The Prof G Pod

What the Founders Feared Most Is Happening Now

You can also argue it's a real excuse to say, "I don't actually have to learn anything. I don't have to go to college. I don't have to learn to be a negotiator. I don't have to work my way up. I can just say that God favors me and therefore I can do it all without putting in any hard work, which is really antithetical to what America has stood for until pretty recently."

TED

Inside Dubai’s Mission to Build the City of the Future | His Excellency Khalfan Belhoul | TED

If rules are an issue, we can change them for you. We can connect you with any relevant decision maker to break those rules. We will not be upset if you make mistakes, and we will support you on every winning bet you make.

Founders

#427 How Raymond Plank Built a $50 Billion Oil Company

Written when he was nearly 90, the memoir reads like a lifelong diary of how to think about opportunity, courage, cost control, resourcefulness, and adaptation.

Pivot

Kara Swisher Calls It Now: the Paramount Merger Won’t Go Through | Pivot

Investors understand something executives often don't, and that is winning in court can still mean losing economically.

Hidden Brain

You Are Not Ordinary

Most of us think of our brains as recorders of experience — cameras that capture life as it is. But the brain is less like a camera and more like an editor, constantly making choices about what to include and what to cut. It doesn't just record what happens to us; it constructs a version of reality shaped by our expectations, our desires, and our fears.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Sam Altman - How to Make an Abundant Future - [Invest Like the Best, EP.484]

I think we're at an inflection point where AI will be doing a lot of the work, and the jobs of the future will be to figure out what we should build, what direction to point the AI, and how to verify that the AI has done the right thing. The people who do that best will capture an enormous amount of value.

Hidden Brain

You Are Not Ordinary

Most of us have been taught to think about luck as something fleeting — a good parking spot, or finding a twenty-dollar bill on the sidewalk. But psychologists who study this topic say that some people are consistently luckier than others, and that luck is less about chance than it is about how you move through the world.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Sam Altman - How to Make an Abundant Future - [Invest Like the Best, EP.484]

I think most people, if they reflect on it, would say, well, of course I want my children and grandchildren to have cures for diseases, cheap energy, and whatever, but somehow the actions that society takes show that we're way more focused on preventing downside than enabling upside. And I think that's a mistake. I think the expected value of the world is so much better if we can figure out how to build a world of radical abundance than if we just prevent bad things from happening.

Hidden Brain

You Are Not Ordinary

Most of us know that we're biased when it comes to our own performance — we tend to think we're better than we actually are. But here's the strange part: this bias doesn't just affect how we see ourselves. It also affects how we see other people. When we watch someone else do something, we unconsciously compare them to ourselves — and since we think we're pretty good, we use ourselves as the benchmark.

Hidden Brain

You Are Not Ordinary

Most of us intuitively feel that we are above average in a variety of ways. We think we're smarter than average, more competent than average, more ethical than average. Psychologists have documented that people's assessments of themselves are, to put it charitably, often not well-calibrated.

Book of the Day

Colson Whitehead on 'Cool Machine,' the final in his Harlem Trilogy series

There's no pension plan for a safe cracker. He doesn't have like a an IRA or 401k. What's next for him?

Pivot

Andrew Tate and Brother Charged with New Sex Crimes. "It's Epstein in Real Time" | Pivot

We used to discover information through traditional media and journalists. Now, we discover it through markets. And when enough people have money on an outcome, markets often become the fastest aggregator of truth.

Hidden Brain

How to Combat Pain

Pain is not just a signal from damaged tissue — it's also a prediction. The brain is constantly trying to anticipate what's going to happen next, and pain is part of that predictive process. This means that pain can exist even in the absence of injury, and injury can exist without pain.

