability — who postured as selective and demanding — took on a higher value in his mind than the one investor who didn’t.”
“The fastest way to become an expert is to convince a few of the right people to call you an expert.”
On getting to truth:
“The key is carefully curating our sources of knowledge so that we are able to get down to what is true regardless of how many other people want to believe it. And that means doing the work.”
I recommend the book and the concept. I was reflecting on it with a friend - who was a mimetic high school rival - and noted that we’ve both spent our careers in brutally competitive environments facing world-class individuals who were smart, motivated, and talented. And that seemed to create a lot of mimetic frenzy, anxiety, hubris, etc.
However, the people I’d put on my mimetic list are usually my closest friends - people I’d like to work with, spend time with, invest with, talk with, etc. The group I play the game with has driven me to sharper, stronger, and more resilient. So there’s that.
Selfie and Song of the Week: Maps
Music video here.
The song is about the relationship between Liars front man Angus Andrew and Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O. It was released 2003. It’s known that MAPS stands for My Angus Please Stay.
Regarding the music video, Karen explains: "They were real tears. My boyfriend at the time (Angus Andrew) was supposed to come to the shoot – he was three hours late and I was just about to leave for tour. I didn't think he was even going to come and this was the song that was written for him. He eventually showed up and I got myself in a real emotional state”
I’m not sure he’s worth it, Karen. But, I’ve always liked the phrase ‘they don't love you like I love you.’ And it’s powerful to put out what you feel and know to be true, particularly if it isn’t reciprocated.
“Maps” by Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs
Made off
Don't stray
My kind's your kind
I'll stay the same
Wait, they don't love you like I love you
Wait, they don't love you like I love you
Maps
Selfie of the Week:
I spent much of this week in Los Angeles and was able to stay with my college friend and, once mimetic rival, Paul.
We were co-presidents of Duke Debate and often debate partners. Paul is incredibly sarcastic and witty. At a debate tournament our freshman year, we were obviously losing and made the final speech about how the evaluation criterion for the round should be the team with the greatest amount of demonstrated Irish-ness and that we should win because we have collectively three double consonants in our last names.
On a previous visit, I convinced Paul that he should proudly display his beloved stapler collection. And, here it is still in his living room.
Thanks for reading, friends. Please always be in touch.
As always,
Katelyn