My wife and I have decided to write more. Or rather, I have been encouraging her to write more, and make it a group activity. I succesfully convinced her to set a 20 min timer, and keep writing till the timer goes off. She is still writing, the 20 minute timer went off a while back. I think my scheme succeeded. I also wrote a few stray thoughts of my own to accompany her in this writing exercise. The following are the thoughts, unedited.
Information asymmetry
why don’t people share their salary? what’s the instinct that makes them feel weird about sharing such stuff? Yes, part of it is cultural. But the other big piece imo is maintaining information asymmetry. Information asymmetry is like potential difference in many ways. Without potential difference, there would be no electricity. But in this case, there is money/fame/success/etc instead of electricity. That means the secret to success is finding pockets of information asymmetry. What is something you know, that a majority of the population may not? Some of the most well paid jobs are built on information asymmetry – consultants, IB, software devs. I know engineering well enough to say with confidence, 90% is not that hard. It’s just I know, and you don’t. Information asymmetry.
The unfortunately simple secret to finding what you love
I hypothesize, the easiest way to find what you love, and be happy is the singular law: produce more than you consume I am not sure what the ratio is, but I imagine it’s something like 30/70 consume/produce. And this will be super effective if you consume a lot.
Be intelligent, never stupid
I just read the 5 rules of human stupidity, and really like the definition of stupid: someone who causes themselves, and others harm. Conversely, I am a fan of the definition of intelligence,
^
| Benefit to Others (+)
|
HELPLESS | INTELLIGENT
(- self, + others) | (+ self, + others)
|
|
Harm to Self (-) <────────────────+────────────────────> Benefit to Self (+)
|
|
STUPID | BANDIT
(- self, - others) | (+ self, - others)
|
| Harm to Others (-)
v
I want to do be in intelligent professions. I love being a founder, because the ultimate victory in a well executed company is intelligence (as defined above). In stupid outcomes, you destroy your career and also destroy value for others (theranos). Ultimately, every enterprise (for profit) has “Benefit to Self” as the outcome. Some do it intelligently, others by being a bandit. Vulture investors often use banditry. That’s why I don’t like them.
Non Profits’ goals are “Benefit to others”, but an unsustainable non-profit results in a helpless outcome. Or even worse, a stupid outcome. In my experience, many activists suffer from stupidity in outcomes, they are too strong on their point of view, and they shoot themselves in the foot by increasing divide.
I strive for intelligent outcomes in all aspects of my life.