TED

The Case for Making Art in a Crisis | Yiyun Kang | TED

We can feel a paper cut, but we cannot feel a collapsing planet. We have more data than any generation in history, yet reality feels further away. We're drowning in information but starving for meaning.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

We often think of prejudice as a moral failing — a character flaw in people who are just bad actors. But research suggests that's not the whole story. Our minds rely on mental maps — generalizations about the world — that can lead us to make assumptions about people based on group membership, even when we genuinely believe we treat everyone as individuals.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

Most of us assume that our perception of the world is accurate — that we see things as they really are. But our brains are not cameras. They are prediction machines, constantly generating models of reality based on past experience, and then updating those models when new information arrives.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

We all have mental maps — representations of how we see ourselves and the world. But the amazing thing is, many of us use mental maps that were drawn up a long time ago, in a completely different context. And we continue to use them, even when the world changes, and even when we change.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

Most of us recognize that we don't always act in our own best interests. We procrastinate. We reach for the candy bar instead of the apple. We say things we later regret. Psychologists have long recognized that our behavior is shaped by mental maps — internal representations of the world that guide our actions, often without our awareness.

The CEO Signal

Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet On Leading The Dreams Business | The CEO Signal

Are we proud of the way we show up? And is it financially attractive? If the answer is no to either, then we should either make the intervention to address the issue or get out.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

We don't see the world as it is. We see the world through mental maps that we've constructed over a lifetime of experience. And the problem with mental maps is that they can become outdated — they can lead us astray in a world that has changed, or in situations that are different from those in which the maps were formed.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

Most of us know that stereotypes are wrong, but we may not fully appreciate how deeply those stereotypes shape our interactions with people every day. Psychologists have a term for this. They call it a mental map — an internal model of the world that guides how we navigate our relationships and institutions.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

Most people assume that if you change your mind about something — if you update your beliefs — you've essentially gotten rid of the old belief and replaced it with a new one. But that's not how the mind works. The old belief doesn't disappear; it gets inhibited, suppressed. And when you're under stress, or tired, or distracted, that inhibition can fail, and the old belief comes roaring back.

Idea Knock Down

Why Opting Out of Politics Is a Political Choice | Idea Knock Down | TED

You may think you don't do politics, but politics will do you. And so, choose to engage, use the power of your vote, the power of your voice, or you can step back, but that doesn't mean you may be opting out, but politics is not opting out of influencing your own life.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

our brains actually navigate the world by coming up with mental maps. These maps act like an autopilot system, allowing us to navigate our lives more efficiently. But sometimes, they can lead us astray, leaving us stuck on a path of negativity and unhappiness.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

John Kim - How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars - [Invest Like the Best, EP.482]

The thing that makes a great investor is this idea that they're able to hold conflicting ideas simultaneously. They can be a bull and a bear on the same company. They can be optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. And they're able to weigh those things and come to a conclusion that they can act on.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

When we think about making changes in our lives, we typically focus on behaviors. But often, the more powerful lever is the mental map we're using to navigate the world. If the map is wrong, no amount of effort will get us to our destination.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Jeremy Giffon - The Billion Dollar PDF - [Invest Like the Best, EP.481]

The way I think about it is that private markets are just a giant PDF. There's no ticker, there's no price discovery, there's no market. And so the question is: who has the best PDF? Who has the most information? Who has done the most work?

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

We often think of our beliefs and mental models as reflections of reality — accurate maps of the world that help us navigate our lives. But what happens when the map is wrong? What happens when the map itself is the problem?

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

We all walk around with mental maps of how the world works — maps that tell us what's safe and what's dangerous, what's possible and what's not. The problem is that these maps were often drawn a long time ago, in circumstances that no longer exist. And we keep using old maps to navigate new terrain.

Hidden Brain

Changing Our Mental Maps

These maps act like an autopilot system, allowing us to navigate our lives more efficiently. But sometimes, they can lead us astray, leaving us stuck on a path of negativity and unhappiness.

Freakonomics Radio

680. Can Universities Win Back Our Trust?

Dartmouth president Sian Beilock, a psychologist by training, made her name studying why people choke. Now she's applying those insights to one of the most scrutinized jobs in America.

Life Kit

To be or not to be a parent

The word decide comes from a Latin root meaning to cut away from. So every decision involves loss. So what I say is don't ask will I regret my decision. Ask which decision will I regret least.

