👋Hello friends. Here’s to a great weekend.

📚WHAT WE READ

Pure gold😂😂😂

Matt Levine parodies Adam Nueman’s first encounter with Masayoshi Son:

Son: What does your company do?

Neumann: We lease office buildings, spruce up the space and sublet it in small chunks.

Son: Hmm I invest in visionary tech stuff, this doesn’t really sound like my thing.

Neumann: Did I mention we are a state of consciousness. A generation of interconnected emotionally intelligent entrepreneurs.

Son: Okay yeah that’s more like—

Neumann: The world’s first physical social network. We encompass all aspects of people’s lives, in both physical and digital worlds.

Son: You’re crazy! I love it! But could you be, say, ten times crazier?

Neumann: You’re going to invest $10 billion in my company, which I will use as kindling to light the whole edifice on fire, and then when we are both standing in the ashes you will pay me another billion dollars to walk away while I laugh at you.

Son: All my life I have dreamed of meeting someone as crazy as you, but I never really believed this day would come. 

Neumann: I’m gonna use your money to buy a mansion with a room shaped like a guitar, where I will play the world’s tiniest violin after all your money is gone. 

Son: YES PUNCH ME IN THE FACE.

Neumann: Also I’ll rename the company “We” and charge it $6 million for the name.

Son: RUN ME OVER WITH A TRUCK.

Adam Driver, The Original Man (The New Yorker)

Probably best known for playing Kylo Ren in the last two installments of Star Wars (the third coming out this December). But his acting chops run deeper as he is expected to be a shoo-in for a best actor nod at this year’s Oscars for his role in Marriage Story👇

Also, one of my favorite SNL skits😂😂😂

📚Read the full profile.

How Former Hollywood Mogul Barry Diller Built A $4.2 Billion Tech Fortune Out Of Underdog Assets (Forbes)

From the article:

In a former life, he was one of the most powerful hired hands in Hollywood, heading Gulf & Western’s movie studio, Paramount Pictures, from 1974 to 1984 before leaving to build Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Broadcasting into the fourth national network.

His string of blockbusters include Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Raiders of the Lost Ark at Paramount and The Simpsons at Fox. But in the 1990s Diller pivoted hard after a sojourn selling zirconium baubles on QVC convinced him that the future lay in the convergence of entertainment, commerce and the internet.

Act Two (or Three or Four—who’s counting?) for Diller has been IAC/InterActiveCorp, an online conglomerate that has grown to a value of $20 billion after a tenfold surge in its stock over the past decade, yielding Diller a $4.2 billion fortune, good for No. 168 on The Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. 

📚Read Barry’s profile. (HE’S A FASCINATING CHARACTER)

🎙WHAT WE LISTENED TO

StartUp, the final season (Gimlet Media)

One the first podcast I listened to after Serial season one.

In three episodes, they document their sale to Spotify ($SPOT).

• Our company has problems. (Ep. 1)

• Thanksgiving in Stockholm. (Ep. 2)

• Exit. (Ep.3)

To see how far they’ve come, I recommend listening to the first episode when Alex pitches angel investor Chris Sacca on the idea that would eventually become Gimlet Media.

🎧Listen to the first-ever episode: How not to pitch a billionaire.

How to spot trends before they are obvious… (Noah Kagen Presents)

Unless…

You subscribe to Glimpse.

Noah Kagen interviews Noah Fram-Schwartz, co-founder of Glimpse.

What they do:

Glimpse analyzes hundreds of millions of consumer behavior signals from across the web to surface the fastest growing trends that are under the radar; including products, companies, and industries.

How you can use their data:

• Lanch products before they go viral.

• Source under-the-radar investments.

• Understand the marketing tactics of today’s viral trends.

🎧Listen to the episode.

After listening to this episode, I immediately got the itch to start a Shopify ($SHOP) store.

By the way, if you do want to start a Shopify store, I’m re-recommending this Twitter thread from last week.

Khallil@kmx411

More people need to start @Shopify stores and dabble in making passive income I did this with a ~$500 upfront investment, and a few hours. Today I spend ~1-2h/week supporting it, almost everything is automated by combining FB ads, Shopify, a 3PL, and a virtual assistant AMA?

October 16th 2019

32 Retweets464 Likes

How stories and psychology shape our economic lives (Hidden Brain)

Boy does this seem timely…

In this episode: Economist Robert Schiller talks about the role stories play in our economic lives — not just the purchases we make as individuals, but the fate of entire economic systems.

🎧Listen to Bob dispense his wisdom.

Want more Bob?

Barry Ritholz of Bloomberg also interviews the professor.

🎧Listen here.

📺WHAT WE WATCHED

Why Costco ($CSTO) is cheaper than Amazon ($AMZN)

One of my favorite follows on YouTube. He goes by the handle, PolyMatter.

View his channel.

Tis the season for fall cocktails🍂

My first exposure to the Oracle of Omaha

One of the first videos I ever watched of Warren Buffett back in 2007. The quality is lacking but the info is great.

I think there are seven parts to this talk. Parts two through seven should pop-up under recommended videos. If not, just search — “Warren Buffett, Florida.”

🔥TWEETS OF THE WEEK

Ohhh…Snap😮 What a troll job by Elon Musk

Elon Musk@elonmusk

@zerohedge 😘1

November 8th 2019

1,428 Retweets11,874 Likes

He wrote this letter to hedge fund manager David Einhorn; who came to fame during the financial crisis and is a vocal short-seller of Tesla ($TSLA).

Embrace variety

ᴅᴀᴠɪᴅ ᴘᴇʀᴇʟʟ ✌@david_perell

Lessons from different fields: 1) Advertising: We overestimate our capacity for independent thought. 2) Poker: Life is probabilistic. We can do everything right and still lose. 3) Architecture: We're influenced by our environment, especially when we don’t realize it.

November 7th 2019

69 Retweets448 Likes

ᴅᴀᴠɪᴅ ᴘᴇʀᴇʟʟ ✌@david_perell

4) Sports: Momentum is the great equalizer. It strengthens the weak, and weakens the strong. 5) Logistics: Most of the economy is invisible to you. The world is way, way bigger than you think. 6) Politics: People's stated preferences can differ widely from their revealed ones.

November 7th 2019

13 Retweets141 Likes

ᴅᴀᴠɪᴅ ᴘᴇʀᴇʟʟ ✌@david_perell

7) Gambling: Don't give people consistent rewards. Vary the size and frequency of rewards instead. 8) Investing: A small number of events account for the majority of outcomes. 9) Writing: If you read what everybody reads, you'll think what everybody else thinks.

November 7th 2019

10 Retweets124 Likes

#9 is tough for me. I’m drawn to things that are familiar.

Useful hack: At least once a week, I force myself to read or listen to something that is out of my comfort zone.

Being honest

The Irrational Investor@position_trader

“Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.” - Charlie Munger True for life. True for investing.

November 7th 2019

34 Retweets237 Likes

Business models

Ryan Reeves@investing_city

McDonald's doesn't sell burgers, it sells franchises. It's a real estate company, not a fast-food restaurant. [THREAD]

November 6th 2019

1,653 Retweets4,816 Likes

Great thread. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

🔮PRODUCTS TO WATCH

Interesting products from emerging companies.

Move over Peloton ($PTON), and say hello to Mirror

A review by Wirecutter👆

Visit their website.

Curated: A personalized shopping experience

Curated helps you find just what you’re looking for by pairing you with experts in their chosen field.

See how they do it.

📊THE WEEK’S BEST CHARTS

ISM manufacturing index falls to the lowest level since June 2009

Source: Axios

The ISM manufacturing index — a.k.a the purchasing manager’s index (PMI) — is considered a leading indicator for the U.S. economy. They compile the index by surveying purchasing managers at more than 300 manufacturing firms.

The big picture. Per Axios:

• Manufacturing is a small portion of the U.S. economy but is considered a leading indicator.

• The services sector, which makes up close to 70% of the economy, has been closely following manufacturing. If it falls into contraction that could mean real trouble.

A list I will never make😔

Source: Statista

Just not great🤬

Source: Axios

💥LATEST MEMBER UPDATES

• 🤑5 Stocks to Watch.

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🤡GIPHY TO GO

Joker is set to book almost $500 million in profits; A record for an R rated movie.

Which is almost as much as Avengers Infinity War. But Joker was $260 million cheaper to make. Bravo to our favorite clown👏👏👏

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Caleb

🔥DON’T FORGET TO SHARE

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👋Hello. Every Saturday morning we’re going to send our favorite listens, reads, and watches. Have recommendations? Feel free to shoot me an email at thecorner@tradesam.com or DM me on Twitter @jcd5816.

Have a great weekend!

📚What we Read

PMARCA Guide to Personal Productivity

I’ve tried many productivity hacks throughout the years; none have seemed to stick. Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape and partner at Andreessen Horowitz, wrote this back in 2007.

His formula:

• Don’t keep a schedule.

• Work on whatever is most important or most interesting at the time.

• Keep three lists: Todo list, a watch list, and a later list.

Read the whole article

Three Big Things: The Most Important Forces Shaping the World

Another must-read by Morgan Housel. If you read one thing this weekend, read this!

From the article:

Every current event – big or small – has parents, grandparents, great grandparents, siblings, and cousins. Ignoring that family tree can muddy your understanding of events, giving a false impression of why things happened, how long they might last, and under what circumstances they might happen again. Viewing events in isolation, without an appreciation for their long roots, helps explain everything from why forecasting is hard to why politics is nasty.

Read now!

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on it

I’m about half-way through this book, and I love it! Learning how to persuade, influence, and negotiate are life skills I’ve underinvested in. No more🤨 (h/t subscriber Marc for the recommendation)

Buy it on Amazon

🎧What we Listened To

Bizogrpahy: The History of Marriott

Willard Marriott Sr. got his start in business at age 14 when his father entrusted him to sell their family’s 3,000 sheep; sending him alone to San Francisco to complete the transaction.

His first real business was an A&W rootbeer franchise he bought in 1927. After that, he expanded into restaurants and didn’t open his first hotel until 1957.

Today, Marriott ($MAR) is the third-largest hotel chain in the world with a market cap of $40 billion.

Listen to their story

The Rewatchables: Remember the Titans

One of my favorite podcasts. The Ringer crew does a deep dive on the 2000 hit movie about a high school football team during the early days of integration.

Listen now

📺What we Watched

What is it about watching other people cook food? This is on the top of my list for a weekend cook.

Giphy to Go

Have a great weekend😎

Caleb