Category: Notes

Many ideas that are “not even wrong”, in the sense of having no way to test them, can still be fruitful, for instance by opening up avenues of investigation that will lead to something conventionally testable. Most good ideas start off “not even wrong”, with their implications too poorly understood to know where they will lead.

– Peter Woit

The job of an Apple industrial designer is to imagine objects that don’t exist and to guide the process that brings them to life.

– Christopher Stringer

Evolutionary psychologists have assumed that it is rare for conditions to exist in which two people simultaneously have value to offer to each other. But this is just not true, because people can value highly what they do not have access to. And the more they rely on exchange, the more they specialize, which makes exchange still more attractive. Exchange is therefore a thing of explosive possibility, a thing that breeds, explodes, grows, auto-catalyzes. It may have been built upon an older animal instinct of reciprocity, and it may have been greatly and uniquely facilitated by language — I am not arguing that these were not vital ingredients of human nature that allowed the habit to get started. But I am saying that barter — the simultaneous exchange of different objects — was itself a human breakthrough, perhaps even the chief thing that led to the ecological dominance and burgeoning material prosperity of the species.

– Matt Ridley

The best time to invest in something is when nobody believes in it besides you. And you have to believe in it and know why.

– Fred Wilson

General Doriot provides two things a young scientific organization needs: enthusiasm and appreciation.

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The riskiest part of the spectrum has to date proved to be the most rewarding, and the greatest capital gains have been earned in companies which were started from scratch.

– Georges Doriot

You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right. Similarly, in the world of securities, courage becomes the supreme virtue after adequate knowledge and a tested judgment are at hand.

– Benjamin Graham

When an industry is disrupted, people get the unit economics wrong. And the winners are the ones who correctly identify the new unit of value first.

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To be a successful investor, you have to have a philosophy and process you believe in and can stick to, even under pressure. Since no approach will allow you to profit from all types of opportunities or in all environments, you have to be willing to not participate in everything that goes up, only the things that fit your approach. To be a disciplined investor, you have to be able to stand by and watch as other people make money in things you passed on.

– Howard Marks