MONTHLY MULLING 💡
Buffett And Bezos, Ruining Life With Self-help, And A Lot Of Resources!
Hi👋,
Tapan here.
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Happy Sunday y’all!
I hope you’ll are safe and so are your loved ones. The bleak situation in India in the past month has been weighing me down. It’s difficult to scroll through social where almost every second post is pleading for a bed, oxygen, or medicines. I wanted to share some resources and donation links if you would like to help. If you have additional verified links, feel free to add them in the comments.
Resources: India Covid Resources, CovidResources, @PalakZat on Twitter (has been posting verified resources)
Donations: Hemkunt Foundation, India Covid Resources, Khalsa Aid
And I also hope you’re taking care of your health, especially mental health. It’s difficult when you’re living away from your loved ones and family. So do take care and get the support you need.♥
Onwards.
💭MULLING
🗄 Resource Links (Multiple Below)
I wanted to share some website and podcast links that I find useful and maybe, you would as well.
Tapan Desai Repository: Yes, I created a page with a curated list of all my favorite resources and ideas. It’s a huge page and I will keep it updated. It’s similar to CBM’s Rabbit Hole if you haven’t checked it out.
The Latticework: The Latticework is a site on a very difficult mission. It explains mental models from various fields and interconnects them. This site is still a work in progress but already has some amazing articles.
Five Books: For people looking for book recommendations, this site provides the top 5 books in all genres. If you’re looking for recommendations, you can also check out my favorite books.
CBM DCF Calculator: We released a DCF calculator for anyone who wants to estimate the value of an asset. I learned about DCF through my podcast and was struggling to find a good calculator that simplifies and explains each step. So, we built it.
I Have No TV: If you enjoy watching documentaries, this site is a huge repository of documentaries that you can stream for free!
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History: I have been bingeing on Hardcore history recently. If you’re a history buff, definitely listen to the podcast! It has about 12 episodes, each 4-5 hours. But worth your time. In all honesty, I have been in a history rabbit hole recently. Apart from Hardcore History,
I have been watching a docu-series on YouTube about the Origin of Egypt,
Odd Compass which makes beautiful videos on neglected Indian historical empires,
Raja, Rasoi, aur Kahaniyan which shares stories of the history of food in India
And finally, I recently ordered two history books from my reading challenge - India: A History by John Keay & The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
If you have other interesting resources, feel free to share them with me or leave a comment below.
💌 Annual Letters and Meetings (Essay, Video - 30 minutes)
Berkshire Hathaway recently held their AGM for their shareholders. Additionally, Bezos sent out his shareholder letter last month. I wanted to share my favorite points from each.
If you want to be successful in business (in life, actually), you have to create more than you consume. Your goal should be to create value for everyone you interact with. Any business that doesn’t create value for those it touches, even if it appears successful on the surface, isn’t long for this world. It’s on the way out.
Draw the box big around all of society, and you’ll find that invention is the root of all real value creation. And value created is best thought of as a metric for innovation.
Distinctiveness: We all know that distinctiveness – originality – is valuable. We are all taught to “be yourself.” What I’m really asking you to do is to embrace and be realistic about how much energy it takes to maintain that distinctiveness. The world wants you to be typical – in a thousand ways, it pulls at you. Don’t let it happen. You have to pay a price for your distinctiveness, and it’s worth it. The fairy tale version of “be yourself” is that all the pain stops as soon as you allow your distinctiveness to shine. That version is misleading. Being yourself is worth it, but don’t expect it to be easy or free. You’ll have to put energy into it continuously.
To all of you: be kind, be original, create more than you consume, and never, never, never let the universe smooth you into your surroundings. It remains Day 1.
On Robinhood: “The gambling impulse is very strong in people worldwide and occasionally it gets an enormous shove and conditions lead to this place where more people are entering the casino than are leaving every day, and it creates its own reality for a while and nobody tells you when the clock’s going to strike 12 and it all turns to pumpkins and mice."
On Bitcoin: "Those who know me well are just waving the red flag at the bull. Of course, I hate the bitcoin success. And I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful kidnappers and extortionists and so forth. Nor do I like shoveling out a few extra billions and billions and billions of dollars to somebody who just invented a new financial product out of thin air. So I think I should say modestly that the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization."
On Index Funds: "I recommend the S&P 500 index fund … I’ve never recommended Berkshire to anybody because I don’t want people to buy it because they think I’m tipping them into something. On my death there's a fund for my then-widow and 90% will go into an S&P 500 index fund."
😢 Why Self Improvement is Ruining Your Life (Video - 11 mins)
Okay, so in this video, I thought Nathaniel was directly talking to me. It's incredible especially for people who are chasing productivity or self-improvement continuously, like me.
I started on this path out of curiosity about a lot of things. But there was this underlying void, this thing that kept saying I can do better. I am not doing enough. And that voice still persists. If I am watching Netflix for more time than allocated, this inner voice gets louder. Stop wasting your time, you're not being productive.
I realized how unhealthy it was when I started meditating. It made me feel incomplete.
Nathaniel in this video hits the nail in the coffin. He says if you're trying to fix yourself through self-help, it will make you even more unhappy.
You cannot fix internal conflicts with external solutions.
The way we view productivity for the most part is being more productive = getting more done = more happiness. But productivity should not be tied to happiness.
It's like a drug. You want to tick off another thing from your to-do list. Work on that product. You're addicted to finding the next thing that will fill that void.
Focus less on the goals and more on the journey. The experience of getting there. Focusing more on the curiosity part and less on how can I optimize my evenings after work.
📚TREAT YO’ SHELVES
READING CHALLENGE 2021
Check out my 2021 Reading Challenge page (read 30-pages per day). You can join us on Goodreads, we have a group for the challenge!
I will be honest and say, I haven’t touched any of my books in the last three weeks. I have been busy with some personal stuff. Hoping to get back to reading soon.
📚 I am currently reading
The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks (soon to be shelved)
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (soon to be shelved)
India: A History by John Keay
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan
🎙PODCASTS
💰COLD BREW MONEY
📊 #40 - Macro Indicators for Q1 2021 & Tapan’s March Audit: We discuss macro indicators for Q1. I also continue the discussion around my expense audit from episode 36. Listen to the episode to find out how I spend my money per month. The results were honestly shocking. | Episode Page
🤓 #41 - US Debt and the Modern Monetary Theory - We discuss the basics of MMT, how money is printed, and why the US has so much debt. | Episode Page
💰 #42 - In Conversation With Dillon Jacobs From Vintage Value Investing Discussing Investment Strategies, Valuation, and Resources To Get Started - We talk about money with Dillon Jacobs from Vintage Value Investing | Episode Page
🧮 #43 - $DOGE & DCF Revisited - We are discussing DogeCoin and going through our DCF Calculator step-by-step | Episode Page
Chala.
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