4+1: episode 7

It’s been hard keeping this on a weekly cadence, as I’m head down building a startup and figuring out new daily and weekly routines. Getting there.

1. I’ve been listening to Ray Dalio’s new book (Principles) during the last week or so. For those unfamiliar with Ray Dalio, he started perhaps the most successful hedge fund (Bridgewater), often referred to as the “Steve Jobs of investing”. Based on algorithms and data, he and his team famously predicted the 2008 economic crisis way before it happened. Although I’m still not even halfway through the book, one reference from it stood out. It’s a video he and his team at Bridgewater put together that explains really well how the economy works. Totally worth checking out.
2. Last year, I discovered a fantastic YouTube channel, where the guy behind it explains stuff like airline economics, urban planning, and other fun stuff (if you’re that kind of geek like me, that is). His most recent video covers a topic that many of us who’ve come to live in the US from Europe will get: why public transportation in the US sucks. Although it doesn’t get into the LA streetcar conspiracy , it’s a great episode as always. Check it out!
3. Naval from AngelList had a fantastic tweetstorm on blockchains, networks, markets, and their potential futures. Much food for thought.
4. For math nerds, young parents, and the intersection of the two: mathematical games interesting both to you and a 5 year old. I can’t wait until my nephew and goddaughter are slightly older to test these out on them.
5. Elon Musk gave an awesome presentation this week, where he presented details of SpaceX’s BFR (literally stands for “Big Fucking Rocket”), their plan to make interplanetary travel and building a lunar base possible. For me though, perhaps the coolest part of the presentation was its “by the way” moment: