The Curiosity Chronicle: On Fighter Mentality, Stripe as a Civilization, and More
Episode VI
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Without further ado, here’s Episode VI of The Curiosity Chronicle!
One Quote:
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” - Steve Jobs
I wrote on Memento Mori a while back. This quote from Steve Jobs (delivered during his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005) is the perfect synthesis of its meaning. Remember your mortality - not in a morbid sense, but in an empowering one.
One Tweet:
Dan Rose has a habit of dropping epic threads based on his incredible set of experiences as an operator at Amazon and Facebook. This one was up there among his best - a deep-dive on Mark Zuckerberg’s fighter mentality.
Zuck turning down a $1 billion acquisition offer in the face of board pressure is my favorite - it’s almost a 1000x since then…
One Article
Stripe: Thinking Like a Civilization
This is a monster of a piece from my friend Mario Gabriele over at The Generalist. If you have an hour, it’s worth a read, but if you don’t, it’s definitely worth a skim.
Stripe is one of the most fascinating businesses in the world, and this is one of the best pieces I’ve seen on it. It touches on how Stripe capitalized on “Schlep Blindness” (the tendency to avoid solving problems associated with tedious, unpleasant tasks like payments!) and even attempts to make the bear case for the business (which is becoming increasingly difficult). Kudos, Mario!
P.S. If this chart of the accelerating pace of Stripe’s product releases doesn’t blow your mind, I don’t know what will…
One Podcast:
Georges St-Pierre: The Science of Fighting (Lex Fridman Podcast)
I’m becoming a big fan of Lex Fridman’s podcast. Long, but pretty easy to skip through or listen to on 1.5x. This interview with Georges St-Pierre (GSP) was just awesome.
I study and admire excellence, irrespective of the field. GSP is the definition of excellence. He mastered his craft - listening to him talk about it is mesmerizing.
Listen to it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
One Bonus:
I know a thing or two about threads. This was a great one.
My favorite: “It costs about $200k to put your own book on the top of the NY Times Bestseller List. All you have to do is buy a lot of copies yourself.”
Bookmarked for future reference…
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That does it for Episode VI of The Curiosity Chronicle. Share it with your friends so they can join this growing curiosity tribe of 19,000+ members!
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Until next time, stay curious, friends!