The Prof G Pod – Scott Galloway

Rep. Jim Himes: America Is Losing Leverage in Iran

There's about 4,000 years of Persian history to suggest that that's not a happy place to be.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

The most counterintuitive thing I've learned is that the more you optimize for growth, the more you actually undermine the conditions that create it. The companies that grow the fastest over long periods of time are usually the ones that were willing to grow more slowly at some earlier point to build something real.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

Most people think about company building as: I have this idea, I'm going to go raise money, I'm going to go hire people, and I'm going to go build this thing. What I've learned is that the most important thing is to find the truth first — to find what is actually true about the world, what is actually true about what customers need, what is actually true about what you're capable of building.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

I think the most counterintuitive thing about company building is that the biggest risk is not moving too slow — it's moving too fast. When you move too fast, you make decisions before you have enough information, and those decisions are very hard to undo.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

The most dangerous thing in a company is when people start managing up instead of managing the truth. Once that happens, you lose your ability to course correct, because the information flowing to the people who need to make decisions is filtered through what people think those decision-makers want to hear.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

The most counterintuitive thing I've learned is that the companies that are most successful are the ones where the founder has figured out that their job is not to have the answers — their job is to build the system that produces the answers. And that's a fundamentally different orientation than most founders have, especially in the early days.

TED Radio Hour

Sports psychology for everyday life

the more open you can be to be completely devastated by something, the more possibility opens up to you. And I think that that's true in life. I think that's true in love. I know that that's true in sport. The more you open yourself up to devastation, the more possibility will be open to you.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479]

The best businesses in the world are ones where the reinvestment rate is high and the return on incremental capital is also high. Those are very, very rare. And when you find them, the right thing to do is to do nothing, which is actually very hard to do as an investor because you're paid to do things.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Alex Sacerdote - How to Invest Through Technology Cycles - [Invest Like the Best, EP.477]

The market will actually tell you when you're wrong. There are a lot of investors who get seduced by a theme and they just hold on forever, waiting for the theme to play out. But the stock market is actually a very efficient discounting mechanism, and if the theme isn't playing out, the stocks will tell you.

Hidden Brain

Stepping Out of the Shadows

Why does one bad experience have the power to overshadow an otherwise good day? Psychologist Alison Ledgerwood explores the negativity bias, the deeply human tendency to hold on to what went wrong and overlook what went right.

It's Been a Minute

Boundaries, bodies, and better sex | It's Been a Minute

We saw trust permeated decision-making, sexual health decision-making almost completely. So, thinking about establishing trust with a partner, that is what helped people experience comfort in a sexual relationship. That comfort then helped them to feel more comfortable with engaging in unprotected sex.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

The thing that's really changed for me is I used to think that the most important thing was finding the right answer. And what I now believe is the most important thing is creating the conditions for truth to emerge. Because if you create the conditions for truth to emerge, the right answer will find you.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

Most people think about incentives as financial. The real incentive is truth. If you create a culture where people can tell you the truth, you will make better decisions than your competitors. And making better decisions than your competitors over a long period of time is the only sustainable advantage.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Kareem Amin - The Unusual Approach to Company Building - [Invest Like the Best, EP.478]

The moment you know the truth and you don't say it, you've broken something inside yourself. And I think the accumulation of that over time is what leads to people who are fundamentally not effective leaders, because they've taught themselves to look away from hard things.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Vlad Barbalat - Investing $120 Billion in Permanent Capital - [Invest Like the Best, EP.479]

The key insight is that permanent capital changes your relationship with time. You're not managing to a fund life; you're managing to the life of the business. That means you can make decisions that are bad for the next quarter, bad for the next year, but right for the next decade.

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Who decides when AI is too dangerous?

Anthropic occupies a peculiar position in the AI landscape: a company that genuinely believes it might be building one of the most dangerous technologies in human history, yet presses forward anyway, on the theory that it's better to have safety-focused labs at the frontier than to cede that ground to developers less focused on safety.

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Alex Sacerdote - How to Invest Through Technology Cycles - [Invest Like the Best, EP.477]

The mistake most investors make is they think of S-curves as a single curve, but the reality is that most important technologies are actually a series of S-curves stacked on top of each other, and the transition periods between those S-curves are where most of the value is created and most of the mistakes are made.