Notes towards becoming a better investor
kaiton and
Notes towards becoming a better investor
Learning to lean into my weirdness has taken many shapes. Mostly it’s looked like embracing what comes to me naturally: I’ve always been much more interested in understanding people than ideas, get immense gratification from building lasting relationships, and consider it a lifelong goal to improve my discernment and refine my taste. This often shows up in how I spend my time: I rarely take pitch meetings (if a founder is fundraising already I probably didn’t get there early enough), always have a creative project I’m actively working on, and spend a significant amount of time striving to understand and translate myself to the page. Cultivating a view of the world that no one else has is an edge I consider critically important to Moth’s success, as well as something that requires continual cultivation and critical refinement.
Being a product person
kaiton • 25 cards
The term at hand, umarell, is borrowed from Emilian and is rare enough for my word processor to display it underlined with a string of pink dots. Literally it means “little man,” but within my tiny sub-community it means “someone who spends time observing workspaces, typically construction jobsites.” I am an umarell. I love watching work being... See more
If you've carefully analyzed a situation but something still feels wrong, that discomfort deserves attention. It might signal that your unconscious mind has recognized a pattern your conscious analysis missed. This is particularly true in uncertain and dynamic situations where, as Gigerenzer points out, logical analysis often falls short.
However—an... See more
However—an... See more
George Sudarkoff • Stop Analyzing Your Gut Feelings: A Counter-intuitive Guide to Better Leadership
I was young, naive, and plagued by impostor syndrome. I held back instead of exploring more, engaging more deeply, and seeking out more challenges. I allowed myself to be carried along by the current, rather than actively charting my own course. Youth is wasted on the young.
Why pretend to be smart and play it safe? True understanding is rare and... See more
Why pretend to be smart and play it safe? True understanding is rare and... See more
Murat Demirbas • My Time at MIT
There is a divine nature inherent to labor. The key to finding professional success and happiness is in seeking that sacred thing. Some people find that the divine comes from only devoting their labor to missions they care about. For me, I’ve found something spiritual in delighting in the minutia of my work.
Evan Armstrong • Searching for Signal
When you step into the Moat of Low Status, you also step away from the grinding of normalcy. On your first day of dance class, you don’t know how to move your body. Isn’t that exciting? You don’t know how to move your body. This thing you’ve been lugging around is now a whole new vehicle — it might move like a frenzied wolverine, or an indifferent... See more
Cate Hall • Learn to Love the Moat of Low Status
The idea of research as leisure activity has stayed with me because it seems to describe a kind of intellectual inquiry that comes from idiosyncratic passion and interest. It’s not about the formal credentials. It’s fundamentally about play . It seems to describe a life where it’s just fun to be reading, learning, writing, and collaborating on... See more